Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
Forge Digital ("we", "us", "our") is a web design studio based in Lincolnshire, UK. We are the data controller for personal data collected through this website.
If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, contact us at contact@forgedigitalstudio.co.uk.
2. What data we collect and why
Contact form submissions
When you submit our contact form, we collect:
- Your name
- Email address
- Phone number (optional)
- Your message
Purpose: To respond to your enquiry.
Legal basis: Legitimate interests (responding to a contact request you initiated).
Retention: We retain enquiry emails for up to 2 years, then delete them.
Analytics (Google Analytics 4)
With your consent, we use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors use our website. This collects information including:
- Pages visited and time spent
- Approximate location (country / region — not precise)
- Device type and browser
- How you arrived at the site (search, social media, direct, etc.)
Purpose: Understanding site usage to improve content and design.
Legal basis: Consent.
Data processor: Google Ireland Limited. Data may be transferred to the United States under Google's standard contractual clauses. See Google's Privacy Policy.
You can withdraw consent at any time using the cookie banner.
3. Cookies
This site uses the following cookies:
| Cookie | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
forge_cookie_consent | Forge Digital | Stores your cookie preference | 1 year |
_ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics | Distinguishes unique visitors (analytics) | 2 years |
Analytics cookies are only set after you accept via the cookie banner. You can change your preference at any time by clearing your browser cookies and reloading the page.
4. Google reCAPTCHA
Our contact form uses Google reCAPTCHA v3 to protect against automated spam. reCAPTCHA collects hardware and software information and sends it to Google for analysis. This is loaded only on the contact page and is necessary for the form to function securely.
See Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
5. Third-party links
Our website may link to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to read their policies.
6. Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data
- Erasure — ask us to delete your personal data
- Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data
- Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests
- Withdraw consent — withdraw consent for analytics at any time
To exercise any of these rights, email contact@forgedigitalstudio.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
7. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes.