Privacy notice | Madchester Design

Who we are

Madchester Design is a sole trader based in Manchester. We design websites and graphics.

We decide how your personal information is used, so we are the controller of it under data protection law.

You can contact us through the contact form on this website.

This notice explains what personal information we collect, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what your rights are.

Last updated: 10 October 2026.

Data we collect

Most of the information we hold comes from you. We also add our own notes when we work with you.

Contact form enquiries

When you send us a message through the contact form, we keep:

your name
your email address
your phone number, if you give it
what you need (web design, graphic design, both or something else)
your message
the date and time you ticked the box to agree to this notice

The website also emails these details to us so we can reply. If you are already a customer, we link your enquiry to your customer record.

Customer records

If you become a customer, we keep a record with:

your contact details: name, business name, email address, phone number, postal address and website
notes we make about you and your project
files we add to your record

Design specification forms

We may email you a private link to a web design or graphic design specification form. We keep:

your answers, including any answers you save to finish later
files you upload, such as logos, brand files, inspiration images and wording
the date and time you submit the form

After you submit, your answers are locked. If you ask for a change, or we edit an answer, we keep every version. We record what changed, when, who made the change and the reason given.

We also keep a short history of what happens on your record, for example when a form was sent, saved or submitted.

Emails we send you

We send you emails about your enquiry and your project. These include replies to your enquiry, private links to your specification form and confirmations when you submit it. They contain your name, your email address and details of your project.

Security and spam protection

The contact form has a hidden field that only automated spam programs fill in. If it is filled in, the message is thrown away and nothing is stored.
To stop misuse, we limit how many messages can be sent through the contact form, and how many invalid specification form links can be tried, from the same internet connection. For this we store a hashed (scrambled, one-way) version of your IP address, a count and a time. We do not store your IP address itself. These records are deleted automatically from time to time once they are more than two days old.
The website has a private admin area. Only the site owner has an account. When someone tries to sign in, we record the date and time, whether it worked, a short device description such as “Chrome on Windows” and a hashed version of the IP address.

Why we use it

Data protection law says we must have a lawful basis for using your personal information. These are the reasons we use it and the lawful basis for each.

To reply to your enquiry

We use your contact form details to read your enquiry and reply to you.

Lawful basis: consent. You give it by ticking the box on the contact form. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

To carry out work for you

We use your customer record, your specification answers, your files and our emails to plan and deliver the work you ask for, and to talk to you about it.

Lawful basis: contract. We need this information to carry out our contract with you, or to take steps you ask for before we agree one.

To keep a record of changes

We keep every version of your specification and a history of your record. This gives us both a reliable record of what was agreed and when, and helps us sort out any questions about it.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests. Our interest is keeping an accurate record of the work we agree to do.

To keep the website secure

We use the security records described above to stop spam, block people guessing private links and protect the admin area.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests. Our interest is keeping the website and the information on it safe.

To keep tax records

The law requires us to keep business records for tax purposes. Where your information is part of those records, we keep it for that reason.

Lawful basis: legal obligation.

Who we share it with

We use two service providers. They handle your information on our behalf as processors. This means they can only use it to provide their service to us.

Hostinger hosts our website. Our database and the files you upload are stored with them.
20i provides our email. Emails we send and receive pass through and are stored with them.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use it for advertising. We do not make decisions about you by automated means.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that do not lead to work are deleted after 12 months.
Customer records, specifications, uploaded files and the change history are kept for 6 years after the last piece of work we do for you. Then they are deleted. Deleting a customer record also deletes its specifications, files, enquiries and history.
Security records are kept only for as long as they are needed for security.

Your rights under UK GDPR

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
Your right to withdraw consent – When we use consent as our lawful basis, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

You don’t usually need to pay a fee to use your rights. If you make a request, we have one calendar month to respond to you.

To make a request, please use the contact form on this website.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about how we use your personal information, you can complain to us using the contact form.

If you are still unhappy after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

Website: ico.org.uk
Helpline: 0303 123 1113

Cookies

This website uses only essential cookies. A session cookie keeps forms secure and lets the site owner stay signed in to the private admin area. There are no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, so no cookie banner is needed.

Contact us

To ask about your personal information or this notice, please use the contact form on this website. We will reply by email.