Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2024

About us

Learn Fast English (LFE) is operated by Karen E Collins (“Owner”, “LFE”, “we”, “us” or “our”) based in London, UK.

LFE provides bespoke English Classes (“Services“) to people, businesses or organisations upon their written or spoken request, via this website www.learnfastenglish.com (“Website“) our social media and other marketing channels, or our contact details. From time to time, we may expand or reduce our business, which may involve adding or removing any of those communications at any time without any notice to you.

We do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

About this Policy

Throughout this Privacy Policy (“Policy“), any visitor or user of our Website, our social media and other marketing channels, our business materials or our contact details, and any person, business or organisation who commissions our Services will be collectively referred to as “Client“, “you” or “your“.

This Policy explains how and why we collect, store, use, and share your personal data. It also describes your rights regarding your personal data and how to contact us if you have any questions, would like to exercise your rights, or have a complaint. If you would like to contact us about anything related to this Policy, please email us at info@learnfastenglish.com.

When we use your personal data, we must do so in accordance with our obligations under (as applicable) the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the GDPR as it forms part of the law of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and all other relevant legislation relating to data privacy (collectively referred to as “the Data Protection Laws“).

Under the Data Protection Laws, the Owner is the controller and responsible for your personal data. We will only process your data in accordance with the Data Protection Laws, our legal and regulatory obligations, and in accordance with your instructions (unless those instructions are overridden by our legal and regulatory obligations).

This Policy relates to personal information that we process during our business. This includes information that we collect and process in order to provide our Services to the Client, to operate our business (including our marketing activities) and information that we collect through your use of this Website, our social media and other marketing channels, our business materials or through other interactions with our team members.

In this Policy, the terms “personal data” and “special category of personal data” shall have the meanings given to them in the Data Protection Laws. Under the Data Protection Laws, special category data means information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, genetic and biometric data and data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Changes

We may change this Policy from time to time and any amended policy will be published on our Website without any notice to you. We recommend that you regularly review our Policy before interacting with us.

Personal data we collect about you

We may collect various types of personal data about you through the use of our Website, our social media and other marketing channels, visiting us, and through other interactions that you have with us, including:

(a) identity data, which may include your name, gender, date of birth, marital status, job title, and place of work;

(b) contact data, which may include your postal address, email address, telephone numbers, mobile phone numbers and social media handles;

(c) financial data, which may include your bank account and payment card details;

(d) technical data, which may include your internet protocol (IP) addresses, 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;

(e) profile data, which may include your username and password (where applicable), your interests, preferences, feedback, survey and questionnaire responses;

(f) usage data, which may include your information about how you use our Website and Services;

(g) marketing and communications data, which may include your preferences in relation to the marketing communications that you would like to receive from us and how you would like to receive them; and

(h) other data, which may include any information relating to any enquiry or query that you have or information in any correspondence you send to us or otherwise voluntarily provide to us.

This personal data is required for us to provide our Services. If you do not provide the personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing our Services.

We also collect, use and share aggregated data, such as statistical or demographic data, for any purpose. This data, however, does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of clients using a particular service we provide.

We do not collect any special categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

How your personal data is collected 

We will collect personal information directly from your interactions with us and also during the course of providing our professional Services to you. This information will typically be provided by you. However, we may also collect information about you, including through:

(a) direct interactions, where you may give us your Identity and Contact Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

  • instruct us in relation to a matter;
  • subscribe to any Service that we provide or to any of our publications;
  • request marketing to be sent to you;
  • complete a survey or questionnaire;
  • give us some feedback; or
  • attend an event that we run or that we host for someone else.

(b) automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our Website, we may 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. Details on how we use cookies are outlined in our Cookie Policy and available on this Website.

(c) third parties or publicly available sources, which may include various third parties and public sources as set out below:

  • analytics providers (such as Google), social media platforms and other marketing services providers based inside or outside the UK;
  • providers of technical systems (such as an email system, booking system or payment processor system) based inside or outside the UK;
  • publicly availably print or online sources (such as Companies House) based inside or outside the UK;
  • organisers of events hosted by us; or
  • your agent or representative that we engage with in relation to your matter and with your consent.

How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data if we have a legal ground for doing so. Which legal ground we rely on will depend on the type of information that we are processing and for what purpose. Most commonly, we will rely on one of the following grounds:

(a) to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;

(b) for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;

(c) for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or

(d) where you have given us your consent.

Our legitimate business interests include providing our Services, complying with legal and regulatory obligations, recruiting, training and developing our team, promoting our business through marketing communications, ensuring network and information security, and carrying out other administrative and operational functions. We may process your personal information where such processing is necessary in order to pursue our legitimate interests, provided that our right to do so is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell or share it with third parties for marketing or illegitimate purposes.

Using your personal data for marketing communications

We may use your personal data to send you marketing communications by email, telephone or post about English teaching services that might interest you and/or information about our Services and events that you may be interested in.

You have the right to ask us to stop sending you our marketing communications (to ‘opt-out’) at any time by:

(a) sending an email to info@learnfastenglish.com; or

(b) using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in our marketing emails.

Who do we share your personal data with

We routinely share your personal data with trusted third parties acting as processors:

(a) sub-contracted professionals whom we instruct to provide services to you on your behalf or refer you to, e.g., other English teachers.

(b) our external service providers that we use to make our business more reachable, e.g., marketing agencies, website optimisation agencies, administration services or sales agents; or

(c) our technical system providers that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g., e.g., banking system, payment processing system (Stripe), cloud storage system (Google), email system (Outlook), booking system (Acuity), Website hosting platform (WordPress) or marketing communications system (ConvertKit).

