Who is responsible for your information?
Align Editions is part of Align Digital. For personal information collected through this website, Align Digital is the business responsible for deciding how and why that information is used.
What information do we collect?
The information we collect depends on which parts of Align Editions you use.
Customer accounts
- name, email address and telephone number where supplied;
- password stored as a one-way password hash — we do not store your readable password;
- email-verification, password-reset and remembered-login information;
- saved delivery and billing addresses;
- account preferences, including marketing and stock-notification preferences;
- account creation date and last-login information.
Orders, baskets and artwork
- products, quantities, prices, sizes, framing choices and other selected options;
- delivery details, order notes and order status;
- personalisation instructions, names, dates, locations, wording and other details you ask us to include;
- persistent basket information for signed-in customers;
- previous orders associated with your verified customer account where the order email matches your account email;
- Limited Edition number, archive/certificate reference and related provenance information where applicable.
Favourites and stock alerts
- products you save as favourites;
- product or variant details for stock-availability alerts you request;
- the email address used for an alert and whether/when a notification has been sent.
Enquiries, Bespoke and uploaded reference images
- your name, email, telephone number and message where supplied;
- occasion, event date, budget, artwork type and other commission information you choose to provide;
- reference photographs or images you upload for a bespoke commission;
- order references and subject information submitted through the Contact page.
Newsletter and communications
- email address and name where known;
- when, where and how you subscribed;
- the consent wording shown when you subscribed;
- subscription/unsubscription status;
- campaign delivery history and technical delivery errors where relevant.
Limited Edition release notifications
If you use the dedicated Register release interest form, we store that choice as a separate Limited Edition preference on the same subscriber record used by our existing email system. Registering for Limited Edition notifications does not by itself subscribe you to general studio marketing.
Security and technical information
We process limited technical information needed to keep the site secure and working. This includes session information, security tokens and a one-way hash derived from an IP address for login-rate limiting and abuse prevention. Our hosting provider may also create normal server and access logs as part of operating the website.
We do not intentionally ask you to submit full payment-card details into the Align Editions database. The current order process records order/payment status rather than storing full card numbers. If a third-party online payment service is introduced, this notice will be updated to identify the relevant processing before it is enabled.
Why do we use your information?
UK data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for using personal information. The basis depends on what we are doing.
| Purpose | Typical information | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Create and operate your account | Account details, saved addresses, authentication and account preferences. | Contract / steps at your request, and legitimate interests in operating a secure customer service. |
| Process and fulfil orders | Contact details, delivery details, order contents, personalisation and order history. | Contract and steps taken at your request before entering into a contract. |
| Personalised and bespoke artwork | Instructions, wording, dates, locations, messages and uploaded reference photographs. | Contract / steps at your request. General enquiries may also be handled under our legitimate interests in responding to genuine business enquiries. |
| Persistent basket, favourites and requested stock alerts | Basket contents, saved products, email/account ID and requested product/variant. | Contract / steps at your request and our legitimate interests in providing the customer features you choose to use. |
| Limited Edition allocation and provenance | Order reference, artwork, numbered allocation and certificate/archive reference. | Contract and our legitimate interests in protecting the authenticity and provenance of numbered Editions. |
| Newsletter and promotional email | Email, name, subscription record and relevant customer interests described below. | Consent where you actively opt in. You can withdraw consent at any time. |
| Website and account security | Session/security tokens, login records and hashed IP-derived security identifiers. | Legitimate interests in preventing fraud, misuse, unauthorised access and protecting customers and the business. |
| Tax, accounting, consumer and legal records | Orders, transactions, correspondence and records needed to demonstrate compliance. | Legal obligation and, where relevant, legitimate interests in establishing or defending legal rights. |
Newsletter, marketing and relevance.
We do not subscribe you to promotional email simply because you send an enquiry or create an order. Where the site offers a marketing checkbox or newsletter form, it is optional and should not be pre-selected.
