Privacy Policy
LifeBook Memoirs Limited (‘We’) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect about you will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
Our role is to provide an Author with the tools and equipment to bring their story to life. For an Author, we will write their story to their words and their instructions. Information provided to us will be used for the sole purpose of producing the Author’s LifeBook. To the extent that we control the means and purposes of the processing of personal information (for the purpose of the data-protection law) we, LifeBook Memoirs Limited of 10 John Street, London, WC1N 2EB, United Kingdom, are the controller. Our nominated representative for the purpose of the data protection law is David Moëd.
When may we collect information about you?
1. If you contact us
You may contact us (by phone, email, letter or through a form on our website) for a number of reasons. For example, you may have an enquiry or concern, or you may wish to request a booklet from us, report a problem with our website or give feedback or a testimonial. In order to process your enquiry, we may ask you to provide your name and basic contact information so we can get in touch with you. We may make up an electronic file of the enquiry which will contain any personal information you have given us and keep it with any other information we have about you. We will use your personal information only to follow up on your enquiry and to respond to you. It is entirely up to you whether or not you wish to provide information to us. However, we may be limited in our ability to deal with your enquiry if we do not have the basic information. We will only correspond with you in the way you have asked us to. When you contact us, any personal information you provide will be protected in the same way as we treat our commercial information. We will monitor any emails we receive (plus attachments) for viruses and malicious software. Where you request information about our products, we will contact you using the information you provide to explain more about our products. We will send further information to you only if the law permits us to do so or you have agreed to this.
You may manage your marketing communications from us at any time through our online preference centre. A link to this is provided in all communications we send. Our use of your information here is needed either prior to us entering into a contract to provide a LifeBook or is in our legitimate business interests (to deal with your enquiry).
2. If you are telling your story for a LifeBook (an ‘Author’)
Our role is to provide you, the Author, with the tools and equipment to bring your story to life. We will write your story to your words and your instructions. It is completely up to you what personal information you share with us. We will not do anything with the information you disclose to us for a book other than use it to produce the book in line with this notice.
At your first interview, we will talk you through and ask you to sign our Author Consent Form. This will:
- explain your responsibilities regarding any personal information about third parties you refer to in your story;
- explain how we will record interviews (to ensure we accurately take down your story); and
- ask for your consent to record and reproduce any sensitive personal data you may want to disclose to us about you. Sensitive personal data is further explained in Section 7 of this notice.
If you receive your LifeBook as a gift, the giver of your gift may have already given us some personal information about you (prior to the first interview) to allow us to tailor your LifeBook to your needs. It is in our legitimate business interests to hold this information, and we will ensure your privacy rights are protected.
Before we finalise your story into a book, we will ask you to read and approve the final text from the galley proof (we call this a ‘Final Review’). Your approval of the text at this stage will confirm your agreement to the information contained in the book and that you have complied with your responsibilities regarding the content (we call this ‘Authority to Print’). Prior to the Final Review, we will process the content of the book for our legitimate interests in providing your LifeBook to you.
3. If you are ordering a LifeBook (a ‘Client’)
We will ask you to provide personal information in order to process your order. This is needed for us to conclude our contract with you. If you choose to make a payment for your LifeBook through our website or by credit or debit card over the telephone, this will be administered through our third-party global payment gateway, STRIPE. STRIPE’s privacy policy is available at https://stripe.com/gb/privacy. You should read this carefully and ensure you are comfortable with how STRIPE independently processes any personal information you provide to them directly for the purpose of making a payment.
Any personal information you provide to us is entirely voluntary, although we will need some basic personal information from you in order to enter into the contract for the provision of the LifeBook.
4. If I am an interviewer applying for a role
We will collect and use the following types of information about you, in order to consider you for the role you have applied for or other potential similar roles and to contact you about the status of your application:
- your name, email address and telephone number;
- information you provide to us in any application form/CV/covering letter you submit; and
- information you provide to us in interview.
