Published 2 October 2026
Micropipe — Privacy Notice
This notice explains what personal data we hold when you visit the Micropipe site, buy a licence, activate and use Micropipe, or contact us; why we hold it; who sees it; how long we keep it; and your rights. It is written for the purchaser of a licence, the engineer who holds and uses one, and anyone who visits the site, and it also tells you what we receive about you from other people.
1. Who we are
The controller of your personal data is Omega Solutions Cross Hills Limited, trading as NOW SELECT, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 13567755) at 1b Fairfax House, Cottingley Business Park, Cottingley, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England, BD16 1PE.
For anything about your personal data — a question, a request to exercise your rights, or a complaint — email support@omega-solutions.co.uk marked "for the attention of a director — data protection", or write to the address above. We do not have a data protection officer.
Paddle (Paddle.com Market Limited, 30 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7AU, or the Paddle entity for your region) is our reseller and merchant of record. When you buy, Paddle collects your payment details and is a separate controller of the data it collects at the checkout, under its own Privacy Notice at paddle.com/legal/privacy. We never receive your card number.
2. What we collect, and where it comes from
When you buy (the purchaser). From Paddle, once your payment is confirmed: your name, the email address you gave at the checkout, your company name if you gave one, your country, the order details (term, number of keys, currency, amount before and after tax) and Paddle's transaction and customer references. If you arrived through an introducer's link, the introducer's identifier. Your confirmation at the checkout that you want immediate access and accept losing the 14-day right to withdraw, and when you gave it.
When a key is activated (the licence holder). The email address the holder enters, which becomes the licence's registered address, and the holder's name if the activation page asks for it; the licence key claimed; the date and time; the device's characteristics (platform, screen size, processor count, time zone, graphics renderer and language) and its IP address and browser type; and a random security token that identifies the device thereafter. Each code we email, and each attempt to enter one, is recorded (the code itself is stored only in protected form and is never visible to us).
While Micropipe is used. The projects and networks the holder creates or imports ("projects"), saved to our server as they work; the licence, device, time, calculation mode, network size and duration of each calculation; device moves and licence events (claimed, released, expired, renewed, revoked). We do not store calculation results, only the inputs needed to reproduce them.
Renewals and payments. From Paddle: renewal, failed-payment, refund and dispute events for each order, with Paddle's references and the amounts involved. Not card details.
When you contact us. Your email address or telephone number, what you tell us, and our reply.
When you visit the site. Our server logs record the IP address, time, page requested and browser type of each request. The site uses no analytics, advertising or third-party tracking.
From introducers. An introducer's checkout link tells us only that an order came through that introducer; the introducer does not give us your details — you enter them at the checkout yourself.
From our staff. When a member of our staff opens or edits a project to help you, the time, the person and the project are recorded.
Information you give us about other people. A purchaser who hands keys to colleagues gives us nothing about them; each colleague enters their own email address when they claim a key, and this notice is shown to them then. If you give us someone else's details in correspondence — a colleague's email so that a released key can be claimed, for example — please make sure they know.
Projects may contain whatever you type into them. If you put personal data into a project name or description — a client's name or site address, say — it is held as part of your project under the same conditions, and you are responsible for your right to use it.
