Privacy Policy

This document constitutes the privacy policy for Jo Higgs Creative (“we”, “us”, “our”). We are a sole trader based in the United Kingdom. Our correspondence address is 1 Link Road, Northgate End, Bishops Stortford, CM23 2ES, UK.

Policy Overview

This policy elucidates our practices regarding all data, identifiable and non-identifiable, that we obtain from you or that you submit to us. It provides the terms under which we may handle any such information. As per legal terminologies and within the context of this policy, “processing” pertains to the collection, storage, transfer, or utilization of information.

Please note, if you have reservations about any of the points outlined below, we advise you to discontinue the use of our website forthwith.

We accord the utmost importance to safeguarding your privacy and ensuring confidentiality. It is our understanding that all visitors to our website reserve the right to the assurance that their personal data will neither be employed for any purpose unbeknownst to them nor inadvertently be made accessible to a third party.

We are committed to maintaining the secrecy of all data that you share with us and trust that you will reciprocate this principle.

Our policy is in compliance with the laws of the United Kingdom, inclusive of those prescribed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

In accordance with legal requirements, we must inform you of your rights and our obligations concerning the processing and management of your personal data. To this end, we direct you to peruse the information available at www.knowyourprivacyrights.org.

Unless otherwise specified herein, rest assured that we neither disseminate nor trade nor disclose to any third party any information collated through our website.

Legal Basis for Processing Your Information

We are obligated by law to ascertain and disclose the specific legal grounds upon which we process different types of your personal data. If a certain legal basis ceases to be pertinent, we shall forthwith discontinue the processing of your data. If such a basis alters, we shall, if necessitated by law, inform you of the modification and the new basis that allows us to continue processing your information.

Contractually Obligated Information Processing

When you establish an account on our website, purchase a product or service, or otherwise consent to our terms and conditions, a contractual agreement is formed between you and us.

To fulfil our obligations under this contract, we must process the data you provide us, which may comprise personal information.

We may employ this data to:

Authenticate your identity for security reasons.
Sell products or services to you.
Deliver our services to you.
Offer you suggestions and guidance on products, services, and optimising our website usage.

We process this information on the grounds of the existence of a contract between us, or that you have asked us to use the information prior to entering into a formal contract.

Moreover, we may compile this information in a broad manner and utilise it to produce generalised data, such as to monitor our performance regarding a specific service we offer. If we utilise it for this purpose, you will not be identifiable as an individual.

We will continue to process this information until the contract between us is concluded or rescinded by either party under the contract’s terms.

Processing of Information with Your Consent

In certain instances where no contractual relationship exists between us, such as during your navigation of our website or when you request more details about our business, products, and services, you may provide us with your consent to process potentially personal data.

Where feasible, our aim is to obtain your explicit consent for this processing, for instance, by asking you to consent to our use of cookies.

At times, you might implicitly provide your consent, such as when you dispatch an email to us and reasonably anticipate a response.

Except where you have granted consent for a specific purpose, we do not utilise your data in a manner that would personally identify you. We may compile this information in a general format and use it to provide aggregate information, such as to monitor the performance of a specific page on our website.

If you have explicitly permitted us to do so, we may occasionally share your name and contact details with selected associates that we deem may offer services or products of interest to you.

We continue to process your data based on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it is reasonably assumed that your consent has expired.

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by instructing us at design@joannehiggs.co.uk. However, doing so may render you unable to access our website or services thereafter.

Your Data-Subject Rights

Under the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, you have the following rights:

Right of Access – You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to Rectification – You can ask us to correct or update any inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”) – You can request that we delete your personal data where there is no lawful reason for us to keep it.
Right to Restrict Processing – You can ask us to suspend processing of your personal data in certain circumstances (e.g., if you contest its accuracy).
Right to Data Portability – You can request a machine-readable copy of your personal data for transfer to another organization.
Right to Object – You can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests, or to direct marketing at any time.
Right to Withdraw Consent – Where we process your personal data based solely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at design@joannehiggs.co.uk. We will verify your identity and respond within 30 days (or, if necessary, notify you of any extension).

Processing of Information for Legitimate Interests

We may process data if there exists a legitimate interest for you or us to do so.

