Privacy Policy

1.  INTRODUCTION

This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site www.storieswithoutshame.com.

By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 13 years of age.

Stories Without Shame Ltd is the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

Contact Details

Our full details are:

Full name of legal entity: Stories Without Shame Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales with registered number 13571307

Email address: hello@storieswithoutshame.com

Postal address: Stories Without Shame Ltd, 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF

It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing us at hello@storieswithoutshame.com.

2.  WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU, FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND ON WHAT GROUND WE PROCESS IT

Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymised data.

We may process the following categories of personal data about you depending on how you interact with us:

Communication Data

This includes any communication that you send to us whether that be through the contact form on our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send us. This may also include enquiries about workshops, coaching, hypnotherapy, podcast participation, street interviews, collaborations or other services. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.

Customer & Corporate Client Contact Data

This includes data relating to any purchases of services, events, workshops, coaching, hypnotherapy sessions or other paid offerings, such as your name, title, billing address, email address, business email address, phone number, contact details, social media handle, job title, organisation/business name, purchase details, booking details and payment information (such as transaction confirmation, payment status, billing details, invoice details, amount paid, refund status or partial card information such as the last four digits). Payment processing may be handled by third-party payment providers such as Stripe and/or Eventbrite, and we do not store full payment card details unless expressly stated. We process this data to supply the services you have purchased, administer your booking, communicate with you about your purchase and keep records of such transactions. Our lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps at your request to enter into such a contract.

User Data

This includes data about how you use our website and any online services together with any data that you post for publication on our website or through other online services. We process this data to operate our website and ensure relevant content is provided to you, to ensure the security of our website, to maintain back-ups of our website and/or databases and to enable publication and administration of our website, other online services and business. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business.

Technical Data

This includes data about your use of our website and online services such as your IP address, details about your browser, length of visit to pages on our website, referral source, page views and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website, time zone settings and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. The source of this data is from our analytics tracking system. We process this data to analyse your use of our website and other online services, to administer and protect our business and website, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business and to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.

Marketing Data

This includes data about your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences. We process this data to enable you to partake in our promotions such as free resources, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of this advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent, contract or our legitimate interests which in this case are to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.

We may use Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests which is to grow our business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow our business or for direct marketing).

We may also use Communications Data, Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.

Newsletter and Free Resource Data

This includes your name, email address and any other information you provide when you sign up to our newsletter, download a free resource, register your interest in our content or otherwise ask to receive updates from us. We process this data to send you the newsletter, provide the resource you requested, send related content and manage your marketing preferences. Our lawful ground for this processing is consent and/or our legitimate interests in providing relevant content and growing our business. Where required by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, we will only send electronic marketing communications with your consent or where the soft opt-in applies.

Podcast Guest and Interview Data

This includes personal data provided by or about podcast guests and interviewees, including name, contact details, social media handles, guest biography, professional or personal background information, headshot, image, voice, likeness, audiovisual recordings, interview responses, transcripts, quotes, captions, clips, promotional materials, and other content created from or in connection with a podcast interview. We process this data to assess guest enquiries, arrange and conduct podcast interviews, edit and produce podcast episodes, publish and promote podcast content (including on our website, social media channels, video-sharing platforms and other online channels) and communicate with guests. Our lawful ground for this processing is consent and/or our legitimate interests in creating, publishing and promoting podcast content. Where the interview includes sensitive data, we rely on explicit consent for that sensitive data.

Street Interview Data

This includes personal data collected from people who take part in street interviews, including name, contact details, image, voice, likeness, audiovisual recordings, interview responses, screenshots, still images, transcripts, captions, clips, quotes and other content created from or in connection with the interview. We process this data to record, edit, publish, share and promote street interview content, including on our website, social media channels, video-sharing platforms and other online channels. Our lawful ground for this processing is consent. Where the interview includes sensitive data, we rely on explicit consent for that sensitive data.

Collaboration Enquiries Data

This includes personal data provided by a potential collaborator, including name, contact details, professional or personal background information, headshot, image, voice, likeness, audiovisual recordings, quotes, captions, clips and other content created from or in connection with a collaboration. We process this data to assess collaboration enquiries, arrange and conduct collaborations, edit and produce collaboration content and communicate with the community/consumers. Our lawful ground for this processing is consent and/or our legitimate interests in creating, publishing and promoting the collaboration content. Where the collaboration includes sensitive data, we rely on explicit consent for that sensitive data.

