Privacy and Cookies

Tech Educators Ltd. ("us", "we", or "our") operates the https://techeducators.co.uk website (the "Service").

This page explains what personal data we collect through our website, how we use it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it.

What this policy covers. This policy covers your use of our website, enquiries you make through it, and our marketing. If you enrol on one of our courses, the information we hold about you as a learner is covered by our separate Learner Privacy Notice. It explains what we collect for funded provision, what we share with the Department for Education and awarding bodies, and how long we keep it.

Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used here have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, accessible from https://techeducators.co.uk.

Managing your cookie choices. You can change or withdraw your cookie consent at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page.

Definitions

Personal data: data about a living individual who can be identified from those data, or from those and other information either in our possession or likely to come into our possession.

Special category data: personal data about your health, disability, race or ethnic origin, religion, sex life or sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, or genetic or biometric data. Extra protections apply to it.

Usage data: data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself, for example the duration of a page visit.

Cookies and similar technologies: small pieces of data stored on or read from your device. In this policy "cookies" includes browser cookies, local storage, pixels and tracking scripts, because the same rules apply to all of them.

Data controller: a person or organisation that determines the purposes for which and the manner in which personal data are processed.

Data processor: any person or organisation, other than an employee of the data controller, that processes data on behalf of the data controller and on its instructions.

Joint controllers: two organisations that together determine the purposes and means of processing, and are each responsible for it.

Data subject: any living individual who is the subject of personal data.

User: the individual using our Service.

For the personal data described in this policy, Tech Educators Ltd. is the data controller, except where this policy says we are joint controllers with an advertising platform, which is explained in "Who we share your data with".

Information we collect

Personal data you give us

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you, including:

• Email address
• First name and last name
• Phone number
• The course or programme you are interested in
• Your postcode, where you are checking eligibility for a funded course
• Anything else you choose to tell us in a message

Please do not include health, disability or other sensitive details in a free-text message field. You do not need to give us that information to make an enquiry, and we would rather discuss any support needs with you directly. If you do include it, see "Special category data" below.

Usage data

We may also collect information about how the Service is accessed and used, including:

• Your computer's Internet Protocol address (IP address)
• Browser type and version
• Pages visited
• Time and date of visits
• Time spent on pages
• Unique device identifiers
• Other diagnostic data

Most of this is collected through the cookies and tracking technologies described below, and, apart from what is needed to keep the site running and secure, only with your consent.

Payments

All financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider, Stripe, which acts as our processor for payment processing and as its own controller for fraud prevention and its regulatory obligations. You can review their privacy policy at https://stripe.com/gb/privacy. We share information with Stripe only to the extent necessary for processing payments and refunds, and for dealing with complaints.

When you submit an enquiry form

This section explains in detail what happens when you complete a contact, enquiry or application form on our website, because more than one company is involved in handling it.

What we collect: your name, email address, phone number, the course you are asking about, your postcode where relevant to funding eligibility, and anything you tell us in your message. On our schools programme form we ask for your role and your school or organisation instead, because that form is for the people who commission the programme.

What we use it for: to reply to you, to send you the course information you asked for, to check whether you may be eligible for a funded place, and to keep a record of our correspondence with you.

Our lawful basis: taking steps at your request before entering into a contract. We do not need your consent to reply to an enquiry you made.

Marketing is separate. We will only send you marketing about our other courses if you ask us to, or if you tick the marketing box on the form. That box is never pre-ticked, and you do not have to tick it to submit an enquiry or to get a reply. Your consent to marketing is recorded separately from your enquiry, and you can withdraw it at any time: every marketing email has a one-click unsubscribe link, every marketing text tells you how to stop, and you can also email us using the details below. Withdrawing marketing consent does not affect our ability to reply to an enquiry you have already made.

Who processes your enquiry on our behalf

Each of the following companies acts as our processor under a written contract that requires them to act only on our instructions.

Artificial intelligence

We use AI assistants inside our business accounts with Google Workspace and Anthropic to help our team draft replies, summarise enquiries and prepare course information. In both cases we use business or enterprise plans under contracts that prohibit the provider from using your information to train their models, and our staff are instructed not to put enquiry information into personal or consumer AI accounts.

