Privacy policy

Last updated: 16 October 2026

At a glance

• We only use analytics and advertising cookies if you say yes in our cookie banner. You can change your mind at any time with Cookie settings, at the bottom of every page.
• Our free website audit sends the page address you type to Google PageSpeed Insights to run the test. If you unlock the full report, your details and results come to our team.
• The Meta Pixel never receives your email address, your name or the website you check.
• We do not sell your personal data.

1. Who We Are

The Artist Studio ("we", "us", "our") is a creative agency based in Sherborne, Dorset. We provide digital marketing, web design, branding, social media management, content creation, photography, videography, and advertising services.

The Artist Studio is the trading name of Christopher Farrington, a sole trader. For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we are the data controller.

Contact:
Email: hello@theartiststudio.agency
Phone: 07706 468581
Address: The Old Mermaid, South Street, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 3LU

This policy covers theartiststudio.agency, including our free website audit, and the services we provide.

2. What Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following personal data:

Information you provide to us directly:

• Name, email address, phone number, and business details when you contact us via our website, email, phone, or social media
• Information submitted through enquiry forms, booking forms, or newsletter sign-ups on our website
• The website address you check with our free website audit and, if you unlock the full report, your email address, your first name and business name if you give them, and the choices you make (see Section 6)
• Correspondence and communications between us
• Payment and billing information when you engage our services
• Testimonials or reviews you provide with your consent

Information collected automatically when you visit our website:

• Your IP address and browser details, which the companies that deliver our website receive so they can send the site to your device (see Section 7)
• If you accept analytics cookies: approximate location, browser type and version, device type, operating system, pages visited, time spent on pages, how far you scroll, links you click, and the referring website (through Google Analytics)
• If you accept marketing cookies: the pages you visit and the steps you take in our free website audit, sent to Meta (see Section 5)
• Cookie data and similar tracking technologies (see Section 8)

Information collected through our advertising and marketing activities:

• Data collected via advertising platforms (Meta, Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads) when you interact with our advertisements
• Engagement data from social media platforms where we maintain a presence
• Email open rates, click-through rates, and engagement data from marketing emails

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• To respond to your enquiries and provide information about our services
• To run the free website audit you ask for, show you your report, and follow up a Studio Crit or homepage concept you request (see Section 6)
• To deliver our services including project management, invoicing, and client communications
• To send marketing communications including newsletters, offers, and updates about our work (only where you have opted in or where we have a legitimate interest to do so)
• To run advertising campaigns on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads
• To manage and improve our website including analysing how visitors use our site (only if you accept analytics cookies), troubleshooting issues, and improving user experience
• To create and manage retargeting/remarketing audiences based on website visits and ad interactions (only from visitors who accept marketing cookies)
• To measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns and marketing activities, including whether our Facebook and Instagram ads lead people to use our free website audit (only if you accept marketing cookies)
• To comply with legal obligations and protect our legitimate business interests

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following lawful bases:

• Consent — where you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose (e.g. subscribing to our newsletter, accepting analytics or marketing cookies, or ticking the box to hear from us about your free website audit results)
• Contract — where processing is necessary to fulfil a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract (e.g. when you ask us for a homepage redesign concept)
• Legitimate interests — where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests (e.g. direct marketing to existing clients, running the free website audit you ask for and keeping a record of it, fraud and spam prevention) provided these do not override your rights and freedoms
• Legal obligation — where processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation

5. Advertising & Third-Party Platforms

We run advertising campaigns across various digital platforms. When you interact with our ads or visit our website after seeing an ad, the following may apply:

We advertise on:

• Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads
• Google Ads
• LinkedIn Ads

These platforms use their own cookies, pixels, and tracking technologies to serve, measure, and optimise ads. When you interact with our ads, the relevant platform may collect data in accordance with their own privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these platforms directly.

On our own website, the only advertising technology we use is the Meta Pixel, and it runs only if you accept marketing cookies.

