Privacy Policy

Last updated: 6 October 2026

Who we are

Haroon Sohail Ghani, a sole trader trading as The Teesside Spotlight, is responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

Our address is 156 Oxford Road, Middlesbrough, TS5 5EL.

For questions about your information or to exercise your privacy rights, email info@teessidespotlight.co.uk.

Information we collect

We collect information you provide when you enquire about our services, book an advert, create an account, supply artwork or communicate with us.

This may include your name, business name, contact details, billing address, booking and order details, payment references, correspondence, artwork and approval feedback. A colleague or business representative may also provide information needed to arrange a booking on your behalf.

Our hosting provider records technical information such as IP addresses, requested pages, request times, browser information, response codes and response times. Error logs may also be recorded. We use this information to maintain the website, investigate problems and protect against misuse.

Our enquiry forms use a short-lived, hashed network identifier to limit repeated submissions.

We also process cookie consent choices and, with your permission, website analytics information as explained below.

How we use information and our lawful bases

We use personal information to:

• Respond to enquiries and requests.
• Administer bookings, accounts and payments.
• Provide design support and obtain artwork approval.
• Arrange printing and distribution.
• Communicate about services you have requested.
• Maintain and secure the website.
• Understand website use and campaign performance.
• Handle complaints, payment disputes and legal claims.
• Keep records required by law.

Where you contract with us personally, including as a sole trader, we rely on the need to take steps at your request before entering a contract and to perform that contract.

Where you represent another business, we generally rely on our legitimate interests in communicating with its representatives and providing the agreed service. We also rely on legitimate interests for proportionate security, service administration and resolving disputes.

We rely on legal obligations where we must keep or disclose information by law.

We rely on your consent for optional Google Analytics measurement and analytics cookies. We process cookie preferences to apply your choices and maintain records needed to demonstrate compliance with our consent obligations.

Information necessary to respond to an enquiry, fulfil a booking or process payment must be provided for us to carry out that request. Optional analytics consent is not a condition of using our booking or enquiry services.

Payments

Payments are processed through Stripe. We receive information needed to administer the payment, including its status and transaction references.

Full payment-card details are handled through the payment provider rather than included in our enquiry or artwork records. Stripe may process personal and technical information for payment processing, security, fraud prevention and its own legal obligations.

See Stripe’s Privacy Policy.

Enquiries to advertised businesses

If you submit an enquiry on a named advertiser’s offer page, the information in that enquiry is provided to that business so it can respond. The form identifies the intended recipient.

The advertiser is responsible for its subsequent use of your information and may have its own privacy policy.

A general enquiry to The Teesside Spotlight is used to respond to you. Making an enquiry does not automatically subscribe you to marketing emails.

Artwork and public adverts

Artwork may contain names, photographs, telephone numbers or other personal information. Please supply only content you are authorised to use.

Customer uploads are submitted for review and are not automatically published. Approved advert content may appear in the booked printed issue and any expressly agreed public preview or other placement.

We share artwork and necessary production details with the designer, printer and distributor involved in fulfilling your booking. Those suppliers do not need your entire account or payment record merely to produce or distribute an advert.

Public advert content may remain in printed copies already distributed.

Cookies and your choices

We use Cookiebot by Usercentrics to display our cookie banner and manage your preferences. Cookiebot processes information needed to record and apply those choices, including consent records and technical information.

The website uses necessary cookies and similar features for functions such as baskets, checkout, account login and remembering your cookie choices. Payment services may also use cookies and device information for payment processing and fraud prevention. Blocking necessary features may prevent those functions from working.

Our Google Analytics scripts are configured to wait until you allow Statistics cookies. You can accept optional cookies, reject them or choose your preferences through the cookie banner.

You can change or withdraw your consent using the cookie settings button on the website. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal. Your browser settings also allow you to remove cookies already stored on your device.

Cookie expiry and the retention of information on a provider’s systems are separate matters. Cookie information is available through our cookie settings and the WooCommerce cookie documentation.

Rejecting optional analytics cookies does not stop the technical processing needed to provide the website, manage consent, handle payments or protect against misuse.

Google Analytics and website measurement

With your consent, we use Google Analytics 4, connected through Site Kit by Google, to understand how visitors find and use our website, improve its content and assess website and campaign performance.

Measurement information may include:

• Pages viewed, visit times and interactions.
• Referring websites and campaign labels.
• Browser, device and language information.
• Approximate geographical location.
• Analytics identifiers associated with a browser or device.
• Successful enquiry submissions.
• Basket activity and completed orders.

Purchase measurement can include an order reference, product details, quantity, currency and order value. Enquiry measurement records that an enquiry was successfully saved; it is not intended to include the message or contact details.

We do not intentionally send names, email addresses, telephone numbers, payment-card details, artwork or enquiry contents to Google Analytics. We use redaction settings to reduce the risk of personal information being included in collected page addresses.

Analytics information is not necessarily anonymous simply because it does not contain your name.

Google Signals is currently switched off. Advertising personalisation settings do not override your cookie choices or themselves constitute your consent to personalised advertising.

If we introduce additional advertising tools, remarketing or integrations with services such as Google Ads or Meta, we will update this policy and provide the relevant information and consent controls before using them.

