0131 337 2254 [email protected]

Welcome to our privacy policy

 

This policy is here to tell you how we use and store your personal information here at Phoenix Content Marketing, along with why and how we’re storing it – and how we protect your privacy when doing so.

We solemnly swear to handle any personal information you give us (or that anyone else gives us) with care, and respect. We won’t let it fall into the wrong hands, or pass it onto any third parties to aid their marketing efforts. Your privacy is important to us.

It’s our aim to be 100% clear when collecting your information, and on how we are going to use it. We don’t want to mislead anybody, and if anything isn’t quite right in this privacy policy, please let us know ASAP so we can endeavour to correct it.

Phoenix Content Marketing is a content marketing and creation agency dedicated to producing quality, professional content to businesses in the UK, Ireland and beyond. We go the extra mile for our clients and ensure they’re happy with the services they receive from us – including unlimited edits!

In order to provide the best possible service we can, we use personal information – it’s a necessity, but thanks to GDPR it also means we now have to be extra vigilant on the use of personal data, along with making it 100% crystal clear what data we’re using and why.

This policy is effective from 25th May 2018.

Who the hell are we, anyway?

In terms of this privacy policy, ‘Phoenix Content Marketing’, ‘we’ or ‘our’ means:

Phoenix Content Marketing, a content marketing agency (sole trader with a merry gang of like-minded freelancers) based in the heart of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (Scotland’s capital).

How we collect and store your data

We’re pretty data savvy, and we’re going to do our best to outline all uses of your personal data, below.

Data you provide to us directly

If on the off-chance you decide to get in touch with us by providing your contact details for one of our handy guides, to request a consultation, or to enter into any kind of contract with us relating to any of the services we provide, you’ll most likely be providing at least some personal information to us – we’d imagine your name, email address and maybe some other details.

Also, when you’re browsing around our website, just minding your own business (or learning about ours), we’ll be collecting other personal information via things called cookies – along with some other methods of tracking.

This means we’ll receive information regarding the type of device you’re using to access our site, and the settings your device may provide us with additional details about the type of device you’re using, the specific model and operating system you’re using, your device settings, and why a crash has occurred (if applicable). This is in accordance with common website practice.

For more details on the the information available to us through your device, check with your manufacturer or OS provider.

Data you provide to us indirectly

Currently, no personal information is passed onto us by third parties. This may change at some point in future, but if it does, that change will be reflected in our privacy policy (and you probably won’t be reading this line).

We’d also highly recommend you take the time to check any privacy policy that has been provided where there is any mention of giving your data to a third party.

Data from other sources

Should we feel like it (and we often do), we may also use data from the sources outlined below:

Social media

Depending on how you’ve set up your social media platforms (think Twitter, Instagram or Facebook), you might be giving us permission right now to access certain information from those platforms – especially if you tag us in a photo or mention us in a tweet.

Data available publicly

We’ve also been known to collect information available from public sources such as company websites, public social media accounts, the electoral register and Companies House. We use these platforms to get a better idea of people’s interests with regards to Phoenix Content Marketing.

The personal data we collect

We store, collect and use the data detailed below:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your postal address and other contact details
  • Details of your request and/or services we’re carrying out on your behalf
  • Your bank or payment details if you’ve provided these to make a payment
  • Any queries or requests you’ve submitted to us
  • Any other personal information you’ve provided to us

How we use your personal data

We may use your personal data in a plethora of completely legit ways, such as all of the below:

  • Carry out services relating to any type of content created on your behalf
  • Store a record and keep track of your relationship with us
  • Contact you regarding any of the services you’ve selected
  • Read and respond to any complaints or queries you get in touch with us about
  • Figure out how to improve the services we provide by analysing data and conducting market research
  • Send you appropriate correspondence (this may include helpful, informative emails or offers if we’ve received your consent)
  • Show you content suited to the device you’re viewing our website on (such as a smartphone, tablet or PC)
  • Protect our staff 
  • Carry out training and/or quality control via our systems
  • Administration of our accounts (audits, too)
  • To meet all and any applicable legal obligations, such as fulfilling a contract with you, or our obligations to regulators, government and/or bodies of law enforcement
  • Establish, enforce or fend off any legal claims

How we protect your data

We’ve put the appropriate technical and organisational safeguards in place in order to protect your personal data. This includes using a secure network.

Sharing your information with other organisations

We won’t pass or sell your information onto third parties for their marketing efforts. As a caveat, we may disclose your personal data to third parties regarding some of the other purposes we’ve set out in this privacy policy, such as:

  • Automation software (for marketing purposes)
  • IT wizards who provide tech services
  • Analytics platforms and providers of search engines

Bear in mind that we reserve the right to disclose your information to third parties under the following conditions:

  • Any of our business assets are bought or sold and we disclose your personal data to a prospective buyer or seller
  • All of our assets – including your data – are acquired by a third party

Keeping your information updated

We may occasionally use information from external sources to keep our records updated. This includes sources such as the public electoral roll, and the post official national change of address database. We’ll only use sources we’re confident that you’re aware of and where you are fully informed of how your information may be accessed and used.

This helps us to ensure we never store duplicate records or preferences that are out-of-date – and also helps make sure we don’t contact you against your wishes (when you’ve explicitly asked us not to).

We want to give you full control of your data, and you may feel free to opt out from this activity at any time. To find out more, just contact us via [email protected] or give us a call on 0131 337 2254.

 

Want to let us know of a change in your contact details or personal data? That’s very considerate of you, and it’s much appreciated – makes our lives a little easier. It’s easy enough to do – simply get in touch with us using the contact details we’ve just specified above. We’ll update our records quicksmart to reflect any changes that apply.

How long will we keep your data? 