We may also collect and use the following sensitive personal data:
- information about your ethnicity in any ID you provide;
- information you provide about your health; and/or
- information about any criminal convictions. We will conduct background checks once you are offered a role, including Disclosure and Barring Service checks for the protection of our Authors, who are sometimes vulnerable adults.
This information will be collected either from:
- you;
- the Disclosure and Barring Service, in respect of criminal convictions (or equivalent). You will need to facilitate the Disclosure and Barring Service check and, as such, it will be made with your agreement;
- our third-party providers Hireright (hireright.com) and Verifile (www.verifile.co.uk); and/or
- the referees you have provided.
If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application, we will not be able to process your application successfully. We will collect criminal convictions history information if we would like to offer you the role (conditional on other checks being satisfactory). We are entitled to carry out criminal checks to satisfy ourselves that you are suitable for the role. A high degree of trust and integrity is required, so we would like to ask you to seek basic disclosure of your criminal records history, where appropriate. Any sensitive personal data is collected with your agreement. (More information about sensitive personal data is given in Section 7 of this notice.) In all other cases, it is in our legitimate interests to collect this information to decide whether you are suitable for the role. We also need to process this information to decide whether or not to enter into a contract with you to act as an interviewer.
Please note that we may record our interviews. You will be advised of this prior to the interview taking place and asked for your consent to proceed.
If you are unsuccessful for the role you have applied for, we will hold on record the personal information you have provided with your application to keep you in mind for further opportunities. We will make you aware of our intention to do this when you first apply for a role and, therefore, this personal information will only be held with your agreement. If you later change your mind and prefer that your personal information not be held on record in this way, please let us know (by emailing us at privacy@lifebookuk.com) and we will delete it from our systems.
5. If I am a ghostwriter applying for a role
We will collect and use the following types of information about you, in order to consider you for the role you have applied for or other potential similar roles and to contact you about the status of your application:
- your name, email address and telephone number;
- information you provide to us in any application form/CV/covering letter you submit; and
- information you provide to us in interview.
We may also collect and use the following sensitive personal data:
- information about any criminal convictions. We will conduct background checks once you are offered a role, including Disclosure and Barring Service checks for the protection of our Authors, who are sometimes vulnerable adults.
This information will be collected either from:
- you;
- the Disclosure and Barring Service, in respect of criminal convictions (or equivalent). You will need to facilitate the Disclosure and Barring Service check and, as such, it will be made with your agreement;
- our third-party providers Hireright (hireright.com) and Verifile (www.verifile.co.uk); and/or
- the referees you have provided.
If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application, we will not be able to process your application successfully. We will collect criminal convictions history information if we would like to offer you the role (conditional on other checks being satisfactory). We are entitled to carry out criminal checks to satisfy ourselves that you are suitable for the role. A high degree of trust and integrity is required, so we would like to ask you to seek basic disclosure of your criminal records history, where appropriate. Any sensitive personal data is collected with your agreement. (More information about sensitive personal data is given in Section 7 of this notice.) In all other cases, it is in our legitimate interests to collect this information to decide whether you are suitable for the role. We also need to process this information to decide whether or not to enter into a contract with you to act as a ghostwriter.
If you are unsuccessful for the role you have applied for, we will hold on record the personal information you have provided with your application to keep you in mind for further opportunities. We will make you aware of our intention to do this when you first apply for a role and, therefore, this personal information will only be held with your agreement. If you later change your mind and prefer that your personal information not be held on record in this way, please let us know (by emailing us at privacy@lifebookuk.com) and we will delete it from our systems.
6. If I am a third party and my information is included or to be included in a LifeBook
As part of the Author’s story, they will want to tell us about other individuals who have played a significant role in their life. This information is provided at the control of the Author. We will only process it for the purpose of preparing the Author’s LifeBook. We will explain the Author’s responsibilities regarding this information at our first interview with them. We consider the processing of third-party information to be in our legitimate interests to provide our product to the Author. If you are a third party and you have any queries, please contact us (by emailing us at privacy@lifebookuk.com).