A member of our team reviews and sends every reply. AI is not used to decide anything about you, including whether you are eligible for a course or a funded place. It is used only to help our team write and summarise.

How long we keep it: see the retention table below.

Special category data

We do not ask for special category data through this website, and we ask you not to volunteer it in free-text fields.

If you do tell us something about your health, a disability or a learning need in an enquiry, we treat your act of telling us as your explicit consent to us using that information for the limited purpose of responding to you and discussing support with you. We remove it from our records where it is not needed, and you can ask us to remove it at any time. We do not use it for marketing, we do not use it in the prioritisation described below, and we do not share it with advertising platforms.

If you go on to enrol, any information about support needs, health or protected characteristics is handled under our Learner Privacy Notice, which sets out the specific conditions we rely on for funding returns, safeguarding and equality monitoring.

How we use your data, and our lawful basis

We rely on one lawful basis for each purpose. Where a purpose depends on cookies, we also need your consent to the cookies themselves before that processing can begin. This is set out in the cookie section.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object. You can do this at any time using the contact details below, and we will stop unless we can show compelling grounds to continue. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time and we will stop.

Automated prioritisation of enquiries

We score and prioritise enquiries automatically. The score is based on things such as the course you asked about, your postcode, whether your details suggest you may be eligible for a funded place, and how you have engaged with our emails and website. We use it to decide who to contact first and which information to send.

To be clear about what this does and does not do:

• It affects the order and manner in which we contact you. That is a form of profiling, and you can object to it at any time using the contact details below. If you object, we will take you out of the scoring and handle your enquiry manually.
• It does not decide anything about your place on a course. Eligibility and admission are decided by a member of our team who reviews your circumstances. No decision about your access to a course, or to a funded place, is made by automated means alone.
• It does not use AI, and it does not use special category data. It is a rule-based score. If you would like your score, the reasons for it, or any decision about you explained or reviewed by a person, contact us and we will do that.
• The people it is applied to are adults. Our courses are for people aged 19 and over, no one under 18 enrols with us directly, and we hold no information at all about anyone under 16. See "Children and young people".

We keep a record of how this scoring works and review it for unfair outcomes, including whether using postcode as an input disadvantages people from particular areas or backgrounds.

Where we get data we did not collect from you

If you are a business contact, we may obtain your professional contact details, such as your name, job title, employer and business email address, from Apollo.io, which compiles business contact information from publicly available sources and its own data partners. We use this to contact employers, schools, colleges and other organisations about partnership and training opportunities.

Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in business-to-business marketing, and we keep a written assessment of that balance which you can ask to see. Where you are a sole trader or a partnership, we treat you as an individual subscriber and will only send you marketing with your consent.

Where we hold information about you that we obtained this way, we will tell you within one month of obtaining it, or at the point we first contact you, whichever is sooner. You can object at any time and we will remove you and add you to a suppression list so you are not re-added by a later import.

Apollo.io also provides the website visitor tracking described in the cookie section below. That is a separate activity from the contact data described here.

Apollo.io's privacy policy: https://www.apollo.io/privacy-policy

Cookie consent and how your choices are applied

When you first visit our website, you will see a cookie consent banner that allows you to accept all cookies, reject all non-essential cookies, or choose category by category. Rejecting is presented as prominently as accepting. Nothing other than the essential cookies listed below is set, and no tracking script other than those listed as essential is loaded, until you have made a choice and that choice permits it.

Your choice is recorded in three places: in your browser so the site can apply it immediately, in a record we keep so that we can demonstrate what you consented to and when, and in the consent signals we pass to Google's tags through Google Consent Mode v2, which defaults every advertising and analytics permission to "denied" until you grant it.

Every non-essential cookie and tracking script on this site, including those provided by HubSpot, Meta and Apollo.io, is loaded by our own consent logic and will not load unless the matching category has been granted.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page. Withdrawing is as easy as giving consent, and takes effect immediately. We will also ask you again after six months, so that a choice you made long ago is not assumed to still hold.

Cookies and tracking technologies

The cookies and similar technologies we use fall into the following categories. Names and lifetimes are set by the providers concerned and can change; this table reflects our most recent check.

