Privacy and Cookie Policy
1. Who we are
This website, margaretmackenziebooks.com, is operated by Astris Publishing LTD, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17437455, with its registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom. Margaret MacKenzie is an author published by Astris Publishing LTD.
Astris Publishing LTD is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. In this policy, “we” and “us” mean Astris Publishing LTD.
If you have any question about this policy, or about the personal data we hold about you, write to contact@astrispublishing.com.
2. What we collect, and why
a) If you subscribe to the newsletter
When you subscribe we collect:
- your email address
- the date and time you subscribed
- the IP address you subscribed from
We keep the timestamp and IP address as our record that you gave consent, which is something we are required to be able to demonstrate.
Our mailing list runs on Sendy, an application installed on our own web server, so your subscription details are stored on our hosting rather than with a third party mailing platform. The emails themselves are delivered through Amazon Simple Email Service, part of Amazon Web Services.
Our emails contain a small tracking image and tracked links. These tell us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. We use this only to judge which emails are worth sending. If you would rather not be tracked this way, most email clients can be set to block remote images.
Legal basis: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time, with no explanation needed, by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or by writing to us. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.
b) If you simply visit the site
Our web server keeps standard access logs. These record IP addresses, browser and device type, the pages requested, and the date and time of each request. We use them to keep the site running, to diagnose faults, and to protect against abuse.
Legal basis: our legitimate interests in operating and securing our own website.
c) If you email us
We keep your message and your email address so that we can reply and keep a record of the correspondence.
Legal basis: our legitimate interests in answering people who contact us, or your consent where the message concerns the newsletter.
d) What we do not do
We do not sell your personal data. We do not share it for anyone else’s marketing. We do not make automated decisions about you that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
3. Cookies and similar technologies
A cookie is a small file stored on your device by a website. Some are needed for a site to function. Others watch how it is used, or follow you between sites.
We ask for your consent before setting any cookie that is not strictly necessary. You can accept all, reject all, or choose categories, and rejecting is as easy as accepting. You can change your mind at any time using the cookie settings link in the footer.
| Category | What it does | Who sets it | Consent needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Keeps the site working, remembers your cookie choice, protects against abuse | Us, and our hosting provider | No |
| Analytics | Counts visits and shows us which pages are read, so we know what to write more of | Google Analytics (Google LLC) | Yes |
| Advertising | Measures whether our adverts work, and allows us to show adverts to people who have visited the site | Meta pixel (Meta Platforms) | Yes |
Until you consent, the analytics and advertising scripts are not loaded at all. If you reject them, they stay blocked.
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, though doing so may affect how the site behaves.
4. Who else processes your data
| Who | What they do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Namecheap, Inc. | Hosts the website and the Sendy mailing application, and keeps the server logs. The subscriber database sits here | United States company, servers in [the United Kingdom or the United States, depending on your hosting plan] |
| Amazon Web Services | Delivers our emails through Amazon SES | Ireland (eu-west-1) |
| Google LLC | Google Analytics, only if you have consented | United States |
| Meta Platforms | Advertising pixel, only if you have consented | United States |
Each of these acts as our processor and is bound by a contract requiring them to handle your data only on our instructions.
5. Sending data outside the UK
Our email delivery is handled inside the European Economic Area, in Amazon’s Ireland region. Our hosting provider is a United States company, and Google and Meta process data in the United States. Where personal data leaves the UK, we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, together with the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified under it. For readers in the EU, the equivalent EU Standard Contractual Clauses apply.
You can ask us for more detail about these safeguards using the contact address above.
6. How long we keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Newsletter subscription | Until you unsubscribe. After that we keep your address on a suppression list for 12 months, so that we do not accidentally email you again |
| Consent record (timestamp and IP) | For as long as you are subscribed, and 12 months afterwards |
| Server logs | 12 months |
| Analytics data | As set in Google Analytics, currently 14 months |
| Email correspondence | Up to 24 months, unless there is a reason to keep it longer |
7. Your rights
Under UK GDPR, and under EU GDPR if you are in the EU, you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- have inaccurate data corrected
- have your data deleted
- restrict how we use it
- object to processing we carry out on the basis of legitimate interests
- receive your data in a portable format
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent
To exercise any of these, write to contact@astrispublishing.com. We will respond within one month. We do not charge for this.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk. If you are in the EU, you may complain to the supervisory authority in your own country instead.
8. Intended audience
This website and the books it promotes are intended for adults. The site is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has subscribed, tell us and we will remove the record.
9. Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle personal data, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Where the change is significant and affects subscribers, we will say so by email.