Updated: September 2026

 

1. Introduction

CI Group respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This privacy notice explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information when you visit or interact with our websites (www.cigroup.co.uk); contact us or submit an enquiry; subscribe to or engage with marketing communications; interact with advertising or digital campaigns; attend or register for events; engage with us through social media or other digital channels; or interact with digital or AI-enabled services operated or used by us (including the i am sami web portal and mobile App). It also explains your rights and how to exercise them. This notice is intended primarily for website visitors, prospects and other people who interact with CI Group in a business or marketing context. We may provide additional privacy information for particular services or processing activities.

 

2. Who we are

For UK data protection law, CI Group is the controller responsible for the personal information covered by this notice. References to CI Group, we, us or our mean CI Group and, where appropriate, the relevant CI Group company responsible for processing your information. Questions about this notice or your rights can be directed to CI Group at Orchard House, Hopcraft Lane, Deddington, OX15 0TD, United Kingdom; team@cigroup.co.uk; +44 (0)333 305 1020.

 

3. The information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect identity and business contact information; enquiry and communications information; marketing and preference information; technical and usage information; advertising and audience information; and information received from advertising/social platforms, analytics providers, marketing technology providers, event/campaign partners, business information providers and publicly accessible professional sources.

 

4. Special category information

We do not normally seek to collect special category information. Please avoid providing it through general website forms or enquiries unless necessary. If we need to process such information, we will only do so where we have both a lawful basis and an applicable additional condition under data protection law.

 

5. How we use your information

We process personal information only where there is a lawful basis. Enquiries are generally handled under legitimate interests or pre-contract steps; website operation/security under legitimate interests and, where relevant, legal obligation; analytics under consent or legitimate interests depending on the processing; marketing under consent or legitimate interests subject to PECR; and compliance/protection under legal obligation or legitimate interests as appropriate.

 

6. Artificial intelligence and automated technologies

CI Group may use AI-enabled and automated technologies for analytics, pattern identification, categorisation, summarisation, research, content support, productivity, audience analysis and other digital operations. Where personal information is processed using AI, we remain responsible for applicable privacy compliance and seek to apply data minimisation, purpose limitation, security, fairness and transparency. We do not intentionally use personal information submitted through general website enquiries to train publicly available generative AI models. Third-party AI providers should be subject to appropriate privacy, confidentiality and security arrangements.

 

7. Automated decision-making and profiling

We may use automated processing or profiling to analyse engagement, interests, audiences or campaign performance. We do not currently intend to make decisions about website visitors or prospects based solely on automated processing where those decisions produce legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes, we will provide required information and safeguards, which may include human intervention, representations and the ability to challenge a decision.

 

8. Cookies and similar technologies

Our website may use cookies, pixels, tags, local storage and similar technologies. Necessary technologies may operate without consent where the law permits; optional analytics and advertising technologies will only be used where required consent has been obtained. Users should be able to accept or reject relevant categories and change choices later. The Cookie Policy should identify the technologies, purposes, providers and duration.

 

9. Sharing your information

We may share personal information with CI Group companies/agencies, hosting and IT providers, cloud/infrastructure providers, CRM and marketing platforms, email/communications providers, analytics providers, advertising/social platforms, AI/digital technology providers, professional advisers, authorities where lawfully required, and parties to a corporate transaction. Their legal role may differ by service. Appropriate contractual and security safeguards should be used where they process information on our behalf. CI Group does not sell personal information in the ordinary sense of selling it to data brokers for money.

 

10. International transfers

Where providers process personal information outside the United Kingdom, CI Group will use safeguards required by UK data protection law. Depending on the transfer, these may include UK adequacy regulations, the International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or another permitted mechanism, together with any required risk assessment or additional measures.

 

11. Data security

We use proportionate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information, including access controls, authentication, system security, supplier controls, staff awareness and incident-management procedures. We investigate personal data breaches and notify individuals and the ICO where the law requires it.

 

12. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and applicable legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting requirements. Relevant factors include purpose, sensitivity, legal obligations, claims, security and whether anonymisation can meet the need. Enquiry data may be kept while a potential relationship remains relevant; marketing data may be kept while there is an appropriate marketing basis; suppression information may be kept longer so opt-outs continue to be respected.

 

13. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, individuals may have rights to be informed, access, correction, erasure, restriction, objection, data portability, withdrawal of consent and applicable rights concerning automated decision-making. The right to object to direct marketing can be exercised at any time. Requests can be made using CI Group contact details and identity verification may be required.

 

14. Complaints

Individuals can raise concerns with CI Group and have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 

15. Third-party websites and platforms

Our sites and communications may link to websites, social networks and digital services operated by other organisations. Those organisations may process information independently under their own notices, which users should review.

 

16. Children

Our website and services are primarily directed to businesses and professional audiences and are not intended for children. We do not knowingly seek children’s information through general website and marketing activities and will take appropriate steps if such information is collected inappropriately.

 

17. i am sami website portal and mobile App

The portal may be supported by third-party technology providers acting on our behalf, in which case we require appropriate contractual, confidentiality, and data security safeguards.

The following policy is applicable to the above-mentioned services offered by CI Group.

• What information we collect through the platform:
  • Where you register for, sign in to or use the portal, we may process personal information necessary to create and administer your account, authenticate your identity, provide access to relevant services and content, maintain the security and operation of the portal, and respond to support requests. This may include your name, business email, account and login information, information you submit through the portal, and technical information associated with your use of the service.
• What we use it for and the basis for doing so:
  • We process this information where necessary for the performance of a contract or to take steps connected with a contract, and/or based on our legitimate interests in providing, administering and securing our digital services.
• How long we retain it:
  • Any personal identifiable information (PII) collected through the portal will be retained only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and in accordance with our applicable retention requirements.
• Who it may be shared with:
  • The personal information that you provide is not shared with any third party, nor any accredited third parties used by the platform unless expressly stated.
  • User prompts entered into the system are used by third parties to provide functionality for the platform. If you choose to enter personal information into the user prompts, you accept that this data will be processed by third parties.
• How users can exercise their data rights, including SARs and erasure requests:
  • For information on data rights, see section 13.
• Who to contact about your data:
  • If you have any queries, these can be directed to the contact information found in section 2.
• PII is not processed internationally. User prompts which are sent to third parties based outside of the EEA will be processed by the third party. If PII is included in user prompts you accept that this data may be processed outside of the EEA.
• Your IP may be stored in server access logs which is required for security and auditing purposes.
• We collect and store login information to allow us to analyse and improve our services.

 

18. Changes and contact

We may update this notice to reflect changes in our business, technology, services or legal obligations. The current version and last-updated date should be published on the website, and material changes should be brought to affected individuals’ attention where appropriate. Privacy questions and rights requests can be directed to CI Group using the contact details above.