Shimworks
Privacy
What we collect, why, and how to make us stop. In plain English, because a policy nobody can read is not much of a policy.
Who we are
This website is shimworks.co.uk, run by Neil Ware trading as Shimworks. For data protection purposes, Neil Ware is the data controller.
Any question about this page, or about data we hold on you, goes to info@shimworks.co.uk and is answered by a person.
The form on our home page
If you use the website check form we collect your email address, and the web address you ask us to look at if you give one, plus anything you type in the message box.
Why. To do the thing you asked for and reply to you. In legal terms that is taking steps at your request before entering into a contract.
What we do not do. We do not add you to a mailing list, we do not sell or share your details with anyone for marketing, and we do not send you anything you did not ask for. If we reply and you do not answer, that is the end of it.
Analytics and cookies
We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are useful. It sets cookies.
It only runs if you agree. Nothing is loaded until you click Allow on the bar at the bottom of the page. If you decline, or simply ignore it, no analytics code is loaded at all — not loaded-and-disabled, not loaded at all. Your choice is remembered in your own browser.
Where Google Analytics does run, we have IP anonymisation switched on. To change your mind, clear this site’s data in your browser and the bar will ask again.
The site sets no other cookies and there are no advertising or social media trackers on it.
Who else touches your data
Three companies, each doing one job:
Some of these process data outside the UK, including in the United States, under the safeguards their own terms provide. We do not send your details anywhere else, and nobody buys them from us.
How long we keep it
Enquiries: kept while we are talking, and for up to twelve months afterwards in case you come back. Then deleted.
Customers: kept for six years after the last piece of work, because HMRC requires business records to be retained that long.
Analytics: fourteen months, then deleted by Google automatically.
Your rights
You can ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, delete it, or stop using it. You can also ask for a copy in a portable format. Email info@shimworks.co.uk and we will do it within a month, usually the same week. There is no charge and you do not need a reason.
If you are not happy with how we have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would rather you told us first so we can put it right, but you do not have to.
Changes
If this page changes in a way that matters, the date below changes with it. There is no archive of old versions, so if you want a record of what it said when you contacted us, keep a copy.
Last updated 3 September 2026.