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Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how SI SMITH CO LTD T/A TRUST PCS (“we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, and protects your personal data when you interact with our website, photocompetitionstandards.org, and utilise our advisory services (collectively, the “Services”). We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a transparent and responsible manner, in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

SI SMITH CO LTD T/A TRUST PCS

17 Whiteleather Square, Sleaford, Lincs, NG34 0QP

Contact Details: Click Here

photocompetitionstandards.org

We are the data controller responsible for your personal data collected in connection with our Services.

2. What Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data from users of our Services:

  • Contact Information: Name, email address, and any other contact details you voluntarily provide when subscribing to newsletters, making enquiries, or accessing specific resources.
  • Correspondence Data: Information contained in any communication you send to us, whether through our website, by email, post, or any other communication means.
  • Technical Data: IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. This data is collected automatically as you interact with our site.
  • Usage Data: Information about how you use our website, including the pages you view, the time you spend on pages, navigation paths, and website interaction data.
  • Marketing and Communications Data: Your preferences in receiving newsletters and other communications from us, and your communication preferences.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

We collect data from and about you through:

  • Direct Interactions: You provide us with your personal data when you:
    • Subscribe to our newsletters or updates.
    • Submit enquiries or feedback via contact forms or email.
    • Voluntarily provide information when accessing specific guides or resources.
  • Automated Technologies or Interactions: As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data and Usage Data. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please refer to our Cookie Policy (Section 11) for more details.

4. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data (Lawful Basis)

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Legitimate Interests: Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
    • Examples: Providing you with requested information or resources, managing and improving our website, understanding user engagement, preventing fraud, maintaining website security.
  • Consent: Where you have given us clear consent for a specific purpose.
    • Examples: Sending you marketing communications (e.g., newsletters) if you have explicitly opted in.
  • Legal Obligation: Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
    • Examples: Keeping records for tax purposes, responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data:

  • To provide you with the information, guides, and advisory services you request from us.
  • To send you newsletters, updates, or other communications you have subscribed to.
  • To respond to your enquiries and feedback.
  • To manage and improve our website and Services, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, and support.
  • To understand how users interact with our content and to tailor our resources to better meet their needs.
  • To administer and protect our business and Services (including security and fraud prevention).
  • To comply with any legal or regulatory obligations.

5. Disclosure of Your Personal Data

We may share your personal data with the following parties for the purposes outlined above:

  • Service Providers: Third-party providers who perform services on our behalf, such as website hosting, IT and system administration services, email service providers, and analytics providers.
  • Professional Advisers: Lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance, and accounting services.
  • Law Enforcement/Regulators: We may disclose your personal data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities. e.g. The court or Government Agency.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6. International Transfers

We may transfer your personal data outside the UK/EEA if our service providers are located in other countries. When we do so, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to your data by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK government.
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the UK government which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

7. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your data: see “Your Legal Rights” below for further information.

9. Your Legal Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These include the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”).
  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
  • Request erasure of your personal data.
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms.
  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party.
  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We keep our Privacy Policy under regular review. This version was last updated on July 15, 2025. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

11. Cookie Policy

Our website, photocompetitionstandards.org, uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your Browse experience, understand how you interact with our content, and provide certain functionalities.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

How We Use Cookies

We use cookies for the following purposes:

  • Essential/Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are crucial for the basic functionality of our website. They enable core functions like security, network management, and accessibility. You cannot opt out of these cookies as the website would not function properly without them.
  • Analytical/Performance Cookies: These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. We use Google Analytics for this purpose. These cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the website and blog, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited.
  • Functionality Cookies: These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name, and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Third-Party Cookies

In addition to our own cookies, we may also use various third-parties cookies to report usage statistics of the Service, deliver advertisements on and through the Service, and so on. We use Google Analytics for website traffic analysis and Google Ads for advertising purposes, which may place cookies.

Managing Your Cookie Preferences

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. However, if you limit the ability of websites to set cookies, you may worsen your overall user experience as it will no longer be personalised to you. It may also stop you from saving customised settings like login information.

You can typically find these settings in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser. For more information on how to manage cookies, you can visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

Consent to Cookies

When you first visit our website, you will be presented with a cookie banner or pop-up requesting your consent to the use of non-essential cookies. By continuing to use our website without changing your settings, you are consenting to our use of cookies as described in this policy. You can change your mind at any time by deleting the cookie from your browser.