Privacy Policy
Last updated: 5 October 2026
This privacy policy explains how Specification Studio collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit specificationstudio.co.uk, contact us or work with us. We handle your information fairly, lawfully and transparently, in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
1. Who we are
Specification Studio is the trading name of Elaine Gailmere, a sole trader based in Northern Ireland. We provide architectural and interior specification guidance and manufacturer representation to architects, designers, developers, fit-out companies and manufacturers across the UK and Ireland.
Elaine Gailmere, trading as Specification Studio, is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. This means she decides how and why it is used. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Elaine Gailmere trading as Specification Studio.
- Email: info@specificationstudio.co.uk
- Phone: 07891 182 314
- Contact form: specificationstudio.co.uk/contact-us
2. The information we collect
Information you give us
When you complete our contact form, we collect your name, email address, the subject of your enquiry and your message. If you email, phone or meet us, we collect the information you choose to share, such as your name, job title, company, phone number and details of your project.
Professional contact information
In the course of our work, we hold business contact details for architects, designers, developers, fit-out companies, manufacturers and suppliers. This usually includes name, job title, employer, work email address and work phone number.
Information collected when you use our website
When you visit our website, we and our service providers collect technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type, the pages you view and the date and time of your visit. Some of this is collected using cookies. Please see our Cookie Policy for full details.
Cookie choice records
When you make a choice in our cookie banner, we keep a record of that choice so we can respect it.
We do not ask for special category information, such as details about health. Please do not include this type of information in messages to us.
3. How we use your information and our lawful basis
Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each way we use personal information. The table below sets out what we do and why.
| Purpose | Information used | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Responding to your enquiry and keeping in touch about it | Name, contact details, message | Legitimate interests (replying to people who contact us) or, where you ask about our services, steps taken at your request before entering into a contract |
| Providing our specification and manufacturer representation services and managing our business relationships | Contact details, project information, correspondence | Contract, or legitimate interests in running our business |
| Sending occasional updates about products, brands and services to business contacts | Name, work email address | Legitimate interests, and only where PECR allows. Every message includes a simple way to opt out |
| Protecting our website and contact form from spam and misuse | IP address, browser and device information, reCAPTCHA signals | Legitimate interests (keeping our website secure) |
| Understanding how visitors use our website so we can improve it (Google Analytics) | Pages viewed, device and browser information, approximate location | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time through the cookie settings |
| Keeping business and financial records and meeting our legal duties | Invoices, correspondence, business records | Legal obligation |
| Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims | Relevant records and correspondence | Legitimate interests |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your interests and rights and are satisfied they are not overridden. You can ask us for more information about this assessment.
4. Who we share your information with
We do not sell your personal information. We only share it where necessary with:
- Our website hosting and email provider, which hosts this website and delivers the emails sent through our contact form
- Our website support provider, which maintains, updates and backs up this website
- Google, which provides Google Analytics (only with your consent), Google reCAPTCHA (spam protection) and Google Fonts (text display) on our website. Google Site Kit connects our website to these services
- Professional advisers, such as our accountant, insurers and legal advisers
- Regulators, law enforcement or other public bodies, where the law requires us to
Enquiries you send through our website, by email or by phone go to Elaine Gailmere only. We do not pass enquiry details to manufacturers, suppliers or other partners.
Our service providers act on our instructions and must keep your information secure. Where Google uses information for its own purposes, it does so under its own privacy policy, available at policies.google.com/privacy.
5. International transfers
Some of our service providers, including Google, may process personal information outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States. Where information is transferred outside the UK, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place. These include UK adequacy regulations, the UK Extension to the EU to US Data Privacy Framework (the UK to US data bridge), and the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
6. How long we keep your information
We only keep personal information for as long as we need it:
- Enquiries that do not lead to work: up to 2 years from our last contact
- Client, supplier and manufacturer records, including correspondence and invoices: 6 years after the end of the relationship or the relevant tax year, to meet HMRC and other legal requirements
- Copies of contact form emails in our website email log: automatically deleted after 14 days
- Google Analytics data: no longer than 14 months
- Cookie choice records: up to 12 months, after which we will ask for your choice again
- Business contacts who receive our updates: until you opt out. We then keep a minimal record so that we do not contact you again
After these periods, we securely delete or anonymise the information.
7. Your rights
Under data protection law, you have the right to:
- Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- Rectification of information that is inaccurate or incomplete
- Erasure of your information in certain circumstances
- Restriction of how we use your information in certain circumstances
- Object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests, and object at any time to direct marketing
- Data portability, meaning you can ask us to transfer information you gave us to another organisation, where we use it based on consent or contract and by automated means
- Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent, for example by changing your cookie settings. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it
We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
To use any of these rights, email info@specificationstudio.co.uk. There is usually no charge. We will respond within one month. For complex requests this may be extended by up to two further months, and we will tell you if so. We may need to confirm your identity before we respond. When dealing with a request for access, we will carry out reasonable and proportionate searches for your information.
8. How to complain
We would welcome the chance to put things right. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first by emailing info@specificationstudio.co.uk with the subject line “Data protection complaint”, or by calling 07891 182 314. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it properly, keep you updated and tell you the outcome without undue delay.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection, or any successor body:
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Helpline: 0303 123 1113
If you live in the Republic of Ireland, you can also contact the Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie.
9. Keeping your information secure
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information. Our website uses HTTPS encryption, our contact form is protected against spam, access to our systems and email is password protected and restricted, and our website software is kept up to date. No method of sending information over the internet is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information you share with us.
10. Links to other websites
Our website contains links to manufacturer, supplier and other third party websites. We are not responsible for how those websites handle personal information, so please read their privacy policies.
11. Children
Our website and services are aimed at businesses and professionals and are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example if the law or our services change. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.
Please also read our Cookie Policy and Terms of Use.