Privacy Policy

djmcoles provides professional DJ and event services for weddings, private parties, corporate events and other occasions.

For data protection purposes, the controller of your personal information is Martin Coles trading as djmcoles.

Email: info@djmcoles.com

A postal correspondence address is provided in quotations, contracts, invoices and formal booking correspondence.

In this policy, “djmcoles”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to this business.

This policy explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information when you:

• visit our website;
• make an enquiry;
• communicate with us;
• request a quotation or book our services;
• use our event-planning or client-management systems;
• make a payment connected with a booking;
• attend an event at which we are providing services; or
• otherwise provide information connected with an event.

Website enquiries

When you use our enquiry form, we may collect:

• your first and last name;
• email address;
• telephone number;
• event date;
• event type;
• venue name or manually entered venue details;
• the message and other information included with your enquiry; and
• how you heard about djmcoles.

Booking and event-planning information

If you continue with an enquiry or booking, we may also collect:

• names and contact details for clients and relevant event contacts;
• event schedules, timings, locations and venue arrangements;
• ceremony, reception and entertainment requirements;
• music preferences, playlists, song requests and do-not-play selections;
• names connected with introductions, announcements, speeches or special moments;
• planning notes, questionnaires and messages;
• quotations, contracts and booking records;
• invoice, deposit, transaction and payment-status information;
• information about venues, planners, photographers, suppliers or other people involved in the event; and
• any additional information you choose to provide to help us plan and deliver the service.

Payments may be handled through a third-party payment service. We do not normally receive or retain your full payment-card details.

Website and technical information

When you use our website, we or our service providers may collect:

• IP address;
• browser and device type;
• operating system;
• approximate location derived from an IP address;
• referring website or campaign;
• pages visited and actions taken;
• dates and times of visits;
• security, diagnostic and performance information; and
• cookie and consent preferences.

Photographs and video

We may take or receive photographs and short video clips showing our equipment, lighting, room presentation, dancefloor or event atmosphere. If a person is identifiable in an image or recording, that material may constitute personal information. Our approach to publicity use is explained in section 7.

Information about other people

A client may provide limited information about a partner, guest, venue contact, supplier or other person where this is necessary for event planning or delivery.

If you give us information about someone else, please provide only what is relevant and, where appropriate, make them aware that their information has been shared with us.

Sensitive information

We do not routinely request special-category personal information. Information supplied during event planning could, however, occasionally reveal matters such as health or accessibility requirements, religious or cultural arrangements, or other sensitive information.

Please provide sensitive information only where it is genuinely relevant. We will use it only for the purpose for which it was provided and where an appropriate legal condition allows us to do so.

We usually obtain personal information:

• directly from you through our website, enquiry form, email, telephone or other communications;
• through our client portal or event-planning system;
• from another person involved in the booking, such as your partner or an authorised event contact;
• from a venue, planner, photographer or supplier where necessary to coordinate or document an event;
• from guests submitting music requests or other event information; or
• automatically when you use our website.

We use personal information only where we have a lawful reason to do so.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, those interests include running the business effectively, maintaining accurate records, providing a professional service, protecting our systems and rights, and presenting our work to prospective clients. We consider whether the use is necessary, proportionate and consistent with the reasonable expectations and rights of the people concerned.

You may object to processing based on legitimate interests. See section 12.

Our website enquiry form and subsequent planning process use trusted third-party systems that help us:

• receive and manage enquiries;
• communicate with prospective and confirmed clients;
• prepare quotations and contracts;
• collect planning information;
• manage event details, timelines and music requests;
• issue invoices, process payments or record payment status; and
• provide access to a client portal.

These providers process personal information to support the operation of our business and are required to handle it appropriately.

Submitting an enquiry does not add you to an unrelated marketing list and does not oblige you to make a booking.

Where necessary, we may share limited personal information with:

• website-hosting, content-delivery and technical-service providers;
• enquiry, customer-management and event-planning platform providers;
• email, communications and cloud-storage providers;
• payment, invoicing and accounting providers;
• venues, wedding or event planners and relevant suppliers;
• approved assistants, subcontractors or replacement performers where required to deliver or protect a booking;
• professional advisers, insurers or legal representatives;
• law-enforcement bodies, regulators, courts or public authorities where disclosure is required or permitted by law; and
• a purchaser or successor if the business or relevant assets are transferred.

We share only information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

We do not sell or rent personal information.

Further information about relevant categories of service provider is available on request where appropriate.

We may take photographs or short video clips showing our equipment, lighting, room presentation, dancefloor or event atmosphere. We may also receive event images from clients, photographers, venues or other suppliers.

