Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 1, 2023

1. Information We Collect

At SmoothVector Photography, we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you visit our website or use our services.

1.1 Personal Information

We may collect the following types of personal information:

  • Contact Information: Name, email address, phone number, and postal address.
  • Account Information: Username, password, and account preferences if you create an account on our website.
  • Payment Information: Credit card details, billing address, and other payment details when you make a purchase. Note that we do not store complete credit card information on our servers.
  • Communications: Content of emails, contact forms, or other messages you send to us.
  • Photography Session Information: Details about your photography needs, event dates, locations, and preferences.

1.2 Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect certain information about your device and usage patterns, including:

  • Technical Information: IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system, and platform.
  • Usage Information: Pages visited, time spent on pages, page interaction patterns, and referral sources.
  • Location Information: Approximate location derived from your IP address.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:

  • Providing Services: To deliver the photography services you request, process payments, and fulfill our contractual obligations.
  • Communication: To respond to your inquiries, provide information about our services, and send important notices.
  • Marketing: To send promotional materials about new services, special offers, or events if you have opted in to receive such communications.
  • Improvement: To analyze website usage, diagnose technical problems, and improve our website and services.
  • Legal Compliance: To comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms and policies.

2.1 Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal information based on one or more of the following legal grounds:

  • Consent: Where you have given us explicit consent to process your data for a specific purpose.
  • Contractual Necessity: When processing is necessary to fulfill a contract with you or take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
  • Legitimate Interests: When processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these interests don't override your fundamental rights and freedoms.
  • Legal Obligation: When processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation.

3. Sharing Your Information

We may share your personal information with:

  • Service Providers: Third-party vendors who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing, website hosting, and email delivery.
  • Professional Partners: Other photography professionals we collaborate with to deliver services (e.g., second photographers, videographers).
  • Legal Authorities: When required by law, court order, or governmental regulation.
  • Business Transfers: In connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

4. Data Security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered, or disclosed. These measures include:

  • Encryption of sensitive data in transit and at rest
  • Regular security assessments and vulnerability testing
  • Access controls and authentication procedures
  • Regular backup procedures

Despite our best efforts, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

5. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, including:

  • Access: The right to request copies of your personal information.
  • Rectification: The right to request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
  • Erasure: The right to request that we delete your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Restriction: The right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Data Portability: The right to request that we transfer your personal information to another organization or directly to you.
  • Objection: The right to object to processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Withdraw Consent: The right to withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent to process your personal information.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided in the "Contact Us" section below. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

6. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In determining the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process the data, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means.

For clients who have purchased our photography services, we typically retain personal information for up to 7 years after our last interaction to comply with tax and accounting regulations. For prospective clients who have inquired about our services but have not made a purchase, we typically retain personal information for up to 2 years.

Photographs and finished products delivered to clients are archived indefinitely as part of our portfolio unless specifically requested otherwise.

7. Cookie Policy

7.1 What Are Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently and provide information to the website owners.

7.2 Types of Cookies We Use

Our website uses the following types of cookies:

  • Essential Cookies: Necessary for the website to function properly. These cannot be disabled.
  • Analytical/Performance Cookies: Allow us to recognize and count visitors and see how they move around our website. This helps us improve website functionality.
  • Functionality Cookies: Used to recognize you when you return to our website, enabling us to personalize content and remember your preferences.
  • Targeting Cookies: Record your visit to our website, the pages you visit, and the links you follow. We use this information to make our website and advertising more relevant to your interests.

7.3 Managing Cookies

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can usually find these settings in the "Options" or "Preferences" menu of your browser. You can also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when websites set or access cookies.

Please note that disabling certain cookies may limit the functionality of our website.

7.4 Third-Party Cookies

Some cookies are placed by third-party services that appear on our pages. These include:

  • Google Analytics (for website analytics)
  • Facebook Pixel (for advertising effectiveness)
  • Payment processors (for transaction processing)

These third parties may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to collect information about your use of our website and other websites. This information may be used to provide measurement services and target advertisements.

8. Children's Privacy

Our website and services are not intended for children under 16 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so that we can delete the information.

For photography services involving children, we obtain consent from a parent or guardian before collecting any personal information or creating photographs.

9. International Data Transfers

We primarily store and process your data within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA). However, some of our service providers may be based outside of these regions, which means your personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries that may not provide the same level of data protection.

Whenever we transfer your personal data outside the UK or EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by implementing appropriate safeguards, such as using standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or UK authorities.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Last Updated" date, and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

SmoothVector Photography
22 Harris Drive South
Aiden, IP19 0NS
United Kingdom

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 850 890 7991

If you are located in the European Union and believe we are processing your personal data unlawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.