We’ve put specific guidelines in place to lawfully determine how long we need to store your personal data. These guidelines are defined by both legal and operational considerations. For instance, we may be required to keep some of your information for tax purposes.

Your rights

According to data protection law here in the good old UK, you have rights over any personal information that is held about you. We’ve summarised these in an easy-to-understand (we hope) way:

The right to access your personal information

You’re within your rights to request access to all and any personal data we hold about you. You’re also perfectly within your rights to request a copy of that information from us – which we will provide to you unless legal exceptions dictate otherwise.

If you wish to access your information, you may send a written request to the Data Controller, Phoenix Content Marketing, 83 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2ER. Alternatively, you can email [email protected]. We’ll have 30 days to get back to you from the date we receive your request.

The right to have incorrect personal information amended

You have the right to get any inaccurate or incomplete information we hold about you amended. If you think the information we hold about you might be wrong or incomplete, just provide us with the details (using the details mentioned above) and we’ll investigate and correct any inaccurate information.

The right to restrict use of your personal information

You have the right to put the brakes on any processing of some or all of your personal data if:

  • Some or all of the data we hold about you is incorrect
  • We’re not legally allowed to use your data
  • You need us to retain your data in order to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim
  • You understand your right to privacy outweighs our interests to use your information for a specific purpose and you object to this

The right to be forgotten

You have the right to request that we delete some or all of your personal information from our system. We will carry out this request as long as there are no legal exceptions preventing us from doing so.

The right for your personal information to be portable

You have the right to request we provide you or another service provider with that information in a digital or machine-readable format if we happen to be processing your personal information by automated means (either to carry out a contract with you or having received your consent to do so).

The right to object to the use of your personal information

If you discover that we are processing your personal information based on our own interests or for research or statistics, you have the right to object to your information being used in this way.

If happen to be processing your information for the purposes of direct marketing, and you object to us directly, we’ll stop processing your information at our first convenience (in other words, ASAP).

You can exercise any of the above rights at any time. To do so, please contact the Data Controller, Phoenix Content marketing, 83 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2ER. Alternatively, you can email [email protected].

It’s possible we may need to request further information and/or proof of your identity. However, all requests will be responded to within one month – unless we contact you to state otherwise.

Please bear in mind that exceptions will apply to several of the above rights, and not all rights will be applicable in all circumstances. For more details, it’s recommended that you check the guidance outlined on the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.

How we choose to utilise cookies

No, if only we were talking about the chocolate chip kind! At least there are no cookie monsters who like to eat up the text files that end up on your computer from the websites you visit. We’re sure you’ve heard of them – they’re pretty much necessary to ensure anyone’s website is functioning to the best of its abilities.

They often contain a unique number which can recognise your computer when you return to a website you’ve been to before. They also collect statistics to ensure maximum site functionality, along with monitoring how well our ads performing – which makes them really quite handy!

Third party cookies set by us (with external links to all of their privacy policies):

Google Analytics

Isn’t Google Analytics fun? If you’ve got your own website, you’ve probably used it at some point. We like to use it to measure what people are getting up to on our site, using the aforementioned cookies. Why? Well, it helps make your experience a better one, because we can see where people are going on our site and gives us some clues as to what may or may not be working (or broken).

We’ll also almost definitely be using it to see how we’re doing with our ads, and to show relevant ads to the right people – i.e. those who have shown some interest in particular areas of our website. Alternatively, we may wish to exclude some people from ads if we think they probably won’t appreciate them (based on their known interests).

It may be the case that you’ve already opted into Google’s data privacy policy. This will mean Google will be able to identify and track you via different devices using your IP address and other data they have access to. However, if you don’t like that idea, you can refuse the whole cookie thing by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser (we’ve told you how below).

Oh, and another thing! There’s a Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on which you can install by clicking through to an  external link. Installing it will mean putting an end to the transmission of data generated by cookies regarding what you’re up to online and also your  IP address info that’s provided to Google. 

 

Read the Google Analytics privacy policy

Google AdWords 

 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve almost definitely heard of Google AdWords. That’s the thing we use to help measure how effective our online ads are – so we can improve over time and not spend so much money on expensive campaigns.

These cookies have not one, but two jobs:

  1. To track anonymised conversion data to help us gauge how effective our ads are
  2. To display ads to or exclude visitors who have visited our website

We’ll also have the ability to limit how many times you may see our ads (which is nice if we don’t want to be too annoying).

Click through to Google’s privacy policy.

LeadPages and Drip 

We use LeadPages in conjunction with Drip to make our landing pages and send out automated emails. They gather statistics about things like conversion rates, open and click-rates using industry standard technologies. This helps us to keep track of and improve our landing pages and emails for future.

Read LeadPages’ privacy policy here, and Drip’s privacy policy here. 

Other cookies

We may occasionally use cookies from additional third-party or analytics partners over the short-term to help us get better at the whole ad thing (let’s face it, we need all the help we can get). It shouldn’t affect you too much, though.

Disable cookies on browsers

If you’re fed up of this cookie malarkey, and want to have done with them once and for all on your web browser (such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer), just click the ‘Help’ menu in the toolbar. This should guide you on how to change the settings on your browser, and how to disable cookies completely. For more guidance, click this link to AllAboutCookies.org (external link).

Changes to this policy

If we need to update this privacy policy for any reason – such as to stay within the law – then we’ll be doing it.

If it’s a tiny change that won’t really impact on you, you probably won’t be notified. However, if any significant changes occur that affect the way we handle your personal data, we’ll make it clear on our website – and email you if we have your details on record.

Contact us

Need to get in touch with us?  Regardless of the reason, you’re welcome to contact us via [email protected] or get on the blower and call us on 0131 337 2254

You can also reach us by post:

Phoenix Content Marketing

83 Princes Street

Edinburgh, Scotland

EH2 2ER