Your information, handled with care.

Who is responsible?

I’m John Pascoe, trading as Pascoe’s Pen, a freelance writer and editor based near Liskeard, Cornwall, UK. I am responsible for the personal information I use to run this writing and editing business. In data protection law, this makes me the data controller.

For privacy questions, requests or complaints, email john@pascoespen.co.uk. This notice covers my writing and editing services.

What information do I use?

I receive most information directly from you, usually by email. Depending on the enquiry or project, this can include:

• Your name, email address and any telephone number, business or billing details you provide.
• Your brief, correspondence, feedback, supplied documents, working drafts and finished work.
• Details needed for quotations, invoices, payments and accounting records.

Client-supplied material may contain information about other people. I use only what is needed for the agreed work. If you supply someone else’s personal information, please make sure you are entitled to share it. Discuss sensitive material, such as health information, with me before sending it so that appropriate handling and any additional legal requirements can be agreed.

Where a business client is responsible for personal information in a document, I agree how I will handle that material before work begins and follow the client’s lawful instructions. I do not use it for an unrelated purpose.

Why do I use it?

I use personal information to answer enquiries, prepare quotations, agree and complete commissions, communicate about the work, manage payments and deal with questions or concerns. The legal basis depends on the purpose:

• Contract: taking steps at your request before a contract and providing the services you commission as an individual.
• Legitimate interests: responding to business contacts, managing client relationships, protecting the service and resolving problems. These are my interests in running a small writing business responsibly, balanced against your rights.
• Legal obligation: keeping the financial records required for tax and accounting.
• Consent: where I specifically ask permission, for example to publish a named testimonial. You can withdraw that permission by contacting me. Withdrawal does not affect earlier lawful use.

You do not have to make an enquiry or provide optional details. If I do not have the contact details or project information needed for a quotation or commission, I may be unable to help. I do not sell personal information, add enquirers to a mailing list or make decisions about people through automated profiling.

Website enquiries, cookies and technical information

The contact page prepares an email draft in your browser. What you type is not submitted to me or saved by the website. You choose whether to open the draft in your own email app or copy it into webmail, review it and send it. Your email service then handles the message, and I receive it through Fastmail.

Quiz answers, scores and reading options are handled on the page. The site’s own code does not send them to me or store them in cookies or browser storage. I have added no visitor analytics, advertising trackers, mailing list or online payment system.

The site is hosted through OpenAI’s Sites service. Hosting and, while access is private, ChatGPT sign-in can involve technical information such as IP addresses, browser and device details, request logs and account or authentication information. The provider may use cookies and similar technologies to operate its services. Its privacy policy and cookie policy explain its processing and available controls. This notice does not mean that visiting the site is anonymous or that the hosting service uses no cookies.

Where information is kept and who handles it

I keep working files on my computer with an external backup. Correspondence and attachments are also held in my email account. I take reasonable steps to protect the records I hold and restrict access to what is needed for the work.

• Fastmail: email messages and attachments. See the Fastmail privacy policy.
• Sage: client and invoice details needed for accounting. See the Sage privacy notice.
• Mettle: payment and transaction information through my business bank account. See the Mettle privacy notice.
• OpenAI: website hosting and private sign-in, as described above.

I may disclose relevant records to HMRC or other authorities where legally required, or to a professional adviser where needed to deal with a specific legal or accounting matter. I do not publish client documents or identifiable samples without separate agreement.

These services can involve processing outside the UK, including in the United States. Fastmail is based in Australia and offers EU and US storage, with US backup and related systems. The providers’ notices describe their international arrangements and safeguards, such as adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses with UK safeguards where required. You can use the linked notices, or contact me, for more information about the safeguards relevant to your information.

Use of AI services

I will use identifiable or confidential client material with an AI service only after agreeing the particular service and its use with the client. Before doing so, I will explain what would be shared and the relevant storage, retention, model-training settings and international processing arrangements. Agreement to commission work is not blanket permission to upload client material to an AI service.

Any additional privacy information and handling arrangements needed for that use will be agreed before material is shared.

How long do I keep it?

Ordinary retention periods

Information	When it is deleted
Supplied source files, project notes and working drafts	Three months after the project is completed.
Finished work and ordinary project correspondence	Twelve months after the project is completed.
Enquiries that do not lead to work	Twelve months after the last contact.

These periods apply to copies I control on my computer, in email attachments and in my external backup. Provider-managed recovery copies and security logs follow the provider’s own retention arrangements. Please keep your own copy of delivered work.

Invoices, payment records and related financial evidence are kept separately for the period required by tax law, normally at least five years after the relevant 31 January Self Assessment submission deadline. If a legal requirement or an active complaint or dispute means I need to retain other information longer, I keep only the relevant records for as long as that reason applies. I then delete them.

Your rights and raising a concern

Depending on the circumstances, you can ask to see your personal information, correct it, have it deleted, restrict its use or receive information you supplied in a portable format.

You have the right to object to use based on legitimate interests. Contact me if you wish to object, withdraw consent or exercise another right. These rights have legal limits, for example where records must be retained for tax purposes. I will explain any limit that applies and normally respond to rights requests within one month.

If you are concerned about how I have handled your information, please contact me at john@pascoespen.co.uk. I will acknowledge a data protection complaint within 30 days, investigate it, keep you informed and explain the outcome without unnecessary delay.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Visit ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint for guidance.

Keeping this notice up to date

I will review this notice if my services or information-handling arrangements change. If I add features such as analytics or a mailing list, I will explain the change and provide any required choices before using them. The update date appears at the top of this page.

Contact me about a project or privacy question →