Privacy & Cookie Policy
Last updated: [date to be confirmed]. This policy is a working draft prepared for Therapeutic Massage By Mariela and should be reviewed by a solicitor or a service such as the ICO’s own guidance before the site is promoted, particularly the sections on health information.
Who we are
This website, marielamassage.com, is operated by Therapeutic Massage By Mariela (“we”, “us”, “our”), a therapeutic massage practice based in Newhaven, East Sussex. If you have any questions about this policy or how your data is handled, contact us at mariela.lacheva@hotmail.co.uk or 07476 661123 — see our Contact page.
What personal data we collect
We collect personal data when you voluntarily provide it, principally through the contact form on this site. This includes your name, email address, phone number (if given) and the content of your message.
If you go on to book a treatment, we may also collect health information relevant to your massage — for example, injuries, medical conditions, pregnancy, or areas to avoid — either in person or via follow-up correspondence. Health information is “special category data” under UK GDPR and is only collected with your clear consent, used solely to provide safe and appropriate treatment, and is not used for any other purpose.
How we use your data
- To respond to enquiries made through the contact form
- To arrange, confirm and deliver massage treatments
- To keep appropriate treatment and consultation notes, including relevant health information, in order to provide safe treatment
- To send you information you have specifically asked for (for example, confirming a booking)
We do not use your data for marketing emails unless you separately opt in, and we do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties.
Our legal basis for processing
We rely on your consent when you submit the contact form or share health information ahead of a treatment, and on legitimate interest and, where a booking is made, contract, to administer and deliver the massage service you have requested.
Who we share data with
Contact form submissions are processed using WPForms, a plugin run on our own website — form data is emailed directly to us and is not passed to any third-party marketing platform. Our website is hosted with Hostinger. We do not share your personal or health data with any other third party except where required by law.
Cookies
This site uses a small number of strictly necessary cookies set by our caching software (LiteSpeed Cache) to make pages load faster; these do not identify you personally.
Our Contact page embeds a Google Map. When that map loads, Google may set its own cookies and collect data according to its own privacy policy, independent of us. We do not currently use any analytics or advertising cookies on this site.
How long we keep your data
Contact form enquiries that do not lead to a booking are kept for a reasonable period to allow us to follow up, then deleted. Client treatment and consultation records, including relevant health information, are kept for as long as you remain a client and for a further period afterwards in line with standard practice for complementary therapists, after which they are securely deleted.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to ask us for access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to ask for your data in a portable format. To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details above.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you also have the right to complain to the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page.