3. Why we use it, and the lawful basis
| What we do | Data | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Issue keys, send the order email, operate the order page, show the purchaser the state of their keys | Purchaser and order details | Performance of our contract with you (Art 6(1)(b)) |
| Bind a licence to one device and verify it at each load and calculation; send activation and move codes; detect sharing and misuse | Holder's email, device characteristics, token, IP, code records | Performance of the contract; our legitimate interest in protecting the licence and the software |
| Store, back up, display and calculate your projects, and keep them available across devices and renewals | Projects | Performance of the contract |
| Open or edit a project to support you or to resolve a problem with the service, and record that we did | Projects, staff access log | Performance of the contract (providing support); our legitimate interest in accountable support (the access log) |
| Send service messages: codes, order and claim emails, charge notices before each renewal, key-removal notices, expiry and deletion warnings, failed-payment and refund notices | Email addresses, licence and order state | Performance of the contract; our legitimate interest in giving warning before a charge or a deletion |
| Take payments, renew, refund, handle disputes and keep financial records | Order, payment and dispute events | Performance of the contract (via Paddle); legal obligation (tax and accounting records) |
| Credit introducers with the orders they introduced and calculate their commission | Order, introducer identifier, amounts | Our legitimate interest in running the introducer scheme; performance of our contract with the introducer |
| Operate, secure and improve the service: server logs, rate limits, metering of calculation load, fault-finding | IP, logs, calculation metrics | Our legitimate interest in a secure, reliable service |
| Answer questions and complaints | Correspondence | Performance of the contract; legitimate interest in responding to you |
| Keep an audit trail of changes to customer, licence, payment and staff records | Change history | Legal obligation (financial records); legitimate interest in an accountable system and in defending legal claims |
| Comply with the law and respond to lawful requests | As required | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests we have assessed that the processing is what you would reasonably expect from a licensed engineering tool, that it has minimal effect on your privacy, and that it is not overridden by your interests or rights. You may object (section 9).
No marketing. We send only the service messages listed above. We do not send marketing email.
Automated application of the contract. Our systems apply the rules in the Terms of Sale automatically: a licence stops calculating when its paid period ends or when a payment is refunded or charged back, and resumes when a retried payment succeeds; a device move is allowed up to three times in 90 days; a second free trial on the same email address is refused; projects are deleted 90 days after a licence expires. These are the terms of the contract applied as written, not assessments of you, and you can ask a person to review any of these outcomes by contacting us. A pattern of device moves is flagged to a member of staff rather than acted on automatically. Paddle screens payments for fraud under its own notice.
Providing your data. The purchaser's email address and the holder's email address are required to supply the service: without them we cannot send keys or codes, and a licence cannot be activated.
4. Our staff can open your projects
Named members of our staff, holding a specific permission, can open and edit the projects saved under your licence to support you or to resolve a problem with the service. Every opening and every save is logged with the time and the staff member. Introducers cannot see projects. We use the contents of projects only to provide and support the service and as the law requires.
5. Who receives your data
| Recipient | What and why | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Paddle (reseller and merchant of record) | Collects your checkout and payment details, takes payments, issues receipts, runs renewals, refunds and disputes, and passes us your name, email, company, country and order details so we can supply the licence | Independent controller, under its own Privacy Notice (paddle.com/legal/privacy) |
| Our hosting provider | Hosts the Micropipe server and database in the United Kingdom, including your projects, under a contract that binds it to process data only on our instructions and to keep it secure | |
| Our email delivery provider | Sends the system's emails from noreply@now-select.com (codes, keys, notices) | |
| Introducers | If your order came through an introducer's link, that introducer can see the orders, licences and licence-holder details (registered email address, and name where held) it introduced, so that it can support its customers and reconcile its commission. It cannot see projects. | Independent controller for what it holds |
| Professional advisers, insurers and auditors | Where needed to obtain advice, make or defend a claim, or audit our accounts | Recipients bound by confidentiality |
| Authorities and courts | Where the law requires or allows us to disclose | — |
| A buyer of our business | If Omega or Micropipe is sold or reorganised, the new owner may receive your data on the same terms as this notice; we would tell you | Controller |
We do not sell personal data to anyone.
6. Where your data is kept
The Micropipe server, database and your projects are hosted in the United Kingdom.
Paddle processes checkout and payment data under its own notice and may transfer it outside the UK with appropriate safeguards. If we ever use a provider that processes data outside the UK, we will rely on the UK's adequacy regulations (for example for the European Economic Area) or on a UK-approved transfer agreement, and we will update this notice.
