Website privacy notice

We are HyperText Strategies, a sole trader established in England and Wales. In this privacy notice we will refer to ourselves as "we", "us" or "our". We are the Data Controller of the Personal Information we collect, hold, and use about you, as explained in this notice.

You can contact us by emailing us at [email protected].

We take the privacy, including the security, of Personal Information we hold about you seriously. This privacy notice tells you how we collect Personal Information about you and how we use that Personal Information. You should read this privacy notice carefully so that you know and can understand why and how we use the Personal Information we collect and hold about you.

We are not required to appoint a data protection officer. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or any issues arising from it, please contact us by emailing [email protected].

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. This version was last updated on 3 November 2026.

1. Key definitions

1. The key terms used in this privacy notice are defined below, for ease:
2. Data Controller: the organisation or person responsible for deciding how Personal Information is collected, stored and used.
3. Data Processor: a Data Controller may appoint another organisation or person to carry out certain tasks on its behalf in relation to the Personal Information. (This may include hosting of a site containing Personal Information, for example, or providing an email marketing service that facilitates mass distribution of marketing material to a Data Controller’s customer base).
4. Personal Information: any information from which a living individual can be identified. It does not apply to information that has been anonymised.
5. Special Information: certain very sensitive Personal Information requires extra protection under data protection law. Sensitive data includes information relating to health, racial and ethnic origin, political opinions, religious and similar beliefs, trade union membership, sex life, and sexual orientation. It also includes genetic information and biometric information.

2. Details of Personal Information that we collect and hold about you

1. Set out in the table below are the general categories and details of retention periods in relation to those categories and, in each case, the types of Personal Information that we collect, use, and hold about you.

   General categories of Personal Information, the types of information in each category, and retention periods

   General category	Types of Personal Information in that category	Retention periods
   Identity information	Your name and, where you provide it, your job title and the name of the business you represent.	24 months from our last contact with you, or 6 years from the end of any contract between us.
   Contact information	Your email address, and any telephone number or business address you provide.	As above.
   Enquiry information	The content of any message you send us through our website contact form or by email, and any notes we make about your enquiry or requirements.	As above.
   Business and contact information about potential clients	Where we identify a business we believe may benefit from our services, we hold information about that business and, where it is publicly available, about its directors. This includes the company name and number, registered office address, the nature of the business, the name of a director, and a business email address. We also hold notes about our contact with them and any messages we have sent.	12 months from when we first record the business, if we have not contacted them. 24 months from our last contact with them, if we have. Records of anyone who has asked not to be contacted are kept indefinitely so that we can honour that request.
   Website, device and technical information	This is information about your use of our website and technical data which we collect (including your IP address, the type of browser you are using and the version, the operating system you are using, details about the time zone and location settings on the device, and other information we receive about your device). This information is collected automatically by our website hosting provider as part of operating and securing the website.	12 months.

2. We will only hold your Personal Information for as long as is necessary. How long is necessary will depend upon the purposes for which we collected the Personal Information and whether we are under any legal obligation to keep the Personal Information (for example, in relation to accounting or auditing records, or for tax reasons). We may also need to keep Personal Information in case of any legal claims relating to the services we have provided.
3. The types of Personal Information we collect about you may differ from person to person, depending on who you are and the relationship between us.
4. Where we obtain information from other sources. Most of the information we hold comes from you. Where we identify a business we believe may benefit from our services, we obtain information from the following sources:
   1. the Companies House public register, which is published by law and freely available to anyone;
   2. publicly available business listings and the business’s own website;
   3. in some cases, a third party business contact data provider.
5. Where we contact you using information obtained in this way, we will tell you at the point of first contact where we obtained your details and provide a link to this notice.
6. We rely on our legitimate interests to process this information, being our interest in identifying and approaching businesses that may benefit from our services. We have considered the impact on you of doing so. We only process information relating to your business role and we do not seek personal contact details. You have the right to object to this processing at any time, and if you do we will stop contacting you. To do so, email [email protected] or [email protected].

3. Details of Special Information that we collect and hold about you

1. Special Information is explained in Section 1 above. We do not collect or hold any Special Information about you.
2. We do not collect information from you relating to criminal convictions or offences.

