Privacy policy

Who is responsible?

The Natives is responsible for deciding how personal information covered by this notice is used (the data controller). For privacy questions or requests, email thenatives25@hotmail.com. You may use the subject “Privacy request”.

This notice covers the public website and its contact enquiries. It is not a complete notice for any separate membership, event, employment or mailing-list records. Additional activities need their own privacy information when information is collected.

What we collect and why

• Contact enquiries: the name, email address, optional subject and message you provide, together with our correspondence and relevant message dates. We use these to answer you, handle your request and keep a proportionate record of the exchange.
• Website delivery and security: our hosting and communication services receive technical information needed to deliver their services, such as IP addresses, requested pages, request times and browser information. This may be processed for delivery, fault investigation, spam prevention and security.

For answering enquiries and protecting the website, we rely on legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR: responding to people who contact us and maintaining a reliable, secure service. This does not override your interests or data-protection rights. Where a particular disclosure or record is required by law, the applicable basis is compliance with that legal obligation.

The form needs a name, email address and message to send an enquiry; a subject is optional. You do not have to use it. Without a reply address, we may be unable to respond. Please include only information needed for your question. Do not send payment-card details, identification documents, health information or sensitive information about your ethnicity, political opinions or anyone else through this form.

Submitting an enquiry is not consent to marketing. We do not use website enquiries to build advertising profiles or make solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Any later mailing-list sign-up would need separate information and the appropriate permission.

Who receives information

Information is handled by the people responsible for responding on behalf of The Natives and the services involved in delivering the website or your message:

• Netlify hosts and delivers this website. See its privacy statement and data processing agreement.
• FormSubmit receives your form fields when you press Send message and forwards the enquiry by email. You leave this website to complete sending. Its service may use Google reCAPTCHA and its own cookies. See FormSubmit’s privacy terms, its service documentation and Google’s privacy policy.
• Microsoft’s Outlook/Hotmail service receives and stores messages delivered to our contact mailbox. See the Microsoft privacy statement.

We do not sell contact enquiries. Information may also be disclosed where required by law or where necessary and lawful to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

External membership and support links

Patreon and Ko-fi links take you to separate services. Payment details are entered there, not into this website. Their own privacy information applies to their services: Patreon and Ko-fi. Information those services make available to The Natives for membership or support administration must be covered by the relevant additional notice; their policies do not replace our responsibilities for records we hold.

International processing

Our providers operate internationally, including in the United States; information is not necessarily processed only in the UK. Netlify’s published data processing agreement describes the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and contractual fallback safeguards. Microsoft describes international processing and safeguards in its privacy statement.

FormSubmit’s public privacy terms do not identify all processing locations or UK transfer safeguards. Contact us if you need information about the arrangements for your enquiry, or email the privacy contact above instead of using the form. Direct email still uses your email provider and Microsoft. Copies or details of applicable published safeguards are available through the provider links above or by requesting them from us.

How long information is kept

We retain ordinary contact enquiries and related correspondence for up to 12 months after the enquiry is resolved, then delete them from our working records. If a specific legal requirement or ongoing dispute makes longer retention necessary, we keep only what is needed for that purpose and review it when the matter ends.

This is our rule for records we control, not a promise that every provider’s technical copy disappears immediately. FormSubmit’s documentation states that its submission archive retains submissions for 30 days. Microsoft’s mailbox recovery and backup processes may retain deleted items for a further period. Provider technical and security records follow their applicable service terms and retention criteria, which may differ from our enquiry period. The provider links above give further information.

Please avoid sending unnecessary personal information. Access to enquiries should be limited to those who need to handle them; no website or email service can be guaranteed completely secure.

Your rights and complaints

Depending on the circumstances and the legal basis, you may ask to access your information, correct it, have it erased, restrict its use, or receive portable copies. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests. If we rely on consent for a separate activity, you can withdraw that consent without affecting the lawfulness of earlier use. These rights are not absolute.

Email thenatives25@hotmail.com to make a request. We may need proportionate information to verify your identity. We normally respond within one month, subject to the applicable rules on clarification, extensions and exemptions. We do not normally charge for a request.

You can complain to us, and you also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office without having to contact us first: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Cookies and changes to this notice

See Cookies & settings for this website’s storage and tracking information. We will update this notice when the website’s information handling changes and provide additional notice where required. The date above shows the most recent revision.