7. How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Your projects | While you hold a licence, and for 90 days after it expires without renewal (or after a trial ends without converting), during which you can still open, export and print them. Then deleted. We email you 30 and 7 days before deletion. |
| Customer record (holder's registered email address, name and company where held, licences and their events) | Six years from the later of your last licence expiring and your last purchase, then deleted. This is what lets a returning customer pick up their record by email, and matches the period for which we must keep financial records. |
| Purchaser and order records, payments, refunds and disputes | Six years from the end of the financial year of the transaction (HMRC record-keeping and the limitation period for contract claims). |
| Change history and audit trail (who changed what and when, including staff access to projects) | Six years from the date of each entry. When a customer record is deleted, history entries that name that customer are anonymised rather than deleted, so the audit trail stays intact without identifying you. |
| Device records and security tokens | For the life of the licence and the customer record above; a code challenge expires ten minutes after it is issued and the record is kept with the licence's event history. |
| Server logs (IP address, request, time) | 90 days |
| Support correspondence | Six years from the end of the licence it relates to, with the customer record. |
| Introducer commission records | Six years, with the financial records. |
Paddle keeps its own transactional records for its own legal periods (it states five years).
8. Cookies and information stored on your device
Micropipe stores a small amount of information in your browser. None of it is used for advertising or analytics and none is shared with anyone else.
| Item | What it does | How long | Why we may store it without asking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licence token (cookie, secure, not readable by scripts) | Identifies your bound device so the licence works without re-entering a code | 1 year, renewed on use | Strictly necessary: authenticates the device for the service you have asked for |
| Code challenge reference (cookie) | Ties the six-digit code you are entering to the browser that asked for it | Until the code is used or expires (10 minutes) | Strictly necessary: security of activation |
| Local working copy of your projects, open project and network (browser storage) | Lets Micropipe save as you work and open read-only when offline; the server copy is the master | Until you clear site data | Strictly necessary: provides the saving and offline-viewing you have asked for |
| Language, unit system and currency preference (browser storage) | Shows Micropipe and the site in the language, units and currency you chose | Until you change it or clear site data | Website appearance: adapts the display to a preference you set. You can object simply by choosing the default or clearing site data. |
| Staff session (cookie) | Keeps a member of staff signed in to the admin panel | Session, with idle timeout | Strictly necessary; staff only |
Paddle's checkout, which opens on our pages when you buy, sets its own cookies under Paddle's Cookie Notice (linked from paddle.com/legal/privacy). We set no analytics, advertising or social-media cookies, and we do not track you across other sites.
9. Your rights
You have the right to:
access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy;
correct data that is wrong or incomplete — a holder's registered email address is changed by our staff on request, with identity checks, because codes go to it;
erase your data where we no longer need it — note that we must keep financial records and the audit trail for six years, in which your name is anonymised rather than deleted, and that erasing your customer record deletes your projects, so export them first;
restrict or object to processing based on our legitimate interests (section 3); we will stop unless we have compelling grounds;
portability of the data you gave us and the projects you created — Micropipe's export function gives you your projects in a file at any time, and we will provide the rest in a common format on request;
complain — to us, at the address in section 1, and/or to the UK regulator, the Information Commission (ICO): ico.org.uk, helpline 0303 123 1113, 4th Floor, No. 3 Circle Square, 5 Hawkshaw Street, Manchester M1 7BL. If you live elsewhere you may also complain to your own data protection authority.
To exercise a right, email support@omega-solutions.co.uk from the address registered with us, or write to the address in section 1. We may ask you to confirm your identity. We respond within one month; if a request is complex we may extend this by up to two months and will tell you. We acknowledge complaints within 30 days and tell you the outcome. There is no fee unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive.
10. Security
Calculation runs on our server; the underlying reference data is never sent to or stored on your device. Licence tokens and one-time codes are stored only in protected (hashed) form. Traffic between your browser and our server is encrypted (HTTPS). Access to customer records and projects by our staff is restricted by named permission and logged. Payments are handled by Paddle; we never see or store card numbers.
11. Children
Micropipe is a professional engineering tool and is not directed at anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from children; if you believe a child has given us their details, contact us and we will delete them.
12. Changes to this notice
We may update this notice; the current version is always at now-select.com/micropipe/privacy with its date. If a change materially affects how we use your data we will tell purchasers and holders by email.