Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy Notice

The policy: This privacy policy notice is for this website; www.ruthsuttonauthor.co.uk and served by Ruth Sutton, 2 Lowther Street, Waberthwaite, Millom, LA19 5YN and governs the privacy of those who use it. The purpose of this policy is to explain to you how we control, process, handle and protect your personal information while browsing or using this website, including your rights under current laws and regulations. If you do not agree to the following policy you may wish to cease viewing / using this website.

Policy key definitions:

  • “I”, “our”, “us”, or “we” refer to the business, Ruth Sutton.
  • “you”, “the user” refer to the person(s) using this website.
  • GDPR means General Data Protection Act.
  • PECR means Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulation.
  • ICO means Information Commissioner’s Office.
  • Cookies mean small files stored on a users computer or device.

Processing of your personal data

Under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) we control and/or process any personal information about you electronically using the following lawful bases.

We are registered with the ICO under the Data Protection Register. No: ZA398180

• Lawful basis: Consent
The reason we use this basis: For marketing purposes, we will always request your consent before contacting you. You can unsubscribe from our newsletter and marketing emails anytime, by clicking on ‘Unsubscribe’ at the bottom of the email.
Data retention period: We will continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw consent or it is determined your consent no longer exists.
Sharing your information: We obtain minimum personal details from the form on our WordPress website. We store them in distribution lists on our GDPR compliant email marketing platform, which is only accessible by Ruth Sutton.

• Lawful basis: Legal obligation
The reason we use this basis: Common law requires us to keep financial records and some other details for a number of years, in case an unlikely dispute about our services is raised and for anti-fraud purposes.
Data retention period: For as long as the law requires.
Sharing your information: We do not share your information with third parties except our accountancy software, accountancy firm and, if requested, the Government bodies that may require access to this information.

• Lawful basis: Contract I
The reason we use this basis: When you request a quote from us or enter any kind of service agreement with us, we will process your personal information in order to provide you with the goods or services. Data we request may include contact information such as email, phone numbers, and address.  It may also include bank account numbers for royalty payments and login details for third-party platforms such as WordPress or Ingram Spark. It will also include graphic design files (see below.)
Data retention period: We shall continue to process your information until the contract between us ends or is terminated under any contract terms. Once the contract ends, your details will be processed using the legal obligation basis.
Sharing your information:  We may share your personal information with third parties and they include our GDPR compliant accounting software, our accountancy firm, integrated email services and selected UK based contractors who work for us on a regular basis.

• Lawful basis: Contract II
The reason we use this basis: When you contract us or enter any kind of service agreement with us to design a piece of work for you we will process your design brief in order to provide you with the goods or services required. These design files may include contact details, particularly in the case of stationery such as business cards, leaflets etc. Copyrighted work such as a manuscript or illustrations, plus images, logos and other design elements. The work we produce is backed up in a secure location and can on request to [email protected] be deleted on the understanding that if it is ever required again the full cost of a re-design will be required.

Data retention period: We shall continue to process your information until the contract between us ends or is terminated under any contract terms. Once the contract ends, your details will be processed using the legal obligation basis.
Sharing your information:  We may share your personal information with third parties and they include our GDPR compliant accounting software, our accountancy firm, integrated email services and selected UK based service providers such as illustrators, editors, and designers who work with us on a regular basis.

• Lawful basis: Legitimate interests
The reason we use this basis: If you are an existing business client we understand there is a legitimate interest on your part and ours for your details to be kept in our records for future business opportunities.
Data retention period: We will carry out a database refresh every 2 years, but you can request to be deleted anytime before that by contacting us at [email protected]
Sharing your information: We do share your personal information with third parties and they include UK based contractors who work for us on a regular basis and accountancy software wherever it is relevant.

If, as determined by us, the lawful basis upon which we process your personal information changes, we will notify you about the change and any new lawful basis to be used if required. We shall stop processing your personal information if the lawful basis used is no longer relevant.

