This privacy notice sets out how we collect, use and protect the personal data that you provide to us. It also explains what we do with your data. We also set out details about your rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you, and how to contact us if you have any questions or comments.

We are Water Babies Limited (Water Babies, we, our, or us), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 04322357 whose registered office is at Water Babies Group Limited, Winslade House, Winslade Park, Manor Drive, Clyst St. Mary, Exeter, EX5 1FY.

We are registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office and our registration number is Z98515333.

The Water Babies business is operated by our franchisees who, for the purposes of this privacy notice, will also be referred to as Water Babies, we, our, or us. For more information about these franchisees, for example their ICO registration numbers, please contact us using the details provided in section 12.

This privacy notice applies to the personal data we collect about you through our website (www.waterbabies.co.uk) (website), by post, by telephone, and when you otherwise communicate with us.

This privacy notice may change from time to time and, if it does, the up-to-date version will always be available on our Website. We will also tell you about any important changes to our privacy notice.  

This section informs you of what information we collect about you and why.

We collect personal data about you if you fill in forms on the website or correspond with us by phone, email, or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you register with us, place orders for goods or services, attend classes or photo shoots, voluntarily complete customer surveys, enter competitions, provide feedback and when you report a problem with our Website.  We may also ask you to share your personal data with us if it is necessary for us to provide our services to you – for example, we may ask if you require mobility assistance when planning or scheduling our swimming lessons.

Personal data we may process about you:

• name(s)
• home address and telephone number
• mobile phone number
• personal email address
• IP address
• bank and/or payment card details
• gender
• details of any medical conditions that may be relevant to your safety, when in receipt of our services

Personal data we may process about your child/children:

• name(s)
• gender
• date of birth
• details of any medical conditions that may be relevant to your child’s/children’s safety, when in receipt of our services

Where we collect gender, biometric or medical data about your or your child/children, we do so on the basis that we require this data in order to safely and efficiently provide you with our services: for example, to ensure your child is old enough and of sufficient weight to safely swim at particular temperatures; to allow our teachers to appropriately communicate with your child; or to ensure the appropriate changing facilities are available to you.

No automated decision-making or profiling will take place using your personal data.

If you use our Website, we automatically collect the following information:

• web usage information (e.g. IP address); your login information including last login and any failed attempts to login, anonymised demographic information (e.g. age bracket or gender); device type, model, and screen dimensions; browser type and version; IP location, local language setting and time zone setting; operating system and platform; and
• information about your visit, including: the full Uniform Resource Locators (URLs); clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time); time on page; page response times; download errors; length of visits to certain pages; page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs).

Where we collect information about you in the ways described above, we do so on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests to collect and process this data. Where possible, this data will be anonymised. We collect and process this data to ensure that our Website is functioning properly and that our customer experience is to the standard that you and we expect.

The Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy notices and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these notices. Please check these notices before you submit any personal data to these websites.

We also use cookies on our Website. Please see the cookies section for more information.

Information we receive from other sources:

We are also working closely with third parties, (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers) and may receive information about you from them.

When we receive information from other sources, we rely on their having the appropriate provisions in place telling you how they collect data and who they may share it with. We carefully check our sources to ensure that we only receive your information when it is lawful for us to do so.

This section explains how we will collect, store and use personal data you provide to us in order to carry out the activities relevant to the provision of our services to you.

We use the information held about you in the following ways:

• Information you give to us. We will use this information to:
  • carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us including, but not limited to, billing you and contacting you about your swim lessons and/or your orders;
  • respond to your enquiries or to process your requests in relation to your information;
  • let you know about important changes or developments to the Website or our services;
  • provide and personalise our services generally;
  • carry out market research campaigns;
  • measure or understand the success of our products and services, and where we might improve the services we provide to you;
  • provide you, or permit selected third parties that you have consented to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you;
  • contact you to let you know about other products and services that we offer and feel may be of interest, as set out in the section on Marketing Communications;
  • ensure that content from our Website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer, making the Website easier for you to use and providing you with access to all parts of the Website.
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• Information we collect about you. We will use this information to:
  • administer our Website; and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • improve our Website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
  • allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
  • assist our efforts to keep our Website safe and secure;
  • measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you; and
  • make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our Website about goods or services that may interest you or them.
• Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

We must have a legal basis for processing your personal data. We consider that we have a legal basis where

• you have given us consent to do so for the specific purposes which we have told you about – for example, we will need your consent to process any health information you provide to us, such as information relating to mobility so that we can provide an appropriate service. We will also rely on consent in the context of direct marketing, as explained below;
• it is necessary for us to do so to enable us to provide you with the services that you have requested from us - for example, contacting you about orders;
• it is necessary in order to fulfil our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; or
• the law otherwise permits or requires it.

