Privacy policy

The short version

We will never sell your information.
We never share it with anyone for their own marketing or advertising.
This website uses no cookies, and nothing on it follows you around the internet. We count visits, in a way that can't tell us who you are.
We only email you our news if you asked us to, and you can stop it at any time.
You can ask us what we hold about you, or ask us to delete it, at any time.

Who we are

Penavo is the trading name of Leo Allcorn and Mollie Harvey, who run the business together and are based in England. When this page says “we” or “us”, that’s who it means. We're responsible for any personal information you give us. The law calls this being the "data controller". To ask anything about it, call or WhatsApp us on 07379 724530.

Browsing this website

This site doesn't use cookies or advertising trackers. The fonts, photographs and films are all hosted here too, so simply browsing doesn't send your details to Google or anyone else.

We count visits. When a page opens it tells our own website so, and we keep the totals: how many visits a day, which pages were looked at, which website people came from, and whether they were on a phone. We do the counting ourselves; no other company is involved. Nothing is stored on your device to do it. To tell one visitor from the next for the rest of that day, your internet address and browser type are mixed with a random key into a short scramble. The address itself is never written down, the key is thrown away once the day is over, and after that only the totals are left. We can't use any of it to work out who you are, and we don't try.

If you'd rather not be counted at all, switch on "Do Not Track" or "Global Privacy Control" in your browser and this site leaves you out, or tell us and we'll explain how.

Like every website, it has to be stored somewhere. Our web host, Netlify, keeps standard technical logs, including your IP address, to keep the site running and secure.

What we collect

When you get in touch: your name, phone number and whatever you tell us about your business.
When you book: the details on your quote and invoice. Your name, business name if you have one, your address, and an email address if you choose to give one.
When you pay: by bank transfer, we see the name on the account, the amount and the payment reference, as they appear on our bank statement. By Direct Debit, you set it up with our payment provider, which holds your bank details. We don't see or store them: we see your name, the amount and whether each payment went through.
On a shoot: the photographs and film we make, which may show you, your staff or your customers.
When we run your social media: the access you give us to your accounts, and the comments and messages people send to them.
For your audit and your monthly reports: numbers from your own social media accounts, such as followers, views and how many people got in touch, what we found when we looked at your accounts, and the targets we agreed with you.
If you join our email list: your email address, when you joined, and where on the site you did it.
In your client login: your plan for the month, your shoot days, your payments, your audit, your monthly reports and the link to your files. It is stored scrambled, and can only be read with your access code. When you approve a post there, or ask for a change, we keep which post it was, your answer and the time.

Why we use it

To reply to you and send a quote, because you've asked us to.
To do the work you've booked and take payment, because that's our agreement.
To post, reply and run adverts on your accounts, because that's the service you've asked for.
To keep financial records, because the law requires it.
To show our work in our portfolio, because it's how we find new clients. We'll only do this if you haven't asked us not to.
To email you our ideas and offers, only if you asked for them by joining the list on this site. Every email says how to stop, and you can tell us to take you off at any time.
To see how many people visit this site and which pages they read, so we can make it more useful. That's our legitimate interest in running the business, and it's done without identifying anyone.

When we run your social media

If we look after your accounts, we'll see what your followers and customers write to you. That information belongs to you and to them, not to us. We use it only to reply on your behalf, in the way you've asked us to.

We don't copy it out, we don't add anyone to a list of our own, and we don't keep it once our work for you ends. In data protection terms, you stay the controller of that information and we act as your processor, working on your instructions.

Who else handles it

We don't hand your information to anyone for their own use. The only organisations that touch it are the services we use to run the business, and only so they can do that job:

Netlify: hosting this website, receiving the enquiry form if you can't use WhatsApp, and storing our client records, the scrambled copy of your client login page, our email list and the visit totals
Google: storing and delivering your files through Google Drive
Claude, by Anthropic: an assistant we use to help plan content and write things up
Our Direct Debit provider: collecting your monthly payment, if you pay that way. They hold your bank details; we don't
WhatsApp: if you message us there
Instagram, Facebook and TikTok: when we post, reply or run adverts for you, on your own accounts

We'd also pass information on if the law required it: to HMRC for tax, for example.

Some of these services store data outside the UK. When they do, they use the safeguards UK data protection law requires.

How we keep it safe

Our client records are kept on this website's own server, not in a shared spreadsheet. Only our own team can open them, each person with their own password, and what you pay can be opened only by the owner.

Your client login page is scrambled before it is stored, with a key made from your access code. Without that code it can't be read, by us or by anyone else, and the code itself is never sent anywhere: it only opens your page in your own browser. If you ever think somebody else has your code, tell us and we'll give you a new one.

While your login is open, your browser remembers your code for that tab, so refreshing the page doesn't log you out. It is forgotten when you close the tab or press Log out. That isn't a cookie, and it isn't used to follow you anywhere.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that don't become a booking: deleted within 12 months.
Booking and payment records: for as long as HMRC requires, which is around six years.
Your finished files: kept for 12 months after delivery so you can download them again. After that we may delete them.
Access to your accounts: removed when your package ends.
Work in our portfolio: until you ask us to take it down.
Our email list: until you ask to come off it.
Visit totals: about 13 months, as totals only. What told one visitor from another is gone by the next day.

If you appear in our work

If you're in something we've filmed or photographed, as a member of staff, a customer or a passer-by, you can ask us to remove it from our portfolio and social media, and we will. We never feature children in our portfolio without a parent's permission.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

tell you what information we hold about you, and give you a copy
correct anything that's wrong
delete your information, unless the law says we have to keep it, like tax records
stop using it for a particular purpose, such as our portfolio or our emails

Just call or WhatsApp us on 07379 724530. We'll respond within a month.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of the page.