Privacy policy
This site collects very little. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads nothing from other companies. The only personal information we receive through it is what you choose to send us.
01In short
What this site does and does not do
Last updated: 9 October 2026.
- It sets no cookies.
- It runs no analytics and no advertising or tracking scripts.
- It loads nothing from other companies. Fonts, scripts and images are served from the site itself.
- It receives personal information only when you send one of its three forms, or send us an email.
- A form message becomes one plain-text email to our mailbox. It is not stored in a database.
02The forms
What each form collects
There are three forms. Each collects only the fields listed here, and a field marked optional can be left empty.
- Free consultation
- Your name, your company and your email address. Your phone number (optional). How you would like to talk: by email, phone call, video call or meeting. The standards you are asking about (optional). What you need, in your own words. Your standard finder answers, only if you chose to send them.
- Certificate check
- The certificate number. The name of the certified organization. The standard shown on the certificate (optional). Your name, and an email address for the reply.
- Complaint or appeal
- Whether it is a complaint or an appeal. Who or what it concerns. What happened. Your name and your email address. Your phone number (optional).
Each form also sends a few things you do not type: the time at which the page was opened and the time at which the form was sent, both read from your own device's clock; one hidden field that must stay empty; and the web address of the page the form was on. The two times and the hidden field let the server discard submissions made by programs. The page's address is added to the email, so that we know which form you used.
If you email us
The request a quote page, and the addresses printed on this site, open your own email program. If you email us, we receive whatever you choose to write, with what any email carries, such as your email address and the time it was sent. It is handled in the same way as a form message.
03What happens
What happens when you send a form
One email is sent
The web server composes one plain-text email and sends it to our mailbox over authenticated SMTP. The email holds your answers, under the labels they had on the form, and the web address of the page it was sent from. Your email address is set as the reply address, so that pressing reply answers you. The message is not stored in a database.
It arrives in one mailbox
All three forms arrive at the same address, info@
northwindmanagementsystems.com . The mailbox is kept for us by the company that hosts our email.If the email cannot be sent
The message is kept in a file on the web server, outside the part of it that visitors can reach, until it has been sent on by hand or deleted. The form tells you that sending failed, so that you can try again or write to us directly.
One line is logged
For each submission the server writes one line to a log: the time, the name of the form and the outcome. The line contains no personal data: no name, no address and none of your answers.
Repeated sending is limited
To limit abuse, the server keeps a count of recent submissions against a salted one-way hash of the sender's IP address. It counts back no further than one hour, and older entries are removed the next time a form is sent. The IP address itself is not stored by the site.
The host keeps its own logs
The hosting provider keeps its own access logs of requests to the server. We do not control those logs.
04The finder
The standard finder keeps your answers in your browser
The standard finder stores your answers in your own browser, in session storage, so that going back a step or reloading the page does not lose them. They stay there until you close the tab or choose to start again.
The answers are sent to us only if you press the button that sends them with a consultation request, and then send that form. The form tells you that they will go with it and gives you a button to remove them. Nothing is sent before that. The cookies page says exactly what is stored.
05Who sees it
Who sees what you send
- Northwind staff
- The people who answer enquiries read the mailbox. A complaint or an appeal is passed to a person who was not involved in the matter.
- AQC Group
- When you apply for certification, because AQC Group issues the certificate. Also when a complaint or an appeal concerns a certified organization, a certificate, an audit or a certification decision, because AQC Group is responsible for those. A certificate check is made against AQC Group's records, so the certificate details you give may be passed to it.
- Our hosting providers
- The companies that run the web server and keep the mailbox for us handle what passes through them, as described above.
- Anyone else
- No one. What you send stays with us and, in the cases above, with AQC Group.
06How long
How long we keep it
We keep an enquiry for as long as we are dealing with it, and for as long afterwards as our records of quotations and contracts need. You can ask us to delete yours at any time.
- A message held on the web server because it could not be sent stays there only until it has been sent on by hand or deleted.
- The count kept against the hash of an IP address reaches back no more than one hour.
- A complaint or an appeal that has been passed to AQC Group is also recorded by AQC Group under its own procedure, and kept there under its rules.
07What you can ask
What you can ask us for
- A copy of what we hold about you.
- Correction of anything that is wrong.
- Deletion of your enquiry.
Write to info@
If we cannot do all of what you ask, for example because a record of a quotation, a contract, a complaint or an appeal has to be kept, we tell you what we are keeping and why.
08Who is responsible
Who is responsible for this site
- Operator
- Northwind Management Systems
- Country
- Iraq
This page is written to be accurate about what the site does. If the site changes, this page changes with it, and so does the date at the top.