Privacy Policy
What we collect through this site, why, who processes it and the choices you have, in plain English.
Who we are
This policy explains what personal information Refer Studio (“we”, “us”) collects through referstudio.com, why we collect it and the choices you have. Refer Studio is the controller of that information. If you have any question about this policy or your information, email team@referstudio.com. If you need our full legal entity details for a request, ask us at the same address and we will provide them.
What we collect
Information you give us
When you fill in a contact or audit request form on this site, we collect:
- your name and work email address
- your brand’s website
- your monthly revenue range and monthly affiliate or partnership budget
- whether you run an affiliate program today, and on which network or platform
- what you need help with, your timeline and how you heard about us
- your message, if you write one
With your form we also record the page you sent it from, which form it was and the date and time. If you email us directly, we receive whatever you include in your email.
Information collected automatically
- Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used: pages viewed, how you arrived (for example a search engine, a referring site or a campaign link), clicks on buttons and email links, how far you scroll on articles, whether a form was started or sent (not what you typed), and general device, browser and approximate location information. See Cookies and similar technologies for how this depends on your choice.
- Hosting logs. Our hosting provider, Vercel, processes technical data needed to deliver the site, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested, and keeps it in short-lived server logs for security and reliability.
We do not use advertising cookies, we do not run ads on this site and we do not buy personal information about you from others.
How we use it and our legal basis
| Purpose | Information | Legal basis (UK/EU GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiry, prepare an audit or proposal, and follow up on it | Form details and emails you send us | Steps you ask us to take before a possible contract, and our legitimate interest in responding to business enquiries |
| Understand how the site is used and improve it | Analytics data | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Keep the site secure and working | Hosting logs | Our legitimate interest in running a secure, reliable website |
| Meet legal obligations and handle disputes | Any of the above, where relevant | Legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in establishing or defending legal claims |
We do not use your information for automated decision-making that has legal or similarly significant effects on you, and we do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.
Who we share it with
We share personal information only with service providers that process it for us under contract, and only as far as they need to provide their service:
- Google (Google Analytics for site analytics; Google Apps Script, Google Sheets and Gmail, which receive your form submission, store it in our enquiries spreadsheet and send our team an email notification).
- Vercel (website hosting and delivery).
- Our email provider, for emails you send to or receive from team@referstudio.com.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or to a successor if our business is reorganised or sold. We will never sell your personal information.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries: we keep form submissions and related emails for up to 24 months after our last contact with you, unless you become a client. If you do, we keep what we need for the length of the relationship and afterwards for as long as required for legal, tax and accounting purposes.
- Analytics: Google Analytics event data is kept for no longer than 14 months. The analytics cookies themselves expire after up to 2 years unless you clear them sooner.
- Hosting logs: kept for a short period by our hosting provider in line with its own retention settings.
You can ask us to delete your enquiry at any time (see Your rights).
International transfers
Our service providers, including Google and Vercel, may process information in the United States and other countries outside the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Where they do, the transfer is protected by recognised safeguards, such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, or Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the relevant authorities.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
- access the personal information we hold about you and get a copy of it
- have inaccurate information corrected
- have your information deleted
- restrict or object to how we use it, including objecting to processing based on legitimate interests
- receive your information in a portable format
- withdraw your consent at any time, for example by changing your cookie settings, without affecting processing that happened before
To use any of these rights, email team@referstudio.com. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we aim to reply within one month. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority, for example the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK or the supervisory authority in your EU country, though we would appreciate the chance to resolve your concern first.
Cookies and similar technologies
When you first visit, a small banner asks whether you accept analytics cookies. You can change your choice at any time with here or in the footer of every page.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga, _ga_PFLBZ56V6D | Analytics cookies (Google Analytics) | Tell visits apart and measure how the site is used | Up to 2 years |
rs_consent | Local storage (strictly necessary) | Remembers your cookie choice so we don’t ask again | Until you clear it |
rs_src | Session storage | Remembers how you arrived on the site during your visit, so an enquiry can be attributed to its source in analytics. Not stored if you decline. | Until you close the tab |
How your choice works. We use Google Consent Mode. If you are in the UK, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, analytics cookies stay off until you click Accept. Elsewhere, analytics cookies are on by default and you can turn them off at any time by clicking Decline. Advertising storage and ad personalisation are always off. If analytics cookies are off, Google may still receive basic signals that a page was loaded, without cookies or identifiers, which it uses only in aggregate.
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site works normally without analytics cookies.
Children
This site is for businesses and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.
Security
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) and access limited to the people who need it. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the date at the top of this page, and if the changes are significant we will make that clear on the site.
Contact
Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: team@referstudio.com.