If you actively subscribe, we may send information about new Editions, Limited Edition releases and occasional offers. Our newsletter system may use limited information already associated with a subscribed customer — such as previous purchases, collections purchased from, favourites or requested stock alerts — to select which subscribed campaigns are most relevant. This does not make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
If you separately register for Limited Edition release notifications, we use that preference only to contact you about numbered Limited Edition announcements, releases and directly related availability. You can stop those notifications independently without changing a separate general newsletter preference.
Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe route. You can also change marketing preferences in My Account where available or contact editions@aligndigital.co.uk. When you unsubscribe, we may retain a minimal suppression record so that we can respect your request and avoid accidentally re-subscribing or contacting you.
How long do we keep information?
We do not keep every category of information for the same period. We use the purpose of the information, legal requirements, security needs and whether there is an ongoing customer relationship to decide how long it is reasonably needed.
| Information | Typical retention approach |
|---|---|
| Customer account | While the account remains open and for a reasonable period afterwards where needed for security, disputes or linked records. If an account is deleted, records we are legally required to keep may remain separately. |
| Orders and accounting records | Kept for the period reasonably required for tax, accounting, consumer, warranty, dispute and other legal obligations. |
| Limited Edition provenance | Numbered allocation and certificate/archive information may be kept for a longer period because an enduring authenticity record is part of the Limited Edition service. We aim to minimise personal information retained solely for provenance. |
| Enquiries and reference images | Enquiries that do not lead to an order are reviewed and may normally be deleted after around 24 months of inactivity unless there is a reason to retain them longer. When a Bespoke enquiry is permanently deleted through our administration system, its associated uploaded reference images are also removed from our site storage. |
| Persistent basket | Stored against a signed-in account so the basket can survive sessions, until it is replaced, cleared, the account is removed or it is no longer reasonably needed. |
| Favourites | Until you remove the favourite, the product/account is removed, or the information is no longer needed. |
| Stock alerts | Kept while an alert is waiting/needed and for a reasonable period afterwards to record whether the requested notification was sent and prevent duplicate alerts. |
| Newsletter | While subscribed. A minimal suppression/unsubscribe record may be retained after opt-out so we can continue to honour your marketing preference. |
| Limited Edition notifications | While you remain registered for Limited Edition release notices. A minimal suppression/unsubscribe record may be retained afterwards so we can continue to honour your preference. |
| Security records | For as long as reasonably necessary to detect abuse, investigate security events and protect the service. |
You can ask us to review information held about you at any time.
How do we protect your information?
We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the size and nature of the service. These include password hashing, hashed account/security tokens, prepared database queries, CSRF protection, login-rate limiting, session controls, restricted administration access and validation of uploaded image types and sizes.
No internet service can promise absolute security. If we become aware of a personal-data breach, we will assess and respond to it in line with applicable data-protection requirements.
Children and material you upload.
Align Editions is not designed for children to create customer accounts or enter into purchases independently. If you provide photographs or information relating to a child for personalised or bespoke artwork, please only do so where you are entitled to provide that material.
Your data-protection rights.
Depending on the circumstances and our lawful basis, UK data-protection law may give you rights to:
- ask for access to personal information we hold about you;
- ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
- ask for erasure in circumstances where the right applies;
- ask us to restrict certain processing;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests;
- receive certain information in a portable format where the right applies;
- withdraw consent at any time where processing relies on consent.
Your right to object to direct marketing is absolute. If you tell us to stop using your information for direct marketing, we will stop.
These rights are not all absolute. For example, we may need to keep certain order records to comply with legal obligations even if you ask us to delete your customer account.
To exercise a right, contact editions@aligndigital.co.uk. We may ask for enough information to confirm your identity before disclosing or changing personal information.
Questions and complaints.
Please contact us at editions@aligndigital.co.uk if you have a privacy question or concern. We would like the opportunity to investigate and put things right.
You also have the right to raise a concern with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Changes to this policy.
We update this policy when Align Editions changes the way it collects or uses personal information, introduces a new supplier or payment arrangement, or when legal requirements change. The date at the top shows when this version was last updated.