1. Who We Are

Hi, I’m Ceri Gwyther, CEO of ThistleBee Retreat. I am committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy.


If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how I handle your personal data, you can contact me at:

Email: thistelebee@tutamail.com

Address: C/O Welsh ICE, Ty Merlin, Caerphilly Business Park, Van Road, Caerphilly, CF83 3GS.

Phone: 07894549440


2. What This Privacy Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy explains how I collect, use, store and share personal data when you:

  • visit the website at www.thistlebeeretreat.co.uk

  • make an enquiry or contact us

  • purchase services from us

  • sign up to receive marketing communications

3. What Personal Data I Collect

Depending on how you interact with us, I may collect the following types of personal data:

  • Identity Data: such as your name.

  • Contact Data: such as your email address, phone number, and billing/delivery address.

  • Order / Transaction Data: such as details about services purchased, and order history (note: I generally do not store full payment card details, these are held by Stripe).

  • Technical Data: such as your IP address, browser type, device information, and website usage data (including via cookies).

  • Marketing Preferences: such as whether you have opted in/out of receiving marketing.

  • Data shown in the comments form.

4. How I Collect Your Personal Data

I may collect personal data from you when you:

  • enter information into forms on my website. When visitors leave comments on the site I collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

  • contact me by email, phone, or through my website

  • place an order for services

  • subscribe to the mailing list

  • use my website, including through cookies and analytics tools

I may also receive personal data from third parties or publicly available sources (for example, if you interact with my social media pages or if someone refers you to me). Where I collect personal data in this way, I will take reasonable steps to tell you about it as required by law.


5. How I Use Your Personal Data (And My Legal Bases)

I will only use your personal data where the law allows me to. Most commonly, I will use your personal data for the purposes set out below:

  • To respond to enquiries and communicate with you (legal basis: legitimate interests and/or steps taken at your request prior to entering into a contract).

  • To provide services you purchase from me (legal basis: performance of a contract).

  • To manage payments, fees and charges (legal basis: performance of a contract and/or legal obligation).

  • To improve the website and customer experience (legal basis: legitimate interests).

  • To send marketing communications (legal basis: consent and/or the “soft opt-in” where permitted by law and the conditions are met). You can opt out at any time.

  • To comply with legal obligations (legal basis: legal obligation), such as accounting and tax requirements.

6. Marketing

Where you have opted in (or where we are permitted to do so under applicable law), I may send you marketing communications by email and/or SMS about products, services, or offers.

You can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link in emails or by contacting me using the details above.


7. Cookies

The website may use cookies and similar technologies. Cookies help me understand how the website is used and improve your experience.


If you leave a comment on the site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.


If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.


When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select ‘Remember ME”, you login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.


If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

 

Some cookies (eg those that are not strictly necessary) may require your consent under PECR.


8. Who I Share Personal Data With

I may share your personal data with trusted third parties where needed to run my business, including:

  • website hosting and IT service providers. If you require a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

  • payment processors

  • booking, CRM, and email marketing providers

  • professional advisers such as accountants and insurers

  • An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

I require third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

 

9. International Transfers

Some of my service providers may store or access personal data outside the UK. Where I transfer your personal data overseas, I take steps to ensure it is protected in line with applicable data protection laws (for example, by relying on UK adequacy regulations or using appropriate contractual protections such as the IDTA or the UK Addendum).


10. Data Security

I take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data. However, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure.


11. How Long I Keep Your Personal Data

I keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes I collected it for, including to satisfy legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. This is usually for a maximum of 3 years.


If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so I can recognise and approve and follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a separate queue.


For users that register on the website, I also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.


In some cases, I may keep data for longer where required by law or where I need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.


12. Automated Decision-Making

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.


13. Your Legal Rights

Under UK data protection laws, you may have rights including:

  • the right to request access to your personal data

  • the right to request correction of inaccurate data

  • the right to request deletion of your personal data (in certain circumstances)

  • the right to object to processing (including direct marketing)

  • the right to withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing

  • the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data I hold about you, including any data you have provided to me. You can also request that I erase any personal data that I hold about you. This does not include any data I am obliged to keep for administrative, legal or security purposes.

If you would like to exercise your rights, please contact me using the details in section 1.


14. Changes To This Privacy Policy

I may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on the website and will apply from the “Last Updated” date above.


End of Privacy Policy

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