When processing your data on this basis, we carefully consider:

Whether the same objective could be achieved via other means.
The potential harm caused by processing or not processing your data.
Whether you would anticipate us processing your data and whether you would, overall, consider it reasonable for us to do so.

For instance, we may process your data on this basis for purposes such as:

Maintaining records for the proper and necessary administration of our business.
Responding to unsolicited communication from you to which we believe you would anticipate a response.
Protecting and asserting the legal rights of any party.
Insuring against or obtaining professional advice necessary to manage our business risk.
Safeguarding your interests where we believe we have a duty to do so.

Processing of Information Due to Legal Obligations

Like all entities, we are subject to legal regulations. Occasionally, we must process your information to fulfil a legal duty.

For example, we may be obligated to provide information to legal authorities upon their request or if they possess the proper authorisation, such as a search warrant or court order.

This may encompass your personal data.

Specific Uses of Provided Information

Information Shared with Third Parties

Our website allows you to post data with the intention of it being viewed, copied, downloaded, or used by others.

Examples include:

Posting a comment on our forum or blog.
Tagging an image.
Clicking on an icon adjacent to another visitor’s message to express your agreement, disagreement, or thanks.

When posting personal data, it is your responsibility to ensure your satisfaction with the privacy level of every person who may use it.

We do not use this information in a specific way, except to allow it to be displayed or shared.

We do store it and reserve the right to use it in the future as we see fit.

Once your data becomes public, we have no control over how any third party may use it. We accept no responsibility.

Subject to the reasonableness of your request and the absence of any legal grounds for our retention of it, we may, at our discretion, accede to your request to erase personal information that you have previously posted. You may initiate such a request by contacting us at design@joannehiggs.co.uk.

Grievances Pertaining to Content on Our Website

We strive to moderate user-generated content, but we may not always accomplish this promptly upon the content’s publication.

If you express a concern about any content on our website, we commit to conducting an inquiry into your grievance.

If we determine your grievance to be valid or if we believe the law mandates us to do so, we will proceed with the removal of the content as we conduct our investigation.

The principle of free speech is fundamental; hence, we must deliberate whose right will be impeded: yours, or the person who uploaded the content that caused offence.

If we deem your complaint to be groundless or vexatious, we reserve the right not to engage in further communication about it.

Job Application and Employment

If you submit information related to a job application, we may retain it for an undefined duration, allowing for potential future contact.

Communication with Our Support Team

When you contact us, whether via telephone, our website, or email, we collect the data you provide in order to respond with the necessary information.

We document your request and our response to enhance the efficiency of our business operations.

We maintain personally identifiable information linked to your message, such as your name and email address, in order to track our communications with you and deliver a superior service.

Filing a Complaint

Upon receiving a complaint, we record all the information provided to us.

We utilise this information to address your complaint.

If addressing your complaint reasonably necessitates contacting a third party, we may decide to share with them some of the information contained in your complaint. We practice this as seldom as possible, and it remains at our sole discretion whether to share such information and, if we do, what that information encompasses.

We may also aggregate data obtained from this source to evaluate our service level, but not in a manner that could identify you or any other individual.

Use of Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser when you visit any website. They enable information gathered on one webpage to be saved until needed on another, facilitating a customised user experience and providing the website owner with statistics about your use of the website for improvement purposes.

Some cookies may persist for a defined period, such as one day or until you close your browser. Others may persist indefinitely.

Your web browser should permit you to delete or limit the use of any cookies as per your preference.

Our website deploys cookies. These are installed by software operating on our servers, and by third-party services we utilise.

Upon your initial visit to our website, we ask for your consent to our use of cookies. If you do not consent, we will not utilise them during your visit, except to log your non-consent for any other purpose.

Should you choose not to use cookies or limit their use through your browser settings, you may be unable to access all the functionality of our website.

We use cookies in several ways:

To track your usage of our website.
To document whether you have viewed certain messages we display on our website.
To keep you signed in to our site.
To document your responses to surveys and questionnaires on our site as you complete them.
To document the conversation thread during a live chat with our support team.

Identifiers from Your Browsing Activity

Requests from your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are logged.

We log information such as your geographical location, your Internet service provider, and your IP address. We also log information about the software you use to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.

