Last updated: 1 April 2025 | Effective date: 1 April 2025
FiscalTime ("we", "our", "us") is operated by Digital Next HQ Gold 157, The Sharp Project, Thorp Road, Manchester, M40 5BJ. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a transparent, fair, and lawful manner. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect about you, how we use it, who we share it with, and what rights you have in relation to it.
This policy applies to all users of the FiscalTime website at fiscaltime.com and any associated services, newsletters, or communications we provide. By visiting our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this policy. If you do not agree, please discontinue use of the site.
1. Who We Are and How to Contact Us
The data controller responsible for your personal information is:
- Company name: Digital Next HQ
- Address: Gold 157, The Sharp Project, Thorp Road, Manchester, M40 5BJ
- Telephone: 0161 203 3190
- Email: privacy@fiscaltime.com
- General enquiries: info@fiscaltime.com
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us using the details above. We aim to respond to all data-related enquiries within 30 days.
2. What Personal Data We Collect
We collect personal data in various ways, depending on how you interact with our site. The categories of data we may collect include:
2.1 Data You Provide to Us
- Email address — when you subscribe to our newsletter or register for an account
- Name — if you fill out a contact form or comment form
- Payment information — if you subscribe to a paid plan (processed securely by our payment provider; we do not store raw card details)
- Messages and enquiries — content of emails or contact form submissions you send us
- Subscription preferences — which newsletter tier or content topics you have selected
2.2 Data We Collect Automatically
- IP address — collected for security, fraud prevention, and geo-targeting purposes
- Browser type and version
- Operating system
- Pages visited and time spent on site
- Referring URL — the site you visited before arriving at FiscalTime
- Device type (desktop, tablet, mobile)
- Cookie identifiers — see our Cookie Policy below
- Clickstream data — navigation and interaction patterns on our site
2.3 Data from Third Parties
We may receive information about you from third parties such as analytics providers, advertising networks, and social media platforms, where you have given those third parties permission to share your data. We may combine this data with other information we hold about you.
3. Legal Basis for Processing
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. The legal bases we rely on are:
- Consent — for marketing emails and non-essential cookies, where we ask for your explicit opt-in
- Contract performance — to provide you with the services you have subscribed to
- Legitimate interests — for analytics, site security, fraud prevention, and improving our services, where these interests are not overridden by your rights
- Legal obligation — where we are required to process data to comply with applicable laws
4. How We Use Your Personal Data
We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:
- Delivering our newsletter and editorial content to subscribers
- Processing and managing subscription payments
- Personalising your experience on the site (e.g. remembering your preferences)
- Analysing site usage to improve our content and user experience
- Responding to enquiries and providing customer support
- Detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, and security incidents
- Complying with legal obligations
- Sending you marketing communications about our services, where you have opted in
- Conducting surveys, polls, or research to understand our audience better
We will not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you without your explicit consent.
5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as web beacons and pixel tags) on our site. Cookies are small text files placed on your device that help us recognise you and improve your experience.
We categorise our cookies as follows:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies — essential for the site to function (e.g. session management). These cannot be disabled.
- Analytics Cookies — help us understand how visitors use our site (e.g. Google Analytics). Only enabled with your consent.
- Marketing Cookies — used to deliver relevant advertisements and measure ad effectiveness. Only enabled with your consent.
- Preference Cookies — remember your settings (e.g. font size, language). Only enabled with your consent.
You can manage your cookie preferences at any time via our Cookie Settings page, or by adjusting your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect site functionality.
For more information, please see our full Cookie Policy.
6. Data Sharing and Disclosure
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. We may share your data in the following limited circumstances:
- Service providers — trusted third parties who help us operate the site (e.g. email delivery providers, hosting companies, payment processors, analytics providers). These companies are contractually bound to protect your data and use it only for the services they provide to us.
- Advertising partners — with your consent, we may share anonymised or pseudonymised data with advertising networks to serve relevant ads
- Legal compliance — when required by law, court order, or regulatory authority
- Business transfers — in the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your data may be transferred to the acquiring entity
- Protection of rights — where necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of FiscalTime, our users, or others
7. International Data Transfers
Some of our third-party service providers operate outside the UK or European Economic Area (EEA). Where we transfer data internationally, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), or we transfer only to countries deemed to provide adequate data protection.
8. Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes outlined in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required by law. Our retention periods are:
- Newsletter subscriber data — retained while your subscription is active and for up to 12 months after you unsubscribe
- Contact enquiry data — retained for up to 3 years for correspondence records
- Analytics data — typically anonymised after 26 months
- Financial transaction records — retained for 7 years to comply with UK financial regulations
When your data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it.
9. Your Rights Under UK GDPR
Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:
- Right to be informed — the right to know how your data is used (this policy)
- Right of access — the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (Subject Access Request)
- Right to rectification — the right to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected
- Right to erasure — the right to request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten"), subject to certain exceptions
- Right to restrict processing — the right to ask us to stop processing your data in certain circumstances
- Right to data portability — the right to receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
- Right to object — the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing
- Rights related to automated decision-making — the right not to be subject to solely automated decisions that significantly affect you
- Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@fiscaltime.com. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.
10. How to Unsubscribe
You may unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time by clicking the "Unsubscribe" link in any email we send you, or by emailing us at info@fiscaltime.com. Unsubscribing from marketing emails will not affect our ability to send you transactional emails related to your account or subscription.
11. Security of Your Data
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, destruction, or disclosure. These include encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), access controls, secure password storage, and regular security audits.
However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we take all reasonable precautions, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data. You share data with us at your own risk.
12. Third-Party Websites
Our site may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any external sites you visit.
13. Children's Privacy
FiscalTime is not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child, please contact us immediately and we will delete it.
14. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues:
- Website: ico.org.uk
- Phone: 0303 123 1113
- Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you contact the ICO. Please contact us first at privacy@fiscaltime.com.
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify subscribers of material changes by email and will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
For any privacy-related queries, please contact us at privacy@fiscaltime.com or write to us at Digital Next HQ, Gold 157, The Sharp Project, Thorp Road, Manchester, M40 5BJ.