Your individual rights

Under the GDPR your rights are as follows. You can read more about your rights in details here;

  • the right to be informed;
  • the right of access;
  • the right to rectification;
  • the right to erasure;
  • the right to restrict processing;
  • the right to data portability;
  • the right to object; and
  • the right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling.

You also have the right to complain to the ICO [www.ico.org.uk] if you feel there is a problem with the way we are handling your data.

We handle subject access requests in accordance with the GDPR.

Internet cookies

We use cookies on this website to provide you with a better user experience. We do this by placing a small text file on your device / computer hard drive to track how you use the website, to record or log whether you have seen particular messages that we display, to keep you logged into the website where applicable, to display relevant adverts or content, referred you to a third party website.

Some cookies are required to enjoy and use the full functionality of this website.

We use a cookie control system which allows you to accept the use of cookies and control which cookies are saved to your device/computer. Some cookies will be saved for specific time periods, where others may last indefinitely. Your web browser should provide you with the controls to manage and delete cookies from your device, please see your web browser options.

Cookies that we use are;

  • PHPSESSID: This cookie is used to store a simple message when a form is submitted that can be displayed on a different page. For example, if an enquiry form is completed incorrectly, a message will be stored and presented to the user to indicate the errors in the submission. When an enquiry form is submitted successfully, a message is stored and presented to the user thanking them for their enquiry. No personal information is stored in this cookie.
  • DYNSRV: This cookie is added by our load balancer to track which web server to send the visitor to. Its purpose is to improve the performance of the website.

Data security and protection

We ensure the security of any personal information we hold by using secure data storage technologies and precise procedures in how we store, access and manage that information. Our methods meet the GDPR compliance requirement.

Transparent Privacy Explanations

We have provided some further explanations about user privacy and the way we use this website to help promote a transparent and honest user privacy methodology.

Sponsored links, affiliate tracking & commissions

Our website may contain adverts, sponsored and affiliate links on some pages. These are typically served by our advertising partners; Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliates, Ingram Spark or are self-served through our own means. We only use trusted advertising partners who each have high standards of user privacy and security. However, we do not control the actual adverts seen/displayed by our advertising partners. Our ad partners may collect data and use cookies for ad personalisation and measurement. Where ad preferences are requested as ‘non-personalised’ cookies may still be used for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting and to combat fraud and abuse.

Clickable sponsored or affiliate links may be displayed as a website URL like this; www.ingramspark.com or as a titled text link like this: Ingram Spark

Clicking on any adverts, sponsored or affiliate links may track your actions by using a cookie saved to your device. You can read more about cookies on this website above. Your actions are usually recorded as a referral from our website by this cookie. In some cases, we earn a very small commission from the advertiser or advertising partner, at no cost to you, whether you make a purchase on their website or not.

We use advertising partners in these ways to help generate an income from the website, which allows us to continue our work and provide you with the best overall experience and valued information.

If you have any concerns about this we suggest you do not click on any adverts, sponsored or affiliate links found throughout the website.

Email marketing messages & subscription

Under the GDPR we use the consent lawful basis for anyone subscribing to our marketing mailing list. We only collect certain data about you, as detailed in the “Processing of your personal data” above. Any email marketing messages we send are done so through MailChimp, an EMS – email marketing service provider. An EMS is a third party service provider of software/applications that allows marketers to send out email marketing campaigns to a list of users.

Email marketing messages that we send 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 data such as; times, dates, I.P addresses, opens, clicks, forwards, geographic and demographic data. Such data, within its limitations, will show the activity each subscriber made for that email campaign.

Any email marketing messages we send are in accordance with the GDPR and the PECR. We provide you with an easy method to withdraw your consent (unsubscribe) or manage your preferences / the information we hold about you at any time. See any marketing messages for instructions on how to unsubscribe or manage your preferences, you can also unsubscribe from all MailChimp lists, by following this link, otherwise, contact the EMS provider.

Our EMS provider is; MailChimp. We hold the following information about you within our EMS system;

  • Name
  • Email address
  • I.P address
  • Subscription time & date

Resources & further information

Privacy Notice Policy Base: v.1 March 2020

Schedule an Event

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