Swift Web Design (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and share personal data when you use our website or work with us, and tells you about your privacy rights.

This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we use it, who we share it with and your rights.

1. Who we are and how to contact us

Swift Web Design is the trading name of Joshua Horton and Harry Johnson, who trade in partnership in England. Together they are the data controller.

Data controller
For our own website (swiftwebdesign.co.uk), our marketing, and our client records, Swift Web Design is the “data controller”. This means we decide how and why your personal data is used.

Contact details:

Swift Web Design
Office 11538
182–184 High Street North
East Ham
London
E6 2JA
United Kingdom

Email: info@swiftwebdesign.co.uk

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we use your personal data, please contact us.

2. Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to:

  • visitors to our website,
  • individuals and businesses who contact us with enquiries, and
  • clients and potential clients we work with.

When we host, maintain or manage a website for a client, we usually act as their data processor. In those cases, the client is responsible for providing their own privacy information to visitors of their website, and our use of that data is governed by our contract with them and by our Terms and Conditions.

3. Personal data we collect

The personal data we collect depends on how you interact with us:

3.1 Information you provide directly

  • Name, business name and contact details
  • Messages and enquiry information
  • Project information, content you send us, branding assets
  • Billing details and payment records (invoices and payment records are kept in QuickBooks, and payments are made to our Co-op business bank account; we never see or store full card details)
  • Email address and marketing preferences, if you sign up to our newsletter
  • Booking details, if you book a call with us: the date and time you choose, and any notes you add

3.2 Information we collect automatically

  • IP address and device information
  • Browser type, operating system and time zone
  • Pages visited, time spent on the site, referral sources
  • The campaign link or website that brought you to us, if you go on to send us an enquiry, so we know which of our adverts or posts led to it
  • Technical logs that help us keep the site working: how fast pages load, script errors, requests for pages that don’t exist and, if you leave one of our forms unfinished, which form it was and the last field you used. We don’t store your IP address with them. To stop abuse, we keep a scrambled code made from it that changes every day, and error reports include your browser type. They are deleted after 90 days. If you choose “Necessary only” in Cookie Preferences, we don’t collect the speed and form measurements. Error reports still run, so we can find and fix faults
  • Cookies and similar technologies (see our Cookie Policy)
  • Anonymous data on how far you get through our online booking process (which step you reached), only if you have accepted analytics cookies

3.3 Information from third parties

  • Referrals from clients or partners
  • Public business information, such as a business’s name, address, phone number and website, from OpenStreetMap and the business’s own website (see section 4A)
  • Payment or analytics providers

4. Why we use your personal data and our lawful bases

We only use personal data when we have a lawful basis. These include:

  • Contract – we need your data to provide our services or prepare a quote
  • Legitimate interests – improving services, responding to enquiries, running our business
  • Consent – when you sign up to our newsletter or to follow-up emails after a website audit
  • Legitimate interests – when we contact businesses we think we can help (see section 4A)

How we use your data:

Responding to enquiries and quotes
Lawful basis: contract and legitimate interests.

Providing our services
To build, manage and support websites and related services.
Lawful basis: contract.

Payments and financial records
To issue invoices, process payments and keep accounts.
Lawful basis: contract, legitimate interests, and legal obligation.

Signing agreements online
When you sign an agreement on our website, we record your typed name, the time, your IP address, your browser and that you entered the code we emailed you. If you sign as a private individual, we also record that, and whether you asked us to start within the 14-day cancellation period. We use this as proof of who signed and when.
Lawful basis: contract and legitimate interests (keeping proof of our contracts).
We keep it for 6 years after the contract ends.

Improving our website and services
Using analytics and usage data to fix issues and improve usability.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests.

Marketing
Sending updates and offers if you have opted in.
Lawful basis: consent.

Security and legal compliance
Protecting our systems and complying with legal requirements.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests and legal obligation.

4A. Contacting businesses we think we can help

We look for local businesses whose websites we could improve. We collect the business name, type, address, phone number, website and a general business email address (such as info@) from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) and from the business’s own website, and we check Companies House to see whether it is a limited company. We then run an automated check of the public website (speed, security and search basics). If you are a sole trader or a partner, some of this is personal data about you.

We use it to contact you about your website, by phone, or by email only if your business is a limited company or LLP. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in telling businesses about services that are relevant to them. We only use business details that are already public, we never cold-email sole traders or partnerships, and every message tells you how to stop us.

We may use Claude, an AI service from Anthropic (USA), to help draft an email from the website check results. A person reads and edits every email before it’s sent.

You can object at any time: reply “stop” to any email, or email info@swiftwebdesign.co.uk. We will then delete your details, keeping only enough on a do-not-contact list to make sure we never contact you again.

5. Do you have to provide personal data?

You do not have to provide personal data to browse the site. However:

  • Without contact details, we cannot respond to your enquiry or provide a quote.
  • Without certain project information, we may not be able to carry out our services.
  • Marketing consent is always optional.

6. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies to help our website function, remember preferences and understand how visitors use the site. Some cookies are essential; others are optional.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. For full details, see our Cookie Policy, and the up-to-date list of every cookie and browser-storage item we use on our Policies page.

