PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Hostology Limited’s privacy and cookie policy.

Hostology Limited respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This policy will inform you as to how we collect, process and look after your personal data when you use our website at https://www.hostology.co.uk and any associated application or platform (collectively our “Site”) and the services we provide via our Site (including the data you provide if you sign up for an account with us or purchase a subscription from us). It will also explain how cookies are used on our Site. We will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a manner that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

Our Site is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

It is important that you read this policy together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them. If you are using our Site, your acceptance of this policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of the Site and you will be required to read and accept this policy when signing up for an account.

1. Who We Are

• 1.1 Our Site is operated by Hostology Limited, a limited company registered in England and Wales under 11194592, and whose trading address is at Britannia House, 1-11 Glenthorne Road, London W6 0LH (“we/us/our”).
• 1.2 This policy applies where we are acting as a data controller with respect to the personal data of our Site visitors and registered users; in other words, where we determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.
• 1.3 Our Data Protection Officer is Emma Hardcastle and they are responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this policy. If you have any questions about this policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the DPO using the details set out in section 10 below.

2. What This Policy Covers

• 2.1 Personal data, or personal information, means any information about a living individual from which that person can be identified (directly or indirectly). This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
• 2.2 Our Site may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit before submitting any personal data to third parties.
• 2.3 If you give us information on behalf of someone else, you confirm that the other person has appointed you to act on their behalf and has agreed that you can give consent on his/her behalf to the processing of their data and receive on their behalf any data protection notice.

3. What Personal Data Do We Collect?

• 3.1 Depending upon your use of our Site and/or our services, we may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:



Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, business/company name, marital status, title, profession, date of birth and gender.

Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.

Financial Data includes credit card details.

Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of subscriptions you have purchased from us.

Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this Site.

Profile and Event Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, details about any event you add to your account, and data about your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.

Enquiry and Correspondence Data includes information contained in any enquiry you submit to us or contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us regarding our Site or services.

Publication Data includes information that you post for publication on our Site or through our services.

Account Data includes any information you provide when you register an account with us. The source of the account data may be you, or the person or organisation who referred you.

Usage Data includes information about how you use our Site and services.

Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

• 3.2 We may process what the GDPR refers to as “special category data” provided during your use of our services. This data may include details about your health by reference to information you provide relating to any special dietary requirements. The legal basis for this processing is that it is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interest pursued by other users (namely venues, hosts and suppliers), being that it is necessary for medical diagnosis and to prevent and manage any health hazards or allergic reactions at venues and events.
• 3.3 Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may have to cancel a subscription/service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

4. How Is Your Personal Data Collected?

• 4.1 We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:



4.1.1 Direct interactions. You may give us your identity, contact and financial data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you purchase a subscription, create an account on our Site, request marketing to be sent to you, enter a competition, promotion or survey, give us feedback or contact us.

4.1.2 Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our Site, we will automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. We may also receive technical data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see section 9 below for further details.

4.1.3 Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:

• analytics providers such as Google Analytics;
• search information providers such as Google.
• We may receive contact, financial and transaction data from providers of technical and payment services such as Stripe.

5. How Do We Use Your Data?

• 5.1 We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
• 5.2 Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us or by opting out in your account or via links on any marketing message sent to you.
• 5.3 Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in this policy.
• 5..4 Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us (see section 10 below).
• 5.5 Specifically, we may use your data for the following purposes:
• To register you as a new customer and manage your account (on the basis of performance of a contract with you);
• To contact potential new users to invite them to subscribe to our Site, collecting their name and email address from existing users where existing users also confirm that potential new users have consented to their data being disclosed to us and processed by us in this way. If we collect your data from our existing users, we will contact you as soon as possible and in any case within 30 days to tell you about how we obtained your data, our identity, providing a link to this Policy, giving you an opportunity to opt-out from our further communications and asking you to provide your consent for us to process your data further, such as by subscribing for an account on our Site and/or giving us your permission to use your data for marketing purposes. If you do not subscribe for an account with our Site or do not give your consent to the use of your data by us for marketing purposes within 180 days, or if you opt-out, we will delete your data;
• To process and deliver your order, including managing payments and collecting money owed to us (on the basis of performance of a contract with you and it being necessary for our legitimate interests);
• To supply our services to you and manage our relationship with you, including notifying you about changes to our terms or policies and asking you to leave a review or take a survey (on the basis of performance of a contract with you, complying with our legal obligations, and it being necessary for our legitimate interests);
• To administer and protect our business and this Site, including enforcing our contracts and policies, investigating complaints and preventing illegal activity (being necessary to comply with a legal obligation and for our legitimate interests (for example for running our business, providing administration and IT services and network security));
• To deliver relevant Site content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you (being necessary to comply with a legal obligation and for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy));
• To use data analytics to improve our Site, services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences (being necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our services, to keep our Site updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)); and
• To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you (being necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our business)).
• 5.7 We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We may use your personal data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing). You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us and you have not opted out of receiving that marketing. We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.
• 5.8 You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, product/service experience or other transactions (i.e. service emails).
• 5.9 We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us (see section 10 below). If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

