Privacy & cookies

1. Who we are

MRC Digital provides websites and optional website care for small businesses. We decide how personal information received through our enquiries and client relationships is used; this role is called the data controller.

Trading name

MRC Digital

Data controller

Max Cooper, a sole trader trading as MRC Digital.

Business address

6 Caledonian Street, Hebburn, NE31 1BY

Privacy contact

contact@mrcdigital.co.uk

2. Information we use

• Enquiries: your name, email address, optional business name and the project details you send us.
• Client work: contact and billing details, agreed requirements, content supplied for the website, feedback, approvals and payment records.
• Technical information: Formspark records your IP address, approximate location derived from that address, browser details and referring page alongside your submission. This supports operation of the form, security and information about where enquiries originate. Hosting services also process connection information to deliver and protect the website.

We receive enquiry information directly from you. The form requires a name, email address and message so we can understand and answer your request; providing a business name is optional. You can also email us directly. Making an enquiry does not commit you to buying anything.

Please keep messages relevant to your project and avoid sending passwords, payment-card details or sensitive personal information through the enquiry form.

3. Why we use it

We use your information on the following legal bases:

• Contract: preparing a quote you ask for, or delivering a service contracted with you personally, including where you are a sole trader.
• Legitimate interests: answering general enquiries, communicating with people acting for business clients, managing the client relationship and protecting our services. The interests are running the business and responding to requests, while respecting your rights.
• Legal obligation: keeping records required for tax and accounting, and responding to valid legal requirements.

An enquiry is not a subscription to marketing emails. This website has no newsletter sign-up or automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

4. Services & sharing

Our enquiry form sends your name, email address, message and optional business name through Formspark to our Microsoft 365 inbox. Formspark is operated by Trampoline Software SRL, Belgium, and processes form information on our behalf under its Data Processing Agreement.

You can also email us directly, in which case your message goes through Microsoft 365 without using Formspark. This website is hosted through OpenAI Sites using Cloudflare infrastructure. Hosting services process technical connection information to serve and protect the pages. OpenAI’s privacy policy explains its processing and retention of service information. It describes processing outside the UK, including in the United States, and reliance on adequacy arrangements or contractual safeguards, including the UK Addendum, for relevant transfers.

Formspark stores form information in Ireland and Germany. These countries are covered by the UK’s adequacy arrangements for the European Economic Area. Formspark also uses other service providers; its subprocessor list describes their processing locations and transfer safeguards. We have disabled its optional OOPSpam filter and have not enabled CAPTCHA services or other optional integrations.

Microsoft 365 may process email outside the UK. Microsoft’s Data Protection Addendum includes Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK international-transfer Addendum. These documents explain the safeguards; you can also contact us for information about the arrangements applying to your data.

Relevant client records may also be shared with a payment provider, accountant or professional adviser where needed, or with an authority where required by law. If we introduce a provider that changes how your information is handled, we will give you the relevant privacy information before that new use begins.

If a project involves handling your customers’ personal information on your behalf, the responsibilities and any required data-processing agreement must be agreed separately before that access begins.

5. How long we keep it

We use the following retention periods:

• Enquiries that do not become projects: delete within 12 months of the last meaningful contact, unless there is an active complaint or dispute requiring particular records.
• Client agreements and approvals: keep relevant records for six years after the project or care arrangement ends, subject to any active dispute or applicable legal requirement.
• Tax and accounting records: Self Assessment business records are normally kept for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline for the relevant tax year, or longer where required by law.
• Working files and account access: remove when no longer needed for delivery, agreed handover or ongoing care. Avoid keeping unnecessary copies of personal information in project files.

We apply our retention periods to relevant copies in Formspark as well as our email and project records. Formspark retains submissions until we delete them; deleted submissions remain recoverable for 30 days. It retains submitter IP addresses and approximate locations for 12 months, and request metadata alongside the associated submission. Filtered submissions are retained for 12 months, although they are visible to us for only 30 days.

Earlier submissions sent through our previous provider, FormSubmit, including test messages, may remain in its archive for its stated 30-day retention period. Copies delivered to our inbox follow the retention periods above.

6. Cookies & demos

We have not added advertising pixels, analytics trackers or cookies to the website pages. Images are served with the site; no external font service is used.

Our enquiry form uses a hidden field to help detect automated spam. It does not load Google reCAPTCHA or another CAPTCHA service. Formspark still receives the submission and technical information described above. The hosting platform may use cookies or similar technology separately from our page code. See OpenAI’s cookie policy for its platform technologies. You can manage stored cookies through your browser settings; blocking necessary cookies may affect platform features.

The Northbank Cleaning and Fieldwork Landscapes websites are fictional demos. Their forms do not send enquiries or save entries to a server.

7. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you can ask for access to your personal information, correction of inaccurate details, deletion, restricted use or a portable copy. Some records may need to be kept to meet a legal obligation or deal with a legal claim.

If we introduce an activity that relies on your consent, you will be told how to withdraw it. Withdrawing consent would not affect the lawfulness of earlier processing.

To exercise your rights, contact the email address above. We may need enough information to verify your identity and locate the relevant records.

8. Questions & complaints

You have the right to complain to us about how your personal information is handled. Email contact@mrcdigital.co.uk with details of your concern. We will acknowledge a data-protection complaint within 30 days, investigate without undue delay, keep you informed and explain the outcome.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

When the way we use information changes, this notice will be updated and any further information required will be provided before a new use begins.