Coaching and Hypnotherapy Client Data

This includes personal data provided by clients who enquire about or receive coaching and/or hypnotherapy services, including name, contact details, booking information, payment information, intake form responses, personal circumstances, goals, wellbeing information, relevant medical history, session notes, communications relating to your sessions, feedback, testimonials, follow-up emails and any other information you choose to provide in connection with the services. This may include sensitive data, such as information about your physical or mental health, emotional wellbeing, trauma, sexuality, religious or philosophical beliefs, or other sensitive matters that you choose to disclose to us. We process this data to assess suitability, provide coaching and/or hypnotherapy services, manage bookings, communicate with you, keep appropriate records, administer our business, comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, protect our business, obtain appropriate professional supervision and establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary. Our lawful basis for processing ordinary personal data is usually that it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you, our legitimate interests in providing and managing our services and business, maintaining professional standards, receiving supervision, compliance with legal obligations where applicable, and, in urgent situations, protecting your vital interests or the vital interests of another person. Where we process special category data, we will usually rely on your explicit consent and/or another applicable condition under data protection law. As part of good practice, we may discuss client work anonymously with a supervisor or in group supervision for the purposes of professional support, reflective practice, quality assurance and maintaining safe and ethical practice. Wherever possible, we will remove or avoid sharing information that identifies you. If it is necessary to share any information from which you could be identified, we will only share what is necessary and proportionate, and only with individuals who are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations. If, during the course of providing services to you, you disclose information that gives rise to a safeguarding concern, including where we believe that you or another person may be at risk of serious harm, we may process and, where appropriate, share relevant information with emergency services, healthcare professionals, safeguarding authorities, law enforcement, or another appropriate person or organisation. We will only share information that we consider necessary and proportionate in the circumstances, and we will usually seek to discuss this with you first unless doing so would increase the risk of harm, prejudice safeguarding action, or not be reasonably practicable in the circumstances.

Event and Workshop Customer & Corporate Participant Data

This includes personal data provided when you book, attend or participate in our events or workshops, including name, contact details, booking details, payment information, attendance information, job role, accessibility or support needs (if you choose to provide them), dietary requirements (where relevant), photographs, video or audio recordings (where applicable), feedback, testimonials, follow-up emails and any information you choose to share during or in connection with the event or workshop. We process this data to administer the event or workshop, communicate with you, provide the event or workshop, manage attendance and keep appropriate records. Our lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract and/or our legitimate interests in running and managing our events and workshops. Where you choose to provide sensitive data, we rely on your explicit consent for processing that sensitive data. If, during the course of providing services to you, you disclose information that gives rise to a safeguarding concern, including where we believe that you or another person may be at risk of serious harm, we may process and, where appropriate, share relevant information with emergency services, healthcare professionals, safeguarding authorities, law enforcement, or another appropriate person or organisation. We will only share information that we consider necessary and proportionate in the circumstances, and we will usually seek to discuss this with you first unless doing so would increase the risk of harm, prejudice safeguarding action, or not be reasonably practicable in the circumstances.

Social Media Data

This includes personal data that you provide to us or make available when you interact with us on social media platforms, including your name, username or handle, profile information, comments, messages, reactions, shares, tags, images, videos, testimonials, feedback and other information you choose to share with us. We process this data to respond to your enquiries, engage with our audience, manage and grow our business, promote our products and services, understand how people interact with our content, improve our marketing and communications, and protect our business and online community. Our lawful basis for this processing is usually our legitimate interests in running, promoting and developing our business and engaging with customers, prospective customers and followers. Where we use your content, image, story, testimonial or other identifiable contribution in our own marketing or promotional materials, we will rely on your consent where required. If you provide information that includes sensitive data, such as information about your health, beliefs, ethnicity, sexuality or other sensitive matters, we will only process that information where we have a lawful basis and an additional condition under data protection law, such as your explicit consent or where you have clearly made the information public. Where safeguarding-related concerns arise, we may process relevant personal data to assess and respond to those concerns, keep appropriate records, protect individuals from harm, comply with any legal or regulatory obligations that apply to us, and establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary. Our lawful basis for this processing may include our legitimate interests, compliance with legal obligations where applicable, and, in urgent situations, protecting someone’s vital interests.

