Privacy policy

This privacy policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect or receive from you will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand how we view and will use your personal data. This privacy notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below for further information. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) is the UK regulator for content, goods and services charged to a phone bill.

The PSA is comprised of the PSA Executive, the PSA Board and the Code Adjudication Panel (CAP), all of whom may have involvement in the internal processing of your personal data.

The PSA is the data controller and responsible for your personal data and for this website.

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing any issues or questions in relation to this privacy policy. Our current DPO is David Smith. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact our DPO using the details set out below:

Via e-mail at dpo@psauthority.org.uk.

By writing to him at our company address, marking your letter for the attention of the Data Protection Officer:

Phone-paid Services Authority
c/o Ofcom
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA

By phone on 020 7940 7474 between 09:30 and 17:00 Monday to Friday.

Our website is www.psauthority.org.uk. You 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 (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

This version was last updated on 18/07/2023 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

The data protection law in the UK changed on 25 May 2018.This privacy notice sets out your rights under the new laws. When the UK left the European Union (EU), the relevant EU law was transposed directly into UK legislation, so your rights remain unchanged.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified directly or indirectly. It does not include data where the identity has been permanently removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data including photographs about you which we have grouped together follows:

Information we may collect from you
We may collect and process the following data about you:

• Information that you provide by calling us or filling in forms on our website. This includes information provided to us when you register as a phone-paid service provider, apply for prior permission to operate a service, submit network levy returns, lodge a complaint against a service, use our number checker service, subscribe to our news alerts service or any other service we may provide, apply for a job at Phone-paid Services Authority and when you report a problem with our website.
• Information received from surveys that we (or a research agency acting on our behalf) may ask you to complete for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
• Information otherwise received from third parties within the phone-paid services industry such as Mobile Networks, aggregators and merchants, and other third parties with whom we collaborate such as regulatory bodies or law enforcement bodies.
• Details obtained from payment transactions you make through our website relating to registration and prior permission applications.
• Details of your visits to our site and resources accessed. We may automatically collect the following information:
            - technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
            - information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.
• Data from job applicants
• If you contact us, we may keep a record of the correspondence (including by email or phone) received from you.
  
  IP addresses and cookies
  We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration. This is data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
  
  For the same reason, we may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service.
  
  You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site.
  
  For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookies Policy.
  
  Telephone conversations
  Phone-paid Services Authority may also record telephone conversations with consumers wishing to make a complaint via our customer service number (0300 30 300 20) about a service, for the purposes of training and/or evidence. Consumers are informed beforehand of the recording arrangements, and have the opportunity to submit a written complaint if they prefer. Recordings may only be accessed by an authorised Phone-paid Services Authority employees, and the recording will be not be used for evidential purposes without the express consent of the caller.
  
  Telephone conversations which take place with PSA Investigations Executives may on occasion be recorded and may be used for evidential purposes. Where a telephone conversation with an Investigations Executive is being recorded, this will be explained at the beginning of the call. Where recordings are not being used for evidential purposes, they will be automatically deleted after six months. Where they are being used for evidential purposes, they will be deleted 6 months after the conclusion of our regulatory action.
  
  Aggregated data
  We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data  such as statistical or demographic data for regulatory purposes. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature or the number of complainants about services. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
  
  If you fail to provide personal data
  Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, a contract of employment),  but we will notify you if this is the case. 

We may collect and process the following data about you:

—Information that you provide by calling us or filling in forms on our website. This includes information provided to us when you register as a phone-paid service provider, apply for prior permission to operate a service, submit network levy returns, lodge a complaint against a service, use our number checker service, subscribe to our news alerts service or any other service we may provide, apply for a job at Phone-paid Services Authority and when you report a problem with our website.

—Information received from surveys that we (or a research agency acting on our behalf) may ask you to complete for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.

—Information otherwise received from third parties within the phone-paid services industry such as Mobile Networks, aggregators and merchants, and other third parties with whom we collaborate such as regulatory bodies or law enforcement bodies.

—Details obtained from payment transactions you make through our website relating to registration and prior permission applications.

— Details of your visits to our site and resources accessed. We may automatically collect the following information:                

—technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;

—information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.

—data from job applicants.

—if you contact us, we may keep a record of the correspondence (including by email or phone) received from you.

—information regarding devices used to access resources.

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Direct interactions
You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

—apply for a job with PSA;

—create an account on our website;

—subscribe to our publications or news alerts service;

—information that you provide by filling in forms on our website. This includes information provided to us when you register as a phone-paid service provider, apply for prior permission to operate a service, submit network levy returns, lodge a complaint against a service, use our number checker service, subscribe to our news alerts service or any other service we may provide

—when you report a problem with our website

We may receive information from surveys that we (or a research agency acting on our behalf) may ask you to complete for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.

