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Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2026

This website (https://www.capelsalem.co.uk) is run by Keith Brymer Jones and Marj Hogarth. We care about your privacy and we keep the amount of personal information we collect to a minimum. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over your own data.

We handle your information in line with UK data protection law — the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

If anything here is unclear, please just get in touch. We’re happy to help.

Who is responsible for your data

The “data controller” (the person responsible for your information) is:

Marj Hogarth Email: Marj@capelsalem.co.uk

If you have any questions about this policy, want a copy of your data, or want us to delete something, this is the address to use.

The information we collect, and why

We only collect what we need to run the website, fulfil your orders, and (if you’ve asked us to) keep you updated by email.

When you place an order in our shop

Our shop runs on WooCommerce, and payments are handled securely by Stripe. When you buy something, we collect the details needed to process and deliver your order — typically your name, billing and delivery address, email address, phone number and what you ordered.

Your card details are entered directly with Stripe and are not stored on our website. Stripe handles the payment securely on our behalf. You can read Stripe’s privacy policy at https://stripe.com/privacy.

We use this information to take payment, send your order, deal with any returns or queries, and keep proper business and tax records. The legal basis is performance of our contract with you, and, for keeping records, our legal obligations.

When you join our mailing list

Our mailing list is hosted here on our own website. When you sign up, we collect your email address (and your name, if you give it).

We use a “double opt-in” — after you sign up, we send you a confirmation email, and you’re only added once you click to confirm. This makes sure it’s really you and that you genuinely want to hear from us. The legal basis is your consent.

The emails themselves are delivered through a service called Postmark, which sends the messages on our behalf. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of every email, or by emailing us. When you unsubscribe, we stop sending and remove you from the active list.

When you contact us

If you fill in a contact form or email us, we’ll see your name, email address and whatever you choose to tell us. We use this only to reply to you and to deal with your enquiry. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in responding to people who get in touch.

When you leave a comment (if comments are enabled)

If you leave a comment on the site, we collect the information shown in the comment form, plus your IP address and browser information, which helps us detect spam. An anonymised version of your email address may be sent to the Gravatar service to check whether you have a profile picture; their privacy policy is at https://automattic.com/privacy/. Once your comment is approved, your profile picture is visible alongside it.

When you visit any page

We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is being used — for example, which pages are popular — so we can keep improving it. This is configured to avoid identifying you personally. We do not use advertising trackers or sell your data to anyone. Analytics cookies are only set if you agree to them (see Cookies, below). The legal basis is your consent.

Cookies

Cookies are small files stored on your device. We use them sparingly:

  • Shop cookies — WooCommerce uses cookies to remember what’s in your basket and keep the checkout working. These are essential for the shop to function.
  • Analytics cookies — set by Google Analytics, only if you consent, to help us understand site usage.
  • Comment cookies — if you leave a comment, we may save your name, email and website in a cookie so you don’t have to re-type them next time. These last up to a year.
  • Login cookies — if you have an account and log in, we set cookies to keep you logged in and remember your screen preferences. Login cookies last two days (or two weeks if you tick “Remember Me”); preference cookies last about a year. Logging out removes them.

You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings at any time, though some parts of the shop may not work properly without the essential ones.

Who we share your information with

We don’t sell your data, and we only share it with the trusted services that help us run the website:

These companies act as our “data processors”: they handle data on our instructions and only for the purposes above. We also use an automated spam-detection service to check comments and form submissions where relevant.

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

Where your information is stored and sent

Some of the services we use (such as Stripe, Postmark and Google) are based outside the UK, including in the United States. Where your information is transferred outside the UK, it is protected by appropriate safeguards recognised under UK data protection law, such as Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK Addendum) or equivalent approved mechanisms.

How long we keep your information

  • Order and payment records — kept for around 7 years, as we’re legally required to retain accounting and tax records.
  • Mailing list — kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove you.
  • Contact enquiries — kept only as long as needed to deal with your query and for a reasonable period afterwards.
  • Comments & Reviews— comments, reviews and their details are kept indefinitely so we can recognise and approve follow-up comments automatically. You can ask us to remove yours at any time.
  • Account details — if you have an account, we keep your profile information until you ask us to delete the account.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

  • Be informed about how we use your data (that’s what this policy is for).
  • Access the personal data we hold about you.
  • Correct anything that’s inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Erase your data (“the right to be forgotten”), where we’re not legally required to keep it.
  • Restrict or object to how we use your data.
  • Data portability — receive your data in a portable format.
  • Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent (for example, unsubscribing from emails or declining analytics cookies).

If you have an account or have left comments, you can ask for an exported copy of your personal data, or ask us to erase it. This won’t include anything we’re obliged to keep for legal, accounting or security reasons.

To exercise any of these rights, just email Marj@capelsalem.co.uk. We’ll respond within one month.

A note on images and media

If you upload images to the website, please be aware that photos can contain hidden location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors may be able to download images and extract that data, so it’s best to remove it before uploading.

Embedded content from other websites

Some pages may include embedded content such as videos or images from other sites (for example, YouTube). Embedded content behaves as though you’d visited that other website directly, so those sites may collect data about you, set their own cookies, and monitor your interaction with that content — particularly if you’re logged in to them. We’d encourage you to check the privacy policies of those services.

Complaints

We hope you’ll come to us first if you have any concerns, and we’ll do our best to put things right. You also have the right to complain to the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we’ll change the “last updated” date at the top of the page.