Privacy Policy for Sparrow Discoveries
Last updated: 1 August 2026
1. Introduction
Welcome to Sparrow Discoveries ("we", "our", or "us"). We are committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (sparrowes.pro) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. Sparrow Discoveries operates guided tours and city walks in Durham, United Kingdom. We take our responsibilities regarding your privacy and the security of your personal information very seriously. This comprehensive policy outlines our practices in detail to ensure full compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
2. The Data We Collect About You
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows: Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender. Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers. Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details. Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us. Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website. Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses. Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services. Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
3. How Is Your Personal Data Collected?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through: Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you: apply for our products or services; create an account on our website; subscribe to our service or publications; request marketing to be sent to you; enter a competition, promotion or survey; or give us feedback or contact us. Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below: Technical Data from the following parties: analytics providers such as Google based outside the UK; advertising networks; and search information providers. Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services.
4. How We Use Your Personal Data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances: Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation. Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
5. Purposes for Which We Will Use Your Personal Data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate. Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out below. Purpose/Activity: To register you as a new customer. Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact. Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest: Performance of a contract with you. Purpose/Activity: To process and deliver your order including: (a) Manage payments, fees and charges (b) Collect and recover money owed to us. Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications. Lawful basis for processing: (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us).
6. Data Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
7. Data Retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
8. Your Legal Rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to: Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us. Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request. Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms. Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: If you want us to establish the data's accuracy. Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it. Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it. Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent to [email protected] or by post to 15 Elvet Bridge, Durham, DH1 3AA, United Kingdom.