Privacy policy
This website collects what you send through the enquiry form, and our host keeps the standard server logs any website needs in order to run. There is no analytics, no advertising, no tracking of any kind, and the site sets no cookies.
This policy covers the personal information this website handles. How we look after the people who appear in our films, including consent, dignity and safeguarding, is a separate matter and is agreed in writing with the charity before any filming happens.
Who we are
Major Gift Films is a trading name of Communitas Creative. Matt Benn is responsible for the business and is the person who answers anything on this page. Write to hello@majorgiftfilms.com and it comes to him directly.
We are the data controller for the information described here, which means we decide why it is held and what happens to it.
What we collect
When you send an enquiry through the form on the front page, we receive:
- What you are here to win, chosen from four options
- Your budget range, chosen from three options
- When it would happen, if you choose to say
- Your name
- Your organisation, if you choose to give it
- Your email address
- Whatever you write in the message box, if you write anything
Four of those are required: the two selections, your name and your email address. Everything else is optional, and the form sends without it.
The form also carries a hidden field that stays empty when a person fills it in. It is there to catch automated spam, and it holds nothing about you.
Separately, our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, which include the IP address of the device requesting a page. Those logs exist so the site can be delivered and defended from attack. We rely on our legitimate interest in keeping the site available and secure.
What we do not collect
It is worth being specific about what this site does not do.
- No analytics of any kind. We do not know how many people visit or what they read.
- No advertising or remarketing pixels, and nothing sold or shared with advertisers.
- No cookies set by this site, and nothing stored in your browser.
- No fonts, scripts or images loaded from anyone else's server when the page opens. The typefaces are served from this site, so opening the page tells no third party you were here.
The one exception is Vimeo, and only if you press play on a film. Our cookies policy explains exactly what happens then.
Why we are allowed to use it
Under UK data protection law we have to name a lawful basis for holding your information. Ours is this:
- Our legitimate interests. You sent us a business enquiry, so we have an interest in reading it, replying to it, scoping and pricing the work, and keeping a record of who approached us and what was discussed. We have considered whether that overrides your interests and we think it does not, because you chose to contact us and the information is what any supplier would need to answer.
- Taking steps at your request before entering a contract. Once an enquiry turns into a quote you have asked for, we also rely on this basis.
We deliberately do not rely on consent, because consent is the wrong basis for replying to a message you chose to send us. We do not add enquirers to a mailing list, and we send no marketing. If we ever want to do that, we will ask you first and you will have to opt in.
You can object to us holding your enquiry at any time, and we will delete it unless the law requires us to keep it.
Who else handles it
Two companies process your enquiry for us, under contract, and neither may use it for their own purposes:
- Netlify hosts this website, receives the form submission and stores it for us.
- Google Workspace carries the email that delivers your enquiry to us, and holds our reply.
Vimeo is not on that list because it never sees your enquiry. It serves the films, and only when you press play on one.
We do not sell your information. We do not share it with anyone else unless the law requires it.
Information that leaves the UK
Netlify is based in the United States, and Google and Vimeo are US companies that contract through European entities for customers here. Where your information is transferred outside the UK, we rely on the safeguards in each provider's data processing terms. In practice that means the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the equivalent addendum to the standard contractual clauses, and in some cases a provider's certification under the UK extension to the EU to US Data Privacy Framework.
If you would like to see which safeguard applies to a particular provider, ask us and we will tell you and point you to the document.
How long we keep it
- If your enquiry does not lead to us working together, we delete it within twelve months.
- If it does, we keep the project records for six years after the engagement ends, because tax and contract law require it.
- Server logs are kept and then deleted on our host's schedule, which they set and we do not control.
You can ask us to delete your enquiry sooner, and we will unless we are legally required to keep it.
Your rights
You have the right to ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, to correct it if it is wrong, to have it deleted, to restrict what we do with it, to object to us holding it, and to receive it in a portable format. Write to hello@majorgiftfilms.com and we will answer within one month.
None of this costs anything. Giving us your details is not a statutory or contractual requirement, though without a name and an email address we have no way to reply.
If you want to complain
Please tell us first, because most things are quicker to fix directly. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator, at any time. They can be reached at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
If we change how any of this works, we will update this page and change the date at the top. There is no archive of previous versions, so if the detail matters to you, keep a copy of what you read.
Questions about any of this go to hello@majorgiftfilms.com.