Stately Privacy Policy
Stately Privacy Policy (24092026 v1)
1. Who we are
This policy explains how Stately collects and uses your personal data when you visit or join our online community, and the rights you have. It forms part of the Stately Terms of Service.
Stately is operated by Living History Films Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 10217895, whose registered office is at Unity Chambers, 34 High East Street, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1HA, United Kingdom ("Stately", "we", "us"). We are the controller of your personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR") and the Data Protection Act 2018.
You can contact us about privacy by email at info@livinghistoryuk.com, or by post at our registered office, marked for the attention of the Privacy Lead.
2. Information we collect
We collect only what we need to run Stately and your membership.
Account details you give us: your name, email address, password (stored in encrypted form by Circle), display name, and any profile information you choose to add, such as a photo, location, biography or interests.
Membership and payment details: your tier, plan, join and renewal dates, payment history, billing country and billing address. Card details are collected and held by Stripe, our payment processor. We never see or store your full card number.
Content you post: posts, comments, chat and direct messages, event registrations, votes, questions for live sessions, and anything you upload.
Live sessions: if you join a recorded live session with your camera or microphone on, or post in its chat, your name, image, voice and contributions.
Correspondence: emails and messages you send us, including support requests, complaints and reports about other members.
Usage and device data: pages and spaces you visit, content you view, emails you open, your IP address, browser and device type, and approximate location derived from your IP address.
Information from others: if you were a patron of Mapperton Live or the Countess of Sandwich Society on Patreon, we may hold your name, email address and patron history from that membership, which we use to invite you to Stately and honour your supporter status.
We do not ask for special category data, such as health, religion or political opinions. Please do not include it in your profile or posts.
3. How we use your data and our lawful bases
UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for each use of your data. Ours are set out below.
What we do
Lawful basis
Create and run your account, give you access to your tier's content and benefits
Contract
Take payments, calculate and charge VAT or sales tax, send receipts and renewal reminders
Contract; legal obligation (tax records)
Display your profile and posts to other members and run community features
Contract
Record live sessions and add them to the member library
Legitimate interests (giving all members access to sessions they could not attend live)
Show your name on Patrons or Founders pages
Contract (a benefit of your tier); you can opt out
Send the digests and newsletters that are part of your membership
Contract
Send marketing about our own similar products and services
Legitimate interests; you can unsubscribe at any time
Send marketing on behalf of partners or third parties
Consent
Moderate content, handle reports, and keep the Community safe and lawful
Legitimate interests; legal obligation (including the Online Safety Act 2023)
Answer questions, complaints and requests
Legitimate interests; legal obligation where you exercise your rights
Understand how Stately is used, to improve content and features
Legitimate interests
Invite former Patreon patrons to join Stately
Legitimate interests (continuing an existing supporter relationship)
Prevent fraud and misuse, and defend legal claims
Legitimate interests; legal obligation
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced our interests against yours. You can ask us for details, and you have the right to object (section 10). We do not use your data for automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
4. What other members can see
Stately is a community, so some of your information is visible to other members. Your display name, profile photo, tier badge and any profile details you add appear in the member directory and next to your posts. Posts and comments in a space can be seen by every member with access to that space. Direct messages are visible only to the people in the conversation, although our moderators may review them if they are reported.
You control most of this in your profile and notification settings, including whether you appear in the member directory and on the Patrons or Founders pages. Please think before sharing personal details, such as your address or phone number, in public spaces.
5. Emails and marketing
We send three kinds of email. Service emails, such as receipts, renewal reminders and changes to our terms, are needed to run your membership and cannot be switched off while you are a member. Digests and newsletters that form part of your tier can be adjusted in your notification settings. Marketing emails about our own similar products, events and offers can be stopped at any time using the unsubscribe link in each email.
We will only send you marketing on behalf of partners, such as other historic houses, if you have separately opted in. We never sell your email address or give it to partners for their own marketing. We may use email open and click data to understand which content members enjoy.
