Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 2026
1. Who we are
This website and the Helping Creatives Thrive services are operated by Thinkroom (UK) Limited, trading as Helping Creatives Thrive ("Helping Creatives Thrive", "HCT", "we", "us" or "our").
Thinkroom (UK) Limited is registered in England and Wales under company number 15674704, with its registered office at 15 Cascade Court, 1 Sopwith Way, London, SW11 8NS.
For the purposes of UK data protection law, we are the controller of the personal data described in this policy.
If you have any questions about this policy or how we use your personal data, please contact us at info@helpingcreativesthrive.com.
2. Personal data we collect
Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following information:
Identity and contact information - including your name, email address, telephone number and other contact details you provide to us.
Account, programme and transaction information - information about programmes, courses, coaching or other services you purchase or use, together with related correspondence and transaction records.
Payment information - payments are processed through third-party payment providers such as Stripe or Squarespace Payments. We do not generally receive or store your complete payment-card details.
Coaching and programme information - information you choose to provide in questionnaires, coaching sessions, programme activities, messages or other communications with us.
Directory information - where you participate in The A List or another HCT directory, the information you provide for publication in your listing and information relating to enquiries made through the directory.
Booking information - information you provide when arranging a call, coaching session or other appointment.
Messages and media - information contained in emails or other communications with us, including any video, voice or written messages submitted through services such as VideoAsk.
Technical and usage information - such as your IP address, browser and device information and information about how you use our website and services.
Marketing and communications information - your marketing preferences and, where enabled and permitted by law, information about engagement with our communications, such as links clicked in emails.
We generally collect information directly from you. We may also receive technical or transactional information from service providers that operate our website, payment, booking, communications and other systems.
If you do not provide information that we reasonably need to enter into or perform a contract with you, we may be unable to provide the relevant service.
3. Special-category information
Information provided during coaching or other communications may sometimes reveal information which UK data protection law treats as particularly sensitive, such as information about health, disability, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, sexual orientation or sex life.
We do not ask you to provide sensitive information unless it is relevant to the service or you choose to provide it.
Where we intentionally process special-category personal data, we will have both a lawful basis under Article 6 UK GDPR and an appropriate condition under Article 9 UK GDPR. Where appropriate, this may include your explicit consent. You may withdraw consent at any time, although this will not affect processing already carried out lawfully before withdrawal.
Please avoid providing sensitive information that is not relevant to your interaction with us.
4. How and why we use your information
We use personal data only where we have a lawful basis for doing so:
- Responding to enquiries and taking steps requested by you before entering into a contract - Steps necessary before entering into a contract and/or our legitimate interests in responding to enquiries.
- Providing purchased programmes, courses, coaching and other services - Performance of our contract with you.
- Managing bookings, access details and service communications - Performance of our contract with you and/or our legitimate interests in administering our services.
- Processing payments and maintaining transaction records - Performance of our contract, compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests in administering our business.
- Preventing fraud, misuse and protecting our systems and business - Our legitimate interests in security and fraud prevention and, where applicable, legal obligations.
- Publishing an optional listing on The A List or another public directory - Your consent, where the listing is optional and consent is the basis communicated to you.
- Receiving and passing on directory enquiries and maintaining appropriate records of them - Our legitimate interests in operating, administering and protecting the integrity of the directory.
- Sending newsletters, offers and other direct marketing - Your consent where required; or our legitimate interests where the applicable electronic-marketing rules permit us to rely on the soft opt-in or otherwise send the communication without consent.
- Understanding use of and improving our website, programmes and services - Our legitimate interests in developing and improving our business, subject to the applicable rules on cookies and similar technologies.
- Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims - Our legitimate interests in protecting our legal rights.
- Complying with tax, accounting, regulatory and other legal requirements - Compliance with a legal obligation.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, those interests generally include operating and improving our services, responding to customers and prospective customers, maintaining appropriate business records, protecting our systems and legal rights, and understanding how our services are used. We consider the impact of the processing on your interests, rights and freedoms before relying on this basis.
We will not use your information for a materially incompatible purpose without considering whether an additional lawful basis or further notice is required.
5. Marketing
If you ask to receive our newsletter or other marketing communications, we may send these to you in accordance with your preferences.
We may also send marketing about our own similar products or services to existing customers where the "soft opt-in" under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations applies. Where we rely on this, we will provide an opportunity to opt out when we collect your details and in each subsequent marketing communication.
You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time by using the unsubscribe link in an email or contacting info@helpingcreativesthrive.com.
You have an absolute right to object at any time to the use of your personal data for direct marketing.
We may retain a minimal suppression record after you unsubscribe so that we can ensure that we do not inadvertently contact you again for marketing.
