At The Contemporary Mathematics School, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how, when, and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, and how we keep it secure.
This policy applies to information collected through our website, forms, email communications, and other direct interactions. By using our website or submitting personal data, you acknowledge the collection and use of your information as described in this policy.
1. Who We Are (Data Controller)
The Data Controller responsible for your personal data is Contemporary Mathematics School Ltd, a company registered in the United Kingdom, led by Dr Elena Boguslavskaya. If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, you can contact us at:
- Email: info@cmschool.co.uk
- Web: cmschool.co.uk
2. What Personal Data We Collect
We collect and process personal data that you voluntarily provide to us when using our contact and application forms, or when communicating with us. This includes:
- Identity Data: Full name.
- Contact Data: Email address, phone/WhatsApp number.
- Preferences Data: Program of interest (e.g., Olympia Fellows, Contemporary Mathematics), your student details (if provided in goals), and your specific questions or goals.
- Consent Data: Whether you have consented to receive our newsletters and marketing communications.
- Usage and Technical Data: Your IP address, browser type, operating system, and details about your visit to our website (via server logs, if applicable).
3. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data (Lawful Basis)
We process your personal data under the following lawful bases set out in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR):
A. Performance of a Contract or Taking Pre-contractual Steps
When you submit an application or query via our forms, we process your Identity, Contact, and Preferences data to evaluate your interest, contact you to discuss your application, and set up your student consultations. This is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a tutoring contract.
B. Legitimate Interests
We may process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests as a school to run our business, respond to standard user enquiries, maintain our website security, and monitor website performance, provided these interests do not override your fundamental rights.
C. Consent
If you explicitly opt-in by checking the consent box on our contact form, we will use your Contact Data to send you our newsletters, updates about courses, events, and other educational enrichment resources. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time (see Section 7).
4. Data Storage and Security
We take the security of your data very seriously. All information you provide to us via our web forms is transmitted securely using HTTPS encryption. The data is processed through a secure Cloudflare Worker proxy and forwarded to secure data stores (e.g., Google Workspace/Sheets and email systems protected by multi-factor authentication).
We put in place appropriate technical and organizational security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed in an unauthorized way.
5. How Long We Keep Your Data
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements:
- Enquiries & Consultations: If you apply or enquire but do not enroll, we will hold your contact details for up to 12 months after our last contact to ensure we can help you if you return, unless you request deletion earlier.
- Active Students: If you enroll, we retain details throughout your study and for a reasonable statutory period thereafter.
- Newsletter Subscribers: We process your contact details for marketing until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent. You can unsubscribe instantly via the link in any newsletter or by emailing us.
6. Third-Party Service Providers
We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes. We only share information with trusted third-party service providers (data processors) who perform essential functions for us. These include:
- Cloudflare: For hosting, security proxy services, and secure form routing (Workers).
- Google Workspace / Sheets: For secure database storage and productivity applications.
- Email Service Providers: To distribute transactional emails and newsletters.
All third-party processors are bound by contract to protect your data and are not permitted to use it for any purpose other than what we instruct.
7. Your Legal Rights
Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:
- Right of Access: You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to Rectification: You can ask us to correct or update any inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You can ask us to delete your personal data under certain conditions.
- Right to Restrict or Object to Processing: You can request that we stop or limit processing your data, especially if you object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
- Right to Data Portability: You can request that we transfer your data to another service provider in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on consent (e.g., for newsletters), you can withdraw it at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please email us at info@cmschool.co.uk. We will respond to your request within one month.
8. Complaints to the Information Commissioner's Office
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.
9. Updates to this Privacy Policy
We keep this policy under regular review. Any updates will be posted on this page. We encourage you to check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes.