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Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY This Privacy Policy explains how Home Staging Association Ltd, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company number 11572029 (“HSA”, “the Association”, “we”, “us” or “our”), collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit our website, join the membership, buy from us or take part in our community (together, the “Platform”). We are the “controller” of your personal data. It should be read together with our Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct. Words with capital letters have the meaning given in the Terms and Conditions. 1. WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT 1.1 Account and membership details: your name, email address, password (stored only in scrambled form, never in plain text), chosen plan and billing period, membership status and dates, and the date you accepted our Terms, Code of Conduct and this Privacy Policy. 1.2 Business profile and directory details: your business name, logo, tagline, biography, location, services, contact email, phone number, website, social media links and portfolio images. Some of this is published in the member directory (see section 4). 1.3 Purchases and payments: what you bought, when, the amount and your email. Card and bank details are entered directly with our payment provider (Stripe) and are never stored by us. 1.4 Community content: posts, comments, messages and anything else you write or upload in the forum and other community spaces. 1.5 Enquiries and mailing lists: details you give when you contact us, join a waiting list, request to be told about a course, or subscribe to updates, including which course or page you signed up from. 1.6 Gifts and invitations: if you give a membership as a gift or use an invitation code, the names and email addresses involved. 1.7 Technical information: the basic information your browser sends to our servers (such as IP address, device and browser type, pages requested and the time), and your progress through courses and lessons. 1.8 We do not knowingly collect any special category data (such as health data), and ask that you do not post it on the Platform. 2. HOW AND WHY WE USE YOUR INFORMATION We use your information only where the law allows, on these grounds: 2.1 To provide what you signed up for (contract): creating and managing your account, giving you access to the membership and Content, taking payments, sending receipts and renewal reminders, delivering purchases and running the Platform. 2.2 To run the Association (legitimate interests): showing members in the directory, running and moderating the community, enforcing our Terms and Code of Conduct, keeping the Platform secure, preventing fraud and misuse, handling complaints, and improving our courses and website. 2.3 To keep in touch (consent or legitimate interests): sending service messages you need (such as password resets and changes to your membership) and, where you have agreed or are an existing member or customer, news, events and offers about the Association and related education. You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time using the link in the email or by contacting us. 2.4 To meet legal duties: keeping financial and tax records and responding to lawful requests. 2.5 We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you. 3. COOKIES We use only essential cookies, which keep you signed in and keep the Platform secure. These do not track you across other websites. If we add analytics or marketing cookies in future, we will ask for your consent first and update this policy. 4. WHAT IS PUBLIC AND WHAT IS PRIVATE 4.1 Directory and business page. By joining you agree that the information in your business page and directory listing, including your portfolio pictures, business name and logo, will be public on the Platform, and may be used to promote the Association and its Members on our website, social media, newsletters and other material, as set out in section 8 of the Terms and Conditions. Please only include contact details you are happy to make public. 4.2 Community spaces. What you post in the forum and other community spaces can be seen by other Members. Members must keep what others share in confidence and may not use other Members’ details for any other purpose (section 10 of the Terms and Conditions). 4.3 Everything else, including your account email, billing details and course progress, is private to you and our administrators. 4.4 If your membership ends, we will stop using your Member Content in new material within a reasonable time, and your directory listing and business page will be removed. We are not required to remove material already published or archived. 5. WHO WE SHARE INFORMATION WITH We share information only with those who help us run the Platform, and only as needed: 5.1 Payment providers (currently Stripe) to take and manage payments. 5.2 Education and payment partners. The Association works with education partners, including Paloma Harrington Limited and the Home Staging Education Centre. If you buy a course or educational product that is taken by one of them, we share what is needed to process your order, give you access and send your receipt. Payments for membership are made to Home Staging Association Ltd, and your receipt or invoice will show the company you paid. 5.3 Technology suppliers who host the Platform, store data, send emails and host video, working under our instructions. 5.4 Professional advisers, insurers, regulators, courts or the authorities, where we are required to or need to protect our rights. 5.5 A successor organisation, if the Association’s business or its rights under the Terms are transferred to another company or organisation (section 16.5 of the Terms and Conditions). Your data would continue to be protected on the same basis. 5.6 Other Members and the public, as described in section 4. 6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS Some of our suppliers are based outside the UK and the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where we transfer personal data we use safeguards approved under UK data protection law, such as adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses. 7. HOW LONG WE KEEP INFORMATION 7.1 Account and profile details: while your membership or account is active and for up to 24 months afterwards, so you can easily rejoin, unless you ask us to delete them sooner. 7.2 Purchase, payment and invoice records: for as long as the law requires for tax and accounting purposes (currently at least six years). 7.3 Community posts: while the community runs, or until you ask us to remove them, unless we need to keep them to deal with a complaint or dispute. 7.4 Mailing list details: until you unsubscribe. 7.5 Where someone has been refused or removed from the Association, we may keep a minimal record (such as a name, business name or email address) so that we can decline future sign-ups, purchases or invitations. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interest in protecting the Association, its Members and its Content, and it is not shared with anyone else. 8. KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SAFE We use sensible technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections, scrambled passwords, restricted administrator access and private storage for member-only files. No system is completely secure, so please choose a strong password, keep it private, and do not share your login (section 7.3 of the Terms and Conditions). Tell us straight away if you think your account has been misused. 9. PROTECTING OUR CONTENT To protect our courses and member-only material, and in line with section 7 of the Terms and Conditions, we may record that Content has been accessed from your account and may investigate suspected sharing, copying, scraping or misuse. This is part of our legitimate interest in protecting the Association and its Members. 10. YOUR RIGHTS We follow the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you are in the European Union or European Economic Area, we also respect your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), and the rights below apply to you in the same way. If you are in the EU or EEA you may also complain to the data protection authority in your own country. Under data protection law you have the right to: be told how your data is used; ask for a copy of your data; have inaccurate data corrected; have your data erased in certain circumstances; restrict or object to some uses of your data; receive your data in a portable format; and withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it. You may also object to direct marketing at any time. To use any of these rights, contact us using the details below. We will reply within one month. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) if you are unhappy with how we handle your data, although we would appreciate the chance to put things right first. 11. CHILDREN The Platform is for businesses and adults. It is not intended for anyone under 18 and we do not knowingly collect data from children. 12. LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES The Platform may link to other websites, including Members’ own sites and social media. We are not responsible for their privacy practices, so please read their policies. 13. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the latest version on the Platform and, where a change is important, tell you by email or on the Platform. Continuing to use the Platform after a change means you accept the updated policy. 14. CONTACT US For any question about this Privacy Policy or your personal data, or to use your rights, please contact us at info@homestaging.org.uk. Last updated: November 2026