Privacy Policy

Last updated 15 October 2026

In short

• We collect only what you give us through our forms, our planners, our chat and our client portal, plus a few technical details needed to keep our website and online tools working and safe.
• We use it to answer you, prepare quotes and estimates, show clients their website previews, confirm that documents carrying our name are genuine, and improve our website. We do not sell it or use it for advertising.
• The Solar Estimator and the planners on our service pages work in your browser. What you enter reaches us only if you send it to us or save it as a PDF.
• We count visits only if you allow it, and we never store your IP address with those counts.
• Our chat assistant is automated. A person from our team can take over whenever you ask.
• You can ask us at any time to see, correct or delete your information. Write to privacy@lacollinezm.com.

1. Who we are

This policy explains how Lacolline Engineering Ltd ("we", "us", "our") handles personal information when you use our website and our online tools: the planners on our service pages, the Solar Estimator, Authenticate Document, our chat assistant and our client preview portal (Client Previews). We decide why and how this information is used, so we are its data controller under the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 of Zambia.

Lacolline Engineering Ltd
Plot 2002 Jambo Drive, Riverside
Kitwe, Copperbelt Province, Zambia
Email: privacy@lacollinezm.com
Phone: +260 969 756 793

2. What we collect and why

You don't have to give us any personal information to read our website. We only need it when you ask us for something, and we tell you on each form which details are required. If you leave out a required detail, we may not be able to reply or prepare a quote.

When you send a message

Through our contact form we collect your name, email address, the subject and your message. We use them to reply to you.

When you ask for a quote

Through our quote form we collect your name, email address and phone number, the kind of project, when you'd like to start, your budget range, how you'd like us to contact you, whether it's urgent, your message, and any file you choose to attach (for example drawings, a bill of quantities or a brief). We use them to understand your project, prepare a quote and contact you about it.

When you use a planner or the Solar Estimator

The planners on our service pages and the Solar Estimator ask a few questions about your project, such as the kind of website or building you need, the appliances you want to power, or your town. Your answers, and any estimate, are worked out and kept in your browser while you use them, and are cleared when you close the tab, send them or start again. They reach us only if you choose one of the following.

• Send by email. We collect your name, email address, phone number (if you give it) and your answers, and use them to reply to you and prepare a quote. We keep them like any other message (see section 7).
• Send on WhatsApp. Your answers open in WhatsApp as a message to our number, which you can read and change before sending it. When you send it, we receive your WhatsApp number, your WhatsApp name and the message. WhatsApp handles the message under its own terms and privacy policy.
• Save as PDF. We make the PDF on our server and keep a copy of what it says (your answers, any estimate, the document's reference and date), with a scrambled, one-way version of your IP address. We don't ask for your name or email to do this. The copy lets anyone holding the document confirm with Authenticate Document that it is genuine, and see what it says. So please don't put personal details in your answers, and share the document only with people you choose.

When you authenticate a document

Authenticate Document looks up the reference you enter, or the one in the document's QR code, and shows whether we issued it and what it says. We don't ask who you are. Like every page, it sees your IP address briefly, and it limits repeated checks so references can't be guessed.

When you use our chat assistant

• Your questions. The assistant answers from information we have published about our services. To write an answer, your question is passed to an AI service that works for us. Before it is passed on, we remove email addresses, phone numbers, card numbers and anything that looks like a password.
• Talking to a person. If you ask for a person, a short summary of what you need and the messages you exchange go to our team through a secure messaging service they use, so someone can reply to you in the chat.
• Asking us to call you back. If you choose to leave your details, we collect your name, how you'd like to be contacted (phone, WhatsApp or email) with that number or address, your town and the project details you give. We only collect them after you confirm you want us to contact you.
• Moving between our sites. If you are chatting and follow a link between this website and our client portal, your conversation is held on our server for up to five minutes so it can carry on there, then deleted.

Please don't share passwords, payment details or sensitive personal information in the chat.

When you use our client preview portal

The portal is for our clients and the people they ask us to give access to. We hold the name, email address and organisation of each person registered for a project; you or your organisation give us these. When you ask for a sign-in link, we email it to you and keep a record of when it was sent and used, with the IP address and browser that opened it, to protect your project from misuse. When you open the link, we place a cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 8 hours. We use this information to show you the previews of your project, and only those.

When we count visits (only with your permission)

If you allow it in the cookie notice, we record which pages are visited, the website you came from (its name only), the type of device (phone, tablet or computer), the browser, the country (worked out from your connection, not your exact location), and a visitor code that changes every day. The code lets us count how many people visited without being able to recognise you from one day to the next. We do not store your IP address or full browser details with these records, and we do not count visits from our own staff.

To keep the website safe

Like any website, our server sees your IP address and browser details when you visit. We use them briefly to stop spam and abuse, for example by limiting how many messages can be sent in a few minutes. With form and chat messages we keep a scrambled, one-way version of your IP address and your browser type, so we can spot repeated abuse without knowing who you are.

