Privacy Policy

The Heart Sense Research Institute is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy sets out how The Heart Sense Research Institute uses and protects any information that you give The Heart Sense Research Institute. On May 25, 2018, a new European Union (EU) data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), takes effect. The GDPR gives individuals in the EU more control over how their data is used and places certain obligations on businesses that process information of those individuals. We’ve updated our Privacy Policy to take into account the new requirements of the GDPR.

The Heart Sense Research Institute may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from April 2018.

There are two sections to the following information:

About your personal data – the type of data that is collected or used, including when, how and why
Your rights – all the ways that you can control what happens with your data

About your personal data:

We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way, for internal record keeping, or provided by you when giving us feedback.

When you make an enquiry:

The name and contact details you give and the content of your message(s) are retained for three reasons:

By your consent
As part of a ‘contract’ (only while we communicate)
For legitimate business interests – for good business practice I keep tabs on who has made contact before, the types of questions asked etc

When you enquire on our website, you provide your name, telephone/Skype ID and email address. These are the details that we will use to communicate with you about the products and services offered by The Heart Sense Research Institute that have been requested.

When you make an online purchase as a single purchase, a membership or subscription:

This is a contract for services. Your contact details are dealt with as above (consent, contract, legitimate reasons) – also these, your purchase history and the payment details (sent to The Heart Sense Research Institute from Paypal or bank transfer) are retained for six years beyond the end of the contract for legal reasons – accounting law.

If you do not want to receive such communication you can opt-out at any time by either emailing louiselivingstone@heartsenseresearch.co.uk or there will be a clear UNSUBSCRIBE option on all marketing emails we send out. Please note that there may be instances where it may be necessary for us to communicate with you, in any event, for administrative or operational reasons relating to our service.

When you attend a workshop or training:

All of the above applies. The Heart Sense Research Institute also keeps record of your attendance, your certificates earned etc on the legal bases of both contract and legitimate interest – so that the Heart Sense Research Institute can confirm your certificate status / reissue certification if required, also so that The Heart Sense Research Institute can send you updates or offers which may be of specific interest to you as an attendee/graduate.

When you work 1:1:

Client work is different. Dependent on the work, you may wish (or need) to provide personal details of a sensitive nature.

As an intake form these are retained in printed or handwritten format and include your contact details and where appropriate, signature. The sensitive nature of such documents will generally be in relation to your consultation sheets and any other notes taken during a therapy/coaching session.

As session notes these are scant memos handwritten by me for the purpose of fulfilling our contract and keeping tabs on the work during the session and from one week to the next, filed separately with only initials and date as identifiers so that no other person may connect these details alone to your personal identity. In both cases The Heart Sense Research Institute is required by law to retain these records for six years after the completion of our contract – or in the case of a minor, from six years beyond the date of their eighteenth birthday.

Other data sources:

Incoming data is also received from The Heart Sense Research Institute's website host Wix and 123.reg, and any other means that we may receive information. We may receive information from another practitioner as part of a referral. In such a case you may be unaware that the consented data transfer has taken place, and the Heart Sense Research Institute will therefore inform you of receipt within 28 days.

Sharing your data:

Your privacy is important and we will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please email us as soon as possible at louiselivingstone@heartsenseresearch.co.uk. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect. When working together, we may give out elements of your personal information to another practitioner as part of a referral. This will always only be with your personal consent.

In continuation of current UK law on confidentiality we also retain the right and in some cases the legal requirement to breach confidentiality to inform an authority such as the police or your GP of impending harm or illegality.

Site monitoring:

When you use the site we anonymously record the details of the pages you look at. This data is not personally identifiable, i.e. we can’t tell which properties you or any other person are looking at or have looked at. We use this data to monitor site traffic and analyse paths customers take through our site which enables us to improve the service we provide. This information is only used by ourselves and is not passed to any other party.

Links to third party sites:

Our site contains links to other sites. The Heart Sense Research Institute is not responsible for the privacy practices, or the content, of those websites.

Data Protection Information:

Individuals are provided with legal rights governing the use of their personal data and are known as Individual Rights under the Data Protection Act 2018. The GDPR sets out clearly what your rights are. It also lays out deadlines for a reply and other rules. You can obtain further information about data protection laws by visiting the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk.

The Heart Sense Research Institute, Unit 34337, PO Box 15113, Birmingham, B2 2NJ

Email: louiselivingstone@heartsenseresearch.co.uk www.heartsenseresearch.co.uk