Privacy Policy
Last updated: 23 September 2026
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, a directory of local businesses, 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: 41Flow Ltd (trading as Stowmarket Life)
Company No. 17049682 · Registered in England & Wales
Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office · Registration ZC139851
Registered office (Companies House): 50 Princes Street, Ipswich, IP1 1RJ
For any privacy-related questions, please contact us using the details at the end of this policy.
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.
- Business claims and submissions: When you claim a listing or submit a business, we collect the contact details you provide, such as your name, email address and optional phone number, along with your message and proposed business details. We use these to review the submission, verify your connection to the business and tell you the outcome. For a manual claim, we also record the verification method and review outcome.
- Business owner account: An account can be created when you request a sign-in code, before a claim or new business submission is approved. We store your email address, your submissions and which listings you can manage. Having an account does not give you access to a listing until your connection to it has been verified or an owner has invited you. The listing's primary owner can see who else has access.
- Pro payments: Stripe hosts our checkout and billing portal and collects your payment details, billing name and full billing address. We send Stripe your email address and references that link the purchase to your account and business. We store customer and subscription references, subscription status, billing frequency, renewal or end dates, and discount details. We do not store your full card number or card security code.
- Review cards: If you set up a review card, we store its permanent link, the Google review destination you provide and the Google place identifier where available. These let the printed code continue directing customers to the right review page. We do not count scans or build a history of who scans a card.
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.
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 use strictly necessary cookies only. If you sign in to a business owner account or the admin area, we place a session cookie so you stay signed in as you move between pages. We do not use tracking, analytics, or marketing cookies, and we do not use cookies to build a profile of you or follow you across other websites. Browsing the public site without signing in places no cookies on your device.
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
Business directory listings
— Legitimate interests- Publish a directory of businesses trading in and around Stowmarket, compiled from public records and our own research
- Keep listings accurate, and remove any listing when the business asks us to
Business claims and owner accounts
— Legitimate interests and contract- Review submissions and verify a claimant's connection to a business to prevent unauthorised changes (legitimate interests)
- Run your account, handle the submissions you make and let you manage listings you have access to (contract)
- Contact you about your claim, submission, account or listing
Pro subscriptions and review cards
— Contract- Process subscription payments through Stripe and provide the Pro features you buy
- Keep your plan status up to date and send service messages about your subscription
- Maintain the review link you set up so printed review cards continue to work
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
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
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.
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 and automatically deleted within 2 hours. Where we limit requests by email address, such as sign-in and verification codes, the address is held for rate limiting for up to 2 days.
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. A contact email address provided with a submission is stored separately from the public listing, visible only to our team, and deleted 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.
Business claims
Details of an unsuccessful or abandoned claim are deleted within 6 months. Where a claim succeeds, the contact details become part of your owner account.
Business owner accounts
Kept while your account is open. You can delete your account at any time from your dashboard, which removes your account and your access to any listing. The business listing itself may remain in the directory — deleting your account is not the same as asking us to remove the listing, and you can ask us to do both.
Removed business listings
When we remove a listing at a business's request, we delete it and do not add it back.
Pro billing records
Our subscription record stays with the business after a subscription ends or an owner's account is removed. It records the last subscription status and customer reference, so an owner whose subscription lapsed can reuse their billing account if they subscribe again. If the owner's account is deleted, a new subscription starts a new billing account. A replacement owner does not inherit the previous owner's billing access. Permanently deleting the business removes our subscription record; it does not erase Stripe's payment and invoice records, which Stripe retains under its own policy and legal obligations.
Review-card links
Once set up, the card's link and Google destination remain stored after Pro ends or the business listing is removed, including permanent deletion. This keeps cards already printed working. Removing the listing does not disable that review link. Contact us if you have a data-protection request concerning it.
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.
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
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:
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