Privacy policy
GroundWaves Ltd is responsible for the personal data described here. We collect only what we need, and we never sell your data.
Who we are
GroundWaves Ltd (“GroundWaves”, “we”, “us”) is responsible for the personal data described in this policy. In data protection law, that makes us the controller: we decide how and why your data is used.
- Company: GroundWaves Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 12381349
- Registered office: 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, England, N1 7GU
- Where we work: North Gate, Filton Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8RB
- Privacy contact: sound@groundwaves.co.uk, with “Privacy” in the subject line
This policy covers groundwaves.co.uk, our waitlist and launch emails, and enquiries you send us.
What we collect and why
| What you do | What we collect | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Join the waitlist | Your email address, when and where you signed up, and whether you open or click our emails | To tell you when GroundWaves launches and send occasional updates | Your consent |
| Email us (licensing, investment, press or general) | Your name, email address, company, and anything you include in your message | To reply to you and follow up on your enquiry | Our legitimate interest in running our business, or steps you ask us to take before a contract |
| Visit the website | Your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you request and when | To deliver the website and protect it from attacks and abuse | Our legitimate interest in keeping the site secure and working |
| Visit the website (visitor statistics) | Pages viewed, the site you came from, country and device type, collected without cookies and not linked to you | To understand which pages are useful | Our legitimate interest in improving the site |
We don’t use your data to make automated decisions about you, and we don’t build profiles of you.
Our waitlist and launch emails
We only email you if you join the waitlist and confirm your address.
- Confirming: after you sign up, we send one email asking you to confirm. You’re not on the list until you do.
- What we send: news of our launch and occasional updates about GroundWaves. We don’t share or sell the list.
- Who holds it: our email service, Mailchimp, stores the list and sends the emails for us.
- Opens and clicks: our emails tell us whether they were opened and which links were clicked. You can stop this by turning off images in your email app.
- Unsubscribing: every email has an unsubscribe link, or you can email us. We keep your address on a do-not-contact list afterwards, only so we never email you again by mistake.
Cookies
Our website doesn’t use advertising or tracking cookies, so you won’t see a cookie banner.
- Security cookies: our hosting provider, Cloudflare, may set a small number of strictly necessary cookies to protect the site from bots and attacks. For example,
__cf_bmhelps tell people from bots and expires after 30 minutes of inactivity, andcf_clearanceremembers that you passed a security check. The law doesn’t require consent for these. - Visitor statistics: we count visits without cookies or any other way of recognising you between visits.
- Videos and social media: we link to YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn rather than embedding them, so those sites can’t set cookies through our pages. Their own cookie policies apply once you click through.
Who we share it with
We share your data only with the service providers below, who handle it on our instructions and under contracts that require them to protect it.
| Provider | What they do for us | Where your data goes | How it’s protected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Hosts the website, protects it from attacks, counts visits | Cloudflare’s global network, including the US | Cloudflare’s certification under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with the ICO’s International Data Transfer Addendum as a fallback |
| Mailchimp (The Rocket Science Group LLC, an Intuit company) | Stores the waitlist and sends our emails | The US | Mailchimp’s certification under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with standard contractual clauses as a fallback |
| Proton AG (Proton Mail) | Receives and stores emails you send us | Switzerland, Germany or Norway | The UK recognises Switzerland and the European Economic Area, which includes Germany and Norway, as giving adequate data protection |
We may also share data with our professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers, who are bound by confidentiality. We’ll disclose it if the law requires us to. If GroundWaves is ever sold or merges with another business, your data would pass to the new owner under this policy.
How long we keep it
We keep your data only as long as we need it, then delete it.
| Data | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Waitlist email address | Until you unsubscribe. Each year we remove anyone who hasn’t opened one of our emails in the past 12 months. |
| Do-not-contact list | For as long as we send marketing emails, so we never contact you again |
| Enquiries you email us | Up to 2 years after our last contact. If an enquiry leads to an agreement, we keep the related records for 6 years after the agreement ends, in line with UK tax record and legal claim time limits. |
| Website security data | For as long as Cloudflare needs it to protect the site, under its data processing terms |
| Visitor statistics | They don’t identify you, so we may keep them indefinitely |
Your rights and how to complain
You have rights over your data, and using them is free. Email sound@groundwaves.co.uk with “Privacy” in the subject line and we’ll reply within one month. If a request is complex, we may take up to two more months, and we’ll tell you if so. We may ask you to confirm who you are first.
You can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the data we hold about you
- correct data that’s wrong or incomplete
- delete your data
- limit how we use your data
- stop using your data where we rely on legitimate interests
- stop sending you marketing emails, at any time and without giving a reason
- send your data to you, or another organisation, in a common format
- withdraw your consent, which doesn’t affect anything we did before you withdrew it
Complaining to us. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, email sound@groundwaves.co.uk with “Privacy complaint” in the subject line. We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, keep you updated, and tell you the outcome.
Complaining to the ICO. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK data protection regulator. The ICO usually expects you to raise the complaint with us first.
- Online: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Phone: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Children, other websites and changes
- Children: our website and waitlist aren’t meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has joined the waitlist, tell us and we’ll delete their details.
- Other websites: we link to other sites, including our social media, partners and YouTube. Their own privacy policies apply once you leave our site.
- Changes to this policy: if we change this policy, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change significantly affects how we use your data, we’ll also email the waitlist.