Our normal approach is:

• to ask clients for a clear publicity preference;
• not to make promotional-image permission a condition of receiving our services;
• to obtain permission before deliberately featuring identifiable clients in website, social-media or other promotional material;
• to avoid intentionally featuring identifiable guests without an appropriate basis;
• to take particular care where children are identifiable;
• to respect reasonable requests not to photograph or publish an identifiable person; and
• where practical, to prefer wider atmosphere, production and equipment images over intrusive close-up photography.

In limited circumstances, we may rely on our legitimate interests to use non-intrusive contextual event imagery where people are incidental rather than the focus. Before doing so, we will consider the nature of the image, the setting, people’s reasonable expectations and the potential impact on anyone shown.

You may object to the use of an identifiable photograph or ask us to remove it by emailing info@djmcoles.com. We will review and normally action reasonable removal requests promptly. Removal from printed material already produced or content already shared by others may not always be immediately possible.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect use that was lawful before it was withdrawn.

Permission to use an image does not override copyright owned by a photographer or other rights and restrictions applying to that material.

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies for:

• essential website operation;
• security and fraud prevention;
• remembering privacy or cookie preferences;
• performance and error monitoring; and
• audience measurement through Google Analytics.

Essential technologies may operate where necessary to provide, secure or maintain the website.

Subject to your cookie choices, we use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the website and to improve its performance and content. This may involve information such as your IP address, browser and device information, pages visited, approximate location, referring source and interactions with the website.

Google Analytics will not be activated unless you choose to allow analytics technologies. Where configured, we may use Google Ads or Meta conversion measurement to understand whether an enquiry followed particular advertising. These technologies will not be activated unless you choose to allow advertising technologies.

You can reject optional technologies and change your preferences later through the website’s cookie-preference control. The cookie information displayed by that control should provide further details about the technologies currently in use.

Some providers supporting our website, communications, analytics, cloud storage, payments or event-planning systems may process information outside the United Kingdom.

Where a restricted international transfer occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure an appropriate safeguard recognised under UK data-protection law is in place. This may include UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses, or another lawful transfer mechanism.

You may contact us for further information about safeguards relevant to your information.

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, tax, accounting, insurance and dispute-resolution requirements.

Our intended retention periods are:

• Unsuccessful or unconfirmed enquiries: normally up to 24 months after the last meaningful contact.
• Event-planning information: normally up to two years after the event, unless it forms part of a record that needs to be retained for longer.
• Contracts, invoices, payment records and core booking correspondence: normally up to seven years after the relevant event or transaction.
• Photographs and video used for publicity: while permission or another lawful basis remains valid and the material remains relevant, subject to objections and removal requests.
• Website analytics information: according to the configured analytics retention period and your cookie choices.
• Website security and technical records: for the period reasonably required for security, diagnostics and service operation.
• Data-protection requests and complaints: for an appropriate period after closure to demonstrate how the matter was handled.

Information may remain temporarily within protected backup systems until the relevant backup is securely overwritten or deleted.

We may retain information for longer where required by law or where it is reasonably needed in connection with an actual or anticipated legal claim.

We use proportionate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against accidental loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure.

These measures include controlled access to business systems, password and account security, appropriate supplier selection, software maintenance, backup arrangements and limiting access to people who need the information for legitimate business purposes.

No internet or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we take reasonable steps appropriate to the nature of the information we hold.

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis used, you may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of your personal information;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• ask us to delete your information;
• ask us to restrict how your information is used;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• object to direct marketing;
• receive certain information in a portable format;
• withdraw consent at any time where processing relies on consent; and
• complain about how your information has been handled.

These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every situation. We may need to confirm your identity before fulfilling a request.

We do not charge a fee for an ordinary data-protection request, although the law allows a reasonable fee or refusal in certain limited circumstances.

To exercise a right, email info@djmcoles.com.

If you believe we have not handled your personal information properly, email info@djmcoles.com with the subject line Data protection complaint.

We will:

• provide a clear route for making the complaint;
• acknowledge it within 30 days;
• take appropriate steps to investigate it;
• keep you informed where necessary; and
• communicate the outcome without undue delay.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Information is available at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

We do not currently operate a general promotional mailing list. Communications sent in response to an enquiry or in connection with a booking are service communications rather than unrelated marketing.

If we introduce newsletters or other optional direct marketing in future, we will provide a separate opt-in where required. Declining marketing will not affect an enquiry or booking, and any marketing preference may be changed at any time.

We do not use personal information to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

Our services are not directed at children, and children should not submit enquiries or planning information directly.

Children may attend events at which we work and may appear incidentally in event information or imagery. We take additional care when handling children’s information and will not intentionally feature an identifiable child in promotional material without an appropriate basis and suitable permission.

Our website may link to external websites or services. Their privacy practices are controlled by their respective operators, and you should review their privacy information where appropriate.

We may update this policy when our services, systems or legal obligations change.

The latest version will be published at www.djmcoles.com/privacy.html, and the date at the beginning of the policy will show when it was last updated.