Where we process your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests, these are our (or our third party’s) interest in providing our services to you in an efficient and secure manner.

This section is to explain how we will ensure that you only receive marketing communications that you wish to receive.

We want to ensure that you are informed and aware of the best products, services, competitions, promotions and events that we can offer you. We may also want to gather your support by communicating information about any industry awards that we are nominated for. By consenting to receive additional communications (by mail, telephone, text/picture/video message, or email) from us in respect of such information, we will process your personal data in accordance with this privacy notice.

If you prefer not to receive any marketing communications from us, you can change your preferences and unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link on any marketing email from us, or by contacting us at data@waterbabies.co.uk. If you choose not to receive this information, we will be unable to keep you informed of new services, competitions, events and promotions that may interest you.

This section is to explain who, within Water Babies, will have access to your data. Your personal data will only be seen or used by our employees, volunteers, or assistants who have a legitimate business need to access your personal data for the purposes set out in this privacy notice.

We take your privacy seriously and have implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational security measures designed to secure your personal data against accidental loss, destruction or damage and unauthorised access, use, alteration or disclosure.

This section will inform you of who we share your personal data with and why. Except as explained in this privacy notice, we will not share your personal data without your consent unless required to do so by law.

We may share your personal data with the following third-party service providers who assist us with administering the provision of our services to you:

• business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you;
• agents we engage to perform functions on our behalf including fulfilling order deliveries, sending customer communications, analysing data, providing technical support, providing marketing assistance (including carrying out market research), processing payments, and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes; and
• analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our Website.

We may also pass aggregate information on the usage of our site (e.g. we might disclose the median ages of visitors to our site, or the numbers of visitors to our site that come from different geographic areas) to third parties, but this will not include information that can be used to identify you personally.

This section explains how we keep your personal data safe and where it will be held.

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to maintaining the privacy and security of the personal data you provide to us, and the choices you have regarding our collection and use of your personal data.

We follow strict security procedures as to how your personal data is stored and used, and who sees it, to help stop any unauthorised person’s getting hold of it. Once we have received your personal data, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Any payment transactions will be encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You should not share this information with anyone.  

Your personal data is stored on servers located in the UK. Currently the UK and the EU are working under an agreement that allows for the free flow of information between countries. Your data is not processed outside of the EEA/UK except in the case of images taken during our photo shoot. Those images are processed and made available for viewing by third-parties who are located outside of the EEA, and we have taken measures to ensure that your data is secure while it is in their care. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of your personal data via the internet is not completely secure and although we do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us over the internet and you acknowledge that any transmission is at your own risk.

This section explains the length of time that we will retain your personal data.

We will keep your personal data for no longer than necessary, for the purposes we have set out above. We will retain your information for as long as needed in order to provide the relevant services to you or perform any contract we have with you, and for a maximum of five years from the date of our last interaction in order to deal with any queries, provide you a continuous service should you start swim lessons with another child, or to refer back to your child’s swimming history should you leave and re-join.

If you and your child/children attend a photo shoot, we will retain the professional photographs of your child/children for a maximum of five years from the date of the photograph unless you purchase the image or consent to our using the images for other purposes.

During the five-year retention period we may request your permission to use the photograph for:

• local social media or local newsletters;
• broader promotional or marketing purposes.

Should you consent to either of these, personal data will be kept alongside the photograph to enable us to contact you, or to enable you to withdraw consent. Should you wish to withdraw consent or to have your photographs deleted sooner than the five-year retention period as referred to above, please contact us using the details provided in section 12.

If you give us permission to use a photograph from your underwater photo shoot for promotional or marketing purposes or you purchase a photograph during the five-year retention period as referred to above, we will retain a copy of that photograph for the length of time Water Babies owns the copyright relating to that image in order that we can properly exercise our rights under copyright law. This will also allow you to return to us and purchase further copies of the image should you wish to do so.

