20-Jul-2023
BCIS Limited operated the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS). We provide:
- cost and price information for the UK construction industry through our online applications, data licensing and publications;
- consultancy and research support to clients from both the public and private sectors; and
- a House Rebuilding Cost Calculator.
This Privacy Policy explains what, how and why we use any personal information we collect about you. The personal information will vary depending on the service you use.
Learn about our use of your personal information when using our:
You can also find out more about how we use non-personal information in our Data Confidentiality Policy.
This privacy policy was last updated in June 2022. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact contactbcis@bcis.co.uk.
Your choices and rights
Your choices about our use of your personal information
If you don't want us to use your information anymore, you can ask us to stop, and we will - unless we must maintain records for legal reasons. If we cannot comply with your request, we will contact you and explain why.
You can ask us not to send you marketing messages by SMS text message, telephone, mail or email. And you can also ask us not to use your personal information as part of our profiling activity.
If you have given consent for us to use your personal information, then you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
You can submit a request to contactbcis@bcis.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)330 341 1000.
Accessing your personal information
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and this will usually be provided free of charge. For your security, we will take reasonable steps to confirm your identity before providing you with any information we may hold about you.
In some cases, we may not fully comply with your request. For example, if you request access to your personal information in relation to an ongoing investigation, we may not provide it to you because it could affect the outcome of the case.
If you would like to request a copy of your information, please contact contactbcis@bcis.co.uk.
Transferring your information
In some circumstances, you can request that we transfer any personal information we hold about you to a specific company or person, or back to you directly. This will be sent electronically.
If you would like to request a transfer of your information, please contact contactbcis@bcis.co.uk.
Not happy with something?
If you have any queries about this Privacy Policy or your personal information, you can get in touch with contactbcis@bcis.co.uk and they can help you. Alternatively, you can write to BCIS, Friars House, Coventry, CV1 2TE.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner at www.ico.org.uk/global/contact-us. Alternatively, you can write to Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Subscription services
Where do we collect your personal information?
| | A few examples |
|---|
| From you | through our websites |
| through correspondence with us |
| Your organisation or university | We may obtain personal information about you from the organisation or university with which you are employed or affiliated in order to activate and manage your access to and use of the organisation's subscription to our services |
| From your use of our services | We may automatically collect information about how you and your device interact with our services |
What information do we collect?
| | A few examples |
|---|
| From you | Contact details, such as your name, email address, postal address, and phone number; |
| | Account login credentials, such as usernames and passwords and similar security information; |
| | Other account registration and profile information, such as job title, employer and professional background; |
| | Payment information, such as a credit or debit card number; |
| | Comments, feedback and other information you provide to us, including search query data and questions or information you send to customer support; and/or |
| | Interests and communication preferences, including preferred language. |
| Your organisation or university | Contact details, such as your name and organisational email address, postal address, and phone number; |
| | Other account registration information such as job title; and/or |
| | Organisational user ID. |
| From your use of our services | Computer, device and connection information, such as IP address, browser type and version, operating system and other software installed on your device, mobile platform and unique device identifier and other technical identifiers, error reports and performance data; |
| | Usage data, such as the features you used, the settings you selected, your URL click stream data, including date and time stamp and referring and exit pages, search terms you used, and pages you visited or searched for on the service; and/or |
| | For location-aware services, the region, city or town where your device is located in order to provide you with more relevant content for where you are in the world. |
How do we use your information?
Depending on how you interact with us and our services, we use your personal information to:
- Provide, activate and manage your access to and use of our service;
- Process and fulfil any requests, order, downloads, or subscriptions;
- Provide technical, product and other support to anticipate and resolve problems with the service and to help keep our service working, safe and secure;
- Enhance and improve our services and our other products and services and to develop new products, services and benefits;
- Provide you with a personal experience;
- Respond to your requests, enquiries, comments and concerns;
- Notify you about changes, updates and other announcements related to our services and our other products and services;
- Identify usage trends and develop data analysis, including for purposes of research, audit, reporting and other business operations, including evaluating our business performance, or in other ways pursuant to the terms and condition of our services; and/or
- Comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
If you are an administrator of an organisation with a subscription to our services, we will use your details to communicate with you about your organisation's subscription and related services. If you supply us contact information of your colleagues, we may contact those individuals with communications about our services that may include reference to you.
Who do we share your information with?
Your organisation or university
If you access our services through a subscription administered by your organisation or university, your personal information and certain usage data gathered through the service may be accessed by or shared with the administrators authorised by your organisation or university for the purposes of usage analysis, subscription management and compliance and departmental budgeting.
Our Group Companies and Service Providers
We share information with our service providers and suppliers, such as payment processors, customer support, email service providers and IT service providers in order to provide our services, complete a transaction or fulfil your request.
For legal reasons
We also will disclose your personal information if we have a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to:
- meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or other legal obligation;
- detect, investigate and help prevent security, fraud or technical issues;
- protect the rights, property or safety of BCIS, our users, or others; and
- as part of a corporate transaction, such as a transfer of assets to or an acquisition by or merger with another company.
Our legal basis under European data protection laws
Contract
We collect or otherwise process your personal information to provide the service pursuant to our contractual terms and conditions or at your request prior to entering into a contract.
For legal reasons
We also will disclose your personal information if we have a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or other legal obligation.
Consent
Where we rely on your consent to process personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
Legitimate Interests
We also will process your personal information if we have a good faith belief that such processing is necessary
- to operate our business;
- to detect, investigate and help prevent security, fraud or technical issues;
- to protect the rights, property or safety of BCIS, our users, or others;
- as part of a corporate transaction, such as a transfer of assets to or an acquisition by or merger with another company.
Data Retention
Archiving, research and statistics
BCIS is a reciprocal service and we rely on information from individual subscribers to be able to publish specific or aggregated data to subscribers in general. We aim to anonymise all published data but occasionally this is not possible. For example, where an author's name has been included on a floor plan.
In those circumstances where we hold the personal information for
- archiving purposes in the public interest;
- scientific or historical research purposes; or
- statistical purposes
we hold such information indefinitely.
Subscriptions
We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide the service and fulfil the transactions you have requested, or for other essential purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, maintaining business and financial records, resolving disputes, maintaining security, detecting and preventing fraud and abuse, and enforcing our agreements.
If you access the service through a subscription administered or sponsored by your organisation, we retain your organisational contact details after the termination of your organisation's subscription to continue to communicate with you.
Location of Processing
BCIS has its headquarters in the UK and this is where most of your personal data is likely to be processed. We may share personal data internally within BCIS around the world. Where this is done, we will do so in accordance with the law.
We take steps, including through contracts, intended to ensure that the information continues to be protected wherever it is located in a manner consistent with the standards of protection required under applicable law.
House Rebuilding Cost Calculator
BCIS compiles, monitors, interprets and models Domestic Rebuild Cost Data and using the information, has created a House Rebuilding Cost Calculator ("the Calculator"). The Calculator can be accessed on the BCIS website. An equivalent version can be accessed on the ABI website.
Details of the privacy policy relating to the Calculator can be found at http://calculator.bcis.co.uk/privacy/privacy.aspx.
