Privacy & Cookie Policy

The Design Trust understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your information is used and shared online. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits our site and will only collect and use information in ways that are useful to you and in a manner consistent with your rights and our obligations under the law.

This policy applies to our use of any and all data collected by us in relation to your use of our site. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of our site and accept this Privacy Policy. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using our site immediately.

The Design Trust may change this privacy policy from time to time by updating this page.  Please check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 1 September 2021.

Who we are

Our website www.thedesigntrust.co.uk is owned and operated by Dream Plan Do Limited trading as The Design Trust, a limited company registered in England under company number 13483496, whose registered address is 12 Reservoir Road, London N14 4BL, United Kingdom.

Our Data Protection Officer is: Patricia van den Akker who can be contacted at the above address or via email on [email protected]

what does this policy cover?

This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of our website. It does not extend to any websites that are linked to from our site (whether we provide those links or whether they are shared by other users). We have no control over how your data is collected, stored or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

what we collect

We collect the following information from our clients and participants of free webinars and events:

• your name and business name
• contact details including email address and sometimes phone numbers (for coaching purposes)
• geographical information such as postal address, postcode, country
• other information such as: job title, design discipline, startup date, preferences and interests

We collect the following information from our website visitors:

• IP address which are automatically collected
• web browser type and version which are automatically collected
• operating system which are automatically collected
• a list of URLs starting with a referring site, your browsing activity on our website, and the site you exit to which are all automatically collected.

If you leave a comment on our website:

• the data shown in the comments form
• the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

If you leave a comment on our 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.

An anonymized 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. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

If you are a member or an online course client and you upload images to our (private) online site then 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.

what Cookies do we use and what for?

• Our website may place and access certain first and third party cookies on your computer or device. First party cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us; third party cookies are placed by our software partners for analysation and marketing purposes. We use cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our site and to provide and improve our products and services. We have carefully chosen these cookies and have taken steps to ensure that your privacy is protected and respected at all times. All cookies used on our site are used in accordance with current English and EU Cookie Law.
• Before any cookies are placed on your computer or device you will be shown a prompt (e.g. a popup message or message bar) requesting your consent to set those cookies. By giving your consent to the placing of cookies you are enabling us to provide the best possible experience and service to you. You may, if you wish, deny consent to the placing of cookies; however certain features of our site may not function fully or as intended.
• Certain features of our site depend on cookies to function. UK and EU Cookie Law deems these cookies to be “strictly necessary”. These cookies are shown below. Your consent will not be sought to place these cookies. You may still block these cookies by changing your internet browser’s settings as detailed below, but please be aware that our site may not work as intended if you do so. We have taken great care to ensure that your privacy is not at risk by allowing them.
• Our Site uses analytics services provided by Google Analytics. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse usage statistics, enabling us to better understand how people use our site. This, in turn, enables us to improve our Site and the products and services offered through it. You do not have to allow us to use these cookies, as detailed below, however whilst our use of them does not pose any risk to your privacy or your safe use of our site, it does enable us to continually improve our site, making it a better and more useful experience for you.
• The analytics service(s) used by our site use(s) cookies to gather the required information. Certain of these cookies may be placed immediately when you first visit our website and it may not be possible for us to obtain your prior consent. You may remove these cookies and prevent future use of them by following the steps set out below.
• 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”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
• The following cookies may be placed on your computer or device:

• You can choose to enable or disable cookies in your internet browser. Most internet browsers also enable you to choose whether you wish to disable all cookies or only third party cookies. By default, most internet browsers accept cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser or the documentation that came with your device.
• You can choose to delete cookies at any time however you may lose any information that enables you to access our site more quickly and efficiently including, but not limited to, login and personalisation settings.
• It is recommended that you keep your internet browser and operating system up-to-date and that you consult the help and guidance provided by the developer of your internet browser and manufacturer of your computer or device if you are unsure about adjusting your privacy settings.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How do we use your data?