Google explains its processing in How Google uses information from sites that use its services and its Privacy Policy.

Search reporting, campaign links and newsletters

We use Google Search Console to review reports about how our website appears in Google Search, including search queries, impressions and clicks. These reports do not identify individual searchers to us.

Campaign labels in website links can identify a source, campaign or placement. Where we use these labels, they may appear in page addresses and hosting logs, and in analytics information when you consent to Statistics cookies. We do not put names, email addresses or other personal details into campaign labels.

Dedicated advertiser-level QR reporting and telephone-link reporting have not yet been launched. We do not record telephone calls. Opening a QR-code destination does not itself send an enquiry or subscribe you to a newsletter.

Our planned Spotlight newsletter and newsletter open/click tracking have not yet launched. Before introducing them, we will explain the provider, information used, any tracking, retention and how to unsubscribe.

A booking or enquiry does not subscribe you to marketing emails. If a link takes you to another business’s website, that business’s privacy policy applies there.

Coverage map

Our coverage map uses OpenStreetMap map images. When it loads, your browser connects to the map provider, which receives technical information such as your IP address and the requested map images.

We rely on our legitimate interest in explaining our service coverage for this use.

See the OpenStreetMap Foundation Privacy Policy.

Service providers and sharing

We use:

• Hostinger for website hosting, business email and hosting-related backup and maintenance services.
• Stripe for payment processing.
• Google for analytics and search-performance reporting.
• Cookiebot by Usercentrics for consent management.
• Design, printing and distribution suppliers needed to fulfil bookings.

WordPress, WooCommerce and other website software provide website functionality. Using software does not by itself mean that its developer receives all the information stored on our website.

Where suppliers process personal information on our behalf, we are responsible for arranging appropriate data-protection terms. Some recipients, including payment providers and advertisers receiving enquiries, may also act as independent controllers for their own purposes.

We may disclose information where legally required or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Processing outside the UK

Our website files and WordPress database are hosted by Hostinger in France. This does not mean that all email, backup, support or security processing takes place there.

Our hosting, payment, analytics and consent-management providers operate internationally. Information may be processed outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States.

Applicable transfer arrangements depend on the provider, recipient and destination. They may include UK adequacy regulations or contractual safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses with the relevant UK provisions.

Further information is available in:

• Hostinger’s Data Processing Addendum.
• Stripe’s Data Processing Agreement.
• Google’s Data Processing Terms and international transfer information.
• Cookiebot’s Privacy Policy.

Contact us to ask about the safeguards relevant to your information and how to obtain a copy.

How long we keep information

We keep information for as long as needed for its purpose, taking account of legal obligations, complaints and claims.

Enquiries that do not lead to a booking: we delete these 12 months after the last meaningful contact, unless needed for an ongoing complaint or legal claim. Relevant booking correspondence is retained with the booking records.

Orders and accounting records: retention depends on applicable tax and accounting requirements, payment disputes and legal claims. Necessary financial records may remain after an account is closed.

Uploaded artwork and working designs: we delete these 12 months after distribution, unless we have agreed to retain them for a repeat booking or they are needed for an unresolved complaint or legal claim. Necessary final proofs and approval evidence are kept with booking records.

Customer accounts: we review accounts after 24 months of inactivity and remove information that is no longer necessary. Outstanding bookings, legal obligations or claims may require some information to be retained.

Google Analytics: user and event data covered by our retention settings is configured for 14 months. Resetting user-data retention on new activity is switched off. Standard aggregated reports are not governed by the same retention setting, and cookie expiry is separate.

Cookie preferences and consent records: the CookieConsent browser cookie normally lasts for up to 12 months unless removed or renewed. Consent evidence may be retained separately by the consent-management service for administering and demonstrating choices, subject to its applicable retention arrangements.

Technical logs and backups: retention depends on troubleshooting, security needs and the provider’s operational cycles. Deleting information from the active website may not immediately remove it from an existing backup.

Hostinger confirmed the following for our account on 29 September 2026:

• Mailbox-access and email-delivery logs are retained for 30 days. This does not mean that emails stored in our mailbox are deleted after 30 days.
• Website files and database backups are taken weekly. The latest seven weekly backups are retained within a maximum 60-day window. This does not describe email backups or separately downloaded copies.
• Website access, error, security and infrastructure logs may be retained according to operational, troubleshooting, security, abuse-prevention and legal requirements. Fixed periods for these categories have not been supplied to us.

We assess whether information is still needed against these criteria. Contact us about the retention of a particular record or to request deletion. We will explain any reason it must be kept.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you can request access to your personal information, correction, erasure, restriction of processing or portability.

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. Contact us so we can consider your objection and explain how it applies to your circumstances. You can also object to the use of your information for direct marketing.

Where processing relies on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Use the website’s cookie settings button for cookie choices, or contact us for other consent-based processing.

Some information may still need to be retained for legal obligations or claims. We may request proportionate information to verify your identity before responding.

Email info@teessidespotlight.co.uk to exercise your rights or raise a concern.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office through its complaints page.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when our practices change and provide further notice where appropriate. The latest version will be available on this website.