Privacy policy

1. Who we are

The Blue Star Academy provides Microsoft Excel and Power BI training to businesses and organisations. We are committed to protecting your personal information and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal information when you visit our website, contact us, book a course or attend one of our training courses.

The Blue Star Academy, run by Rachel Hawkins, is the controller of your personal information. This means we decide how and why it is used and are responsible for looking after it.

The Blue Star Academy, East Midlands, UK. Email: rachel@thebluestaracademy.co.uk. Telephone: +44 7880 837337. Website: www.thebluestaracademy.co.uk.

ICO registration number: ZC266470.

2. Information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• Your name, email address and telephone number
• Your business or organisation name, job title or role
• Course booking information, such as the course, the date and the number of delegates
• The names and email addresses of the people attending, so we can send them course files
• Course attendance information
• Payment and invoicing information
• Information you give us when you contact us or use the enquiry form on our website, including any discount code
• Information needed to arrange reasonable adjustments
• Feedback and course evaluation information

We only collect information that is reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

3. How we collect your information

We collect information:

• Directly from you, when you contact us by email, telephone or through our website. The enquiry form on our website sends your message to us through Wix, which hosts the site, and it arrives in our Wix inbox and by email
• When you book a course or attend one, including through feedback forms
• From your employer or another organisation that books training on your behalf
• When you visit our website, where our website host receives technical information such as your IP address so the pages can load

4. How we use your information and our lawful basis

We only use your personal information where the law allows us to. The list below explains what we use it for and the lawful basis we rely on:

• Responding to enquiries and sending quotes: our legitimate interests in responding to people who contact us, or steps you have asked us to take before entering into a contract.
• Processing bookings and payments, and organising and delivering training: performance of our contract with you (or with your employer, relying on our legitimate interests where your employer has booked for you). We also tell your employer whether you attended, because they have booked and paid for the course.
• Keeping accounting, tax and business records: legal obligation.
• Arranging reasonable adjustments: your explicit consent (see section 5).
• Improving our courses and services, using feedback and managing our business: our legitimate interests. We publish feedback from delegates without names, unless we have asked and been given permission.
• Handling complaints and legal claims: our legitimate interests and, where applicable, legal obligation.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

5. Health information and reasonable adjustments

You do not need to give us details of your health to attend a course. If you choose to tell us about a medical condition, injury or disability so that we can arrange reasonable adjustments, this is special category personal data. We will only use it with your explicit consent, only for that purpose, and we will keep it confidential.

6. Who we share your information with

We may share personal information, where necessary, with:

• Wix.com, which hosts our website and receives and stores the messages sent through our enquiry form
• Microsoft 365, which we use for email and document storage, including SharePoint for sharing course files, and Microsoft Teams, which we use to deliver online courses
• Xero, which we use for invoicing and accounting
• Anthropic, which provides Claude, the AI assistant we use to help draft and edit documents and website content. This can include feedback and other information that clients and delegates have given us
• Your employer or the organisation that booked your training, which we will tell whether you attended
• Our accountants, professional advisers and insurers, where necessary
• Government, regulatory or law-enforcement bodies, where we are legally required to

These organisations may only use your information as we instruct or as the law allows. We do not sell your personal information.

7. Transfers outside the UK

Some of our service providers, such as Wix, Microsoft, Xero and Anthropic, may store or process information outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States. Where this happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum. You can contact us for more information about these safeguards.

8. How long we keep your information

We only keep personal information for as long as we need it:

• Booking, payment and invoicing records: 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to, as required for tax and accounting purposes.
• Enquiries that do not lead to a booking: 12 months from our last contact.
• Health information for reasonable adjustments: deleted within 3 months of the course, unless we need it to deal with an incident or claim.
• Complaints: 6 years from when the complaint is closed.

When information is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymise it.

9. Keeping your information secure

We take appropriate steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Access is limited to people who need it for legitimate business purposes. However, no electronic storage or transmission system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

10. Cookies

Our website uses only the cookies it needs to work properly and stay secure. We do not currently use analytics, advertising or marketing cookies.

The fonts used on our website are hosted on the website itself, so your browser does not contact Google or any other font provider to load them.

11. Your rights

Under data protection law, you have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• Ask us to delete your information in certain circumstances
• Ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances
• Object to how we use your information where we rely on legitimate interests
• Ask us to transfer your information to you or another organisation in certain circumstances
• Withdraw your consent where we rely on consent

To use any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. You will not usually need to pay a fee. We will respond within one month, or tell you within that time if we need longer.

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

12. Information from your employer

If your employer or another organisation gives us your information to arrange training, we will use it to provide and administer that training, as described in this Privacy Policy. Your employer is responsible for telling you that they have shared your information with us.

13. Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites, such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and H2H Training. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of other websites, so please read their privacy policies.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information, please tell us first so that we can try to put it right. You can complain by email to rachel@thebluestaracademy.co.uk, by phone on +44 7880 837337, or through the enquiry form on our website. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and keep you updated until it is resolved.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator. Website: ico.org.uk. Helpline: 0303 123 1113. Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

15. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our business, services, technology or the law. The latest version will always be on our website, and the date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.

16. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us: The Blue Star Academy, East Midlands, UK. Email: rachel@thebluestaracademy.co.uk. Telephone: +44 7880 837337.