Essential

Necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They are only set in response to actions you take, such as recording your cookie preferences or submitting a form. They are not used for analytics or advertising.

Analytics: set only with your consent

These help us understand how visitors interact with our website.

Google Analytics data is processed by Google as our processor. You can also opt out of Google Analytics across all websites by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

HubSpot's tracking links your anonymous browsing on our site to your CRM record if you subsequently submit an enquiry. If you do not want that, reject analytics cookies.

Advertising and attribution: set only with your consent

Used to measure our advertising, to attribute enquiries to the campaign that referred you, and to show relevant ads to people who have visited us.

The te_attr attribution cookie is set only if you accept advertising cookies. The website works in the same way whether you accept or reject them.

We do not currently use LinkedIn, Reddit or Microsoft Advertising tags on this website. If we introduce them, we will add them to this table before they go live.

Tag management and server-side processing

We use Google Tag Manager (GTM) to load and manage the analytics and advertising tags described above. GTM itself does not set cookies or collect personal data; it loads other tags according to rules we define, including the consent rules described above.

Some of our analytics data is processed through a server-side Google Tag Manager container, which means certain data is sent from our server to the analytics and advertising platforms rather than directly from your browser. Server-side tagging can improve page performance and gives us more control over what is shared with third parties. It is subject to exactly the same consent rules: if you have not consented, nothing is sent.

Blocking and deleting cookies

Most browsers allow you to refuse or delete cookies, and you can usually manage them in your browser settings. Blocking all cookies may affect how our website works. For our site specifically, the Cookie settings link in the footer is the simplest way to change your mind.

How long we keep your data

Where a retention period has expired we delete the data, or anonymise it so it can no longer be linked to you. Deletion is applied across the systems listed in this policy, not only our own. Copies may persist in encrypted backups for up to 90 days after deletion, after which they are overwritten.

Transfers outside the United Kingdom

We are based in the United Kingdom and your data is held here or in the European Economic Area wherever possible.

Some of our service providers process data outside the UK and EEA, principally in the United States. Where that happens, the transfer is covered by one or more of the following safeguards, as required by UK data protection law:

• UK adequacy regulations, which cover transfers to the European Economic Area
• The UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where the provider is certified under it
• The UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA)
• The UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses

Where we rely on the IDTA or the Addendum, we carry out and document a transfer risk assessment for that provider.

The providers concerned include Google, Meta, HubSpot, Apollo.io, Stripe, Twilio, Twilio SendGrid, Anthropic, Supabase, Vercel, ClickUp and n8n.

We keep a register of which safeguard applies to each provider. You can ask us for the entry for any particular provider using the contact details below.

Who we share your data with

We may disclose your personal information to:

• Our staff, who access it only where their role requires it
• Our accountants, auditors, insurers and legal advisers, where necessary for them to advise or act for us
• The third-party service providers listed below
• The Department for Education, the funding body and awarding organisations, where you enrol on a funded or accredited course. This is covered in full by our Learner Privacy Notice

Tech Educators Ltd. is not part of a group of companies and does not share your data with affiliated businesses.

We will not supply your personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing without your express consent.

Business transaction. If Tech Educators Ltd. is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your personal data may be transferred. We will provide notice before your personal data is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Legal requirements. We may disclose your personal data to comply with legal obligations, protect and defend our rights or property, prevent wrongdoing in connection with the Service, protect the personal safety of users or the public, or protect against legal liability.

Providers who process data on our behalf

Each of these acts as our processor under a written contract. They have access to personal data only to perform tasks on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

Platforms that are not our processors

The following companies do not act solely on our instructions. They process data collected through their tags on our website for their own purposes as well as ours, including improving and securing their own advertising systems. We only load their tags if you consent to advertising cookies.

Our joint controller arrangement with Meta. Where the Meta Pixel collects data on our website, we and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited are joint controllers for that collection and for sending it to Meta. We are responsible for giving you this information and for obtaining your consent before the pixel loads. Meta is responsible for everything it does with the data afterwards, and for handling your rights in respect of that. The essence of this arrangement is set out in Meta's Controller Addendum, which forms part of its business tools terms. You can exercise your rights against Meta directly through your Facebook or Instagram settings, or contact us and we will pass your request on.