Required Processing

Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.

We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.

Purposes of Processing
We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. For more information on this please email us at hello@storieswithoutshame.com. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.

Where required by data protection law, we will consider any link between the original and new purpose, the context in which the data was collected, your reasonable expectations, the nature of the data, the possible impact on you, and any appropriate safeguards. Under the UK GDPR, certain further processing purposes may be treated as automatically compatible, including where processing is necessary for safeguarding, protecting vital interests, responding to emergencies, preventing or detecting crime, or complying with certain public interest requirements. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will tell you and explain the lawful basis that allows us to do so.

Sensitive Data, Criminal Conviction Data and Automated Processing

We may process special category/sensitive data where you choose to provide it to us or where it is necessary in connection with the services or content you are involved in. We may process this data in connection with coaching and hypnotherapy services, workshops, events, podcast interviews, street interviews and other Stories Without Shame content.  This may include information about your physical or mental health, wellbeing, medical history, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions or other sensitive personal information that you choose to disclose.  We require your explicit consent for processing sensitive data. Where relevant, we will ask you to confirm your explicit consent separately, for example when you complete an intake form, sign an interview release, take part in an interview or otherwise submit sensitive information to us.  You are not required to provide sensitive data unless it is necessary for the relevant service or unless you choose to disclose it as part of an interview, workshop, coaching or hypnotherapy process.

We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

Automated decision making

We do not carry out automated decision making or any type of automated profiling.

3.  HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may collect data about you by you providing the data directly to us (for example by filling in forms on our site or by sending us emails). We may automatically collect certain data from you as you use our website by using cookies and similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for more details about this www.storieswithoutshame.com/cookie-policy.

4.  MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Our lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).

Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), we may send you marketing communications from us if (i) you made a purchase or asked for information from us about our goods or services or (ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since. Under these regulations, if you are a limited company, we may send you marketing emails without your consent. However, you can still opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time.

We will never share your personal details with any third party for their own marketing purposes.

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by emailing us at hello@storieswithoutshame.com at any time.

If you opt out of receiving marketing communications this opt-out does not apply to personal data provided as a result of other transactions, such as purchases, etc.

5.  DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:

  • Service providers who provide IT and system administration services and marketing services.

  • Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers.

  • Government bodies that require us to report processing activities.

  • Third parties to whom we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets.

  • Professional supervisors or supervision groups, where this is necessary for professional support, reflective practice, quality assurance or safe and ethical practice, and where appropriate confidentiality obligations apply.

We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6.  INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We are subject to the provisions of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) that protect your personal data. Where we transfer your data to third parties outside of the UK, we will ensure that certain safeguards are in place to ensure a similar degree of security for your personal data. As such:

  • We may transfer your personal data to countries that the United Kingdom regulatory authorities have approved as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data; or

  • If we use US-based providers that are part of the UK-US Data Bridge (the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework), we may transfer data to them, as they have equivalent safeguards in place; or

  • Where we use certain service providers who are established outside of the UK, we may use specific contracts approved by the ICO (the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses), or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the UK government, which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

If none of the above safeguards are available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.

7.  DATA SECURITY

We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.

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

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.

When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.

For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they stop being customers.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9.  YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.

If you are within the UK, you can see more about these rights at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at hello@storieswithoutshame.com.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

When responding to a request to access your personal data, we are only required to carry out searches that are reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances (as now expressly recognised in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025). This means we will take into account factors such as the nature of the information sought, the context in which it is held, any difficulty involved in locating it and the potential benefit to you of receiving it.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month of receiving the request (or, where applicable, of receiving the identity verification information or clarification we have asked for - the response period is paused, or "stopped", while we wait for that information, in line with the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025).

Occasionally it may take us longer than one month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests, in which case we may extend the response period by up to a further two months. We will notify you within one month of receiving your request if an extension is needed and explain why.

10.  HOW TO COMPLAIN

If you have a complaint about how we handle your personal data, we ask that you contact us first so that we can try to resolve it for you.

You can submit a data protection complaint to us by:

We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it. We will investigate your complaint without undue delay, keep you informed of our progress, and communicate the outcome to you clearly with sufficient detail for you to understand how we reached our conclusion.

If you are within the UK and are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).

11.  THIRD-PARTY LINKS

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

12.  COOKIES

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see www.storieswithoutshame.com/cookie-policy.