Privacy Policy

The Hijabi Photographer ("we", "our", "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your personal information when you use our website and services.

We comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Data controller. The Hijabi Photographer is the controller responsible for your personal data. You can reach us about privacy at hello@thehijabiphotographer.com or +447343084010.

We may collect the following types of personal information:

• Contact details: Name, email address, phone number from enquiry forms
• Event information: Event date, type, guest count, and venue address/postcode
• Images and videos: Photography and videography from your events (which may show identifiable people)
• Technical & device data: With an enquiry we record the IP address, browser/device information, referrer and approximate location, to help prevent spam and fraudulent submissions
• Usage data: How you use our public website, via optional analytics cookies (only with your consent) and cookieless performance analytics
• Client services: When you use the private services we provide after booking (such as viewing your photos and films), we process the data needed to deliver and secure them — details are provided within those services

We use your personal information for the purposes below. Each has a lawful basis under Article 6 of the UK GDPR:

• Respond to your enquiries and take steps towards a booking — our legitimate interests and steps prior to entering a contract
• Provide our photography/videography services and deliver your photos and films — performance of our contract with you
• Process bookings and payments and keep accounting records — contract and legal obligation
• Prevent spam/fraudulent enquiries and keep our website and client services secure — our legitimate interests
• Understand how our website is used — your consent for optional analytics, and our legitimate interests for cookieless performance measurement
• Send you marketing — your consent

We understand that privacy is paramount, especially for our clients who may prefer not to have their images shared publicly. We offer three privacy tiers:

• Full permission: We may use images with faces visible on our portfolio, website, and social media
• Blurred/anonymised: We may use images but will blur or cover faces
• Complete privacy: Images will not be shared publicly under any circumstances

You can specify different preferences for different events (e.g., Mehendi images may be shared, but Nikkah images kept private).

Your data is stored securely using encrypted cloud storage. Access is limited to authorised personnel only. We do not share your personal information with third parties except where necessary to provide our services (e.g., printing labs with your consent).

We don’t sell your data. We share it only with trusted service providers who process it on our behalf, under contract, to run our business. They fall into these categories:

• Website hosting, content delivery and secure file storage (including your photos and films)
• Secure database hosting (enquiries and bookings)
• Email delivery (enquiry and booking emails)
• Website analytics (EU-hosted) — only if you consent
• Address lookup (turning a postcode you type into an address)
• AI-assisted drafting tools used by our team on information they enter (which may include details you gave us)

A list of our current providers is available on request — just email us. Some pages embed third-party content (e.g. a Google Map on the venue step, or a WhatsApp link) which receives data when you interact with it, under that provider’s own policy. We may also share data with professional advisers or authorities where the law requires.

Some of our providers are based outside the UK (for example, in the United States). Where your data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on the UK’s adequacy regulations where they apply, or on Standard Contractual Clauses together with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and appropriate safeguards.

We keep personal data only as long as we need it:

• Enquiries that don’t lead to a booking: up to 12 months, then deleted
• Booking, contract and payment records: up to 6 years after your event, to meet tax and legal obligations
• Your photos and films: retained while we deliver and support your final collection, then archived or removed (see our image usage page) — please download your files promptly

These are our standard periods; we may keep data longer where the law requires or to establish or defend legal claims.

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Have inaccurate data corrected
• Have your data erased (“right to be forgotten”)
• Restrict our processing of your data
• Data portability — receive your data in a portable format
• Object to processing based on our legitimate interests
• Withdraw consent at any time (this won’t affect processing before you withdrew)

To exercise these rights, contact us at hello@thehijabiphotographer.com. Providing your details is voluntary, but we may be unable to respond to your enquiry or provide our services without them.

We don’t make decisions about you by solely automated means. (AI-assisted tools help our team draft responses from information they enter; they don’t make automated decisions about you.)

Complaints. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

Email: hello@thehijabiphotographer.com