On some forms and sign-in pages, a quick check confirms you are a person rather than an automated program. Usually your browser simply solves a small puzzle from our own server, and nothing is sent anywhere else. If we use Cloudflare Turnstile for this instead, Cloudflare receives your IP address and details of your browser and device; it is not used for advertising.

3. Our legal grounds

Under section 13 of the Act we use your information because:

• you consent: when you send us a message, send us your answers from a planner, use the chat, ask us to call you back or allow us to count visits. You can withdraw your consent at any time (see section 9); this does not affect what we did before you withdrew it;
• it is needed for a contract: to prepare a quote you ask for, or to provide services to you or your organisation, including the client portal;
• it is in our legitimate interests: to keep our website secure and free of spam, to improve it, and to keep copies of the documents we issue so that forged or altered ones can be detected, where this does not override your rights; or
• the law requires it: for example to keep financial records.

4. Automated answers

Our chat assistant answers automatically and can make mistakes. It does not make decisions about you that have legal or similar effects; it only gives information and points you to the right person. Quotes, prices and agreements always come from our team. You can ask for a person at any point in the chat, or contact us directly.

5. Who we share it with

We never sell your personal information and we don't share it for advertising. We share it only with:

• Service providers who work for us and only as we instruct: our website host, our email provider (to send replies, sign-in links and our team's notifications), the AI service behind the chat assistant, Cloudflare, if we use its bot check, and the messaging service our team uses to answer chats and be alerted to new requests. Each receives only what it needs.
• Your own organisation, for client portal access it has arranged with us.
• Authorities or advisers, when the law requires it or to protect our rights, for example in a legal claim.

If you'd like to know which providers handle your information, ask us.

6. Where your information is kept

Some of the providers above store or process information on servers outside Zambia. When we use them, we send only what each needs, we choose providers that protect information to a high standard, and we only transfer information as the Act allows, including with your consent where it requires it. We do not send sensitive personal information outside Zambia. You can ask us for details of where your information is kept and how it is protected.

7. How long we keep it

Information	How long
Messages and quote requests (with attached files)	24 months after we receive them, unless they become part of a contract with you, in which case we keep them as long as the law requires for business records. Messages we identify as spam are deleted after 30 days.
Chat activity (the kind of reply given, and questions the assistant couldn't answer, with contact details removed)	30 days.
Chats with a person	90 days after the conversation ends.
A chat moving between our sites	Up to 5 minutes.
Your answers in a planner or the Solar Estimator (in your browser)	Until you close the browser tab, send them or start again.
Copies of PDFs made with a planner or the Solar Estimator	24 months, so they can be authenticated. They are then deleted, and their reference no longer checks out.
Visit counts	13 months.
Backups of our systems (kept privately, to recover from faults)	Up to 90 days. Anything we delete disappears from backups as they are replaced.
Client portal sign-in links and sessions	Links work for 15 minutes and sessions for 8 hours; their records are deleted 30 days after they end.
Client portal contacts	While you have access to a project. When access ends, we remove your details, unless we still need them for the project.

8. How we protect it

• Our website and portal only work over encrypted connections (HTTPS).
• Only our authorised staff can see messages and portal records. They sign in with their own accounts, and administrators use two-step sign-in.
• Files you attach and client previews are kept in private storage, not on the public website.
• Sign-in links expire quickly, and access to a preview is checked on every visit.
• Documents we issue carry a reference and QR code, so anyone can confirm with Authenticate Document that a document is genuine and unaltered.

No system is perfectly secure. If a security breach affects your personal information, we will report it to the Data Protection Commissioner within 24 hours and tell you as soon as practicable, as section 49 of the Act requires.

9. Your rights

Under the Act you have the right to:

• know whether we hold information about you, and get a copy of it, along with why we use it, who receives it and how long we keep it;
• have it corrected if it is wrong or incomplete;
• have it deleted when we no longer need it, when you withdraw your consent, or when you object;
• object to us using it, and to its use for direct marketing (we don't do direct marketing);
• ask us to restrict how we use it while a concern is checked;
• receive it in a common, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another organisation where possible;
• withdraw your consent at any time;
• not be subject to decisions made only by automated means that have legal or similar effects on you; and
• seek compensation if you suffer damage because we did not follow the Act.

To use any of these rights, email privacy@lacollinezm.com or write to us at the address above. We may ask you to confirm your identity. We will reply within 30 days and won't charge you for a reasonable request.

You can change your choice about counting visits at any time with the cookie button in the bottom corner of our website's pages, or on our Cookie Policy page.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner of Zambia.

10. Children

Our website and services are meant for adults acting for themselves or for an organisation. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and think your child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Changes to this policy

When we change how we handle personal information, we will update this policy and the date at the top. If a change affects you significantly, for example a new purpose, we will tell you clearly on our website, or by email if you are a client portal user.

12. Contact us

For any question about this policy or your information, email privacy@lacollinezm.com, call +260 969 756 793, or write to Lacolline Engineering Ltd, Plot 2002 Jambo Drive, Riverside, Kitwe, Zambia.