We use the information you give us to assess and respond to your enquiry, discuss Scale IB services, operate our relationship with you and meet our legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information.
Who we are
Scale IB provides business infrastructure, education, community, marketing and growth support for new and established introducing brokers. For the personal information covered by this policy, Scale IB is the controller and decides how and why that information is used.
This policy applies when you use our website, submit a Meta or Instagram lead form, contact us through Instagram or WhatsApp, apply to work with us, or receive our services.
Information we collect
Information you give us
- Your name, email address, telephone or WhatsApp number.
- Your answers to application or lead-form questions, such as whether you already operate an IB, your audience size and the support you are interested in.
- Your business, brand, broker, community or professional profile details.
- Messages, call notes, documents and other information you choose to share with us.
- Payment, contract and service information if you become a client or partner.
Information collected from other sources
- Information sent to us through Meta platforms, including Instagram and Facebook lead forms.
- Public professional or business information from social-media profiles when you interact with us or when we identify a potentially relevant business contact.
- Referral information from a mutual contact, where it is lawful for them to share it.
- Basic technical information produced when you visit the website, such as IP address, device or browser type, requested pages, timestamps and security logs.
Please do not send us special-category information, such as health, biometric, political or religious information, unless we specifically ask for it and explain why it is needed.
How and why we use it
| What we do | Why we are allowed to do it |
|---|---|
| Respond to enquiries, review applications and discuss the support that may suit you. | Our legitimate interests in responding to genuine business enquiries and taking steps at your request before entering a contract. |
| Onboard you and deliver, administer and support an agreed service or partnership. | Performance of a contract, steps before a contract, and our legitimate interests in managing the relationship. |
| Contact you on WhatsApp or another channel you request about your application and selected services. | Your consent where required, or our legitimate interests where the law permits. |
| Keep records, handle disputes, prevent misuse and secure our website, accounts and systems. | Our legitimate interests in operating securely and protecting our legal rights. |
| Meet accounting, tax, regulatory, law-enforcement and other legal requirements. | Compliance with a legal obligation and, where relevant, our legitimate interests. |
| Improve our services, communications and application process using aggregated or limited operational data. | Our legitimate interests in understanding and improving how our business works. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider the benefit to our business and the impact on your rights. We will not use this basis where your rights and interests override ours.
Marketing and WhatsApp
If you submit our lead form and agree to WhatsApp contact, we may message you about your application and the Scale IB services you selected. The advert or form may open WhatsApp with a pre-filled message, but you choose whether to send it.
We may also follow up on a genuine business enquiry or an existing business relationship where the law permits. We do not treat silence as consent.
You can ask us to stop marketing at any time by replying STOP, telling the team member who contacts you, or messaging us using the details below. We will stop the marketing and may keep a minimal suppression record so we respect your choice.
Who we share it with
We only share personal information where it is reasonably necessary for the purposes described above. Recipients may include:
- Authorised Scale IB team members and contractors, including people who manage enquiries, appointment setting, onboarding or client support.
- Meta platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, when you use their forms, advertising or messaging services.
- Website, communications, storage, security, analytics or customer-management providers acting for us, including Netlify as our website host.
- A broker, service provider or programme partner where you ask us to make an introduction or where sharing is necessary to provide an agreed service. We will explain this where appropriate.
- Professional advisers, insurers, regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies or a buyer of all or part of our business where required or permitted by law.
Some recipients, including Meta services, also use personal information as independent controllers under their own privacy notices.
International transfers
Some providers we use may store or access information outside the United Kingdom. Where UK data-protection rules apply to a restricted transfer, we use a lawful transfer mechanism, such as UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual safeguards, and take appropriate steps to protect the information.
You can contact us if you would like more information about the safeguards relevant to your information.
How long we keep it
We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, accounting and dispute-resolution requirements. Our usual periods are:
- Unsuccessful or inactive enquiries and applications: up to 24 months after the last meaningful interaction.
- Client, partner, contract and transaction records: normally up to six years after the relationship ends, where needed for legal or accounting purposes.
- Marketing contact details: until you opt out, the information becomes inaccurate, or we decide it is no longer useful, subject to periodic review.
- Suppression records: for as long as reasonably necessary to ensure we continue to respect an opt-out.
- Basic website and security logs: according to the proportionate retention settings of our hosting and security providers.
We may keep information longer if a dispute, legal claim, investigation or legal requirement makes that necessary. We may keep anonymous information that no longer identifies you.
How we protect it
We use reasonable organisational and technical measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, loss or disclosure. These include limiting access to people who need the information, using reputable service providers, account protections and secure hosting.
No internet or messaging service is completely secure. Please avoid sending passwords, trading-account credentials or unnecessary sensitive information through forms, Instagram or WhatsApp.
Your privacy rights
Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you the right to:
- Ask for access to the personal information we hold about you.
- Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Ask us to erase information or restrict how we use it.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests and object at any time to direct marketing.
- Ask for certain information in a portable format.
- Withdraw consent at any time where our use depends on consent. This does not affect earlier lawful use.
These rights are not absolute and exemptions may apply. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. We do not currently make decisions about applications that are based solely on automated processing and produce legal or similarly significant effects. Meta may use automated systems to deliver and optimise advertising under its own privacy terms.
Website technology and links
Our host may process basic network and security information needed to deliver and protect this website. The site also requests font files from Google Fonts, which means your browser connects to Google when a page loads.
At the date shown above, we do not intentionally place non-essential analytics or advertising cookies on this public website. If that changes, we will update this notice and use an appropriate consent mechanism where required.
Our website links to third-party services such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Those services control their own processing and privacy practices, so please review their notices before using them.
Questions and complaints
To ask a privacy question, exercise a right or withdraw marketing consent, contact Scale IB through the WhatsApp link below. Please write Privacy request at the beginning of your message so it reaches the right person.
If you have a concern, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office. Visit the ICO complaints page for current contact options.
WhatsApp: +44 7418 609841
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our services, providers or legal obligations change. The latest version will appear on this page with a revised “last updated” date.
People under 18
Scale IB's services are intended for adults and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us information, please contact us so we can review and delete it where appropriate.