How to raise a concern with us about your personal data.
Last reviewed: July 2026
We take the privacy and security of your personal data seriously. If you have a concern about how we have collected, used, shared, stored or deleted your personal information — including how we have used any automated tools or AI in a way that affects your personal data — we want to hear from you. We will do our best to put things right.
This notice explains your rights, how to raise a concern with us, what to expect when you do, and what to do if you are not satisfied with our response.
Your right to complain directly to us is a statutory right under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. You do not need to go to the ICO first — we are your first point of contact, though you are always free to contact the ICO directly if you prefer.
Under UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, you have the right to:
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below.
Data protection at ETC Virtual is the responsibility of:
We accept complaints however they reach us — by email, phone, post, social media, in person or through an online form. However your complaint arrives, we will log it and handle it in the same way. You do not need to use a particular form or format to make a complaint.
A data protection complaint is any concern you raise about how we have collected, used, stored, shared or deleted your personal data. This is broad — it covers a wide range of situations, not just formal data breaches.
If you are not sure whether your concern is a data protection matter, please contact us anyway and we will help you direct it to the right place.
There are no formal requirements for how you raise a complaint. You can contact us verbally, in writing, or through any of the channels listed above.
To help us investigate your concern as quickly as possible, it helps if you can tell us:
You do not need to provide all of this to make a valid complaint. If you are not sure what to include, just get in touch and we will help you from there.
Here is what you can expect from us, step by step:
We will send you a written acknowledgement within 30 calendar days of receiving your complaint, including weekends and bank holidays. Day one of that period is the day after we receive it.
Our acknowledgement will confirm:
We will investigate your complaint fairly and thoroughly, without undue delay. This may include reviewing records and system logs, and speaking to relevant team members or suppliers.
We will not go silent while we are investigating. If we need more information from you, or if anything changes, we will get in touch as soon as possible.
We aim to give you a full response within one calendar month of receiving your complaint. In complex cases, we may extend this by up to a further two months. If we need to do this, we will tell you within the first month and explain why.
Our response will explain:
Where our processes involve third-party tools, platforms or suppliers, we remain your single point of contact for any data protection complaint. You do not need to contact our suppliers directly — we will liaise with them on your behalf as part of our investigation and keep you informed of the outcome.
We keep records of all data protection complaints we receive, the steps we take to investigate them, and the outcomes. This helps us respond consistently, identify any recurring issues, and demonstrate compliance if needed.
Complaint records are held securely and only accessed by those who need to handle the matter. Please note that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) may request access to our complaint records as part of its regulatory role, and we are required to provide them.
If you remain unhappy after we have responded — or at any point during our process — you have the right to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator. You do not have to wait for us to finish before contacting the ICO, and you do not have to raise your concern with us first, though we would always appreciate the opportunity to put things right.
ETC Virtual is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number ZA249258. You can verify this at ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/register-of-fee-payers/.
We want this process to be accessible to everyone. If you need this notice in a different format — for example, in large print, or if you would like to speak to someone directly rather than communicate in writing — please let us know and we will do our best to help.
Contact us at: emma@etcvirtual.co.uk
This notice is reviewed at least once a year, and updated whenever our contact details or processes change. If you have questions about this notice, please contact us at emma@etcvirtual.co.uk.