Privacy Policy
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Sian Gaskell Consulting ("we", "our", "us") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and safeguard your personal data when you visit our website at https://siangaskellconsulting.com/ (the "Website") or work with us. We process personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you have any questions about it, please use the contact details at the end of this policy.
Who We Are
The data controller responsible for your personal data is Sian Gaskell, a sole trader trading as Sian Gaskell Consulting, based in Oxfordshire, UK.
We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer. Any questions about data protection can be sent to sian@siangaskellconsulting.com.
Personal Data We Collect and Process
"Personal data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ("data subject"). We collect and process different types of personal data depending on how you interact with us. This may include:
Data collected directly from you:
Contact information: name, email address, phone number, job title, organisation and billing address.
Engagement information: details of the services you enquire about or engage us for, and records of invoices and payments.
Marketing preferences: whether you have chosen to receive marketing communications from us.
Communications: records of your correspondence with us, including emails, form submissions and meeting notes.
Other information you choose to provide to us.
Automated data collection through our Website: When you visit our Website, we and our service providers may automatically collect data such as your IP address, cookie identifiers, approximate location, device and browser type, and how you interact with the Website (for example, pages viewed and clicks). Non-essential data of this kind is only collected if you accept analytics cookies. See Cookies & Analytics below.
Third-party service providers: We use trusted third-party service providers who help us operate our Website and run our business. They are only permitted to process your data on our instructions and must keep it confidential. Our Website is hosted by Squarespace. More information about Squarespace is given below.
Form Blocks
When you submit information through a form on this Website, we collect the data requested in the form so that we can track and respond to your submission. This information is processed by Squarespace, our website service provider, and is forwarded to and stored securely in our business email account.
Special Categories of Personal Data
We do not intentionally collect special category data. This includes information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, health, sex life or sexual orientation. Please do not send us this kind of information unless we have specifically asked for it. If you choose to share it with us, we will only process it with your explicit consent or where another condition under Article 9(2) of the UK GDPR applies.
How We Use Your Personal Data and Our Legal Basis
We only use your personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so. The list below explains what we use your data for and the legal basis we rely on:
To respond to your enquiries and provide our consultancy services: performance of a contract, or taking steps at your request before entering into a contract.
To issue invoices and keep financial records: performance of a contract and compliance with a legal obligation (for example, tax and accounting rules).
To communicate with you about our services, including service-related updates: performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in running our business.
To send you marketing emails about our services, events or insights: your consent. Where you are an existing client, we may rely on our legitimate interests to send you information about similar services, as permitted by PECR. You can opt out at any time.
To operate, maintain, secure and improve our Website: our legitimate interests in running a secure and effective website.
To analyse Website traffic and usage trends: your consent, given through our cookie banner.
To prevent fraud and protect the security of our Website and services: our legitimate interests.
To comply with legal requirements, regulations or lawful requests from authorities: compliance with a legal obligation.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether those interests are overridden by your rights and freedoms and concluded they are not. You can ask us for more information about this assessment.
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew it.
Automated decision-making: We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
How We Disclose Your Information
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only where necessary, with the following categories of recipient:
Squarespace and other service providers: to help us provide our services, for example website hosting, form handling, email, scheduling and invoicing. See below for more about Squarespace.
Email and marketing providers: to help us send communications to you.
Professional advisers: such as our accountant, lawyers or insurers, where necessary.
Third-party plugins and social networks: where you choose to interact with an embedded plugin, social media feature or similar service on our Website.
With your consent: where you ask or permit us to share your information with a third party.
Legal and regulatory disclosure: where disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, respond to lawful requests from authorities, protect our rights or the rights of others, or prevent fraud or other illegal activity.
Data Retention and Security
We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes we collected it for. As a guide:
Enquiries that do not lead to work: up to 2 years from our last contact.
Client and financial records: 6 years after the end of the financial year in which our engagement ended, to meet tax and legal requirements.
Marketing data: until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent. After that, we keep a suppression record so we do not contact you again.
Analytics data: in line with the retention settings of our analytics provider.
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage. These include:
Using SSL certificates (HTTPS) to encrypt data sent between your browser and our Website.
Using strong passwords and two-factor authentication on administrative accounts.
Limiting access to personal data to those who need it.
Collecting only the personal data we need for our stated purposes.
While we take reasonable steps to protect your personal data, no method of transmission over the internet or of electronic storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under UK and EU data protection law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:
Right to be informed: you have the right to clear information about how we use your personal data. This Privacy Policy provides that information.
Right of access: you can ask for confirmation of whether we process your personal data and, if so, request a copy of it, free of charge in most cases.
Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate personal data or complete incomplete data. Where we have shared incorrect data, we will tell the recipients where possible.
Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal data, for example where it is no longer needed or you have withdrawn your consent. We may need to keep some data where we have a legal obligation to do so or need it for legal claims.
Right to restriction of processing: you can ask us to limit how we use your personal data in certain situations, for example while you contest its accuracy.
Right to data portability: where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you can ask to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or ask us to transfer it to another organisation.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on our legitimate interests. You can object to direct marketing at any time, and we will always stop when asked.
Rights related to automated decision-making: you have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. We do not make such decisions.
Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, as easily as you gave it.
To exercise any of these rights, please email sian@siangaskellconsulting.com. We will respond within one month. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.
Right to lodge a complaint: If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. If you live or work in the EEA, you can complain to the supervisory authority in your country.
Squarespace Platform
Our Website is hosted by Squarespace. Squarespace acts as our processor, processing personal data on our behalf to provide its services to us. Squarespace may also act as an independent controller for certain personal data relating to your use of its services, and is responsible for processing that data in line with applicable law. For details, please see the Squarespace Privacy Policy.
International Data Transfers
Some of our service providers, including Squarespace, Google and Adobe, are based in the United States or process data outside the UK and EEA. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK or EEA, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as:
Adequacy regulations: transfers to countries that the UK Government or the European Commission has confirmed provide an adequate level of data protection.
Data Privacy Frameworks: transfers to US organisations certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, the UK Extension to it (the UK-US Data Bridge) or the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework, as applicable.
Standard contractual clauses: for countries without adequacy, the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum approved by the ICO, or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
Children's Privacy
Our services are not directed at anyone under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has given us personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.
Cookies & Analytics
This Website uses cookies and similar technologies. These are small files or pieces of text that download to your device when you visit a website. For details of the cookies set by our hosting provider, see The cookies Squarespace uses.
Strictly necessary cookies: these are always used, as they allow Squarespace to securely serve this Website to you.
Analytics and performance cookies: these are only used if you accept them through our cookie banner. You can change your choice at any time using the cookie settings on our Website.
If you accept analytics cookies, we may collect the following:
Information about your browser, network and device
The web page you visited before arriving at this Website
Your IP address
How you use this Website, including clicks, internal links, pages visited, scrolling, searches and timestamps
We use this information to understand Website traffic and activity.
Third-Party Websites and Services
Our Website may contain links to, or embedded content from, third-party websites and services. These have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for their practices. Please review their privacy policies before providing them with any personal data. This Privacy Policy covers only our own practices and the core functions of our hosting platform.
Fonts
This Website serves and renders fonts using Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts. To display this Website correctly, these providers may receive:
Information about your browser, network and device
Information about this Website and the page you are viewing
Your IP address
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices or for operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Changes take effect when they are posted, so please check this page periodically.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:
Email: sian@siangaskellconsulting.com
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Website: https://siangaskellconsulting.com/