Privacy and Cookies Policy
AskChief Ltd ("we", "us"), is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. The website at www.askchief.ai (our "Website"), and Services are meant to assist marine and shipping companies to automate troubleshooting, defect reporting, and predictive maintenance across their fleets, cutting downtime, lowering costs, and freeing technical teams to focus on high-impact, strategic initiatives.
This Privacy and Cookie Policy ("Policy") applies to our Customers and if you want to know more about our services.
The Policy explains how we collect your personal data and why we are allowed to do so (on what legal basis), how personal data provided will be used by us, and the cookies used in our app. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 the Data Controller is AskChief Ltd.
We will only collect information that is necessary for us to provide you with our services. If we do not need the information, then we will only collect it if you agree (consent). However, if certain information is necessary but you do not want us to collect it, unfortunately we will not be able to provide the services to you. We will flag this to you in each case.
"You" (or "you") means a marine superintendent, chief engineer and/or other relevant stakeholder at a marine or shipping company that accesses or interacts with our Website and Services. "Authorized Users" includes any employees, contractors, and/or other users who access or interact with our Website and Services, as authorized or procured by You.
Our appointed representative in the European Economic Area (EEA)
If you are based in the UK/EEA and have concerns or questions about your personal data, you can contact our representative. Their contact details are AskChief Ltd, legal@askchief.ai.
Your personal information
Information we collect and use
We collect and use some or all of the following types of information from you when you use the Website or when we provide our services:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website.
- Information you or an Authorized User provide when reporting a problem with the Website or our Services.
- Personal details for you, such as first name, last name, email address, country of location, time zone, language or any other information input when using the Website or our Services.
- Personal details for an Authorized User such as first name, last name, gender, country of location or residence, native language or any other information input when using the Website or our services.
- Financial and billing information e.g. your invoices and payment receipts/confirmation (but not your credit or debit card details).
- If you or an Authorized User contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence including email addresses.
- We may also ask you or an Authorized User to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although response is not mandatory.
- Technical information such as details of your or an Authorized User's visits to the Website including, IP address, traffic data, weblogs and other communication data, and the resources that you or the Authorized User accesses.
- Device type, browser type, and language.
We do not collect any special categories of data about you (i.e. information about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
This Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins (such as our payment provider) and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections 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. When you leave our Website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
Uses made of your information
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and the reasons to do so. We have also provided reasons why collecting certain information is important for us.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one reason depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific reason we are relying on to use your personal data if this is not provided below.
| Purpose/Activity | Type of data | Reason for using your personal data and why we are allowed to do so |
|---|---|---|
| To register you as a new customer | First name, last name, email address | Performance of a contract with you i.e. so that we can provide you with our services |
| To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy; (b) Asking you or an Authorized User to leave a review, testimonial or take a survey | First name, last name, email address | (a) Performance of a contract with you i.e. so that we can provide you with our services; (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation i.e. we are required to do so by law; (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests i.e. to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services |
| To administer and protect our business and this Website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) | First name, last name, email address, technical information | (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests i.e. for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and for the growth or improvement of our business; (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation i.e. we are required to do so by law |
| To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, customer relationships and experiences | Technical information | Necessary for our legitimate interests i.e. to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business |
| To make suggestions and recommendations to you or an Authorized User about goods or services that may be of interest | First name, last name, email address and marketing preferences | Necessary for our legitimate interests i.e. to develop our products/services and grow our business |
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the reasons for which we collected it, unless we reasonably think that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is very similar to the original reason. If you wish to get an explanation as to how using the personal data for the new reason is closely related with the original reason, please contact us. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated reason, we will tell you and we will explain the reason which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may use your personal data without your knowledge or consent, as we have explained in the table, where this is required or permitted by law.
Marketing
In addition to the above uses we may use your or an Authorized User's information (and, where consented, permit selected third parties to use your information), to notify you or the Authorized User about goods or services which may be of interest to you. Where we do this, we will contact you or the Authorized User by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) only if you or the Authorized User have consented to such communication. If you or an Authorized User do not want to use your data in this way, please either (i) tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect data (for example, the registration form); (ii) unsubscribe from our electronic communications using the method indicated in the relevant communication; or (iii) inform us at any time by contacting us at the contact details set out below.
Sharing your information with others
We normally share your or an Authorized User's personal data with our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations to complete tasks and provide services to you on our behalf (e.g. to host our servers). With your or an Authorized User's consent, we use cookies and other technologies to better understand how our website is used and personal data/Cookies may be used to personalise advertising with the help of external partners.
We may share your or an Authorized User's personal data with any member of our corporate group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries.
We may also share your or an Authorized User's personal data with third parties:
- in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may share personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets; or
- if we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by us about our customers will be one of the transferred assets; or
- if we are under a duty to share personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Website Terms and Conditions or Terms of Service; or
- to protect our rights, property, or safety or that of our affiliated entities and our users and any third party we interact with to provide the Website.
We may share your or an Authorized User's details in relation to selected third parties only, only where consented to such selected third parties, informing them about certain goods or services, which may be of interest to you or the Authorized User.
Except as explained and if necessary in order for us to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you, an Authorised User and us, we will not share your or an Authorized User's data with third parties unless we have asked you or the Authorized User and you or the Authorized User have given express agreement to do so.
Storing your personal data
Security
We take appropriate measures to ensure that any personal data provided is kept safely, including security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in any way that is not allowed. We only give access to personal data to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those using your or an Authorized User's information will do so only in a way allowed by us and they will not share information with anyone else except as we have described in the "Sharing your information with others" section. Where we have given you or an Authorized User (or where you or the Authorized User have chosen) a password to log into your dashboard, you or the Authorised User promise to keep this password safe and not share it with anyone else.
