Security and Data Protection

Last updated: 10 August 2026

Procurement work involves commercially sensitive information: supplier names, prices, contracts and margins. This page sets out how this website is built, how Portcroft protects that information, and where data is processed. It is written to be read before you share anything with us.

This website

The site is served entirely over HTTPS. It sets no cookies and carries no advertising or behavioural tracking. Visitor numbers are counted using Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is cookieless, does not fingerprint devices and cannot follow a visitor between sites or sessions. Framing, referrer, transport security and permissions policies are applied at the edge. Public endpoints are rate limited, and the enquiry form is protected against automated abuse. Administrative access is behind single sign on with rate limiting on failed attempts, and provider credentials are held as encrypted platform secrets rather than in code.

Confidentiality

A mutual non-disclosure agreement is offered before any commercial information is exchanged, and we are equally willing to work under yours. Client information is never shared with other clients, and is not used as material in published content without written permission. Portcroft resells no software, accepts no supplier commissions and receives no referral fees, so there is no third party with an interest in your data.

Client information during an engagement

Access to client information is limited to the individual delivering the engagement. Information is held only for as long as the engagement and any agreed follow-up require, and is returned or deleted on request at the end of it.

Artificial intelligence

Portcroft uses artificial intelligence as a working tool, and is direct about it. Client information is not entered into free or consumer artificial intelligence tools. Where an artificial intelligence service is used, it is used under commercial terms, and material submitted is not used to train models.

Articles published under Insights are drafted with model assistance from the public source named on each article, then read and approved by a person before publication.

The Portcroft Assistant on this site is a general advisory tool for questions about procurement. It is not a channel for commercially sensitive detail, and the page asks visitors not to share supplier names or pricing. Text entered is sent to a third-party artificial intelligence provider to generate a reply and is not used to train models.

The enquiry form on this site is deliberately not run by artificial intelligence. It asks a fixed set of questions, captures your details and emails them to Portcroft, so it keeps working if the assistant is unavailable. Only the assistant itself, reached by choosing to ask a question, uses artificial intelligence.

Where a visitor leaves a name and email address in the assistant's reply fields, those details are handled separately and are not sent to the artificial intelligence provider. Only what is typed into the conversation itself is, and the conversation is intended for general questions about procurement, supply chain terminology and Portcroft's services.

Service providers

Portcroft uses a small number of established commercial providers for hosting and infrastructure, artificial intelligence processing, email delivery and mailbox services. Some process data outside the United Kingdom under contractual safeguards. None of them are advertising or behavioural tracking services. Their names are available on request.

Data protection

Portcroft Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a data controller, reference ZC218247, and maintains an internal record of its processing activities. What personal data this site collects, why, how long it is kept and your rights are set out in the Privacy Policy. Questions about security or data protection, and requests relating to personal data, may be sent to our contact address.