We may obtain details from payment transactions you make through our website relating to registration and prior permission applications.

If you contact us, we may keep a record of the correspondence (including by email or phone) received from you.  However, if you copy us in to emails or letters that are primarily intended for other individuals or organisations and we do not consider them necessary for the performance of our regulatory or other function we may delete them straightaway or after a short period without notifying you.

As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our Cookies Policy for further details. We may automatically collect the following information:

—technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;

—information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.

We may receive personal data about you from various third parties (and public sources) as set out below:

—Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data about you from mobile and fixed line networks, Level 1 providers (aggregators) and Level 2 providers (merchants), including telephone number details, content of SMS messages sent and received, recordings of calls to services you’ve used, and the payment or receipt of refunds by you

—Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data about you from other regulatory bodies, Action Fraud, industry bodies, credit reference agencies and law enforcement bodies.

—Identity and Contact Data about you from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register.

—Identity Data about you and your devices from software companies’ applications.

Contact, Financial and Transaction Data about you from providers of technical, payment and delivery services.

—Device identification information via software companies' applications.

We use information collected and held about you in the following ways:

— To obtain views on our policy proposals in relation to our regulation of premium rate services;

- To notify you about the progress of any complaint you have made and enable us to carry out enquiries and/or gather evidence for any related enquiries or investigation (e.g. by requesting records held about you from a phone-paid service provider);

—To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;

—To provide you with information or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes;

—To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, where you choose to do so;

—To notify you about any changes to any service we provide to you;

—To administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;

—As part of our efforts to keep our site and resources safe and secure;

—To notify you about the progress of any prior permission application you have made;

—To notify you about the registration status of a provider registered by you;

- To generate PSA due diligence reports to industry members that request them;

- To communicate industry news and regulatory updates to you through use of a mailing list. Where we use your data for ‘direct marketing’ purposes you have the right to object to such processing (please see the ‘Your legal rights’ section below).

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform our regulatory functions in the public interest and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Where we rely on this basis you have the right to object to such processing (please see the ‘Your legal rights’ section below).
• Where we need to perform a contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Where we rely on this basis you have the right to object to such processing (please see the ‘Your legal rights’ section below).
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
• Where you have provided us with consent, for example to be included in our mailing list to receive industry news.

Where we wish to process your special category data (sensitive personal data) we will only do so if you have given your explicit consent to this.

Purpose/Activity	Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To register you and/or your organisation as a new provider of phone-paid services and/or provide you with compliance advice or correspond with you in relation to your services.	Public task
To process your registration and request for compliance advice including: (a) Manage payments, fees and charges (b) Collect and recover money owed to us.	(a) Public task (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)
To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey.	(a) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (b) Public task (if related to our regulatory purposes) or Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how consumers and other stakeholders use our services) Depending on the nature of the survey
To notify you about the progress of any complaint you have made and enable us to carry out enquiries and/or gather evidence for any related enquiries or investigation (e.g. by requesting records held about you from a phone-paid service provider). Please note that where your complaint includes sensitive personal data we will only process it where it is needed to discharge our public task and for reasons of substantial public interest.We do not require your consent to use data you have provided where it is necessary for us to perform our public task. We will not usually share it with a third party unless there is a legal obligation to do so.	(a) Public task   (b) Substantial public interest reasons where it involves processing of sensitive personal data
To analyse/collate information regarding certain characteristics/demographics of consumers who have complained to us, including any particular vulnerabilities/characteristics that may render them more susceptible to malpractice within the market and where relevant to refer to this information in any connected investigation or regulatory proceedings.	(a) Consent, where this involves processing sensitive personal data (b) Public task
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data).	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise) (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To deliver relevant website content to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the content we serve to you.	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how stakeholders, including consumers, use our services, to develop them and to inform our website strategy) (b) Public task
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, consumer and industry relationships and experiences.	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of users for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant and to inform our strategy) (b) Public task
To place or maintain your details on a mailing list in order to communicate industry news and regulatory updates to you.	Consent
To prepare and present regulatory enforcement cases to our Code Adjudication Tribunal (CAT) and to pursue and/or enforce compliance with any sanctions imposed by the CAT. Please note that where your complaint includes sensitive personal data we will only process it where it is needed to discharge our public task and for reasons of substantial public interest. We will not usually share it with a third party unless there is a legal obligation to do so.	(a) Public task   (b) Substantial public interest reasons where it involves processing of sensitive personal data
To compile and publish statistics showing information, for example the number of complaints we have received. This will not be in a form that identifies individuals.	Public task
To supply PSA due diligence risk assessment and control (DDRAC) reports in respect of both companies and individuals upon request.	Public task
To process and notify you about the progress of any prior permission application you have made.	Public task
To process any application you have made for employment with PSA.	(a) Performance of contract (b) Consent (where this involves collecting and processing diversity information or other sensitive personal data)
To obtain stakeholder views on PSA's policy proposals in relation to its regulation of premium rate services.	Public task
To assist law enforcement agencies/regulatory bodies prevent crime and disorder/protect members of the public	Necessary for our legitimate interests and for other law enforcement agencies/regulatory bodies to protect consumers from harm against dishonesty, seriously improper conduct or unfitness
Disclosure of information (photographs) of various individuals involved with the regulatory measures taken by the organisation	Necessary for our legitimate interests to provide participants in the regulation of the industry with information about various individuals involved in the regulation of the industry enabling collaboration and co-operation between those parties

