Privacy policy
This policy explains what personal information Obsid Studio collects, why, and what your rights are. We keep it short because we collect very little: there are no cookies and no advertising trackers on this website.
Who we are
Obsid Studio is a web design business run by a sole trader in the United Kingdom. We are the controller of the personal information described here. You can contact us about anything in this policy at obsidstudio.hq@gmail.com.
What we collect
When you get in touch
If you email us, or use the enquiry form, we receive your name, your email address, your phone number if you give it, and whatever you choose to tell us, such as your business name, what you need and your message.
When you send the enquiry form, what you typed comes to us as an email. It passes through Cloudflare, which hosts this website, to our email inbox with Google (Gmail). If the form can't send for any reason, it offers to open your email app instead, with your message filled in, and you decide whether to send it.
When you visit the website
Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes technical information that every website needs in order to load and stay secure, such as your IP address, your browser type and the pages you request. We don't use this to identify you.
We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, so we can see how many people visit, which pages they look at, roughly where in the world they are and which site sent them. It doesn't use cookies or store anything on your device, and it doesn't follow you across other websites. We only ever see totals, never individual visitors.
If you become a client
We keep the details we need to do the work and to bill you: your name, business name and contact details, what we've agreed, our correspondence, and a record of your payments. We send an invoice each month and you pay by bank transfer, so we only see what appears on our bank statement: the name on the paying account and your payment reference. We never ask for your card details or access to your bank account.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
- To reply to your enquiry and give you a quote. This is a step you've asked us to take before entering a contract, and in our legitimate interest in answering people who contact us.
- To do the work you hire us for and to invoice you. This is necessary for our contract with you.
- To keep business and tax records. This is a legal obligation.
- To keep the website running and secure. This is in our legitimate interest, and the information involved is limited to what's technically needed.
- To understand how many people visit and which pages help them. This is in our legitimate interest in improving the website, and we only see totals.
We will never sell your information, and we won't add you to a mailing list unless you ask us to.
Who we share it with
Only the services that help us run the business, and only what each one needs:
- Cloudflare, which hosts this website.
- Google, which provides our email (Gmail).
- Our bank, which receives the payments you send us.
- Our accountant, for client billing records.
We will also share information if the law requires us to.
Some of these services may process information outside the UK. When that happens, it is protected by safeguards UK data protection law recognises, such as UK adequacy regulations or the ICO's international data transfer agreement.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries that don't lead to work: deleted within 12 months of our last contact.
- Client records: for as long as we work together, then as long as tax law requires (at least five years after the relevant Self Assessment deadline), after which we delete them.
- Technical information processed by Cloudflare: kept by Cloudflare under its own privacy policy, for security and to run the service.
Cookies and your device
This website doesn't use cookies. Our visit counting doesn't use them either, and nothing is stored on your device.
The examples of our work under Work are copies hosted on this website, with no cookies or tracking. Some contain links to other websites, such as maps or delivery apps. Those sites have their own privacy policies.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- correct anything that's wrong or incomplete;
- delete your information;
- restrict how we use it, or object to us using it;
- give you your information in a format you can take elsewhere.
Some of these rights depend on the reason we hold the information. For example, we can't delete records the law requires us to keep. Email obsidstudio.hq@gmail.com and we'll reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle personal information, we'll update this page and the date at the top.