Soulful Web Studio – Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 2025
Soulful Web Studio (“we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Website: https://soulfulwebstudio.co.uk
Contact: hello@soulfulwebstudio.co.uk
1. Who We Are
Our website address is https://soulfulwebstudio.co.uk.
We are a web design business based in Blackwood, South Wales, UK, offering web design, development, hosting, and related services.
2. Information We Collect
We may collect and process the following types of data:
• Contact Form Submissions
When you submit an enquiry through our contact form, we collect your name, email address, and message details to respond to your request.
• Analytics Data
We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous data about how visitors use our website (such as pages visited and time spent on site). This helps us improve our content and user experience.
• Comments
When visitors leave comments on our website (where enabled), we collect the data shown in the comments form, as well as the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help detect spam.
An anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be sent to the Gravatar service to check if you’re using it. The Gravatar service Privacy Policy is available at https://automattic.com/privacy/.
After approval of your comment, your profile picture (if any) is visible publicly alongside your comment.
• Media
If you upload images to the website, please avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS), as visitors can download and extract this information.
• Embedded Content
Articles on this website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, or posts). Embedded content from other websites behaves as if you visited those websites directly, which may collect data or use cookies.
• Cookies and Login Information
We use cookies for functionality and analytics purposes.
If you leave a comment, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies for convenience.
If you visit the login page, a temporary cookie determines if your browser accepts cookies (discarded on closing your browser).
When logged in, several cookies save login information and screen preferences. Login cookies last two days, screen option cookies one year, and “Remember Me” cookies two weeks.
If you log out, login cookies are removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser — this contains no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited (expires after one day).
3. How We Use Your Information
We use personal data to:
- Respond to enquiries and provide requested services.
- Improve website functionality and design.
- Manage and display website comments (where enabled).
- Occasionally contact existing clients about relevant updates, services, or offers.
You can opt out of marketing emails at any time by contacting us.
4. Legal Basis for Processing
We process personal data under the following lawful bases:
- Legitimate interest: Responding to enquiries, providing services, managing client relationships, and maintaining website functionality.
- Consent: When you’ve opted in to communications or agreed to cookie use.
5. How Long We Keep Your Data
- Contact form entries: Retained as long as necessary to respond and provide services.
- Comments: Retained indefinitely so follow-up comments can be recognised automatically.
- Registered user profiles (if any): Stored until the user deletes their account.
- Analytics data: Stored per Google’s retention settings (usually 14–26 months).
6. Who We Share Your Data With
We do not sell or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
However, certain integrations or services may have limited access:
- Google Analytics (usage data)
- Gravatar (for displaying avatars on comments)
- Spam detection services (to prevent comment spam)
- If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
7. Where Your Data Is Sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Some third-party services (like Google Analytics or Gravatar) may process data outside the UK, in compliance with appropriate data protection safeguards.
8. Data Security
We take appropriate security measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
9. Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Request a copy of your personal data.
- Ask us to correct or delete your data.
- Object to certain processing.
- Withdraw consent (where applicable).
If you have an account or have left comments, you can request an exported file of your personal data or ask for it to be deleted.
This does not include data we must keep for administrative, legal, or security reasons.
To exercise these rights, contact us at hello@soulfulwebstudio.co.uk.
10. Cookies
We use cookies for analytics and functionality. You can control or delete cookies in your browser settings.
For more details on how Google uses data, visit: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
11. Contact
Soulful Web Studio
📧 hello@soulfulwebstudio.co.uk
🌐 https://soulfulwebstudio.co.uk
If you are not satisfied with our handling of your data, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk/.