Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

This Privacy Policy applies to The Sphere Initiative (“Sphere”, “we”, “our”, or “us”). We operate the website and services available at sphere-initiative.com.

If you have any questions about how we handle your data, please contact us at support@sphere-initiative.com.

2. Information We Collect

We collect personal information only when you actively provide it to us through our contact or briefing request forms. This includes:

• Name — to address you correctly in our response.
• Work email address — to reply to your enquiry or briefing request.
• Organisation name — to understand the context of your enquiry.
• Role or job title — to tailor our response appropriately.
• Area of interest — to route your enquiry to the right team.
• Message or enquiry content — the detail of your question or request.

We may also collect limited technical data automatically when you visit the site, such as browser type, IP address, and pages visited, for security and basic analytics purposes.

3. Why We Collect It

We use your information to:

• Respond to your enquiry or briefing request.
• Deliver services you have requested.
• Maintain administrative and legal records as required.
• Protect the security and integrity of our systems.

We do not use your information to send unsolicited marketing without your consent.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following lawful bases under applicable data protection law:

• Consent — where you have expressly agreed before submitting a form.
• Legitimate interests — to respond to your enquiry and operate our services effectively, where this does not override your rights.
• Contractual necessity — where processing is necessary to fulfil a service you have requested.
• Legal obligation — where we are required by law to retain certain records.

5. Third-Party Processors

We use a small number of trusted third-party services to operate our platform. These processors handle your data only on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions:

• Resend — used to deliver emails generated by our contact and briefing forms.
• Vercel — our hosting provider. Your requests pass through Vercel’s infrastructure.
• Stripe — used for payment processing where a paid service or subscription is involved. Stripe processes payment data independently under its own privacy policy.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third party for their own marketing or commercial purposes.

6. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose it was collected. In practice:

• Enquiry and briefing request records are kept for the duration of the relevant conversation and a reasonable period thereafter for administrative continuity.
• Records required for legal, tax, or compliance purposes are kept for the period required by applicable law.

When data is no longer needed, it is securely deleted or anonymised.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights in relation to your personal data, including:

• The right to access the personal data we hold about you.
• The right to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
• The right to request erasure of your data (“right to be forgotten”), subject to legal obligations.
• The right to restrict or object to certain processing activities.
• The right to data portability in certain circumstances.
• The right to withdraw consent at any time where consent is the lawful basis.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@sphere-initiative.com. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

8. Cookies and Analytics

Our site may use essential cookies necessary for the operation of the site (for example, session management). We may also use limited analytics to understand how visitors interact with the site. Where non-essential cookies or analytics are used, we will seek your consent in accordance with applicable law.

You can control cookies through your browser settings.

9. International Data Transfers

Some of our third-party processors (including Vercel and Resend) may process data outside the UK or EEA. Where this occurs, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or adequacy decisions to protect your data.

10. Children

Our services are not directed at individuals under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

12. Contact

For any privacy-related questions or requests, please contact:

The Sphere Initiative
support@sphere-initiative.com