7. If a friend has given my information as a referral
We will send you an email to inform you of the name of the individual who referred you and to invite you to visit our website. We will store and use your personal information only for the purposes of sending this initial email and tracking the success of the referral programme. Our email communication will provide the option for the recipient to unsubscribe, and we will promptly honour this. We provide this programme as we feel it is helpful to individuals who show an interest in our product (i.e., we feel we have a legitimate interest in processing information in this way). We will collect limited personal information only for this purpose.
8. If I am a user of your website
Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the website owners. Our site uses session-cookie files which are automatically generated when you visit our site, but these files do not store your data and will be deleted from your computer when you finish using the site by closing your browser. You can set your browser not to accept cookies, and www.aboutcookies.org will tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our site features may not function as a result.
Each time you visit our website, we will collect details of your visits to our site (including traffic data, location data, weblogs, and other communications data). We use Google Analytics Software Solutions to track and report on general patterns of activity on our website at a statistical level. More information about this and how Google Analytics Solutions uses your device and log information can be found at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. These activities are in our legitimate interests (i.e., we have a justifiable reason for processing your information in this way), helping to ensure that our site operates effectively and that we understand how to improve it.
Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from third-party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
How long do we keep your personal data?
We keep your personal data for the periods outlined below.
| If you contact us | 10 years after you last made contact with us (unless you fall within one of the other categories). |
| If you are an Author of a LifeBook | After conclusion of the LifeBook, we will retain: a copy of the LifeBook (in the form approved by the Author prior to print), in case the Client/Author wishes to order further copies in the future; and basic Client/Author contact information, so we can trace the LifeBook and respond to such an enquiry. We will also keep additional personal data collected in consequence of providing the LifeBook for as long as reasonably necessary to effectively deal with any concerns, complaints or legal claims. Any personal data outside of these purposes will be promptly deleted following conclusion of the LifeBook. |
| If you are ordering a LifeBook as a Client | After conclusion of the LifeBook we will retain: a copy of the LifeBook (n the form approved by the Author prior to print) in case the Client/Author wishes to order further copies in the future; and basic contact information of the Client/Author so we can trace the service/respond to such an enquiry. We will keep also keep additional personal data collected in consequence of providing the service for as long as reasonably necessary to effectively deal with any concerns, complaints or legal claims. Any personal data outside of these purposes will be promptly deleted following conclusion of the LifeBook. |
| If you are an Interviewer applying for a role | 10 years after the conclusion of the LifeBook you are instructed to interview for (where successful). If you are unsuccessful, we will hold your personal data on our list of potential interviewers in case of a future opportunity for a period of 10 years (unless you later object to this). |
| If you are a Ghostwriter applying for a role | 10 years after the conclusion of the LifeBook you are instructed to provide ghostwriting for (where successful). If you are unsuccessful, we will hold your personal data on our list of potential ghostwriters in case of a future opportunity for a period of 10 years (unless you later object to this). |
| If a friend gives us your information as a referral | 10 years after we were first provided with your personal data (unless you fall within one of the other categories). |
| If you are a user of our website | 10 years after you accessed the website. |
You can find out more information by emailing privacy@lifebookmemoirs.com.
Marketing
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We have created a preference centre where you can view and make certain decisions about your personal data use at any time. A link to this preference centre is provided in all our email communications. If you are an existing Client, we will only contact you by electronic means (email or SMS) with information about products similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale to you. If you are a potential customer, we will only contact you by electronic means with marketing material if you have consented to this. LifeBook Memoirs Limited does not share any personal data of Clients, Authors or new enquirers with third parties for onward marketing.
You can ask us to stop sending you marketing communications at any time by following the unsubscribe links on any marketing communications sent to you or by emailing us at privacy@lifebookuk.com. If you unsubscribe, we will still process your personal data to:
- provide you with the product you have purchased;
- process any enquiry/request you have made; and/or
- notify you of changes to your product.
Where do you keep personal data and how is it protected?