4. Details of how and why we use Personal Information

1. We are only able to use your Personal Information for certain legal reasons set out in data protection law. There are legal reasons under data protection law other than those listed below; but, in most cases, we will use your personal information for the following legal reasons:
   1. Contract Reason: this is in order to perform our obligations to you under a contract we have entered into with you;
   2. Legitimate Interests Reason: this is where the use of your Personal Information is necessary for our (or a third party’s) legitimate interests, so long as that legitimate interest does not override your fundamental rights, freedoms, or interests;
   3. Legal Obligation Reason: this is where we have to use your Personal Information in order to perform a legal obligation by which we are bound; and
   4. Consent Reason: this is where you have given us your consent to use your Personal Information for a specific reason or specific reasons.
2. So that we are able to provide you with our services, we will need your Personal Information. If you do not provide us with the required Personal Information, we may be prevented from supplying our services to you.
3. It is important that you keep your Personal Information up to date. If any of your Personal Information changes, please contact us as soon as possible to let us know. If you do not contact us to keep your information updated, we may be prevented from supplying our services to you.
4. Where we rely on consent for a specific purpose as the legal reason for processing your Personal Information, you have the right under data protection law to withdraw your consent at any time. If you wish to withdraw your consent, please contact us using the details set out at the beginning of this notice. If we receive a request from you withdrawing your consent to a specific purpose, we will stop processing your Personal Information for that purpose unless we have another legal reason for processing your Personal Information, in which case we will confirm that reason to you.
5. We explain in the table below the different purposes for which we use your Personal Information and, in each case, the legal reason(s) allowing us to use your Personal Information. Please also note the following:
   1. if we use the Legitimate Interests Reason as the legal reason for which we can use your Personal Information, we have also explained what that legitimate interest is; and
   2. for some of the purposes, we may have listed more than one legal reason on which we can use your Personal Information, because the legal reason may be different in different circumstances. If you need confirmation of the specific legal reason that we are relying on to use your personal data for that purpose, please contact us using the contact details set out at the start of this privacy notice.

   The purposes for which we use Personal Information and the legal reason for each

   Purpose	Legal reason(s) for using the Personal Information
   To respond to an enquiry you make through our website or by email, and to discuss your requirements	Legitimate Interests Reason (to respond to people who approach us about our services and to develop our business)
   To prepare a proposal, statement of work or quotation for you	Legitimate Interests Reason (to take steps towards entering into a contract with you)
   To deliver the services set out in our agreement with you, to communicate with you about that work, and to notify you of any changes	Contract Reason
   To invoice you and to take payment, including any action to recover unpaid sums	Contract Reason; Legitimate Interests Reason (to recover money owed to us)
   To comply with audit, accounting and tax obligations	Legal Obligation Reason
   To keep records of the work we have carried out and of our dealings with you	Contract Reason; Legal Obligation Reason; Legitimate Interests Reason (to establish, exercise or defend legal claims)
   To identify businesses that we believe may benefit from our services, and to contact them by post or by email. More detail about this is set out in section 2.4 above.	Legitimate Interests Reason (to identify and approach potential clients in order to grow our business)
   To keep a record of anyone who has asked us not to contact them, so that we can honour that request	Legal Obligation Reason; Legitimate Interests Reason (to ensure we do not contact people who have objected)
   To improve the services that we supply	Legitimate Interests Reason (to improve our services for future clients and to grow our business)
   To ensure the smooth running and correct operation of our website	Legitimate Interests Reason (to ensure our website runs correctly and securely)
   To understand how visitors use our website through data analysis	Legitimate Interests Reason (to improve our website and to understand what visitors are looking for)

6. Sometimes we may anonymise information you provide to us so that you can no longer be identified from it, and use this for our own purposes. In addition, sometimes we may use some of the information you provide to us together with other people’s information to give us statistical data for our own purposes. Because this is grouped together with other information and you are not identifiable from that combined data, we are able to use this data for any purpose.
7. Under data protection law, we can only use your Personal Information for the purposes we have told you about unless we consider that the new purpose is compatible with the purpose(s) we told you about. If we want to use your Personal Information for a different purpose that we do not think is compatible with the purpose(s) we told you about, we will contact you to explain this and provide you with a supplementary privacy notice.

5. Details of how we collect Personal Information

1. We usually collect identity information, contact information and enquiry information directly from you when you contact us through our website contact form, by email, by telephone, or in writing.
2. We may receive some of your Personal Information from third parties or publicly available sources. This includes:
   1. company and director information from the Companies House public register, which is published by law and freely available to anyone;
   2. business information from publicly available business listings, including Google Maps;
   3. business information published on the business’s own website;
   4. business contact information from a third party business contact data provider. We ask that provider only for business contact details, not personal ones.
3. We do not use cookies on our website. Our cookie policy, available at hypertextstrategies.co.uk/cookies, explains this in more detail.

6. Details about who Personal Information may be shared with

1. We may need to share your Personal Information with other organisations. We do not have a group of companies, so we do not share your Personal Information within a group. The organisations we share it with are:
   1. our technology suppliers, who provide the services we use to run our business. These are Supabase (database and hosting), Cloudflare (website hosting and infrastructure), Resend (email delivery), Zoho (email), Anthropic (artificial intelligence services used to help us prepare our communications) and Apollo (business contact data). Some of these providers are located outside the United Kingdom. More detail is set out in section 7 below;
   2. government bodies and regulatory bodies, such as HMRC, based in the United Kingdom;
   3. our advisers, such as our accountant, our insurers and, where necessary, our legal advisers, all based in the United Kingdom;
   4. our bank, based in the United Kingdom;
   5. any organisation that proposes to purchase our business and assets, in which case we may disclose your Personal Information to that potential purchaser.
2. We do not sell or trade any of the Personal Information that you have provided to us.
3. Depending on the circumstances, the organisations or people who we share your Personal Information with will be acting as either Data Processors or Data Controllers. Where we share your Personal Information with a Data Processor, we will ensure that we have in place contracts that set out the responsibilities and obligations of us and them, including in respect of security of Personal Information.

