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Digital Marketing Expert

Legal

Privacy Policy

What we collect, why we collect it, and what you can ask us to do with it. Written to be read, not to be skipped.

Last updated

Who we are

This website is operated by DM Expert Ltd, trading as Digital Marketing Expert. We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy, which means we decide how and why it is used.

  • Company: DM Expert Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 07739295
  • Registered office: 2 Whittle Court, Knowlhill, Milton Keynes, MK5 8FT
  • Office: 1 Waterside, Station Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 4US
  • ICO registration number: ZA700006
  • Email: hello@dmexpert.co.uk
  • Phone: 01908 103990

The short version

We do not sell your personal information. The information we hold about you is almost always simply what you typed into one of our forms so that we could reply to you.

We use Google Analytics and Google Ads on this website, but only if you agree to them when you first arrive. If you say no, or before you answer, they are switched off and set nothing on your device. You can change your mind whenever you like using the cookie settings link in our footer.

What we collect

When you send us an enquiry

Our enquiry form asks for your name and email address, and optionally your website, the services you are interested in and a message. Our pay per lead form also asks for your company name, phone number, what you want to sell and the area you want customers from, because those are the details we need in order to price it.

Enquiries are emailed to us and are not stored in a database on this website. They live in our email inbox, like any message you might send us directly.

When you use our website audit tool

The audit tool sends the website address you enter to Google's PageSpeed Insights service so we can measure the page. If you ask us to email you the report, we also collect your email address and send you the results. We do not need, and do not ask for, any access to your website.

Automatically, when you visit

Our hosting provider records standard technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested. This happens on essentially every website and we use it only to keep the site running securely and reliably. We do not use it to build a profile of you.

If you agree to analytics or advertising

Google Analytics collects information about how you use the site: the pages you look at, roughly where in the world you are, what device you are on and how you found us. Google Ads records whether a click on one of our adverts led to an enquiry, and allows us to show our adverts to people who have visited before. Neither tells us your name, and we do not try to combine them with your enquiry to work out who you are.

None of this happens unless you agree to it. Our cookie policy lists every cookie involved, what each one does and how long it lasts.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

Under UK GDPR we have to have a lawful reason for using your information. Ours are:

  • To reply to your enquiry and prepare a quote. Our legitimate interests in responding to people who contact us, and taking steps at your request before entering into a contract.
  • To send you the audit report you asked for. Your consent, given by entering your email address and requesting it.
  • To provide our services if you become a client. Performance of our contract with you.
  • To measure how the site is used, and how our ads perform. Your consent, given through the cookie banner. You can withdraw it at any time using the cookie settings link in our footer.
  • To keep our website secure and working. Our legitimate interests in running the site safely.
  • To meet our accounting and legal duties. Compliance with a legal obligation.

We never make decisions about you by automated means that have a legal effect on you, or anything similarly significant. To be straight with you though: if you agree to advertising cookies, Google may use your visit here to show you our adverts on other websites. That counts as profiling for advertising purposes. You can refuse it in the cookie banner, turn it off later in cookie settings, and object at any time.

Marketing

We will only send you marketing emails if you have asked us to, or if you are a client and the message relates to services like the ones we already provide you. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link, and you can opt out at any time by emailing hello@dmexpert.co.uk. Opting out of marketing does not stop us replying to an enquiry you have sent us.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We use a small number of service providers who process information on our behalf, under contract and only on our instructions:

  • Resend delivers the emails this website sends, including your enquiry and any audit report.
  • Vercel hosts this website and stores the images and files used on it.
  • Google is involved in several ways. It receives the website address you enter into our audit tool, through its PageSpeed Insights service. Our Google Partner badge is an image served by Google rather than by us, so Google can see your IP address on any page showing the badge, though we have checked and the badge sets no cookies. If you agree to analytics or advertising, Google Analytics and Google Ads receive information about your visit through Google Tag Manager. And if you choose to load the map on our contact page, Google receives your IP address and sets its own cookies. For its analytics and advertising products Google acts as a controller in its own right, which means it decides some of what it does with that data. Google's privacy policy explains what.

We may also share information with our professional advisers, or with the authorities where the law requires it.

Sending information outside the UK

Some of the providers above are based in, or store data in, the United States. Where your information is transferred outside the UK, we rely on UK adequacy regulations (including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or on the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum approved by the ICO, so that your information keeps an equivalent level of protection.

How long we keep it

  • Enquiries that do not become work: two years from our last contact with you, then deleted.
  • Client records: for as long as we work together, and then as long as we need them for legal claims.
  • Invoices and accounting records: six years, because tax law requires it.
  • Server logs: a short period set by our hosting provider, for security and reliability.
  • Analytics and advertising data: held by Google under its own retention settings, and only ever collected if you agreed to it.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
  • ask us to correct anything that is wrong
  • ask us to delete it
  • ask us to restrict how we use it
  • object to us using it where we rely on our legitimate interests, including for any direct marketing
  • ask us to transfer it to someone else
  • withdraw your consent at any time, where consent is what we relied on

To exercise any of these, email hello@dmexpert.co.uk. It costs you nothing and we will reply within one month. We may need to confirm who you are first.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at any time.

Security

This website is served over an encrypted connection, and access to our email and systems is restricted to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information and we will tell you and the ICO about any breach that requires it.

Children

Our services are aimed at businesses, and this website is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect information about anyone under 18.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. If the change is significant, we will make that clear.

Contact us

Any question about this policy, or about your information, can go to hello@dmexpert.co.uk, by phone on 01908 103990, or by post to our office at 1 Waterside, Station Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 4US. You can also use our contact page.