6. Disclosure of Your Personal Data

• 6.1 We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out above:
• External Third Parties, namely:
• Service providers, including Microsoft Azure and MailChimp, who provide IT, system administration and back-up services and automated email services;
• Payment providers, namely Stripe, who provides payment processing services on our behalf;
• Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services; and
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this policy.
• 6.2 In some limited circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain personal data, which might include yours, if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.
• 6.3 We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions and the law.

7. How, Where and For How Long Do We Store Your Data?

• 7.1 We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). We have our office in the United Kingdom. The hosting facilities for our Site are situated in the United Kingdom.
• 7.2 You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through our Site or services may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.
• 7.3 Data security is very important to us, and to protect your data we have put in place suitable security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
• 7.4 We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
• 7.5 We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
• 7.6 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, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
• 7.7 We will generally retain your personal data for 18 months, to cover the average duration of an event. Notwithstanding this, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
• 7.8 In some circumstances we will 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.

8. Your Legal Rights

• 8.1 Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:
• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a \"data subject access request\"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
  • If you want us to establish the data's accuracy;
  • Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
  • Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
  • You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
• Rights with respect to automated decision making and profiling. (We do not use your personal data in this way.
• 8.2 If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact 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 could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
• 8.3 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 our response.
• 8.4 We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us 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.
• 8.5 If you require any information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us using the details provided in section 10. Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau. If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact us using the details provided in section 10 and we will do our best to solve the problem for you. If we are unable to help, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

9. Cookies

• 9.1 A cookie is a small data file of letters and numbers that most website operators place on their users’ computers device. Cookies may gather information about your use of the Site or enable the Site to recognise you as an existing customer when you return at a later date. They may also be used to collect information about you which allows us or a third party to create a profile of the user, and your preferences for the purpose of serving you with targeted, interest-based advertising.
• 9.2 We store cookies on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. Our Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse and also allows us to improve our Site.
• 9.3 Before cookies are placed on your computer or device, you will be shown a pop-up message requesting your consent to set those Cookies. By giving your consent to the placing of cookies you are enabling us to provide the best possible experience and service to you. If you use this Site after this notification has been displayed to you, we will assume that you consent to our use of cookies for the purposes described in this policy.
• 9.4 By default, most internet browsers accept cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser or the documentation that came with your device. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this Site may become inaccessible or not function properly. You can also choose to delete cookies on your computer or device at any time, however you may lose any information that enables you to access our Site more quickly and efficiently including, but not limited to, login and personalisation settings.
• 9.5 Our Site may place and access certain first party cookies on your computer or device. First party cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us. We use cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our Site and to provide and improve our services. We have carefully chosen these cookies and have taken steps to ensure that your privacy and personal data is protected and respected at all times.
• 9.6 'Session cookies' allow us to track your actions during a single browsing session, but they do not remain on your device afterwards. 'Persistent cookies' remain on your device between sessions. We use them to authenticate you and to remember your preferences. We can also use them to balance the load on our servers and improve your experience on our Site.
• 9.7 We use the following cookies:
• Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website or make use of e-billing services.
• Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
• Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our Site. This enables us to personalise our content for you and remember your preferences.
• Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our Site and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
• 9.8 Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. By using our Site you may also receive certain third party Cookies on your computer or device. Third party Cookies are used on our Site for Google analytics. These Cookies are not integral to the functioning of our Site and your use and experience of our Site will not be impaired by refusing consent to them. If you want further information please go to the website for the relevant third party.
• 9.9 Advertisements appearing on our Site may be delivered to you by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile non personal identification information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows advertising networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This cookie policy does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.
• 9.10 Our Site uses analytics services provided by Google Analytics. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse anonymous usage information, enabling us to better understand how our Site is used. This, in turn, enables us to improve our Site and the products and services offered through it. You do not have to allow us to use these cookies, however whilst our use of them does not pose any risk to your privacy or your safe use of our Site, it does enable us to continually improve our Site, making it a better and more useful experience for you.
• 9.11 We only use essential cookies.
• 9.12 You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

10. Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at support@hostology.co.uk or write to us at Britannia house, 1-11 Glenthorne Road, London W6 0LH. Please ensure that your query is clear, particularly if it is a request for information about the data we hold about you (as under section 8 above).

11. Changes to Our Privacy and Cookie Policy

We keep our privacy and cookie policy under regular review. We may change this policy from time to time (for example, if the law changes or if we change our business in a way that affects personal data protection). Any changes will be made available and notified by pop up on our website. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.