Privacy notice

I build websites for local businesses, so I sometimes get in touch with a business first: an email, an Instagram message, a note through the door, or by calling in. Before I do, I look the business up. If you’ve heard from me, or yours is a business I’ve looked at, this is what I hold and why.

What and where from. Mostly what your business has made public: its name, address, phone number, website and category from its Google listing; for a company, its number, type and date of incorporation from the Companies House register; its Google rating, number of reviews and at most two general themes from them, never a quote or a reviewer’s name; and, from your own website, booking page or social profiles, read one page at a time, your services and price range, how you take bookings, roughly how many people do the work, whether you work from home or premises, whether you’re hiring, and a contact email if one is published there. I never guess an email address. If you have a website I check it (what’s on it and how fast it loads), and I note where and when I read each detail. Then there are my own notes: how I came across you, what I think a website could do for you, a score I use to decide who to contact first, what I sent, and anything you tell me, such as what you’d want, the budget you have in mind and any price I quote.

Why. To offer you a website, which is in my legitimate interests as a small business finding customers; to remember that I’ve been in touch, so I don’t pester you; and to learn what businesses like yours want and would pay, so my prices are fair.

How long. I delete your business’s details 12 months after I last contacted you, or 12 months after I looked you up if I never did. If you agree to work with me, “If you hire me” applies instead. What you told me about budget, what you wanted and how you took a price is kept after that with your name and contact details removed, as a record of what businesses ask for. You can ask me to delete everything sooner, and I will.

Your right to say no. You can object to direct marketing at any time. It’s absolute: no reason needed, and I stop. Reply “no” to any message, or email graeme@studiogmr.co.uk, and I won’t contact you again by any channel. So that it sticks, I keep a do-not-contact list holding only what I need to recognise you again: your business name and postcode, the email, phone, Instagram and website I had for you, and when and how you told me. That list is kept for good, because deleting it is how someone gets contacted twice.