Privacy Policy
We’re committed to preserving the privacy of all visitors to our website at www.downthelinedesign.co.uk. Please read the following Privacy Policy to understand how we use and protect the information that you provide to us.
By registering or placing an order via this website, you consent to the collection, use and transfer of your information under the terms of this policy.
- We will only request information from you that is needed to enable us to perform our duties, those which are reasonable to enable us to undertake work on your behalf or to keep you up to date with services or news that might be of interest to you.
- We won’t request any personal or sensitive information.
This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect, or that you provide to me, will be processed by us. The rules on processing of personal data are set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR).
This privacy policy is for this website; and served by Down The Line Design and Marketing, 12 Barnaby Road, Bishop’s Cleeve, GL52 8FB and governs the privacy of its users who choose to use it. It explains how we comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the DPA (Data Protection Act) [pre GDPR enforcement] and the PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations).
This policy will explain areas of this website that may affect your privacy and personal details, how we process, collect, manage and store those details and how your rights under the GDPR, DPA & PECR are adhere to. Additionally it will explain the use of cookies or software, advertising or commercial sponsorship from third parties and the download of any documents, files or software made available to you (if any) on this website. Further explanations may be provided for specific pages or features of this website in order to help you understand how we, this website and its third parties (if any) interact with you and your computer / device in order to serve it to you. Our contact information is provided if you have any questions.
The DPA & GDPR May 2018
We and this website complies to the DPA (Data Protection Act 1998) and already complies to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which comes into affect from May 2018. We will review this policy accordingly after the completion of the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Website Visitor Tracking
This website uses tracking software, including google analytics, to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. These deliver anonymous statistics that we are able to review to further improve our website visitor’s experience and better understand actions taking by visitors to our website.
Adverts and Sponsored Links
Is it not the intention of this website at this stage to include adverts and / or sponsored links to third parties.
If our policy changes, then such links and adverts will typically be served through our advertising partners, to whom may have detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve. Clicking on any such adverts will send you to the advertisers website through a referral program which may use cookies and will track the number of referrals sent from this website. This may include the use of cookies which may in turn be saved on your computers hard drive. Users should therefore note they click on sponsored external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
Downloads & Media Files
All content – text and images – remain under the ownership of Down The Line Design & Marketing unless otherwise stated. Website visitors agree not to download any such content without prior agreement.
We accept no responsibility for third party downloads and downloads provided by external third party websites and advise users to verify their authenticity using third party anti virus software or similar applications.
Contact & Communication With Us
Users contacting us through this website do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use.
Where we have clearly stated and made you aware of the fact, and where you have given your express permission, we may use your details to send you products/services information through a mailing list system. This is done in accordance with the regulations named in ‘The policy’ above.
Email Mailing List & Marketing Messages
We operate an email mailing list program, via Mailchimp, used to inform subscribers about products, services and/or news we supply/publish. You can read their privacy policy in the resources section below.
Users can subscribe through an online automated process where they have given their explicit permission. Subscriber personal details are collected, processed, managed and stored in accordance with the regulations named in ‘The policy’ above. Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time through an automated online service, or if not available, other means as detailed in the footer of sent marketing messages (or unsubscribe from all Mailchimp lists). The type and content of marketing messages subscribers receive, and if it may contain third party content, is clearly outlined at the point of subscription.
Email marketing messages may contain tracking beacons / tracked clickable links or similar server technologies in order to track subscriber activity within email marketing messages. Where used, such marketing messages may record a range of subscriber data relating to engagement, geographic, demographics and already stored subscriber data.
External Website Links & Third Parties
Although we only look to include quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website. (External links are clickable text / banner / image links to other websites.)
Shortened URL’s; URL shortening is a technique used on the web to shorten URL’s (Uniform Resource Locators) to something substantially shorter. This technique is especially used in social media and looks similar to this (example: Users should take caution before clicking on shortened URL links and verify their authenticity before proceeding.
We cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite our best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
Social Media Policy & Usage
We adopt a Social Media Policy to ensure our business and our staff conduct themselves accordingly online. While we may have official profiles on social media platforms users are advised to verify authenticity of such profiles before engaging with, or sharing information with such profiles. We will never ask for user passwords or personal details on social media platforms. Users are advised to conduct themselves appropriately when engaging with us on social media.
There may be instances where our website features social sharing buttons, which help share web content directly from web pages to the respective social media platforms. You use social sharing buttons at your own discretion and accept that doing so may publish content to your social media profile feed or page. You can find further information about some social media privacy and usage policies in the resources section below.
Transfer of data abroad
Countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) do not always offer the same levels of protection to your personal data, so European law has prohibited transfers of personal data outside of the EEA unless the transfer meets certain criteria.
Many of my third parties service providers are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we do our best to ensure a similar degree of security of data by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
- We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission; or
- Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; or
- Where we use providers based in the United States, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the EU-US Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US.
- If none of the above safeguards is available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. Please email us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.
Data retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see below for further information.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Data we may hold about you:
- Clients: Name, organisation, registered address, telephone number, email address, VAT number, categories of service previously bought or might be of interest to you.
- Suppliers: Name, organisation, registered address, telephone number, email address, VAT number, bank details.
- Prospective clients / enquirers / e-newsletter registrants: Name, organisation, registered address, telephone number, email address, categories of service that might be of interest to you.
Your rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These include the right to:
- Request a copy of the personal data which we hold about you.
- Request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date.
- Request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary to retain such data.
- Object to the processing of your personal data where applicable, ie where processing is based on legitimate interests, direct marketing and processing for the purpose of scientific/historical research and statistics.
- Request a restriction is placed on further processing, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data.
- Request transfer of your personal data.
- Right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time, where consent was your lawful basis for processing the data.
You can see more about these rights at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up my response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take me longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints, please in the first instance contact us via email.
Cookies
Cookies are small amounts of information which we may store on your computer via your website browser. Unless you have indicated your objection when disclosing your details to us, our system will issue cookies to your computer when you visit our website. Cookies make it easier for you to use the site during future visits. They also allow us to monitor website traffic and to personalise the content of the site for you.
Cookies fall into a number of categories:
- Strictly necessary cookies, which are used in order to help the website function, deliver content in an effective way, and to enhance user experience. These cookies are deleted once you leave the website.
- Functionality cookies, which remembers your choice when opting in to accept cookies on your first visit. As administrators of this website, we also receive cookies to enable additional functionality during our sessions editing the site.
- Performance cookies, which provide us with information about visitor behaviour during their time on our website. The data enables us to further improve our website. Data is recorded to be anonymous. You are not individually identified during your time browsing our site. Such things recorded include time spent on the site, which pages were visited, etc. This site used Google Analytics (a free and commonly used tool) to record such information. You can read more about it on the official Google Analytics pages.
- Third party cookies, include links to our social media accounts, primarily Facebook. These cookies enable us to target occasional marketing content to our website visitors based upon the actions they take on our website. You can read more about how these cookies work via the main Facebook help facility.
You can disable cookies at any time.
By adjusting the settings on your browser you can opt to disable all or certain types of cookies. Please see your browser Help for how to do this. However, by disabling cookies your experience on our website, and others, may be adversely affected.
For more information about cookies and detailed guidance on how to disable them in your browser, visit www.aboutcookies.org.
Resources & Further Information
Overview of the GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation
Data Protection Act 1998
Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003
The Guide to the PECR 2003
Facebook Privacy Policy
Google Privacy Policy
Linkedin Privacy Policy (networking software)
Mailchimp Privacy Policy (email marketing software)
Kashflow Privacy Policy (accounting software)
May 2018 edited & customised by Down The Line Design & Marketing