Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Autex collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit our website, talk to us, or use our garage management software, mobile apps and the websites and customer pages we provide for garages (together, the “Service”).

1. Who we are

• JN Investment Partners Ltd, trading as Autex
• Registered in England and Wales, company number 14999640
• Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, reference ZB930190
• Email: [email protected]

Questions about this policy or your information go to [email protected].

2. Our role

We decide how and why your information is used (we’re the “controller”) when you visit our website, enquire about or buy the Service, or use it as a member of a garage’s team.

Garages that use Autex put information about their own customers, vehicles and jobs into the Service. For that information the garage is the controller and we act on its instructions (we’re its “processor”). If you’re a customer of a garage that uses Autex, the garage’s own privacy notice explains how it uses your information, and requests about it should go to the garage. If you contact us, we’ll pass your request on to them.

3. What we collect

When you visit our website

• The pages you visit, how long you spend on them, how far you scroll, and what you click
• The website, search or advert that brought you here, including campaign tags in the link
• Your device type, browser, IP address and approximate location

When you contact us or we contact you

• Your name, business name, email, phone number and anything you tell us
• Business contact details from public sources such as Companies House, the DVSA, business directories and online maps

When you set up or pay for the Service

• Business details such as company and VAT numbers, address and billing details
• Identity details of directors and owners, such as name, date of birth and home address, and bank details, needed to set up payments
• Payment and invoice history

When you use the Service as a member of a garage’s team

• Your name, email, phone number, role and sign-in and security details
• Your devices and notification settings
• What you do in the Service, such as the pages and features you use, how long for, and your time on jobs and shifts
• Content you add, such as notes, photos, voice notes and signatures
• Error reports, which can include a picture of the screen at the time
• Support requests and messages to us

4. Why we use it, and our legal basis

• To provide the Service, set up and manage accounts, take payment and give support. This is needed for our contract with you or your business.
• To run, secure and improve our website and the Service, understand how they’re used, fix problems and prevent fraud and misuse. This is in our legitimate interests.
• To tell businesses about the Service and follow up enquiries and demonstrations. This is in our legitimate interests, and you can ask us to stop at any time.
• To meet legal, tax and accounting obligations, and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• Where we ask for your consent, for example for optional notifications. You can withdraw it at any time.

We don’t make decisions about you that have a legal or similarly significant effect by purely automated means.

5. Push notifications

If you allow notifications, we collect a device token provided by your phone’s operating system. This token is used only to send you notifications about the Service (such as bookings, jobs and reminders). We do not use it for marketing.

6. Connected email inboxes (Gmail and Outlook)

Garages can choose to connect an email inbox so that supplier documents such as invoices and credit notes are added to their Autex account automatically. Access is read-only: we never send, change, move or delete email.

• We only use email data to provide this feature to the garage that connected the inbox.
• We keep the supplier documents we find, and the details taken from them, in that garage's account. Other email is not kept.
• Sign-in details for connected inboxes are encrypted and are never shown to anyone, including our staff.
• We do not sell email data, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models. Our staff do not read your email unless you ask us to for support, it is needed to keep the service secure, or the law requires it.
• Documents may be processed by our service providers (for example, hosting and AI document-reading services) strictly to provide the feature and under contracts that keep the data confidential.

Autex's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

You can disconnect an inbox at any time in Settings, which deletes our stored access to it straight away. You can also remove our access from your Google or Microsoft account settings.

7. Automated features

Some features of the Service use automated tools, which may include artificial intelligence, provided by us or by our service providers. Information may be processed by these tools where needed to provide those features, on our instructions and subject to appropriate safeguards.

8. Who we share it with

We don’t sell personal information. We may share it with:

• service providers that help us provide, support and run the Service
• services a garage chooses to use or connect through the Service
• our professional advisers
• authorities and others where the law requires or allows it, or to protect our rights or the safety of others
• a buyer, investor or successor if our business, or part of it, is sold or restructured

9. Information sent outside the UK

Some of our providers are based in, or store information in, other countries, including the European Economic Area and the United States. When information leaves the UK, it’s protected by safeguards UK law recognises, such as adequacy regulations, the UK-US data bridge or approved contract clauses.

10. How long we keep it

We keep information only for as long as we need it for the reasons in this policy, including to provide the Service, resolve disputes and meet legal, tax and accounting requirements. Account information is generally kept while the account is open and for a period afterwards, and financial records for at least 6 years. When we no longer need information we delete it or make it anonymous. Information in backups is deleted as those backups are replaced.

11. How we protect your data

We protect personal data, including data received from Google and Microsoft, with safeguards such as:

• Encryption in transit: traffic to and from Autex, and between our servers and database, uses encrypted HTTPS/TLS connections.
• Encryption at rest: access tokens and passwords for connected inboxes are encrypted with AES before they are stored. The encryption key is kept separately from the database.
• Encrypted backups: our backups are encrypted before they leave our servers.
• Access control: each garage can only see its own data. Access to our systems is limited to a small number of authorised staff who need it to run the service.
• Minimum access: connected inboxes are read-only. We only look at emails with attachments, and only keep supplier documents.
• Monitoring: we monitor our systems for errors and unusual activity.

No method of sending or storing information is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect it. If a data breach ever affects your information, we will tell you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

12. Cookies and similar technology

Our website and the websites we provide for garages use:

• Essential storage to make forms, bookings, payments and sign-in work, keep the site secure and remember your choices. This is always on.
• Site statistics to see how people find and use the site, such as the pages visited and what’s clicked.
• Advertising on some garage websites, to see which adverts bring people to the site.

Some pages also use spam protection, fonts, maps or reviews from other providers, which may set their own cookies. Our apps store sign-in details and settings on your device to work.

Change your cookie settings

13. Your rights

You can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the information we hold about you
• correct anything that’s wrong
• delete your information, unless we need to keep it
• limit how we use it, or stop using it in ways that rely on our legitimate interests
• send your information to you or another organisation in a common format
• stop contacting you about the Service
• withdraw any consent you’ve given us

Email [email protected] to use any of these rights. We’ll respond within the time the law allows. Some rights only apply in certain circumstances.

14. Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first at [email protected]. We’ll acknowledge it, look into it and let you know the outcome.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

15. Changes to this policy

We’ll update this page if the way we use information changes. Our website may link to other websites, and we’re not responsible for how they handle information. The Service is for businesses and isn’t aimed at children.