Effective Date: 1st Nov 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to Elite Cars.

Elite Cars is a taxi and private hire service operating in Reading, UK. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a transparent and secure manner.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal data when you use our services, visit our website at https://elite-cars.co.uk/, or otherwise interact with us.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following personal data about you:

A. Information You Provide to Us

This includes personal data you give us when you book a ride, contact us, or register for an account:

  • Identity and Contact Data: Name, email address (reservations@elite-cars.co.uk), phone number, and postal address.
  • Booking Data: Pickup and drop-off locations, date and time of travel, number of passengers, and any specific requests or instructions.
  • Financial Data: Details required to process payments, such as payment card details. (Note: We use third-party payment processors and do not store sensitive card data ourselves).
  • Communication Data: Records of your correspondence with us, including feedback, complaints, and service enquiries.

B. Information We Collect Automatically

When you use our website or services, we may collect:

  • Technical Data: Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Usage Data: Information about how you use our website and services, such as pages viewed, search terms, and the time and frequency of your visits.
  • Location Data (for service provision): Real-time geographic location when you use our booking app or service, necessary for dispatching a vehicle to your location and tracking the ride.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal data primarily to provide and improve our taxi services. Our legal basis for processing your data under GDPR is as follows:

Purpose/Activity Type of Data Processed Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)
To provide the service and fulfil your booking Contact, Identity, Booking, Location Performance of a Contract
To manage our relationship and communicate with you Contact, Communication Performance of a Contract, Legitimate Interests (to keep records)
To process payments for services rendered Financial, Identity Performance of a Contract, Legal Obligation
To improve our services and website Usage, Technical Legitimate Interests (to continually improve our service)
To notify you of changes to our services or policy Contact, Identity Performance of a Contract, Legal Obligation
To comply with legal obligations (e.g., accounting, tax, regulatory) All Data Types Legal Obligation

4. Sharing and Disclosure of Your Information

We may share your personal data with the following parties:

  • Drivers: We share your name, pickup/drop-off points, and contact number (to facilitate the journey) with the assigned driver.
  • Payment Processors: Third-party payment providers to securely process your payments.
  • IT Service Providers: Providers who support our website, booking system, and other business systems.
  • Regulatory & Legal Authorities: We may disclose your data if required by law or to respond to valid legal requests (e.g., from police, regulators, or government bodies).
  • Professional Advisers: Including lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers who provide professional services to us.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

5. Data Security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know.

6. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Typically, booking and financial data will be kept for [e.g., six to seven years] to comply with UK tax and financial regulations.

7. Your Legal Rights (GDPR)

Under UK and European data protection laws, you have rights including:

  • The right to be informed: About how your personal data is being used.
  • The right of access: To request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
  • The right to rectification: To request that we correct any inaccurate personal data.
  • The right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’): To request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
  • The right to restrict processing: To request that we limit the way we use your data.
  • The right to data portability: To receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
  • The right to object: To processing your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below.

8. Third-Party Links

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements.

9. Cookies

Our website https://elite-cars.co.uk/ may use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allows us to improve our site.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Effective Date.” We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

11. Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us in the following ways:

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.