Privacy Policy

At Studio Novo (“we”, “our”, or “us”), we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect the information you provide when using our website or services.

Studio Novo is operated by Suzuna Saito, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom. For the purposes of UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), Suzuna Saito, trading as Studio Novo, is the data controller responsible for your personal information. You can contact us at any time at [email protected].

1. Information We Collect

We may collect the following information:

• Your name
• Email address
• Business name
• Phone number (if provided)
• Website address (if applicable)
• Information about your project or enquiry
• Images, logos, documents, and other files you upload
• Any other information you choose to share with us

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Respond to your enquiries
• Prepare quotations and proposals
• Design, develop, and deliver your website
• Communicate with you throughout your project
• Provide ongoing support and maintenance
• Improve our services and customer experience
• Meet our legal obligations where applicable

3. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal information where:

• You have given your consent.
• It is necessary to perform a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract (for example, preparing a free concept or a quotation).
• It is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, such as keeping financial records for tax purposes.
• It is in our legitimate interests to provide and improve our services.

4. How We Store Your Information

Your information is stored securely using trusted service providers. We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or disclosure.

5. Third-Party Services

To provide our services, we may use trusted third-party providers, including:

• Google Workspace (email and business tools)
• Google Forms
• Google Drive (file storage)
• Web3Forms (processing the forms on this website)
• Netlify (website hosting)
• Cloudflare (website security and delivery, and anonymous visitor statistics through Cloudflare Web Analytics)
• Google Fonts (displaying fonts on this website)

These providers process your information on our behalf and only for the purposes described in this policy. Their own privacy policies also apply.

6. International Data Transfers

Some of the providers listed above are based in, or store data in, countries outside the United Kingdom, including the United States. Where your personal information is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it is protected by appropriate safeguards required by UK data protection law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, or equivalent contractual protections provided by those services.

7. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We will only share your information where necessary to deliver our services or where required by law.

8. Data Retention

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

• Enquiries and free concept requests that do not lead to a project are deleted within 12 months of our last contact with you.
• Client project records, including invoices and payment records, are kept for 6 years after the end of the financial year in which the project was completed, as required for UK tax purposes.
• Files you upload (such as images, logos and text) are kept while we host your website (including the first year of hosting included with your package, and any Care Plan after that), and deleted within 3 months after hosting with us ends.

We may keep information for longer where it is needed to resolve a dispute or comply with a legal obligation.

9. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
• Request deletion of your information
• Object to or restrict certain types of processing
• Request a copy of your information in a portable format, or ask us to transfer it to someone else (data portability)
• Withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. We will respond within one month.

10. Cookies

We do not use advertising, tracking, or analytics cookies on this website. To understand how our website is used, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not use cookies or similar technologies and does not track you across other websites. It collects only anonymous, aggregated information, such as which pages are visited, the type of device and browser, and the country a visit comes from. Our hosting and security providers may set a small number of strictly necessary cookies that are needed for the website to work securely; these do not identify you and do not require your consent. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time. If we introduce any non-essential cookies in future, we will update this policy and ask for your consent first.

11. Testimonials

With your permission, we may display your testimonial, business name, logo, or website screenshots on our website or social media. We will only do so where you have given us permission.

12. Complaints

If you have any concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact us first and we will do our best to resolve them. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by calling 0303 123 1113.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be published on this page with an updated revision date.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us.

Studio Novo (operated by Suzuna Saito)
Email: [email protected]