Security of your data

The security of your data is important to us. We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it, including access controls, multi-factor authentication on our business systems, encryption in transit and at rest, and restricting access to personal data to staff who need it for their role. No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Access and receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Have inaccurate personal data corrected
• Request deletion of your personal data
• Object to processing, including profiling, where we rely on legitimate interests
• Object to direct marketing at any time, with no need to give a reason
• Restrict how we process your personal data
• Obtain a copy of your personal data in a commonly used electronic format
• Withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent

Some of these rights are qualified. For example, we may not be able to delete data we are required to keep for funding, tax or audit purposes, and we may keep a minimal record of you on our suppression list so that we do not contact you again. Where we cannot do what you have asked, we will tell you why.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at ku.oc.srotacudehcet@ycavirp. We will respond within one month. If your request is complex, or you have made several, we may extend that by up to two further months. We will tell you within the first month if that happens, and why. We may ask you to verify your identity before we respond.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your data or your request, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or by calling 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to resolve it with you first.

Links to other sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Children and young people

We work with young people from the age of 11, and we only ever do so through schools, colleges and partner organisations. No one under 18 enrols with us directly. Our funded courses are for people aged 19 and over, and where a course is bought commercially the buyer is an adult.

We do not collect personal data from anyone under the age of 16.

Pupils on our school and college programmes

Where we deliver a programme in a school or college, the school or college holds its pupils' information, not us. We do not ask for, receive or keep pupil names, contact details or individual records. Where we need to know how a programme went, we receive it as totals and summaries that do not identify anyone.

Where a funder requires participation figures, including the number of girls taking part, the school gives us the figure from its own records. We hold the date, the school, the year group and the counts, and nothing else alongside them.

We do not photograph, film or name a pupil under 16 for a case study, for our marketing or in a report to a funder. Where a school runs its own consent process and gives us material, we use it only on the terms the school sets.

The one exception is safeguarding. If we become concerned about a young person's safety during a session, we will record the minimum needed and pass it to the school's designated safeguarding lead the same day. Protecting a young person comes before minimising information.

This website

Our website is aimed at adults, because our courses are. Rather than ask every visitor to prove their age, we make clear who each course and each form is for.

• Every course page says who the course is for.
• Our schools programme enquiry form asks for your role and your school or organisation, because it is meant for the people who commission the programme rather than for pupils.
• We do not ask you to declare your age. Our courses are for adults, we collect only what answering your enquiry requires, and asking everyone to state their age would mean collecting more information in order to protect less.

If we find out that someone who contacted us is under 16, we delete their details, and we ask them to have a parent, guardian or teacher get in touch with us instead.

If we have got this wrong

If you are a parent, guardian or teacher and believe we hold personal data about someone under 16, please contact us at ku.oc.srotacudehcet@ycavirp and we will delete it.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the effective date at the top. Where changes are significant, we will also notify you by email or a prominent notice on our Service.

A summary of previous versions is kept at the end of this page.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us:

• For data protection matters, including requests to exercise your rights: ku.oc.srotacudehcet@ycavirp
• General enquiries by email: ku.oc.srotacudehcet@nimda
• By visiting: https://techeducators.co.uk/contact
• By phone: 532256 30610

The privacy address reaches our Data Protection Lead, who is responsible for data protection at Tech Educators. We have assessed whether we are required to appoint a statutory Data Protection Officer under Article 37 of the UK GDPR, concluded that we are not, and keep a record of that assessment. We review it when our processing changes.

Our details

Tech Educators Ltd. operates this website and is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy, except where this policy states that we are joint controllers with an advertising platform.

• Registered in England and Wales under company number 13790128
• Registered office: FUEL Studios, Kiln House, Pottergate, Norwich, NR2 1DX
• Principal place of business: FUEL Studios, Kiln House, Pottergate, Norwich, NR2 1DX
• Registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office, registration reference ZB299484. Our entry can be viewed at https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/ZB299484
• Contact: ku.oc.srotacudehcet@nimda or 532256 30610

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