Legal
Privacy policy
This explains what we do with personal information when you enquire, apply for a website, or simply read this site. It is written to be understood rather than to be impressive.
Who we are
FreeSiteCrew designs and builds websites for small businesses. For anything on this site and in our application process, FreeSiteCrew is the data controller, which means we decide what personal information is collected and what happens to it.
You can reach us about anything on this page at hello@freesitecrew.com.
What we collect
We collect three sorts of information, and only the first two involve you telling us anything.
When you enquire or apply
- Your name and the way you want to be contacted, usually an email address and sometimes a phone number.
- Your business name, what it does, and where it operates.
- Anything else you choose to send us, such as photographs, existing wording, or notes about what you want the site to do.
We also record the internet address the application was sent from. We keep it so that repeated or automated applications can be recognised and stopped, which is the only thing it is used for. An IP address identifies a connection rather than a person: an office or a mobile network can put many people behind a single one.
The application form lives on our client area at clients.freesitecrew.com. It is the same business and this policy covers it.
When you email us
We keep the correspondence, because we need it to answer you and to remember what was agreed.
When you read this site
Our host records ordinary technical information such as the address of the page requested, the time, and general details about the browser. This happens for every website and is needed to serve pages and keep the site secure. We do not use it to identify individuals.
We use Meta’s advertising pixel to tell whether an advert led to an enquiry, but only once you have agreed to marketing cookies. Until you agree, nothing is loaded and nothing is sent. The cookie policy lists exactly what gets set and how to change your mind.
Why, and our lawful basis
UK data protection law asks us to have a reason for using your information. Ours are these.
| What for | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Replying to your enquiry and discussing what you need | Taking steps at your request before entering a contract |
| Designing, building and launching your website | Performing our contract with you |
| Keeping records of what was agreed and delivered | Our legitimate interest in running the business properly |
| Keeping the site secure and working | Our legitimate interest in protecting the service |
| Recognising and stopping repeated or automated applications | Our legitimate interest in keeping the form usable |
| Answering you on live chat, if you open it | Taking steps at your request before entering a contract |
| Seeing when somebody is on the site so we can offer help, if you allow analytics | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Analytics and advertising measurement, if you allow it | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
Who we share it with
We do not sell your information and we do not pass it to anyone for their own marketing. We do rely on a small number of suppliers to run the business, and they process information on our behalf under contract.
- Our hosting and email providers, so that the site is served and your messages reach us.
- The people who build your site. Our designers and developers work across several countries, so your project information may be handled outside the UK. Where that happens we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place.
- Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, but only if you have agreed to marketing cookies. Its pixel tells us whether an advert led to an enquiry. Decline and nothing is sent to them.
- Crisp, who provide the live chat. If you allow analytics cookies, the chat loads with each page and Crisp can see that you are on the site. If you do not, nothing of yours reaches them unless you press the chat button. Either way they hold any conversation, and the session it belongs to, which records your IP address, on servers in the European Union.
- Anyone we are legally required to tell, which is rare and which we would resist where we properly could.
How long we keep it
Enquiries that do not turn into work are deleted within about a year. If we build your site, we keep the project records and correspondence for as long as we are working together and for six years afterwards, which is the ordinary period for business and tax records. You can ask us to delete anything sooner and we will unless we have a legal reason to keep it.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to do any of the following, free of charge, and we will respond within one month.
- Tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy.
- Correct anything wrong or incomplete.
- Delete it, where we have no continuing reason to keep it.
- Stop or limit what we do with it, including objecting to anything we do on the basis of legitimate interest.
- Withdraw consent you have given, such as for cookies, without that affecting anything done before you withdrew it.
- Receive it in a portable form so you can take it elsewhere.
Ask us at hello@freesitecrew.com and we will not make it difficult.
Cookies
Cookies and similar storage are covered separately in the cookie policy, which also explains how to change your choice. You can at any time.
Changes
If we change what we do with personal information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Where the change is significant we will say so plainly rather than hoping you do not notice.
Contact and complaints
Write to us at hello@freesitecrew.com about anything here, including a request to see or delete your information.
If you are not happy with how we have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator for data protection, at ico.org.uk. We would rather you came to us first so we can put it right.