Privacy Notice

Please note that this privacy notice covers visits to my website and contact with me via the contact form. If you engage in counselling with me, we will agree on a contract, and I will provide a separate privacy policy which covers the collection and processing of data within the context of the therapeutic relationship. I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy, and you can contact me via the contact form. 'Data controller' is the term used to describe the person/organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people's personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me. I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office.

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, which is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, no personal data is collected. Cloudflare is a third-party service which collects standard internet log information and visitor behaviour patterns on my website. This is done anonymously to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site or the country from which the site is being accessed. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. Cloudflare Pages does not collect or store any user-specific data. The website uses Cloudflare's full SSL encryption to ensure secure communication between the website and its visitors. I do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website, and no attempts can be made by third parties to identify website visitors. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy here.

Contact Form

When you use the contact form on my website, it is processed through Web3Forms, a third-party service that forwards your message directly to my email address. Web3Forms does not store any form submissions - they simply forward your message to me without maintaining a database of submissions. Their service operates on Amazon Cloud Infrastructure with SSL encryption to protect your data during transmission. They are GDPR compliant and do not share or sell any information with third parties. The only data Web3Forms stores is my email address for authentication purposes. You can read Web3Forms' full privacy policy here.

How I use your information

Initial contact

When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services via the contact form, I will collect your name, email address, and ask for your location to help me satisfy your enquiry. If you make an enquiry about counselling, I may invite you for a 15 minute online consultation to discuss whether counselling with me is right for you. At this point, I will send you my full Privacy Policy, ahead of any consultation. The legal basis for processing this data is consent, which you provide by submitting your details through the contact form. If you decide not to proceed with counselling, I will ensure all your personal data collected via the contact form is deleted within 4 weeks of receipt. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

Data security

I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. When you submit the contact form, your message is encrypted and transmitted directly through Web3Forms' Amazon Cloud Infrastructure to my protected Gmail account. No copies of your submission are stored by Web3Forms. My Gmail account is secured by two-factor authentication and is accessed only on my password-protected personal computer which is accessible only by me.

Your rights

You have the right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have the right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters. If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information, you can contact the ICO, which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information, go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Changes to this privacy notice

I keep my privacy notice under regular review.

This privacy notice was last updated on 18/11/2024.

© Caroline Cowley Counselling 2025