Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

This Privacy Policy applies to Balston Compendium, an editorial publication operating from 57 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 1UL, United Kingdom. For the purposes of UK GDPR, Balston Compendium is the data controller for the personal information we collect through this website.

If you have any questions about how we handle your personal data, please contact us at [email protected].

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following categories of personal data:

• Contact information: Name, email address, and the content of any message submitted via our contact form.
• Technical data: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring URLs, pages visited, and time spent on the site. This data is collected automatically when you access the website.
• Cookie data: Data collected through the cookies described in our Cookie Policy, subject to your consent choices.

We do not collect sensitive personal data. We do not request or store information relating to health status, financial circumstances, or any other special category data as defined by UK GDPR.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:

• To respond to enquiries submitted through the contact form.
• To understand how visitors use the website, in order to improve the content and functioning of the site.
• To comply with applicable legal obligations.

We do not use personal data for automated decision-making or profiling. We do not sell personal data to third parties. We do not use personal data for direct marketing purposes.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

• Consent: For optional cookies and any newsletter correspondence, where you have explicitly provided consent.
• Legitimate interests: For the analysis of technical data to improve website functioning, where our legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Contractual necessity: For responding to contact form submissions.
• Legal obligation: Where we are required to retain or disclose data under applicable law.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by applicable law. Contact form enquiries are retained for a period of up to 24 months from the date of submission. Technical and analytics data is retained for up to 26 months. Consent records are retained for the duration of the consent and up to 36 months thereafter.

6. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right of access: To request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right of rectification: To request that inaccurate personal data be corrected.
• Right of erasure: To request deletion of your personal data, subject to legal retention obligations.
• Right to restrict processing: To request that we limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability: To receive your data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Right to object: To object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, to withdraw it at any time without affecting prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully.

7. Third-Party Services

The website may use third-party services for analytics and website functioning purposes. These services may set cookies or collect technical data as described in our Cookie Policy. We select third-party services that provide appropriate data protection commitments.

The contact page embeds a map from Google Maps. By viewing the contact page, your browser may send technical data to Google in accordance with Google's own privacy policies. We recommend reviewing Google's privacy documentation if you have concerns about this.

8. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page reflects the most recent update. Material changes will be noted on the website. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.