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact details provided in this privacy notice document.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

We may disclose your information to third parties:

—Where it is necessary to perform our regulatory functions in the public interest, as governed by the PSA Code of Practice, such as investigating complaints about a service;

—In order to enforce or apply our Terms of Use or other agreements;

—To protect the rights, property, or safety of Phone-paid Services Authority, or others; this includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction;

—If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any other legal obligation.

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out in the glossary below for the purposes set out in the table above.


We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to 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.

We may transfer your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This will usually be in the context of an investigation into an overseas phone-paid services provider.

We also use certain software, cloud hosting and other electronic service providers who may transfer your data outside of the EEA. 

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that we only do so where:

—The European Commission has deemed the country we wish to transfer your data to as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data. For further details, see European Commission: Adequacy of the protection of personal data in non-EU countries; or

—We have adopted EU contractual clauses or their UK equivalents when available which ensure an adequate level of protection and enable you to have enforceable rights and effective legal remedies; or

—It is necessary for important reasons of public interest (furthering the interests of consumers by ensuring they are protected from harm when using phone paid-services as required by the Communications Act 2003) or to establish, exercise or defend any legal claims;

—We have your explicit consent (note we don’t and cannot rely on your consent where we are carrying out a public task). Where your consent is necessary, we will first notify you of any risks of transfer to the third country and the appropriate safeguards we have put in place; or

—We have compelling legitimate interests for making the transfer which we have informed you of.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

We have put in place 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. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

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. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see “Request erasure” below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:

Request access to your personal data
You have the right to request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of your personal data
You have the right to request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data
You have the right to request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data
You have the right to object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on our public task or a legitimate interest (including those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing your personal data
You have the right to request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request transfer of your personal data
You have the right to request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party where our processing of sensitive data is based on your consent or processing is based on a contract with you. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Right to withdraw consent
You have the right to withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above please contact our Data Protection Officer using the details set out in this notice. You can make a request either orally or in writing.

Please note that there may be circumstances where exemptions under the Data Protection Act 2018 apply, which means that one or more of your rights may not apply in those circumstances.

No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you
Before we disclose any personal data, we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it or to amend it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request if we need that information to process your request more quickly.

Please note that there may be circumstances where exemptions under the Data Protection Act 2018 apply. If any of these exemptions apply you may not be able to exercise your rights to access your personal data (or any other rights as set out above). If we consider a request to be manifestly unfounded or excessive, we may also decide not to comply with your request. 

 If we are unable to fulfil your request, we will inform you of the reasons why we are not taking action to fulfil your request. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a compliant to the Information Commissioner’s Office or seek to enforce your rights through a judicial remedy.

Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Lawful basis for processing your data:
Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience - for example, in using our systems to make enquiries or complaints and gain information, or in registering as a provider of phone-paid services. It also means our interest in ensuring that our regulatory enforcement activities are effective and that where sanctions are imposed by a Tribunal these can be pursued outside of our regulatory processes. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

Public task means carrying out our regulatory duties and responsibilities under the Communications Act 2003 and our Code of Practice as approved by the Office of Communications (Ofcom).

Service providers (acting as processors) based in the UK and elsewhere who provide IT and system administration services.

Phone-paid services providers based in both the EU and worldwide, aggregators/providers of technical platforms, mobile network operators.

Professional advisers (whether acting as processors or joint controllers) including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the UK who provide consultancy, banking, legal, credit referencing, debt recovery, insurance and accounting services.

Ofcom, regulators and other authorities (acting as processors or joint controllers) based in the United Kingdom (who may require reporting, or for legitimate purposes may request specific details, of processing activities in certain circumstances).

Research companies (acting as processors or joint controllers) to inform our understanding of the market we regulate and consumer behaviour, in order to help us develop appropriate regulatory and policy initiatives.

Other regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies in order to share information and enhance co-regulatory efforts.