6. Who we share information with
We use third parties to help us operate our business and provide our services. These may include:
- Squarespace - website hosting, checkout and course or content delivery;
- Stripe and/or Squarespace Payments - payment processing;
- Omnisend - newsletters and marketing communications;
- Calendly - call and session scheduling;
- VideoAsk - video, voice and written messages;
- Canva - design and content production, where relevant; and
- other IT, hosting, communications, professional and administrative service providers.
Depending on the service being provided, these organisations may process personal data on our behalf or may act as separate controllers for some aspects of their activities. Their own privacy notices may therefore also apply.
Where you send an enquiry intended for a member listed in The A List or another HCT directory, we may disclose the information contained in that enquiry to the relevant listed member.
We may also disclose information where reasonably necessary to:
- our accountants, lawyers, insurers and other professional advisers;
- regulators, courts, government bodies, law-enforcement authorities or tax authorities where required or permitted by law;
- protect our rights, property, customers or systems; or
- a purchaser, investor or other party involved in a proposed or actual sale, merger, restructuring or transfer of all or part of our business.
We do not sell your personal data and do not provide it to third parties for their own unrelated marketing.
7. International transfers
Some of our service providers operate internationally, so your personal data may be processed outside the United Kingdom.
Where UK data protection rules relating to restricted international transfers apply, we take steps to ensure an appropriate transfer mechanism is in place. Depending on the circumstances, this may include:
- transferring information to a country, territory or organisation covered by UK adequacy regulations;
- in relation to eligible US organisations, relying on the applicable UK-US data-transfer arrangements;
- using the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses, together with any required transfer risk assessment or other safeguards; or
- another transfer mechanism permitted by UK data protection law.
You may contact us if you would like further information about the safeguards used for a particular transfer.
8. How long we keep information
We keep personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying legal, accounting, tax and reporting requirements and dealing with disputes.
In deciding how long to retain information, we consider its nature and sensitivity, the purposes for which it is used, applicable legal requirements and the risk arising from unauthorised use or disclosure.
In particular:
- financial, contractual and transaction records may generally be retained for up to six years where necessary for legal, accounting or tax purposes;
- routine enquiry and booking information is periodically reviewed and deleted when it is no longer reasonably required;
- coaching or programme records are retained only for as long as reasonably required to provide the service and deal with related administrative or legal matters;
- marketing information is retained while you remain subscribed or while we otherwise have a lawful basis to use it, subject to periodic review; and
- where you unsubscribe or object to marketing, we may retain limited information on a suppression list so that we can respect that choice.
We may retain genuinely anonymised information, which can no longer identify you, for longer periods for statistical and business-analysis purposes.
9. Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful loss, alteration, disclosure, destruction or unauthorised access.
Access to personal data is limited to people and service providers who reasonably need it for the purposes described in this policy.
No internet-based service is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps appropriate to the nature of the information we process.
10. Cookies, analytics and similar technologies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies for purposes including operation of the website, remembering preferences and understanding how the website is used.
Some cookies and similar technologies are necessary for the website to function. Other technologies may require your consent before they are used.
UK law also permits certain limited technologies, including some technologies used solely for statistical purposes or website functionality, to be used without consent where the relevant legal requirements are satisfied. Where we rely on such an exception, we will provide the information and ability to object required by law.
Where consent is required, non-essential technologies will not be used until the required consent has been obtained.
We may also use technologies associated with emails, such as tracking links or pixels, where permitted by applicable law.
Further information about the particular technologies used, their purposes and how you can change your choices should be provided through our cookie settings or cookie notice.
11. Your rights
Depending on the circumstances, UK data protection law gives you rights to:
- request access to personal data we hold about you;
- ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
- ask us to erase personal data;
- ask us to restrict certain processing;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests;
- object at any time to processing for direct marketing;
- receive certain personal data in a portable format;
- withdraw consent where we rely on consent; and
- complain about our handling of your personal data.
These rights are not absolute and may be subject to conditions and exemptions under applicable law.
To exercise a right, contact info@helpingcreativesthrive.com. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify your identity before responding.
There is normally no charge for exercising your rights.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, although we would welcome the opportunity to address your concerns first.
Further information is available at ico.org.uk.
12. Automated decision-making
We do not currently make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that produce legal effects or similarly significant effects.
If this changes, we will provide the additional information required by data protection law.
13. Children
Our services are intended for adults and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18 through our services.
If you believe a person under 18 has provided personal data to us, please contact us.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, technology or legal obligations.
The date at the top of this policy shows when it was last updated. Where appropriate, we may also notify you of significant changes by other means.
15. Contact details
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, how we use your personal data, or wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, please contact us at:
Thinkroom (UK) Limited
15 Cascade Court
1 Sopwith Way
London
SW11 8NS
United Kingdom