Tel: 07850 010735 | Email: alison@thoughtfulceremonies.co.uk

Privacy Policy

What is this Privacy Policy for?

This privacy policy is for this website www.thoughtfulceremonies.co.uk and governs the privacy of its users who choose to use it.

The policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations & requirements of the users, the website and website owners. Furthermore the way this website processes, stores and protects user data and information will also be detailed within this policy.

The Website

This website and its owners take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of its users throughout their visiting experience. This website complies to all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy.

Use of Cookies

This website uses cookies to better the users experience while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device.

Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computers hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website.

Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.

This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computers hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information [https://www.google.com/privacy.html ].

Other cookies may be stored to your computers hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.

Contact & Communication

Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the Data Protection Act 1998. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form to email submission process but advise users using such form to email processes that they do so at their own risk.

This website and its owners use any information submitted to provide you with further information about the products / services they offer or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to any email newsletter program the website operates but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted when submitting any form to email process. Or whereby you the consumer have previously purchased from or enquired about purchasing from the company a product or service that the email newsletter relates to. This is by no means an entire list of your user rights in regard to receiving email marketing material. Your details are not passed on to any third parties.

Social Media Platforms

Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are custom to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate / engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. This website nor its owners will ever ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email.

This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.

Shortened Links in Social Media

This website and its owners through their social media platform accounts may share web links to relevant web pages. By default some social media platforms shorten lengthy urls [web addresses] (this is an example: https://bit.ly/zyVUBo).

Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened urls published on social media platforms by this website and its owners. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine urls are published many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.

Data Storage

The personal data I will hold about a client is:

  • Firstname and surname
  • Full Postal Address
  • Phone
  • Email(s) (if available)
  • Relationship to the deceased
  • Some details of their life insofar as it is linked to the life of the deceased.

Why do I need this data?

The personal data I collect will be used for the following purposes:

  • To contact them by phone, email and paper communications to be able to make all the necessary arrangements for the professional fulfilment of the funeral service as instructed by their chosen funeral director/the family themselves.
  • To visit a family, either at their home address or mutually convenient place,
  • To plan and create the funeral content.
  • To share that content with them for checking prior to the funeral itself and to send a final keepsake copy/copies soon after the ceremony has taken place.
  • To keep details of funerals on file so I have a record for future reference; e.g. if a family or funeral director gets in touch in the future and ask for a similar funeral for that family.

Who might I share your information with?

All information will be treated as confidential and will only be shared with other funeral professionals who are directly involved in delivering that specific funeral.

On rare occasions, where the client does not have access to a computer and wishes to provide feedback on my services, their details will be shared with the Institute of Civil Funerals (IoCF).  Specific consent will be sought for this purpose.

How long do I keep your information?

After the funeral, I will keep any handwritten notes taken at the meeting with the family for one month. This is to ensure I can respond accurately should there be any queries or concerns raised regarding the funeral. These will be kept in a locked filing cabinet. After this time all paper documents will be shredded.

Electronic copies of the full ceremony and contact details for the family will be kept be on a password protected hard-drive, which is kept in a locked filing cabinet, for seven years.  This is for the purposes of: assessment by the Institute of Civil Funerals of which I am a member, in case of future enquiries from the family and for tax purposes. After this time, it will be deleted.

The client’s rights

At any point whilst I hold the data, the client has the following rights:

  • Right of access –the right to request a copy of the information I hold about them.
  • Right of correction –the right to correct data that I hold about them that is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Right to be moved –the right to have the data I hold moved to another organisation.
  • Right to prevent direct marketing – I cannot and will not contact them in the future unless I have their permission to do so.
  • Right to prevent automatic decision-making and profiling – I do not carry out automated processing or profiling.
  • Right to be forgotten – they can ask for their personal data to be erased from my records (I can decline if records are needed for legal obligations).
  • Right to complain – see complaints section below

Please note that the above legal rights apply to the personal data I hold about the client (s) as a living person, rather than any data relating to the deceased.

How to Complain.

In the event a client wishes to make a complaint about how personal data is being processed by me, or how a complaint has been handled, they have the right to lodge a complaint with me or directly with the supervisory authority.

The details for the supervisory authority are;

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Website:  //ioc.org.uk/concerns/

This policy will be reviewed on: 01/06/2019. Or sooner if further guidance is issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office.