6. Cookies and analytics
The Community uses cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies keep you signed in, remember your settings and keep the site secure; these do not need your consent. Analytics cookies help us understand how members use Stately, and we set these only if you agree through the cookie banner. You can change your choice at any time from the cookie settings link in the Community footer or in your browser settings.
We do not use advertising cookies or allow third parties to track you across other websites for advertising. Our mobile app may use similar technologies for sign-in and push notifications, which you can switch off in your device settings.
7. Who we share your data with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with the organisations below, and only as far as they need it.
Recipient
Why
Their role
CircleCo, Inc. (United States)
Hosts the Community, member accounts, content, messaging, events and our emails
Processor acting on our instructions
Stripe (United States, Ireland and UK)
Processes payments, stores card details, calculates tax, prevents fraud
Processor for payments; independent controller for its own fraud and legal obligations
Our website and email service providers
Host the stately.club website and deliver email
Processors
Our accountants, lawyers and insurers
Professional advice, tax filings and audits
Independent controllers bound by confidentiality
Event venues and partners
Run a ticketed event you have booked, for example sharing a guest list
Independent controllers, only for events you book
Police, regulators and courts
Where the law requires it, or to protect members' safety
Independent controllers
A buyer of our business
If Stately is sold or restructured, under the same protections as this policy
Successor controller
Our team works with your data only as their role requires, and is bound by confidentiality.
8. International transfers
Circle and Stripe store and process data in the United States, so your data will be transferred outside the UK. Where we do this, we rely on one of the safeguards recognised by UK law: the recipient's certification under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum approved by the Information Commissioner. You can ask us for a copy of the relevant safeguard.
If you live in the United States or elsewhere outside the UK, your data will also be transferred to and held in the UK, which is recognised by the EU as providing adequate protection.
9. How long we keep your data
We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes in section 3.
Data
How long
Account and profile
While your account is open, then deleted within 90 days of closure
Posts and comments
While your account is open; on closure, removed or anonymised unless part of a thread other members rely on, in which case your name is removed
Direct messages
While your account is open, then deleted within 90 days of closure
Payment and tax records
6 years from the end of the financial year of the transaction, as UK tax law requires
Live session recordings
For as long as they remain in the member library
Support emails and complaints
2 years from the last contact
Moderation and safety reports
Up to 3 years, or longer where needed for legal claims or to prevent a banned member rejoining
Marketing preferences and unsubscribes
Until you ask us to delete them, so we can respect your choice
Former Patreon patron records
Up to 12 months from the Stately launch if you do not join, then deleted
10. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
ask us to delete your data, where we no longer have a reason to keep it;
ask us to restrict how we use your data while a concern is looked into;
object to our use of your data based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time;
receive the data you gave us in a portable format, where we use it under contract or consent; and
withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on it, without affecting what we did before.
To use any of these rights, write to info@livinghistoryuk.com. We will reply within one month, and we do not charge a fee. We may need to confirm your identity first.
Members in the United States. Depending on the state where you live, you may have similar rights under state privacy laws, including to know, access, correct and delete your data, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of your data for targeted advertising. We do not sell your data or share it for targeted advertising. We will honour requests from members in any US state in the same way as UK requests, and we will not treat you differently for exercising your rights.
11. Children
Stately is for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn that a member is under 18, we will close the account and delete their data.
12. Security
We use the security measures provided by Circle and Stripe, including encryption of data in transit, encrypted passwords and payment processing certified to the PCI DSS standard. Access to member data within our team is limited to those who need it. No online service is completely secure, so please use a strong, unique password and tell us straight away if you think your account has been compromised. If a data breach is likely to put you at high risk, we will tell you without undue delay.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We will post the new version in the Community and, if the changes are significant, tell members by email before they take effect.
14. Complaints
If you have a concern about how we use your data, please write to info@livinghistoryuk.com and we will try to resolve it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. If you live outside the UK, you may also complain to the data protection authority where you live.