7. Who we share your personal data with

We only share data when necessary. The services we use are:

  • AlwaysHosting, our UK web host (our website, dashboard and database)
  • Zoho Mail (our email, EU data centre)
  • MailerLite (our newsletter, EU)
  • Google (Analytics, only if you accept cookies; Search Console; and PageSpeed Insights for our website check tool)
  • Anthropic (the Claude AI service, which helps draft some emails and text, USA)
  • Zoom or Google Meet, if you choose a video call when you book (USA)
  • Intuit QuickBooks (invoices and accounts)
  • Co-operative Bank (our business bank account, for payments you make to us)
  • Professional advisers such as accountants, and regulators or legal authorities when the law requires it

These providers must follow our instructions, keep your data secure and are not allowed to use your data for their own purposes.

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our website, but only if you accept analytics cookies through our cookie banner. If you don’t, Google Analytics never loads, and on our main website Google receives nothing about your visit. The fonts on our website are hosted on our own server. The one exception is our example designs at /examples, which load their fonts from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address when you view them. For more information about how Google processes data, see Google’s Privacy Policy.

We never sell your personal data.

8. International transfers

Some of our providers process data outside the UK. The safeguards are:

  • Google (Analytics, Search Console, Meet), Zoom and Intuit QuickBooks (USA): certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the “UK-US data bridge”)
  • Anthropic (USA): the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, in Anthropic’s data processing terms
  • Zoho Mail and MailerLite: data held in the EU, which the UK recognises as adequate

AlwaysHosting and the Co-operative Bank are in the UK. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards at info@swiftwebdesign.co.uk.

9. How long we keep your personal data

We keep data only as long as necessary:

  • Enquiries and marketing data: up to 12 months after our last interaction
  • Booking records: up to 12 months after the appointment date
  • Project-related data: typically 6–12 months after the project ends
  • Signed agreements and the signing evidence: 6 years after the contract ends
  • Invoices, payments and accounting records: 6 years after the end of the tax year they relate to (longer if HMRC is checking that year)
  • Technical logs and our own site statistics (page speed, form measurements, error reports, missing-page requests): 90 days
  • Sign-in history for our dashboard and client portal (including IP address and browser): 90 days. Failed sign-in attempts: 1 day
  • Log of actions our team takes in our dashboard: 180 days
  • Log of emails we send (who we emailed and when): 180 days
  • IP addresses we use to limit repeated file uploads: 30 days
  • Newsletter subscribers: MailerLite stores your email address until you unsubscribe. We keep a record of your sign-up (the page and form you used, the wording you saw and the time) for 6 years, so we can show you agreed
  • Website audit requests and reports: 6 months
  • Business contact details we use for outreach, including our call list: up to 12 months after we last contacted you, or 1 month if we never did. If you ask us to stop, we keep only your email address, phone number or website on a do-not-contact list so we never contact you again
  • Records of our sales calls, including notes and call recordings: 12 months. If a call is linked to a client record, it stays with that client record
  • Client portal accounts, support tickets and onboarding files: until 12 months after our last project or plan with you ends

We may keep anonymised data for longer.

10. How we protect your personal data

We take reasonable steps to keep your data secure, including:

  • secure hosting and backups
  • access controls and strong passwords
  • up-to-date software and security practices
  • limiting access to those who need the data

No system is completely secure, so you should also protect your own devices and passwords.

11. Your rights

You have the following rights under UK data protection law:

  • Access – request a copy of your personal data
  • Rectification – correct inaccurate data
  • Erasure – ask us to delete your data
  • Restriction – ask us to limit how we use your data
  • Object – see “Your right to object” below
  • Data portability – request your data in a machine-readable format

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

Your right to object

Where we use your data because of our legitimate interests (see section 4), you can object at any time. We will then stop, unless we have compelling reasons to carry on that outweigh your interests, or we need the data for a legal claim. You can always object to direct marketing, and we will stop. To object, email info@swiftwebdesign.co.uk or reply “stop” to any email from us.

To exercise any rights, email info@swiftwebdesign.co.uk. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

12. Marketing and your choices

You can sign up to our monthly newsletter from the popup on our homepage, the form in our footer, or the signup box on our blog posts. It’s one email a month, sent on the 1st, and we send it through MailerLite. You can unsubscribe at any time:

We may still send essential service or billing messages even if you unsubscribe from marketing.

13. Children’s data

Our website and services are intended for adults and businesses. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If we become aware of this, we will delete it.

14. Automated decision-making

We do not use personal data for automated decision-making that produces legal or significant effects.

15. Complaints

You have the right to complain to us if you think we haven’t handled your personal data properly. Email info@swiftwebdesign.co.uk with “Data protection complaint” in the subject. We’ll acknowledge it within 30 days, look into it and tell you the outcome.

You can also complain to the Information Commission (the UK data protection regulator, still known as the ICO):

Information Commission (ICO)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

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

16. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Significant changes may also be highlighted on our website.

We encourage you to review this page occasionally to stay informed.