Privacy notice

This site is run by Chris Merry, a sole trader trading as Neuron Drift, based in Hastings, UK. Neuron Drift is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number ZC288643. For anything in this notice, email hello@neurondrift.co.uk.

What the contact form collects

Your name, your email address, your company if you give it, what your enquiry is about, and your message. I use them for one thing: replying to you, and if we end up working together, the conversation that follows.

The lawful basis is legitimate interests, or steps taken at your request before entering into a contract. I don't add you to a mailing list and I don't share your details with anyone to market to you.

Who else handles it

• Cloudflare hosts the site, forwards email and runs Turnstile, which checks the form is being sent by a person rather than a bot.
• Resend delivers the form message to my inbox.

Both act on my instructions only. Either may process data outside the UK under the safeguards UK law requires.

How long I keep it

Enquiries that don't lead to work are deleted within 12 months. If we work together, records are kept as long as the law requires for accounting and tax, usually six years.

Business prospecting

I keep a list of local companies that might want help with their admin, and of local accountants, bookkeepers and IT support firms I could work with. It covers Hastings, Bexhill, Rye, Battle, Tunbridge Wells, Eastbourne, Hailsham, and Brighton and Hove, and only active limited companies and LLPs. Sole traders and partnerships are left out. The list is built by a crawler called neurondrift-prospector, described on the crawler page.

What I collect. For each company:

• its registered and trading names, company number, the kind of work it does and its accounts category
• its published business email address, business phone number, trading address and website
• where and when each detail was found

These are business details, but some can identify a person, for example when a small company's published email address includes someone's name. I don't collect free-mail addresses such as Gmail, or anyone's personal details beyond what the business itself publishes.

Where it comes from. The public Companies House register, OpenStreetMap, and the business's own website.

What I use it for. Approaching a business, one at a time, about my services: a letter, a LinkedIn message, a one-to-one email to its published business address, an invitation to a talk or event, or a phone call. Before I call a number I check it against the Telephone Preference Service and the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Every approach says who I am, where I found your details and how to tell me to stop. I don't use mailing lists, automated email sequences or bought data.

Lawful basis. Legitimate interests: finding local businesses that could use my services. I've written a legitimate interests assessment that weighs this against your interests, and you can ask me for a copy.

How long I keep it. A record is deleted 12 months after it was collected, unless we've started talking or working together, when the sections above apply. If you object, it's deleted straight away.

Your right to object. You can tell me at any time to stop, and I will. Email hello@neurondrift.co.uk with your business name or website. I'll delete what I hold and keep only a do-not-contact entry, so your business isn't collected or approached again.

Where it's kept and who sees it. The list, and anything I export from it, is kept only on my own laptop, outside the files I sync or share. It's never copied to cloud storage, a backup service or any third party. The laptop's disk is encrypted with FileVault, Apple's built-in full-disk encryption. Nobody else sees it: it isn't sold, shared or passed on, and no outside service processes it.

Cookies and analytics

The site sets no tracking cookies. Visitor numbers come from Cloudflare Web Analytics, which doesn't use cookies or identify individuals.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete what I hold about you, or object to how I use it. Email me and I'll deal with it within a month. If you're unhappy with the answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.