We only allow the processors to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect it. We also impose contractual obligations on them to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you and in accordance with the Data Protection Laws.

We may disclose and exchange information with HM Revenue & Customs, law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies based in the UK to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some of your personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised, but this may only be possible sometimes. Confidentiality obligations will bind the recipient of the information.

Data security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed unauthorised, altered or disclosed. We limit access to your personal data to all third parties who have a genuine business need to access it, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Where your personal data is held 

Your personal data and other information may be held at our offices and those of our third-party professionals, agencies, service providers, representatives and agents, as described above. Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold onto your personal data and other information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. Where you have commissioned any work from us, we will keep your personal data after we have finished our contractual obligations. We will do so for one of these reasons:

(a) to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;

(b) to show that we treated you fairly; or

(c) to keep records required by law.

Typically, we will retain our client matter records for six (6) years following the termination of any particular matter. We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy. Different retention periods apply to different types of data.

Transferring your personal data out of the EEA

Where we transfer your personal data to countries outside of the UK and the EEA, we will ensure that it is protected and transferred in a manner consistent with legal requirements applicable to the personal data concerned. This can be done in several different ways, for example:

(a) the country to which we send the personal data may have been assessed by the European Commission as providing an “adequate” level of protection for personal data; or

(b) the recipient may have signed a contract based on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

In other circumstances, the law may permit us to otherwise transfer your personal data to countries outside the UK and the EEA. In all cases, however, any personal data transfer will comply with the Data Protection Laws.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Laws, you have the following rights, which you can usually exercise free of charge:

(a) request data access: the right to be provided with a copy of your personal data;

(b) request data correction: the right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data;

(c) object to data processing: the right to object:

  • at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); or
  • in certain other situations, to our continued processing of your personal data, e.g., processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.

(d) request restriction of data processing: the right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances, e.g., if you contest the accuracy of the data;

(e) prevent automated data processing: the right to prevent your personal data from being used to make decisions about you without people being involved, including automated individual decision-making and profiling;

(f) request data portability: the right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party, in certain situations;

(g) request data erasure: the right to require us to delete your personal data, in certain situations; or

(h) withdraw data consent: the right to withdraw consent at any time when we rely on consent to process your personal data. However, if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain Services to you.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

We may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information. The Data Protection Laws also give you a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, particularly in the UK or the European Union (or European Economic Area) country where you work, typically live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns.

About cookies

Throughout this Cookie Policy (“Policy“), any visitor to this Website will be referred to as “you” or “your“. This Policy explains the details of the cookies we use on our Website and how to disable them.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers stored on your browser or your device’s hard drive if you agree to it. For more information about cookies, including how to disable them by modifying the settings in your browser, please see www.allaboutcookies.org.

Our essential and functional cookies

We use these cookies, which are either essential for the operation of parts of this Website or to provide you with a better and more enjoyable experience when you use our Website. These cookies do not identify any individual visitor of the Website, only the device you are using to:

(a) determine if you are logged in or not;

(b) remember if you’ve set any preferences on our Website; or

(c) remembering if you have been informed of our cookie policy.

Analytical Cookies

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use this Website, including their location, browser type, total visits to our Website, which websites they come from, and their journey through the Website. This enables us to continually optimise our Website to give you the most beneficial user journey possible.

Targeting Cookies

Our advertising partners may set these cookies through this Website. Those businesses may use them to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly your personal information but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Email Tracking

Where you receive a marketing email, event invitation or other direct mailing from us, we may collect information about you in the following ways:

(a) opening emails: if you open an email either by downloading images in the email or by clicking on a link, we log such activity on our database;

(b) viewing emails as web pages: if you click on the “view it as a web page” link in an email, a tracking code is included in the link so that the web page, when viewed in your browser, is personalised in the same way as the email;

(c) links to web pages within emails: if you click on any web link in an email, we include a tracking code in the link to the web page, which we use to log such activity on our database;

(d) unsubscribing from emails: if you click to unsubscribe, we will automatically log this information into our database. If you unsubscribe from any email invitation or alert, we will continue to store your personal data on a “marketing suppression list” to record your preference; or

(e) event RSVP buttons: in our event invitations and confirmations, we provide buttons to allow you to accept, decline, cancel and register for that event. Clicking on these buttons will pass us a tracking code so we can record your choice in our database to help us manage the event.

Third-party cookies

Our Website may, from time to time, include materials provided by other websites, such as videos or images located on third-party servers. These third parties may set cookies, that we have no control over, through the following content:

(a) embedded Google maps;

(b) embedded YouTube videos;

(c) embedded Flodesk sign-up forms;

(d) embedded social media action buttons;

(e) embedded reviews; or

(f) affiliate links.

Granting us permission to use cookies

By continuing to use this Website after seeing our notice and/or reading this page, you are indicating that you are happy for us to set cookies in your browser in accordance with this document. If you wish to use this Website but would like us not to set cookies in your browser, you can learn how to disable or remove cookies below. Please note, however, that doing so may prevent you from using certain functionality of this site.

Turning cookies off

In all modern browsers, you may elect to reject all cookies. Please note, however, that by doing so, parts of this Website may no longer function as expected. If your concerns are based on non-essential cookies, we recommend you reject them so that we can still provide you with the basic functionality of our Website.

How to contact us

Please contact us by post, email, or telephone if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal data or other information we hold about you. Our contact details are shown below:

Sole Trader Business Owner:  Karen E Collins

Email address: info@learnfastenglish.com

Telephone number: (+44) 7940 763 067

Our time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally, it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.