Who we are
Lincoln Digital is a web design and development company based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, and a trading name of Search Ventures Ltd (registered in England and Wales, company no. 10588553). We are the data controller for the personal data described here. You can contact us about anything in this policy through our contact form or by post to our registered office, 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, Bury St. Edmunds, IP28 7DE.
What we collect and why
Enquiry form. When you use our contact form we collect your name, email address, company name if you give it, the services you're interested in, an indication of budget and your message. Enquiries are stored in a database on our own server and emailed to us. We use them to reply to you and, if you become a client, to deliver the work. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (responding to a request you've made) and, once we're working together, performance of a contract.
Email and phone. If you email or call us, we keep the correspondence so we can help you and keep a record of what was agreed.
Website analytics. We use Ahrefs Web Analytics to count visits and see which pages people find useful. It sets no cookies, doesn't follow you to other websites and doesn't build a profile of you: each page view records the page address, the page that referred you, your browser language, your screen size and the page title. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (understanding how our website is used). We also use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts page views the same cookie-free way: it records the page, the page that referred you, your browser and device type, and your country, and doesn't keep your IP address or follow you to other sites. We don't run advertising trackers. Our web server also keeps standard access logs (your IP address, the pages requested and your browser type) for security and troubleshooting only.
Free tools. Most of our free tools run in your browser and don't send us what you type. The exceptions: when you search for a business in the Google review link maker, what you type goes from our server to Google's Places service to find it. When you use the website health check, our server visits the address you enter (and that site's robots.txt, sitemap and icon), and sends the address to Google's PageSpeed Insights service, which loads the page to test its speed. The social share preview does the same with the page you enter and its share image, to read its tags. The cost calculator works out its estimate on our server from the options you pick, which aren't personal. The local business schema generator's postcode button sends the postcode you typed to postcodes.io, a free UK postcode service, to find its map coordinates. We don't store any of these searches, addresses, results or choices. The email signature generator and the local business schema generator save what you type in your browser's own storage, on your device, so it's there when you come back; it never reaches us, and each tool's Clear button removes it. The QR code, WhatsApp link, favicon and image tools work entirely in your browser: your text, logos and photos are never uploaded.
Browser notifications. If you turn on notifications on our search change tracker, your browser gives us a push address (a random web address at your browser maker's push service, such as Google's, Mozilla's, Apple's or Microsoft's) and two encryption keys, along with which changes you want to hear about. We keep these on our own server and use them only to send you those notifications, through that push service, which can't read them. They don't identify you to us. Turn notifications off on the tracker and we delete them straight away; if you block notifications for this site or clear its data instead, the address stops working and we delete it the next time we try to send. Our lawful basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in the same way.
Cookies
Fonts, images and stylesheets are served from our own server rather than from a third party, and this website is delivered through Cloudflare's network, which processes your IP address in order to route and protect traffic. Three other services are involved in a visit: Ahrefs Web Analytics, described above, which sets no cookies; Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that enquiries on the contact page, searches in our review link maker, website health checks and share previews come from a person rather than a bot. Turnstile processes your IP address and basic browser information to do this, sets no tracking cookies and isn't used for advertising (see Cloudflare's Turnstile privacy notice); and Semrush, whose Sensor chart in the footer of each page shows how much Google's UK search results are changing. The chart is an image from Semrush's own website, loaded only once you're using the page and have scrolled near the footer, so Semrush receives your IP address and basic browser information, as any website you load something from does. Semrush's servers may try to set a technical load-balancing cookie with it, which most browsers refuse on a page from another site (see Semrush's privacy policy). This website sets one essential cookie for visitors: an anti-forgery token that protects the contact form from abuse. Our own administration area sets a login cookie for staff, which visitors never receive. It contains no personal information and expires when you close your browser. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.
Who we share it with
We don't sell personal data, ever. We use a small number of trusted suppliers to run our business, such as email hosting and accounting software, who may process data on our behalf under contract. We don't transfer your data outside the UK except to suppliers with appropriate safeguards in place.
How long we keep it
Enquiries that don't lead to work are deleted after 12 months. Client records are kept for six years after the end of our work together, to meet our legal and accounting obligations.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to or restrict how we use it, and ask for it in a portable format. Ask us through our contact form, or by post at the address above, and we'll respond within one month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Changes
If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top of the page. Significant changes will be flagged on the page itself.