The Meta Pixel

The Meta Pixel is a small piece of code from Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram. Our pixel (ID 1114012358072968) tells Meta when someone visits our website or uses our free website audit. We use this to see whether our Facebook and Instagram ads lead people to use the audit. Meta also uses it to decide who sees our ads, which can include people similar to those who used the audit.

When it runs. Only after you accept marketing cookies. Until then nothing is loaded from Meta. If you use the audit before you choose, those steps are held in the page's memory. They are sent only if you then accept on that page, and are discarded if you refuse or leave. If you open the audit from a link that already contains a website address (for example, one we emailed you), the pixel stays off for that page.

What we send to Meta.

• You accept marketing cookies, or you accepted on an earlier visit: A page view (PageView)
• You press “Check my website”: An audit started (AuditStarted)
• Your results appear: An audit finished (AuditCompleted). Extra details: Your grade letter and score band (0–49, 50–69, 70–89 or 90–100)
• You unlock the full report and your details reach us: A lead (Lead). Extra details: The label “Free website audit”
• If you also asked for a Studio Crit: StudioCritRequested
• If you also asked for a homepage concept, then or later: ConceptRequested
• You unlock the full report but your details don't reach us: LeadNotDelivered

What Meta also receives. With each of these, your browser also sends Meta the address of the page you're on and the page you came from, your IP address, your browser and device details, and the identifiers in the _fbp and _fbc cookies (see Section 8). If you're logged in to Facebook or Instagram in the same browser, Meta may link this information to your account.

What we never send. Your email address, your name, your business name, the website you checked, your exact score or how long the test took. We have switched off Meta's “advanced matching”, which would send details typed into forms. We have also switched off its automatic detection of buttons and events.

Who is responsible. Under UK GDPR, we and Meta Platforms, Inc. are joint controllers for collecting this information on our website and sending it to Meta. This is set out in Meta's Business Tools Terms and its UK Controller Addendum. Meta is responsible for what it does with the information after it receives it, as described in Meta's Privacy Policy. You can exercise your rights with us or with Meta.

Your choices. You can switch the pixel off at any time under Cookie settings. Meta's own controls are in its Accounts Centre (see “Ad preferences” and “Your activity off Meta technologies”). You can also use Your Online Choices to opt out of interest-based advertising from many companies.

Retargeting / Remarketing:

We may use retargeting technologies to show relevant ads to people who have previously visited our website or interacted with our content. On our website this only applies to visitors who accept marketing cookies. You can opt out of retargeting at any time under Cookie settings at the bottom of every page, or through the ad settings of the relevant platform.

Customer lists:

We do not upload customer lists, such as email addresses, to advertising platforms. Details given in our free website audit are never used for advertising.

6. Our Free Website Audit

Our free website audit checks one page of a website with Google's Lighthouse tests and explains the results in plain English.

Running the check

When you press “Check my website”, your browser sends the page address you entered to Google PageSpeed Insights, a service run by Google LLC. Google also receives your IP address and browser details, loads that public page to test it, and handles this under Google's Privacy Policy. The test does not change your website.

At this stage your details and the address you checked are not sent to us. Your score and top fixes are shown in your browser. Saving a PDF or a summary image, and the “Send to your web person” email, all happen on your own device.

Unlocking the full report

To see every fix, we ask for your email address. Your first name and business name are optional. When you unlock the report, we receive:

• your email address, and your first name and business name if you give them
• the address you checked, your overall score and grade, your four area scores, your top five fixes, the website platform we detected and the page size
• how you found us: the campaign tags in the link you followed (such as utm_source), a marker if you clicked a Google ad, or the website that sent you
• your choices: whether you'd like emails about your results, a Studio Crit or a homepage concept. If you tick the box to hear from us, we also record the exact wording you agreed to and when
• the date and time, the page you used and a spam check

If you later answer “Are you planning changes to your website in the next 3 months?”, or ask for a homepage concept from your results, we receive that too.

