Privacy & Cookie Policy

1. Who we are

This website, fotonic.co.uk, is run by Regent Studios Ltd, trading as Fotonic ("we", "us", "our"). We are a product and jewellery photography studio based in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Regent Studios Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. This means we decide how and why your information is used, and we are responsible for looking after it under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

When you request a quote, book a free test shoot or contact us, we collect:

• your name and email address;
• your phone number, if you choose to give it;
• your company or brand name, if you mention it;
• details of the products you want photographed and any other information you include in your message;
• the address we send your products back to, if you post or courier them to us.

When you become a client, we also keep records of your orders, invoices and payments. We do not store card details: payments are handled by your bank or payment provider.

Information collected automatically

• Page address: when you send our quote form, we record which page you sent it from, so we know which service you're asking about.
• Security checks: our forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to block spam. It checks technical information about your browser and device to tell people apart from bots.
• Advertising measurement: if you accept advertising cookies, Google Ads records that you arrived from one of our adverts and whether you then sent an enquiry or tapped to call us. See section 7.
• Server logs: like most websites, our hosting provider keeps short-term logs, including IP addresses, for security and to keep the site running.

3. How we use your information

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each use of your personal data.

We will only send you marketing emails if you are an existing client or have agreed to receive them, and every message will include an easy way to unsubscribe. We do not make decisions about you using automated decision-making or profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects.

4. Who we share your information with

We never sell your personal data. We only share it with trusted providers who help us run our business, and only as much as they need:

• Website hosting and email providers, which store our website and deliver your messages to us;
• Cloudflare, for spam and bot protection on our forms;
• Google, for advertising measurement (only with your consent) and for serving the fonts on this site;
• Couriers and delivery companies, to return your products;
• Our accountants and professional advisers, where needed;
• Authorities such as HMRC or the police, where the law requires it.

Our providers act on our instructions and must keep your information secure.

5. International transfers

Some of our providers, including Google and Cloudflare, may process data outside the UK, for example in the United States. Where this happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

6. How long we keep your information

• Enquiries that don't become a booking: up to 24 months after our last contact, then deleted.
• Client records, orders and invoices: 6 years after the end of the financial year they relate to, as required for tax purposes.
• Server logs and security data: kept only for short periods, usually no longer than 90 days.
• Cookies: see the durations in the table in section 7.

7. Cookies

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files that a website saves on your device. Similar technologies, such as tags and local storage, work in the same way, and we call them all "cookies" here. Some cookies are essential for a website to work. Others, such as advertising cookies, are only set if you agree.

Your choices

When you first visit our site, a banner asks whether you accept non-essential cookies. Advertising cookies stay switched off unless you click to accept them. Rejecting them won't stop the site, quote form or phone links from working. You can change your mind at any time:

Change cookie settings

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of the site from working.

Cookies we use

We do not currently use analytics cookies. If we add any in future, we will update this table and ask for your consent where it is required.

Our pages also load fonts from Google Fonts. This does not set cookies, but your browser sends your IP address to Google to fetch the fonts. On Apple devices, the site uses the font built into your device instead.

To learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

8. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your information;
• ask us to restrict how we use it;
• object to us using it on the basis of legitimate interests, including for direct marketing;
• ask us to transfer it to you or another organisation (data portability);
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent, for example for advertising cookies.

To use any of these rights, contact us using the details below. There is normally no charge, and we will respond within one month. We may need to check your identity before we act on your request.

9. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encrypted (HTTPS) connections, access controls and spam protection on our forms. No system is completely secure, but we work to keep your information safe and will tell you and the ICO about any serious data breach where the law requires it.

Our website is intended for business clients and is not aimed at children under 18.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we start using new cookies or services. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last changed. If we make significant changes, we will let you know through our website or by email where appropriate.

11. Contact & complaints

If you have any questions about this policy or how we use your information, please get in touch:

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.