We utilise this information in an aggregate format to evaluate the popularity of webpages on our website and our performance in delivering content to you.

If merged with other information we have about you from previous visits, the data could potentially be used to identify you personally, even if you are not signed in to our website.

Usage of Re-marketing

Re-marketing involves installing a cookie on your computer when you browse our website, enabling us to serve you an advertisement for our products or services when you visit another website.

From time to time, we may employ a third party to provide us with re-marketing services. If so, if you have given consent to our use of cookies, you may see advertisements for our products and services on other websites.

Disclosure and Sharing of Your Information

Information Derived from Third Parties

While we do not divulge your personal information to any third party (except as delineated in this notice), we may sometimes receive data indirectly derived from your personal information from third parties whose services we employ.

None of this information is personally identifiable to you.

Third-Party Advertising on Our Website

Third parties may advertise on our website. In the process, those parties, their agents, or other companies working for them may use technology that automatically collects information about you when their advertisement is displayed on our website.

They may also employ other technologies such as cookies or JavaScript to personalise the content and measure the performance of their advertisements.

We have no control over these technologies or the data that these parties obtain. Accordingly, this privacy notice does not address the information practices of these third parties.

Credit References

As part of our efforts to deter fraud, we share information with credit reference agencies. This specifically pertains to instances where clients or customers instruct their credit card issuer to cancel payment to us without first providing us with a reasonable explanation and allowing us the opportunity to process their refund.

Data Processing Outside the European Union

Our websites are hosted within Europe.

On occasion, we may engage outsourced services from countries outside of the European Union in various aspects of our business operations.

Consequently, data gathered within the UK or any other country may potentially be processed outside of the European Union.

For instance, some software used by our website may have been developed in the United States of America or Australia.

We employ the following measures to safeguard data transferred outside the European Union:

Our contracts with data processors include data protection clauses that feature transfer clauses written or approved by a European Union supervisory authority.
We adhere to a code of conduct approved by a supervisory authority in the European Union.

Access to Your Personal Information

Review or Update of Personal Information

You can review or update your personally identifiable information that we maintain at any time by signing into your account on our website.

To request a copy of any information not available on our website, please contact us at design@joannehiggs.co.uk.

Following your request, we will inform you when you can expect to receive the requested information and whether any fee will be charged for providing it.

Deleting Your Information

If you wish us to delete personally identifiable information from our website, please contact us at design@joannehiggs.co.uk.

Please be aware that doing so may affect the services we can provide to you.

Verification of Your Information

Upon receiving any request to access, edit, or delete personally identifiable information, we first undertake reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or taking any other action, in order to protect your information.

Additional Considerations

Site Usage by Minors

We do not sell products or services intended for purchase by children, nor do we direct marketing toward children.

If you are under 18, you may only use our website with the consent of a parent or guardian.

We collect data from all users and visitors to these areas, regardless of age, and expect that some users and visitors will be minors.

Such minor users and visitors will inevitably visit other parts of the site and will be subject to any on-site marketing they encounter during their visit.

Data Encryption

We employ Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to confirm our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you provide to us.

Whenever data is transferred between us, you can verify that it is carried out using SSL by checking for a closed padlock symbol or other trust mark in your browser’s URL bar or toolbar.

Complaint Procedures

If you have any concerns with our privacy policy or any other complaint, you should inform us via email at design@joannehiggs.co.uk.

If a dispute is not resolved, we hope you will agree to try to settle it through a good faith process of mediation or arbitration.

If you are dissatisfied with how we handle your personal information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Retention of Personal Data

Unless otherwise stated in this privacy notice, we retain your personal information only as long as necessary to:

Provide you with the requested services.
Fulfil other legal requirements, including the period mandated by our tax authorities.
Support a claim or defence in court.

Compliance with Applicable Laws

Our privacy policy is constructed to comply with the laws of every country or legal jurisdiction in which we aim to do business. If you believe it does not satisfy the laws of your jurisdiction, we welcome your feedback.

However, it remains your decision whether or not to use our website.

Privacy Policy Updates

This privacy notice may be periodically updated as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those posted on our website on the day of your use. We recommend that you print a copy for your records.

For any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at design@joannehiggs.co.uk.