We have put in place appropriate technical and organisational precautions to prevent loss, misuse and alteration of your personal information. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Personal information is processed only on our instructions or on the instructions of the Author/Client. Where we have given you a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website or systems (Interviewers and Ghostwriters only), you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask that you do not share a password with anyone.
The data we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’). We and the third parties we work with may use cloud platforms to store your personal information. A ‘cloud’ is a network of remote servers hosted on the internet. We will use only state-of-the-art cloud platforms which give adequate guarantees that your personal data is secure. We will treat the storage of your personal information to the same level of protection as we treat our commercial information. Where your data is held outside of the EEA, on a cloud or otherwise transferred, we will ensure this is only to a country which has been deemed adequate by a competent data-protection regulator or where adequate protections have been put in place to safeguard the data (to the standards prescribed by law). This includes contractual protections. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
We carefully select our Interviewers to ensure they are located close to the Author. Where the Author is located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), we will select an Interviewer in the same location as (or in close proximity to) the Author. In this instance, personal data about the relevant Client/Author will be sent outside the EEA to the Interviewer to commence the LifeBook. Our Ghostwriters are located globally, and, as such, personal data contained within a LifeBook may be held outside of the EEA by the Ghostwriter appointed to write the story. Where the use of Interviewers and Ghostwriters involves a transfer of personal data from LifeBook Memoirs Limited to a country that does not satisfy the adequacy requirements set out above, this transfer is permitted by law as it is either:
- necessary for the performance of a contract between the Client and LifeBook Memoirs Limited or
- necessary for the performance of a contract concluded in the interest of the Author between the Client and LifeBook Memoirs Limited.
Our Interviewers and Ghostwriters are carefully selected, and they are subject to strict contractual requirements to ensure your personal data is protected whilst in their possession. To find out more about storage of your data and the safeguards that are in place to protect your data outside of the EEA, contact us at privacy@lifebookuk.com.
Who do we disclose personal data to?
We may disclose your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Personal information about an Interviewer or Ghostwriter will be disclosed to the Client/Author in order to facilitate the product for that Author. For the same reason, the Interviewer and Ghostwriter will receive personal information about the Client/Author and information disclosed for the LifeBook.
- To carefully selected third parties who provide a service to us to support our core operations, such as processing our mail, communicating with customers on our behalf, running competitions and promotions, providing IT systems and administrative services and the development and improvement of internal systems and processes.
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
- If LifeBook Memoirs Limited or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, to enforce or apply our terms of useand other agreements, or to protect the rights, property or safety of LifeBook Memoirs Limited, our customers or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit-risk reduction.
What are your rights?
We recognise that the personal information we hold about you belongs to you, and it is right that you have control over that personal information. In certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
- ask us to have access to, and to provide a copy of, the personal information we hold about you. We may require you to provide confirmation of your identity before we can deal with your request;
- request that we amend or delete your personal information. Please note that we can only accept instructions for personal data to be deleted from the individual to whom the personal data relates;
- ask us to stop processing your personal data altogether or in a certain way;
- change your mind about how you have agreed we can use your personal information. If you have given us consent to use your personal information in a specific way, you can withdraw it. This means that we will stop processing your personal data in the way you have objected to from the date on which your permission is withdrawn;
- issue a complaint to the appropriate authority – see org.ukfor more information; and
- request that we transfer your personal information to another provider (this is known as data portability).
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@lifebookuk.com. We need to make you aware that even when you exercise a right detailed above, we may not be able to comply with that request if an exception in law applies. Where this is the case, we will notify you and explain why we are unable to meet your request. Please note that we do not make decisions using automated means.
What is sensitive personal data?
By ‘sensitive personal data’, we mean data that reveals racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, genetic data, biometric data and data concerning health, sex life and/or sexual orientation.
Can we change this policy?
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.
How do I contact you?
Questions, comments and requests regarding this notice are welcomed and should be addressed to privacy@lifebookmemoirs.com. Please also contact us using this address if you would like us to update, correct or delete any personal information held about you.
