Privacy Notice

Full Privacy Notice

Last updated: 8 June 2026

This Privacy Notice explains how The Bess Service collects, uses and looks after your personal information.

We’ve tried to keep this as clear and plain English as possible. Personal information means information that can identify you, such as your name, email address, phone number, or anything you send to us when you make an enquiry or use one of our services.

The Bess Service provides friendly support with everyday technology, learning, simple websites and templates, transcription, writing and related services.

Website: www.thebessservice.co.uk

Email: thebessservice@gmail.com

1. Who we are

The Bess Service is responsible for deciding how your personal information is used when you contact us, visit our website, make an enquiry, book a service, or work with us.

For data protection purposes, this means The Bess Service is usually the “data controller” for the personal information we collect and use.

You can contact us about this Privacy Notice at: thebessservice@gmail.com

2. What personal information we collect

We may collect and use different types of personal information, depending on how you contact us or which service you use.

• Your name.

• Your email address.

• Your phone number, if you choose to provide it.

• Your general location or area, if it’s relevant to your enquiry.

• Information you send through our website form.

• Details about the service you’re interested in.

• Messages, emails and other correspondence between you and The Bess Service.

• Booking or appointment details.

• Payment, invoice and transaction details.

• Notes about the support or service provided.

• Website usage information, such as which pages are visited, if analytics cookies are accepted.

• Documents, files, images, audio, video or written material you choose to send to us for a service.

We’ll only ask for information that’s relevant to your enquiry or the service you’ve asked about.

3. How we collect your information

We may collect personal information when you:

• Fill in a website form.

• Email us.

• Contact us through social media or another platform.

• Ask for a quote.

• Book a session or service.

• Send us documents, files, audio or other materials.

• Visit our website and accept analytics cookies.

• Pay for a service.

Some information may also be collected through third-party tools we use to run the website or manage enquiries, such as Google Sites, Google Forms, Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Drive or similar services.

4. Why we use your personal information

We use your personal information so we can:

• Reply to your enquiry.

• Understand what help or service you’re looking for.

• Provide quotes and service information.

• Book and manage appointments or sessions.

• Deliver the service you’ve asked for.

• Send documents, notes, files or follow-up information.

• Keep records of work completed.

• Create and send invoices.

• Manage payments and basic business records.

• Improve our website and services.

• Keep our website and systems secure.

• Meet legal, tax or accounting obligations.

We won’t sell your personal information.

5. Our lawful basis for using your information

UK data protection law says we need a lawful basis for using personal information. For The Bess Service, we’re likely to rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract or steps before a contract

We use this when you ask about a service, request a quote, book a session, or become a customer. For example, we need to use your contact details to reply to you, arrange the service, provide the work, and communicate with you about it.

Legal obligation

We use this when we need to keep certain records for tax, accounting or legal reasons. For example, we may need to keep invoices and payment records.

Legitimate interests

We may use this where it’s reasonable, expected and has a minimal impact on your privacy. For example, we may use your information to manage enquiries, keep business records, respond to follow-up questions, improve services, or protect our website and systems.

Consent

We use consent where required, such as for non-essential cookies, including Google Analytics cookies, or for any email marketing if we introduce that in future. You can withdraw consent where consent is the lawful basis.

6. Google Analytics and website information

We may use Google Analytics to understand basic website activity, such as which pages are visited and how people use the site.

Google Analytics may use cookies or similar technologies. Analytics cookies aren’t essential for the website to work, so you should be given a choice about whether to accept or reject them through the cookie banner or cookie settings.

For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.

7. How we use files, documents or materials you send us

Some services may involve you sending us documents, images, forms, audio files, video files, website content, written material or other information.

For example, this might happen if you ask for help with:

• Transcription.

• Writing or editing.

• A simple website or template.

• A document or form.

• Tech support involving files, email, apps or accounts.

We’ll use these materials only for the purpose of providing the service you’ve requested, unless you agree otherwise.

We’ll take reasonable care with any files or documents you share. Please avoid sending sensitive information unless it’s necessary for the service.

8. Sensitive information

Sometimes you may choose to share information that’s more personal or sensitive, for example information about health, family circumstances, finances, employment, disability, access needs or personal history.

We don’t ask for sensitive information unless it’s relevant to the service you’ve requested. If you do share it, we’ll treat it carefully and only use it for the purpose you provided it for.

If we ever need to use particularly sensitive information, we’ll only do so where we have a lawful reason and, where needed, an additional condition under data protection law.

9. Who we share your information with

We don’t sell your personal information.

We may share limited information with trusted third-party services where needed to run the business or provide the service, such as:

• Email providers.

• Website hosting or website platform providers.

• Google services, such as Google Sites, Google Forms, Google Drive, Gmail or Google Analytics.

• Payment or banking providers.

• Accounting or bookkeeping tools.

• Cloud storage providers.

• Professional advisers, if needed.

• Legal, regulatory or tax authorities, if required by law.

We only share what’s necessary.

Some third-party services may process information outside the UK. Where that happens, we rely on the safeguards used by those providers.

10. How long we keep your information

We only keep your personal information for as long as we need it.

As a general guide:

·   Enquiry messages may be kept for up to 12 months, unless they become part of a customer record.

·   Customer records and project correspondence may be kept for up to 6 years after the end of the service, where needed for business, tax or legal records.

·   Invoices and payment records may be kept for up to 6 years, in line with tax and accounting requirements.

·   Files or materials sent for transcription, writing, website or tech support will usually be deleted once the service is complete and any agreed follow-up period has passed, unless we need to keep them for legal, accounting or dispute-resolution reasons.

·   Analytics data may be kept according to the settings used in Google Analytics.

If a different retention period is needed for a specific service, we’ll explain that where appropriate.

11. How we protect your information

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information, including using password-protected accounts, secure devices where possible, and trusted service providers.

No method of online storage or communication is completely risk-free, but we’ll take sensible care to keep your information safe and avoid collecting more than we need.

12. Your rights

You have rights over your personal information. Depending on the situation, you may have the right to:

·   Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.

·   Ask us to correct information that’s wrong or incomplete.

·   Ask us to delete your information.

·   Ask us to restrict how we use your information.

·   Object to certain uses of your information.

·   Ask for your information to be transferred to another provider, where this applies.

·   Withdraw consent where we’re relying on consent.

Some rights don’t apply in every situation, and we may need to keep certain information where we have a legal reason to do so.

13. How to contact us about your information

If you want to ask about your personal information, update it, or exercise one of your rights, please contact:

thebessservice@gmail.com

We may need to confirm your identity before responding to some requests.

14. Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we use your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to put things right.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK regulator for data protection. You can contact the ICO through its website: ico.org.uk

15. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time, especially if we change the services we offer, the tools we use, or how the website works.

The latest version will be available on our website.