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Privacy Policy

Version 1 · October 2026

Who I am

I’m Annette Smith, trading as Annette’s Gentle Journeys, and I’m responsible for your personal information (the “controller”). You can reach me at annette@annettesgentlejourneys.co.uk or on 07956 231139.

What I collect

• About you: your first name, email address, and who referred you, if anyone.
• About your trip: destinations, dates, transport, accommodation, budget, your preferences, priorities and wishes, and how you like to travel (for example your preferred pace).
• Who’s travelling: the number of adults, and the ages of any children.
• If you go on to use my services: a record that you accepted my terms (with the date, the terms version and your IP address), payment records, and the plans I prepare for you.
• Technical: when you sign in to your client area, a short-lived sign-in code and a session record.

Why I use it, and my legal reason

What	Why	Legal reason (UK GDPR)
Your enquiry details	To read your enquiry, reply, and prepare a Snapshot where suitable	Taking steps at your request before a contract; later, performing the contract
Payment records	To keep accounts and meet legal duties	Legal obligation; contract
Sign-in codes, sessions, backups	To keep your information secure and recoverable	My legitimate interest in keeping systems secure

I only use your information to reply to your enquiry and to provide the services you ask for. I don’t sell it, and I don’t add you to a marketing list. I won’t send you marketing emails unless you give separate, specific agreement to receive them, and you can withdraw it at any time.

Health information, children and other people

• Please don’t send health details. My enquiry form isn’t set up for medical or health information, so please leave it out. If your needs affect the trip, tell me what the trip needs to allow (for example, “step-free access”) and we can talk it through directly.
• If health details reach me anyway, for example typed into a free-text box, I will use them only as far as needed to reply to you. I will then remove them without waiting for you to ask, and I aim to do this within one month of replying. If it will take longer, I’ll tell you. I may need to remove the whole answer box they were typed into, but the rest of your enquiry stays. If you’d like them removed sooner, just tell me.
• Children. The form asks only for children’s ages. If you enquire for a child, you confirm that you are their parent or legal guardian.
• Other people. Please don’t share another person’s personal details beyond their name and who’s travelling.

Who handles your information for me

• IONOS, my website hosting and email provider.
• Backblaze, which holds encrypted backups of my database. Backblaze is a US company and stores these backups in the USA. Its data processing agreement for UK customers includes standard contractual clauses.

Where it’s stored, and for how long

Your information is stored in my secure database and in encrypted backups. Backups are kept for a limited time, so if I delete your information it can remain in a backup until that backup expires. I don’t change backups, and I re-apply any deletions if a backup is ever restored.

Information	How long I keep it
Enquiries that don’t lead to a service	12 months after our last contact, then I delete them
Completed Snapshots and Plans	12 months after delivery, unless you ask me to keep them for longer
Payment records (my accounts)	The period HM Revenue & Customs requires for my tax records
Record that you accepted my terms	6 years after the service ends
Sign-in codes and sessions	Codes last 15 minutes and sessions 2 hours; expired ones are deleted automatically

I check my records every three months. Anything past these periods is deleted at that check, so deletion can happen up to three months after a period ends. If I need to keep something longer, I note the reason and set a review date.

Cookies

I only use cookies that are strictly necessary: they keep the enquiry form secure and keep you signed in to your client area. It isn’t used for advertising or tracking. I don’t use analytics or advertising cookies, and the pages load nothing from other companies’ websites.

Your rights

You can ask me to give you a copy of your information, correct it, delete it, restrict how I use it, or stop using it. To do any of this, email annette@annettesgentlejourneys.co.uk. I aim to reply within one month.

If you’re unhappy with how I’ve handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. I’d be glad to put things right first.

Changes

If I change this policy, I’ll update the date and version at the top.