Photographs taken at a photo shoot may be used for training and quality assurance purposes and we may share them within our group and franchise businesses for those purposes. If we retain photos for these reasons, they will not be used for any other purpose without your explicit consent.

Where you have given us permission to use other photos or videos taken in class, such as at promotional events, we will keep those images for the duration of our requirements or your consent, whichever is shorter. Should you withdraw your consent for use of those images, we will endeavour to remove all available copies from our own social media and other platforms, but due to the nature of social media, we may not be able to withdraw images that have been shared further.

Any third parties that we engage will keep your data stored on their systems for as long as is necessary to provide the relevant services to you or us. If we end our relationship with any third-party providers, we will make sure that they securely delete or return your personal data to us.

In order to ensure our teachers are at the required standard, we may, when assessing a new teacher, take video of that teacher in the process of instructing. Although the focus of the video will be on the teacher, the images of some parents and little ones may be captured as well. This video will only be used internally for teacher assessment and will be securely destroyed once that teacher has fully qualified.

We may retain personal data about you for statistical purposes (for example, to help us better advertise our services). Where data is retained for statistical purposes it will always be anonymised, meaning that you will not be identifiable from that data.

This section explains that you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. There are circumstances in which your rights may not apply. You have the right to request that we:

• provide you with a copy of the information we hold about you;
• update any of your personal information if it is inaccurate or out of date;
• delete the personal data we hold about you - if we are providing services to you and you ask us to delete personal data we hold about you then we may be unable to continue providing those services to you;
• restrict the way in which we process your personal data;
• stop processing your data if you have valid objections to such processing; and
• transfer your personal data to a third party.

For more information on your rights and how to use them, or if you would like to make any of the requests set out above, please contact us using the details provided in section 12. We will respond to all such requests within the time period required by law.

As explained in the section on Marketing Communications above, even if you consented to the processing of your personal data for marketing purposes (by ticking the relevant box or by requesting information about services), you have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal data for such purposes. You can exercise this right at any time by contacting us at data@waterbabies.co.uk.

This section explains how the Website uses cookies. Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your personal computer, mobile or other device when you visit a website.

Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user's device.

Cookies in themselves do not identify you, just the computer or device you are using. Cookies do lots of different jobs, like making it easier for you to log on to and use our Website during future visits, letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. They also allow us to monitor traffic on our Website and can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

Cookies themselves only record which areas of our Website have been visited by your computer or device and for how long. Allowing us to create a cookie does not give us access to the rest of your computer.

All the cookies that we use are persistent cookies. These cookies remain on your device for the period of time specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that you access the Website from the same device. You can see how long a cookie will be left on your device. To find out how, you can visit www.allaboutcookies.org which contains further information about how to manage cookies.

We use three different sets of cookies:

• Water Babies: The Website uses some cookies which are specific to us. These allow us to:
  • check that you’ve accepted cookies;
  • automatically log you in on a device you’ve used before;
  • automatically reconnect you to your last Website session and shopping basket;
  • not replay our intro video to you if you’ve already seen it;
  • reload the Website for you in your chosen language;
  • reload the correct local content for you.
• Feefo: The Website uses Feefo to display our national and local customer satisfaction ratings. We use a cookie provided by Feefo to make sure we display the right ratings for you.
• Google Analytics: The Website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc (Google). Google Analytics uses cookies (text files placed on your computer) to help the website operators analyse how users use our Website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Website, compiling reports on website activity for internet operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet use. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. By using our Website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. You can choose to opt out of Google Analytics using your browser settings to manage cookies.

With most Internet browsers, you can erase or block cookies or ask to receive a warning before a cookie is stored. The “Help” function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.youronlinechoices.eu or www.allaboutcookies.org which contain comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your computer as well as more general information about cookies.

You are under no obligation to accept our cookie statement. Please be aware that restricting cookies may have a negative impact on the functionality of the Website.

If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using any one (or more) of the following:

Post:              Data Protection Team

                        Winslade House, Winslade Park,

                        Manor Drive,

                        Clyst St. Mary,

                        Exeter

                        EX5 1FY

Email:           data@waterbabies.co.uk

Telephone:    0330 223 6777

If you are unsatisfied with our response to any data protection issues you raise with us, you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the authority in the UK which is tasked with the protection of personal data and privacy. You can contact them using the methods outlined by them on their website at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns/personal-information-concerns/.