Privacy Policy | Stowmarket Life

01

Who We Are

Stowmarket Life (“we”, “us”, or “our”) operates the website stowmarket.life (the “Service”) — a community platform featuring local event and activity listings, stories, and articles about Stowmarket. We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about how we collect, use, and share your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal data when you use our website and services, in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Data Controller: 41 Flow Ltd (trading as Stowmarket Life)

Company No. 17049682 · Registered in England & Wales

Registered office: 50 Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1RJ

For any privacy-related questions, please contact us using the details at the end of this policy.

02

What Information We Collect

Information you provide

Email address: When you sign up for our newsletter, we collect your email address to send you updates about local events and community news.
Submission contact email: When you submit a listing, you may optionally provide your email address so we can contact you with questions about your submission.
Sponsor enquiry details: When you submit a sponsor enquiry, we collect your business name and email address (required), and optionally your phone number and a message.

Information you submit

Listing details: When you use our event submission form, we collect the information you provide — title, date, time, location, price, description, and any booking link.
Listing images: You may upload an image to accompany your submission.

Listing details and images relate to the listing itself, not to you personally. If your submission is approved, these details (including any uploaded image) will be published publicly on our website.

Information collected automatically

Technical data: We collect IP addresses temporarily for security purposes, including rate limiting to prevent abuse of our systems.
Website analytics: We use privacy-focused analytics to understand how visitors use our website. This service collects only anonymized, aggregated data that cannot identify individual users or track them across websites.
Performance data: We collect website performance metrics to improve your browsing experience.
Cookies: We do not use tracking, analytics, or marketing cookies. No cookies are placed on your device when browsing our website.

03

How We Use Your Information

Newsletter communications

— Consent

Notify you when our newsletter launches and keep you informed about local listings
Share information about local events, activities, and community news
Provide stories and updates related to Stowmarket

Website security

— Legitimate interests

Prevent spam and abuse of our newsletter signup
Protect against automated attacks and misuse
Maintain the security and integrity of our systems

Website improvement

— Legitimate interests

Understand how visitors use our website
Improve website performance and user experience
Analyse traffic patterns and popular content

Listing submissions

— Legitimate interests

Review submitted listings and publish approved ones on the website
Contact submitters if we have questions about their submission (only if an email was provided)
Moderate submissions to ensure quality and relevance
Display uploaded images alongside published listings

Sponsor enquiries

— Legitimate interests

Respond to sponsorship enquiries submitted via our website
Contact potential sponsors to discuss sponsorship opportunities
Manage our sponsorship relationships and communications

Legal compliance

— Legal obligation

Comply with applicable laws and regulations
Respond to legal requests and prevent illegal activities
Maintain unsubscribe records to prevent accidental re-addition and ensure email marketing compliance

We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling based on your personal data. All decisions — such as approving or rejecting listing submissions — are made by our team.

04

How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We only share your data with trusted service providers who help us operate our website:

Database hosting provider: Securely stores your newsletter email addresses, listing submissions, and website data
Email delivery service: Handles sending newsletters and marketing communications to subscribers
Web hosting and analytics provider: Hosts our website and provides privacy-focused, anonymized usage analytics
Security and rate limiting service: Protects against spam and abuse by temporarily storing IP addresses for rate limiting

All our service providers are required to maintain appropriate security measures and only process your data as instructed by us.

Published listings

If you submit a listing and it is approved, the details you provided (title, date, location, description, and image) will be published on our website and visible to the public. Your contact email address is never published.

Legal requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

International transfers

Most of our infrastructure is hosted in the United Kingdom. However, our email delivery provider (Resend) is based in the United States. Where your data is transferred outside the UK, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place — including Standard Contractual Clauses — in compliance with UK GDPR. Your email address is the only data that may be processed outside the UK, and only for the purpose of delivering our newsletter.

05

How We Protect Your Information

We implement several security measures to protect your personal information:

Encryption: All data transmission is encrypted using industry-standard SSL/TLS protocols
Access controls: Only authorised personnel have access to your data
Rate limiting: We implement rate limiting to prevent spam and abuse
Secure infrastructure: Our data is stored on secure, professional hosting platforms
Regular updates: We keep our systems updated with the latest security patches

While we implement robust security measures, no system is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security but are committed to protecting your data using industry best practices.

06

Your Privacy Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right of access: You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete data
Right to erasure: You can request that we delete your personal information in certain circumstances
Right to restrict processing: You can ask us to limit how we use your data
Right to data portability: You can request your data in a portable format
Right to object: You can object to our processing of your data, particularly for marketing purposes
Right to withdraw consent: You can withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on consent

Exercising your rights

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details at the end of this policy. We will respond to your request within one month.

Unsubscribe from marketing

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in any marketing email we send, or by contacting us directly.

07

How Long We Keep Your Information

Newsletter subscriptions

Active subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe or request deletion. If you unsubscribe, we retain your email address with unsubscribe status for 3 years to prevent accidental re-addition from imports or admin errors, while still allowing you to voluntarily resubscribe if you choose.

IP addresses

Temporarily stored for rate limiting (typically 1 hour) then automatically deleted.

Analytics data

Our analytics service collects only anonymized, aggregated data that cannot identify individuals. This data is retained for website improvement purposes.

Listing submissions

Published listings remain on the site while they are relevant and may be removed once past. Unpublished or rejected submissions are periodically removed. Contact email addresses provided with submissions are stored alongside the listing record and removed when the listing is deleted.

Sponsor enquiries

Enquiry details are retained for as long as necessary to manage the sponsorship conversation. If no sponsorship agreement is reached, we will delete enquiry data within 12 months of last contact.

We regularly review our data retention practices and delete data when it's no longer needed.

08

Children's Privacy

Our service is not directed to children under 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately and we will delete such information.

09

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will:

Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this policy
Notify newsletter subscribers if the changes significantly affect how we handle their data
Post the updated policy on our website

10

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your privacy rights, or have concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us:

41 Flow Ltd (trading as Stowmarket Life)

Co. No. 17049682 · 50 Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1RJ

hello@stowmarket.life

We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within 48 hours and fulfil data protection requests within one month as required by UK GDPR.

Complaints

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority:

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)

Website: ico.org.uk

Phone: 0303 123 1113