How it reaches us. These details are sent through Web3Forms, a form delivery service, to our studio inbox (hello@theartiststudio.agency). Web3Forms says it doesn't store form submissions. It passes them on to us, and deletes its server logs every two months. Its servers are in the United States, and it is run by Web3Creative, a business based in Kerala, India.

What we do with it. Your report unlocks whether or not you tick a box. We only email you about anything else if you tick the box to hear from us about your results. We'll contact you about a Studio Crit or homepage concept if you ask for one. A homepage concept costs £200, and we'll confirm by email before anything is charged. You can unsubscribe at any time.

To decide which requests to follow up first, each unlocked audit gets a simple internal rating. It is based on things like whether your email address matches the website you checked, your score, what you asked for and your answer about planned changes. Someone at the studio reads every request. The rating doesn't change your report, and no decision about you is made automatically.

Our lawful bases. We run the test and keep a record of unlocked audits under our legitimate interests: providing the free tool you asked for and following it up. Preparing a homepage concept you ask for is a step you've asked us to take before a contract. Emails about your results rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

How long we keep it. We keep audit records for up to 2 years from your audit or your last contact with us, unless you become a client.

Measuring the audit

If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics records the steps people take in the audit: when a check starts, when it finishes (with the grade, score band and seconds taken), any error, whether the report was unlocked, which options were chosen, your answer about planned changes, and which buttons are used. It doesn't receive your email address, name or business name. If you open the audit from a link that already contains a website address (for example, one we emailed you), that address is part of the page link Google Analytics records.

If you accept marketing cookies, Meta receives the events listed in Section 5.

7. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data with:

• Service providers who help us operate our business, including web hosting providers, email marketing platforms, accounting software, and payment processors
• The companies that deliver our website: Webflow (hosting), Cloudflare (network and security), Adobe Fonts and Google Fonts (fonts), and jsDelivr, unpkg and Google (code libraries, including our cookie banner). They receive your IP address and browser details because your browser downloads files from them
• Google, when you run our free website audit (PageSpeed Insights, see Section 6)
• Web3Forms, which passes on the details you give when you unlock a free website audit report, and our email provider, Google Workspace
• Advertising platforms as described in Section 5. On our website this is Meta, and only if you accept marketing cookies
• Analytics providers such as Google Analytics, only if you accept analytics cookies
• Professional advisors including accountants and legal advisors where necessary
• Law enforcement or regulatory authorities where required by law

Service providers that act for us may only use your data on our instructions and in line with data protection law. Google (for PageSpeed Insights) and Meta (once it has received Meta Pixel data) decide for themselves how they use the data, under their own privacy policies.

8. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit our website. Similar technologies include pixels and scripts that store or read information on your device.

Our cookie banner

When you first visit our website, a banner asks whether we may use cookies to see how our site is used (analytics) and to measure our Facebook and Instagram ads (marketing). Accept all and Reject all are equally easy to choose. Preferences lets you choose by category and then Save my choices. Nothing optional runs before you choose: Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel aren't even loaded. We remember your choice for 6 months, then ask again.

Our banner uses CookieConsent, free open-source software, which your browser downloads from jsDelivr. It keeps your choice in a cookie on your device (cc_cookie) and doesn't send it to anyone.

Types of cookies we use:

Strictly Necessary Cookies (“Necessary” in our banner) — Required for our website to function properly (e.g. remembering your cookie choices, security). They are always on and do not require your consent.

Analytics Cookies — Google Analytics 4 counts visits and shows which pages are used, so we can improve the site. These require your consent.

UK law has allowed some statistics cookies without consent since 5 February 2026, provided you are told about them and can easily object. We have chosen to ask first anyway.

Google acts as our service provider (processor) for Google Analytics. Google says Google Analytics 4 doesn't log or store IP addresses; it uses them briefly to estimate your approximate location. We don't use Google signals, and we have switched off Google's automatic collection of details typed into forms.

