Privacy notice

1. Who is responsible for your data?

The data controller is Steve MacDonald-Brown, trading as MacAlchemist™ Consulting, based in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

This notice covers the consulting website at macalchemist.co.uk, the consulting pages hosted at macalchemist.net/chemistry_consulting/, and personal data handled in connection with consultancy enquiries and engagements.

For privacy questions, rights requests or complaints, use the contact details in section 12.

2. Personal data I may collect

Depending on how you interact with the consultancy, this may include:

• Enquiry and contact data: your name, email address, telephone number, organisation, role and the contents of your message.
• Client and project data: correspondence, meeting notes, proposals, contracts, project contacts, technical instructions, deliverables, invoices and payment status.
• Professional information: information available through LinkedIn, company websites, referrals or other professional sources where relevant to an enquiry or engagement.
• Website technical data: IP or network information, browser and device details, user-agent, date and time, pages or files requested, referring page, error reports and security events.
• Download and usage data: basic first-party records showing that a page or document, such as the consultant profile, was requested. These records are used for aggregate measurement, troubleshooting and security rather than cross-site profiling.

Please do not send highly sensitive personal information, or detailed proprietary chemistry, through the initial contact form unless it is necessary. Confidential project details can be exchanged through a more suitable channel once appropriate arrangements are in place.

3. How and why I use personal data

I do not currently operate an email marketing list. Enquiry details will not be added to one without an appropriate lawful basis and clear information at the time.

4. Where the data comes from

Most personal data is supplied directly by you through the contact form, email, telephone, LinkedIn, meetings or project correspondence. It may also be supplied by your employer, a colleague, a referrer, a client or another professional contact, or obtained from public professional sources where this is relevant and proportionate.

5. Who personal data may be shared with

Personal data is shared only where reasonably necessary. Recipients may include:

• website hosting, email, form-processing, data-storage, backup and IT service providers;
• accountants, banks, insurers, legal advisers and other professional advisers;
• the relevant client, supplier or project participant where needed to carry out an engagement;
• HM Revenue & Customs, courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies or other authorities where disclosure is required or legally justified; and
• a successor to the consultancy if the business or relevant assets are transferred, subject to suitable confidentiality and data-protection safeguards.

Personal data is not sold. Service providers are expected to handle it only for the relevant service and with appropriate security and confidentiality.

6. Website logs, cookies and external services

Server logs and first-party measurement

The web server automatically produces technical logs when pages, images, forms or files are requested. The site may also use simple first-party page or download counters. These records help identify faults, prevent abuse and show aggregate use of the site. They are not used to build advertising profiles or follow visitors across unrelated websites.

Cookies

At the date of this notice, the public consulting pages do not use advertising cookies, remarketing pixels or third-party behavioural analytics. If non-essential cookies or comparable storage technologies are introduced, this notice and any required consent controls will be updated before they are used.

Google Fonts

The website currently requests its typefaces from Google Fonts. When your browser makes that request, Google may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser details, date, time and referring URL. Google handles that information under its own privacy terms and may process it outside the United Kingdom. Read Google’s privacy policy.

Links to other websites

The site links to services and publications operated by third parties, including LinkedIn, Google Patents and journal publishers. Those organisations receive data only when you choose to follow a link or use their service, and their own privacy notices then apply.

7. International data transfers

Some website, email, storage or professional-service providers may process personal data outside the United Kingdom. Where UK data-protection law requires a transfer safeguard, I will use a provider or arrangement that supplies an appropriate lawful mechanism. Services that you choose to visit directly, such as Google or LinkedIn, are responsible for their own international processing under their published terms.

8. How long personal data is kept

Data is kept only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose concerned:

• Enquiries that do not become projects: normally up to two years after the last meaningful contact, unless there is a continuing reason to keep them.
• Client and project records: normally six years after the engagement ends, or longer where required by a contract, legal claim, insurance condition or professional obligation.
• Accounting and tax records: for the period required by HM Revenue & Customs, generally at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline for the relevant tax year.
• Website technical logs and identifiable first-party usage records: retained only for operational, statistical and security needs, then deleted or anonymised; records connected with a security incident or legal claim may be retained for longer.

Copies may remain in secure backup archives until the relevant backup is replaced or retired. Backup material is not routinely used for any other purpose and is accessed only when needed for recovery, security or legal reasons.

9. Security

Reasonable technical and organisational measures are used to protect personal data, including access controls, secure communications where available, maintained systems and backup procedures. Access is limited to those who need the data for a legitimate purpose.

No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure. Please use an appropriate channel for particularly sensitive or commercially confidential material.

10. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of your personal data;
• ask for inaccurate or incomplete data to be corrected;
• ask for data to be erased in certain circumstances;
• ask for processing to be restricted;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive certain data in a portable format where the legal conditions apply; and
• withdraw consent at any time where consent is the lawful basis.

Rights are not absolute and may be limited by legal, contractual or record-keeping requirements. No fee is normally charged, although reasonable identity checks may be needed. A response will normally be provided within one month.

MacAlchemist Consulting does not use personal data to make solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

11. Questions and complaints

Please raise any concern directly first so that it can be investigated. Send an email with the subject “Data protection complaint” and explain what happened, the data involved and the outcome you are seeking. The complaint will be recorded, reviewed and answered without undue delay, normally within one month.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO normally asks individuals to raise the matter with the organisation first. Visit the ICO complaints service.

12. Privacy contact

13. Changes to this notice

This notice will be reviewed when the website, consultancy practices, service providers or legal requirements change. The date at the top of the page shows the latest revision. Material changes affecting existing contacts or clients will be brought to their attention where appropriate.