7. Details about transfers to countries outside of the UK

1. Some of the organisations with which we share your Personal Information may be located outside the UK. This may involve transferring your Personal Information outside the UK.
2. Where we transfer your Personal Information outside the UK, we will ensure that the transfer is made in accordance with data protection law. We will usually do this by:
   1. transferring the Personal Information to a country, territory or organisation covered by UK adequacy regulations;
   2. putting in place an appropriate safeguard, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses; or
   3. relying on another lawful transfer mechanism or an applicable exception under data protection law.
3. Where required, we will assess whether the Personal Information will receive an appropriate level of protection after it has been transferred and put additional protections in place.
4. You can contact us using the details set out at the beginning of this privacy notice if you would like more information about the safeguards used for a particular transfer.

8. Automated decision-making

1. ‘Automated decision making’ is where a decision is automatically made without any human involvement. Under data protection laws, this includes profiling. ‘Profiling’ is the automated processing of Personal Information to evaluate or analyse certain personal aspects of a person (such as their behaviour, characteristics, interests and preferences).
2. Data protection laws place restrictions upon us if we carry out any automated decision-making (including profiling) that produces a legal effect or similarly significant effect on you.
3. We do not carry out any automated decision making (including profiling) that produces a legal effect or similarly significant effect on you. If we decide to do this, we will notify you and we will inform you of the legal reason we are able to do this.
4. Where we identify businesses that may benefit from our services, we use automated tools to help us assess which businesses to approach and to help us prepare our communications. This does not produce any legal effect or similarly significant effect on you, and no decision is taken about you personally. A person always reviews and decides whether to send any communication.

9. Security of your Personal Information

1. We take the security of your Personal Information seriously. The information we hold is stored in access-controlled systems provided by established technology suppliers, is encrypted in transit and at rest, and is accessible only to us. We review the measures we have in place from time to time.
2. If a personal data breach occurs and it is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will report it to the Information Commissioner’s Office and, where required, tell you.

10. Your rights under data protection law

1. Under data protection laws you have certain rights in relation to your Personal Information, as follows:
   1. Right to request access: (this is often called ‘subject access’). This is the right to obtain from us a copy of the Personal Information that we hold about you. We must also provide you with certain other information in response to these requests to help you understand how your Personal Information is being used.
   2. Right to correction: this is the right to request that any incorrect Personal Information is corrected and that any incomplete Personal Information is completed.
   3. Right to erasure: (this is often called the ‘right to be forgotten’). This right only applies in certain circumstances. Where it does apply, you have the right to request that we erase all of your Personal Information.
   4. Right to restrict processing: this right only applies in certain circumstances. Where it applies, you have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your Personal Information.
   5. Right to data portability: this right allows you to request that we transfer your Personal Information to someone else.
   6. Right to object: you have the right to object to us processing your Personal Information for direct marketing purposes. You also have the right to object to us processing Personal Information where our legal reason for doing so is the Legitimate Interests Reason (see Section 4 above) and there is something about your particular situation that means that you want to object to us processing your Personal Information. In certain circumstances you have the right to object to processing where such processing consists of profiling (including profiling for direct marketing).
2. In addition to the rights set out above, where we rely on consent as the legal reason for using your Personal Information, you have the right to withdraw your consent. Further details about this are set out in Section 4.
3. If you want to exercise any of the above rights in relation to your Personal Information, please contact us using the details set out at the beginning of this notice. If you make a request, please note:
   1. we may need certain information from you so that we can verify your identity;
   2. we do not charge a fee for exercising your rights unless your request is unfounded or excessive; and
   3. if your request is unfounded or excessive, we may refuse to deal with your request.

11. Marketing

1. We may contact businesses that we believe may benefit from our services, by post or by email. We do so on the basis of our legitimate interests. More detail about where we obtain those details is set out in section 2.4 above.
2. You can ask us to stop contacting you at any time. Every email we send includes an address you can write to in order to opt out, and we will act on any such request. You can also contact us at any time using the details set out at the beginning of this notice.
3. If you ask us to stop contacting you for marketing purposes, this will not prevent us from sending you communications relating to any services we are providing to you under a contract between us.
4. We do not pass your Personal Information on to any third parties for marketing purposes.

12. Complaints

1. If you are unhappy about how we have collected, handled, or used your Personal Information, you can make a complaint to us using the contact details set out at the beginning of this privacy notice. You do not have to use a particular form or contact method to make a complaint.
2. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it. We will investigate your complaint, keep you informed about its progress and tell you the outcome, in each case without undue delay.
3. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection matters. You can find information about how to make a complaint and the ICO’s current contact details on the ICO’s website at ico.org.uk.
4. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your concerns first, but you are not required to contact us before making a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

13. Third-party websites

1. Our website may contain links to third-party websites. If you click and follow those links, they will take you to the third-party website. Those third-party websites may collect Personal Information from you, and you will need to check their privacy notices to understand how your Personal Information is collected and used by them.