Marketing / Advertising Cookies — Used to measure our ad campaigns and show our ads to people who have visited our website. On our website this is the Meta Pixel (see Section 5). Meta may also read its own cookies, set on facebook.com, when the pixel sends information. These require your consent.

Functional Cookies — We don't currently use functional or personalisation cookies. If we add any, we'll ask first and update this policy.

The cookies we use

• cc_cookie, set by this site (our cookie banner): Remembers your cookie choices. Necessary (always on). Lasts 6 months.
• _cfuvid, set by Cloudflare, our website's network: Keeps traffic to the site safe. Necessary (always on). Lasts until you close your browser.
• _ga, _ga_ET26H6DMH9, set by Google Analytics: Tells visits apart and counts them. Analytics (only if you accept). Lasts up to 400 days.
• _fbp, _fbc, set by the Meta Pixel: Links visits to our ads. Marketing (only if you accept). Lasts 90 days.

_fbc is only set if you arrive from a link on Facebook or Instagram, such as one of our ads. Some browsers shorten these times. Our Google Analytics property ID is G-ET26H6DMH9.

Managing your cookie preferences:

You can change your choices at any time with Cookie settings, next to the Privacy policy link at the bottom of every page. It reopens the cookie preferences. If you switch analytics or marketing off, we delete their cookies (_ga, _ga_ET26H6DMH9, _fbp, _fbc) from our website, and they don't load on the pages you visit after that. The Meta Pixel stops sending straight away. Information sent before you changed your mind isn't affected. Meta's own cookies on facebook.com are managed in your Meta account.

You can also manage cookies through your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website. Google offers a browser add-on to opt out of Google Analytics on all websites.

9. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected:

• Client project data: For the duration of our working relationship and up to 6 years afterwards for legal and accounting purposes
• Enquiry data: Up to 2 years from the date of your last enquiry, unless you become a client
• Free website audit records: Up to 2 years from your audit or your last contact with us, unless you become a client
• Marketing data: Until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent
• Your cookie choices: 6 months, then we ask again
• Analytics data: Google Analytics keeps detailed (user- and event-level) data for up to 14 months. Cookie lifetimes are in the table in Section 8
• Meta Pixel data: Meta keeps it under its own policies (see Section 5)
• Financial records: Up to 7 years as required by HMRC

10. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights:

• Right of access — to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure — to request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances
• Right to restrict processing — to request that we limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability — to request your data in a structured, commonly used format
• Right to object — to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes
• Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time (for cookies, use Cookie settings at the bottom of every page)

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@theartiststudio.agency. We will respond within one month. For information Meta collects through the Meta Pixel, you can also contact Meta directly.

11. Marketing Communications

We may send you marketing communications where you have opted in or where we have a legitimate interest to contact you (e.g. you are an existing client).

In our free website audit, ticking “The Artist Studio can email me about my results” counts as opting in to emails about your results. Unlocking your report without ticking it doesn't.

Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link. You can also contact us directly to opt out at any time.

12. Children's Privacy

Our services are not directed at individuals under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it promptly.

13. International Transfers

Some of the third-party services we use (e.g. Google, Meta, Web3Forms and our website hosts) may process data outside the UK. Google LLC and Meta Platforms, Inc. are in the United States. Web3Forms' servers are in the United States and the business that runs it is in India. Where this occurs, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, or adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge for certified companies), to protect your data in accordance with UK GDPR.

14. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or alteration. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

The October 2026 update adds our cookie banner and cookie table, the Meta Pixel and our free website audit.

16. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please tell us first at hello@theartiststudio.agency. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it and keep you updated.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK regulator, the Information Commission (ICO):

Website: ico.org.uk
Phone: 0303 123 1113

This privacy policy applies to theartiststudio.agency and all services provided by The Artist Studio.

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