Privacy Policy

What we collect

When you become a member or subscribe to our newsletter we collect the details you give us: your name, business details, contact information, photographs you upload and your email address. Readers browsing the magazine give us nothing personal at all.

How we use it

Member details are used for one purpose: producing and publishing your editorial — your features, profile, adverts and social content — and running your membership. Newsletter emails are used only to send you the fortnightly edition. We never sell or rent personal data to anyone.

Business contact data (prospects & outreach)

Separately from our members, we hold limited business contact information about UK companies we may approach about S/ME — such as company name, business address, a business email and the name or role of a business contact. We gather this only from publicly available sources, including Companies House, official registers and public business listings. We never invent contact details.

Why: to tell relevant UK businesses about S/ME membership and editorial opportunities (business-to-business marketing).

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in promoting S/ME to relevant businesses, balanced against your rights. Where the law requires consent — for example for sole traders and individuals — we obtain it before sending marketing.

Your choices: you can opt out or object at any time. Every message includes an opt-out, and once you opt out we keep you on a suppression list so you're not contacted again.

Retention: we keep prospect data only as long as needed for this purpose and review it regularly (currently up to six months for prospects that don't respond), after which it's deleted.

Payments

Membership payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and never touch our servers.

Social connections

If the editorial desk connects the magazine's own Instagram account, the access credentials are stored securely and used solely to publish S/ME's own content. We never access members' personal social accounts.

Cookies & analytics

We use only what's needed to keep you signed in. No advertising trackers, no third-party ad networks.

Your rights

You can ask us at any time to see, correct or delete the personal data we hold about you. Members can also update most details themselves in the Members' Portal. Unsubscribe links appear in every newsletter.

Contact

For any privacy question or request, write to privacy@smemagazine.co.uk (or hello@smemagazine.co.uk) and we'll come back to you promptly.