We also have plans in place to deal with any potential accident or incident which could lead to personal information being accessed by someone who is not allowed to do so. We will tell you or Authorized User, and any applicable regulator, of a suspected data security breach where we have to do so by law.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure or safe. Although we will do our best to protect personal data, we cannot promise the security of data shared to the Website; any personal data you or an Authorized User give us is at your or the Authorized User's own risk. Once we have received your or an Authorized User's information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to keep the data safe.
The Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you or an Authorized User follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and terms of use and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies and terms of use. Please check these policies before you or an Authorized User submit any personal data to these websites.
Keeping your personal data up to date
If your or an Authorized User's personal details change you may update them on the AskChief dashboard, or by contacting us using the contact details below. If you have any questions about how we use data collected which relates to you or an Authorized User, please contact us by sending a request by email to the contact details below.
If you or an Authorized User ask us to update personal data, we will do our best to update personal data within 14 days of any new or updated personal data being provided to us, so that the personal data we hold about you or an Authorized User is as accurate and up to date as possible.
How long we keep personal data
We will hold names, addresses, email addresses and contact details for as long as you or an Authorized User are subscribed to our services and for the period we are required to retain this information by applicable UK tax law (currently 6 years).
Where we store your personal data
All information we hold about you is stored on AWS Data Centres (London Region), Google Cloud Data centers (London Region), or Microsoft Azure Data Centers (London Region).
We will let you or an Authorized User know if the data that we collect will be sent to or stored at a destination outside the United Kingdom and/or the European Economic Area ("EEA").
If we send personal data to a country that does not have good enough safety rules in the view of the authorities in the United Kingdom and/or EEA, we will have agreements with standard contractual clauses approved by the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office and/or the EU Commission and any other appropriate safeguards which may be needed for sending and keeping the data safely.
If you would like to be informed on how Google may use your personal data, including for non-personalised and personalized advertisements that are shown to you and others, please review the Google's Privacy & Terms site.
If you would like further information, please contact us (see 'Contact' below).
Your rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation you and any Authorized Users have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:
- access to personal data and to certain other supplementary information that this Policy is already designed to address
- require us to correct any mistakes in information which we hold
- require the erasure of personal data concerning you or an Authorized User in certain situations
- receive the personal data concerning you or an Authorized User which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations
- object at any time to processing of personal data for direct marketing
- object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or an Authorized User or similarly significantly affect you
- object in certain other situations to our continued processing of personal data
- otherwise restrict our processing of personal data in certain circumstances
- claim compensation for damages caused by breach of any data protection laws.
If you or an Authorized User would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
- email, call or write to us using the details below;
- let us have enough information about who you or Authorized User are e.g. name, email address;
- let us have proof of address (a copy of driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
- let us know the information to which your request relates, including any account or reference numbers, if you have them.
You or an Authorized User will not have to pay a fee to access personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if the request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with the request in these circumstances.
If you or an Authorized User wish to withdraw your consent at any time, please contact us at legal@askchief.ai or click Unsubscribe in any of our emails.
How to complain
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.
The General Data Protection Regulation and the UK GDPR also give you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state or the UK where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.
The supervisory authority in the EEA is: Hellenic Data Protection Authority, Kifissias 1-3, PC 115 23, Athens, Greece. Telephone: +30-210 6475600 or e-mail: contact@dpa.gr.
The supervisory authority in the UK is: Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, United Kingdom. Telephone: 0303 123 1113. Website: ico.org.uk.
Changes to our privacy policy
We can change and update this Policy at any time. If you are a Customer, you will be informed of any changes we may make to our Policy in the future and you can find the new Policy on our Website, too. Your continued use of the services and the Website shall mean you have accepted the updated Policy.
Information about our use of cookies
Our website (www.askchief.ai) does not use cookies. The cookies described below are used only within the AskChief app and dashboard, which you access after signing in. They help us keep you logged in, understand how the app is used, and improve it.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
We use the following cookies in the app:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our app. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of the app or make use of e-billing services.
- Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our app when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our app works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
- Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our app. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
Note that cookies may be used by AskChief or our third-party service providers for the personalization of ads.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
| Cookie Title | Purpose | More information |
|---|---|---|
| refreshToken, AUTH_SESSION_ID, KEYCLOAK_IDENTITY, KEYCLOAK_SESSION, KC_RESTART | These cookies are essential for logging into the dashboard. | |
| _fbp, _fbc | These cookies are used by the Facebook Conversions API to track how users are using our app and to track conversions against predefined metrics. | |
| _ga* | These cookies are used by Google Analytics to help us track how users are using our app and to track conversions against predefined metrics. | |
| ph_phc_481bhKHO0bO1InVWAjDfhz76heEOoZQ7W1QqrgbBuxB_posthog ph_phc_481bhKHO0bO1InVWAjDfhz76heEOoZQ7W1QqrgbBuxB_posthog_opt_out | Used by PostHog (our product analytics provider) to identify a user/session across page loads and to remember opt-out preferences. | posthog.com/docs/libraries/js/persistence |
Please note that the following third parties may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These named third parties may include, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services. These third party cookies are likely to be analytical cookies or performance cookies or targeting cookies:
- Product and web analytics provider (www.posthog.com)
However, if you or an Authorized User use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our app.
Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire at most after 12 months.
Contact
All questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy and Cookie Policy should be addressed to legal@askchief.ai.
Last updated: May 2026