• All personal data is stored securely in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR). For more details on security see below.
• We use your data to provide the best possible products and services to you. This includes:
  • Providing and managing your account
  • Providing and managing your access to our site
  • Personalising and tailoring your experience on our site
  • Supplying our products and services to you
  • Personalising and tailoring our products and services for you
  • Responding to communications from you
  • Supplying you with email newsletters, alerts about upcoming online training or creative business support that you have subscribed to (you may unsubscribe or opt-out at any time by clicking on the link at the bottom of each of our emails)
  • Market research
  • Analysing your use of our site and gathering feedback to enable Us to continually improve our site and your user experience
• In some cases, the collection of data may be a statutory or contractual requirement, and we will be limited in the products and services. We can provide you without your consent for us to be able to use such data.
• With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your data for marketing purposes which may include contacting you by email and or post with information, news and offers on our products and services. We will not, however, send you any unsolicited marketing or spam and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that we fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, as amended in 2004, 2011 and 2015.
• Under GDPR we will ensure that your personal data is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, without adversely affecting your rights. We will only process your personal data if at least one of the following basis applies:
  1. You have given consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes;
  2. Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at the request of you prior to entering into a contract;
  3. Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject;
  4. Processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or of another natural person;
  5. Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller; and/or
  6. Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data.

Who do we share your data with?

• We do not share your data with any third parties. We do not sell your data or share it with our partners.
• We may compile statistics about the use of our site including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales and other information. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying information.
• In certain circumstances we may be legally required to share certain data held by us, which may include your personal information, for example, where we are involved in legal proceedings, where we are complying with the requirements of legislation, a court order, or a governmental authority. We do not require any further consent from you in order to share your data in such circumstances and will comply as required with any legally binding request that is made of u
• If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
• Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

How long & WHERE do we retain your data?

We only keep your data for as long as we need to in order to use it as described above and/or for as long as we have your permission to keep it. In any event, we will conduct an annual review to ascertain whether we need to keep your data. Your data will be deleted if we no longer need it in accordance with the terms of our Data Retention Policy.

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

For users that register on our website, we 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.

Our Data Retention Policies are: Your data will only be stored within the European Economic Area (“the EEA”) (The EEA consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).

How can you control your data?

When you submit information via our site, you may be given options to restrict our use of your data.

We aim to give you strong controls on our use of your data (including the ability to opt-out of receiving emails from us which you may do by unsubscribing using the links provided at the bottom of our emails.

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you.

This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

You have the legal right to ask for a copy of any of your personal data held by us (where such data is held). Please contact us for more details at [email protected] or write to us: Dream Plan Do Ltd trading as The Design Trust, 12 Reservoir Road, London N14 4BL, UK.

Your right to withhold information and your right to withdraw information after you have given it.

• You may access most areas of our site without providing any data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on our site you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data.
• You may restrict your internet browser’s use of Cookies. For more information, see below and our Cookie Policy.
• You may withdraw your consent for us to use your personal data at any time by contacting us by email on [email protected], and we will delete your data from our systems. However, you acknowledge this may limit our ability to provide the best possible products and services to you.

summary of your right under gdpr

Under the GDPR, you have:

• the right to request access to, deletion of or correction of, your personal data held by Us;
• the right to complain to a supervisory authority;
• be informed of what data processing is taking place;
• the right to restrict processing;
• the right to data portability;
• object to processing of your personal data;
• rights with respect to automated decision-making and profiling.

To enforce any of the foregoing rights or if you have any other questions about our site or this Privacy Policy, please contact us via email on [email protected]

contacting us

If you have any questions about our site or this Privacy Policy, please contact Patricia van den Akker,Director of The Design Trust, by email at [email protected]. Please ensure that your query is clear from the subject line, particularly if it is a request for information about the data we hold about you.

changes to our privacy policy

We may change this Privacy Policy as we may deem necessary from time to time, or as may be required by law. Any changes will be immediately posted on our site and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of our site following the alterations. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.

Patricia van den Akker – Director of The Design Trust September 2021