Privacy & Cookies
Last updated: 21 October 2026.
This notice explains how I use personal information on my photography website and when handling enquiries, journal comments and Bronica lever orders.
Who is responsible
I’m Mark Seton, based in Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders. This is my personal photography website, rather than a company website. I am responsible for the personal information described here.
Contact me at mark@markseton.co.uk about this notice or your information. Only I routinely handle enquiries and orders. Service providers also process information where needed to provide hosting, email, analytics or payment services.
Enquiries and correspondence
The enquiry form asks for your name, email address, optional subject and message. I use these details to reply, discuss prints or image permissions, answer questions and handle order enquiries. Please include only information needed for your enquiry.
Form submissions are stored in the website’s Elementor Submissions area. Submission records may also include your IP address, browser details, referring page and submission time for administration and abuse prevention. An email copy is sent to my enquiry mailbox.
Orders and PayPal
Bronica lever payments use PayPal. I use the order, contact, payment-reference and delivery information made available with an order to arrange fulfilment, answer questions and maintain necessary records. You may also provide delivery information directly when corresponding with me.
PayPal handles payment processing under its own privacy statement. This website does not ask you to enter card details into an enquiry form. PayPal may retain information under its own legal obligations.
Journal comments and photographs
If you leave a comment, WordPress stores your comment, supplied name and email, optional website, IP address, browser information and submission time. New comments are held for moderation. Approved comments, the supplied name and any optional website link can be displayed publicly; the email address and IP address are not displayed with the comment. External avatar images are disabled in the redesigned site.
Comments may be kept with the journal entry to preserve the discussion. Please avoid including private or sensitive information in a public comment. Contact me to request removal or correction, or if you have a privacy concern about a photograph or journal entry; include a link so I can identify it.
Why I use information
- Steps towards an agreement and fulfilling an order: handling relevant purchase or licensing enquiries, arranging payment and delivery, and providing what we agree.
- Legitimate interests: replying to general correspondence, administering a personal photography website and moderated discussion, maintaining security and preventing misuse. These uses are limited to what is reasonably needed and take account of your interests and rights.
- Legal obligations: keeping records and responding to lawful requests where the law requires this.
- Consent: optional analytics on this site, after you accept analytics. You can refuse it or withdraw your choice using Cookie settings.
I do not operate a mailing list or use advertising tracking for this site. Information is not used to make decisions about you solely by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.
Cookies, local storage and optional analytics
Essential storage may be used for administrator sign-in, security, remembering your privacy choice and comment preferences if you choose to save them. These functions are separate from optional analytics.
The consent controls start with analytics off. Accept analytics gives permission for optional measurement on this site; Reject analytics leaves it off. You can use the site either way and reopen Cookie settings at any time. Refusing analytics does not prevent you from making an enquiry.
Your choice and its date are kept in this browser’s local storage for up to 180 days, then you are asked again. The consent key is ms_consent_v2. Blocking storage can cause the controls to ask again.
The Google Analytics 4 integration measures page visits only after acceptance. It keeps advertising consent denied, does not send enquiry or order fields, and removes URL query strings and fragments from the page and referrer values it supplies. Contact, administration, checkout and search pages are excluded by the integration. Google receives technical connection information when its tag is loaded. Read Google’s privacy policy.
After you accept analytics, Google’s _ga and _ga_… cookies distinguish browsers and sessions. Analytics cookies are configured with a lifetime of up to 420 days. The main browser identifier is set not to renew on activity; Google refreshes its session cookie as you use the site. Rejecting analytics or withdrawing consent removes accessible analytics cookies on this site. Google Analytics user- and event-level data retention is set to 14 months, with the activity reset disabled; standard aggregated reports are not governed by that same retention control.
Withdrawing consent stops future analytics through these controls and removes accessible Google Analytics cookies set on this site. It does not automatically erase information already lawfully collected; contact me about an erasure request. The controls may reload a production page to stop a previously loaded analytics tag.
External services and links
YouTube and Mixcloud players have been replaced in the redesigned site with links. Their players and thumbnails do not load automatically through those links. If you choose to open an external service or retailer, that service receives connection information and its own privacy and cookie terms apply. This also applies to historical links in the journal.
Website and email hosting remain with hosting.com. Elementor form submission records are held in this WordPress installation; the form does not send your enquiry to Google Analytics. PayPal processes payments separately. Providers may access information where needed for their services, support, security or legal obligations. I do not sell enquiry or order information.
International processing
Service providers may process information outside the UK, including in the EEA or United States. Google describes its transfer safeguards, including the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where applicable, in its transfer-framework notice. hosting.com describes its corresponding participation and safeguards in its Data Privacy Framework notice. PayPal describes its international processing in the privacy statement linked above.
You can contact me for further information about the providers and safeguards relevant to your information.
How long information is kept
- Unanswered enquiries: reviewed 24 months after the last meaningful contact and deleted or anonymised unless a documented ongoing matter justifies keeping them.
- Completed-order and tax records: where Self Assessment record rules apply, necessary records are kept for at least five years after the relevant 31 January filing deadline. They are reviewed after that period and retained longer only where a documented legal requirement, claim or unresolved matter justifies this.
- Comments: generally kept while the associated journal discussion is published, subject to moderation and valid removal requests.
- Analytics: user- and event-level retention is 14 months as described above; the browser’s consent choice lasts up to 180 days.
- Technical logs and backups: retained only as needed for security, troubleshooting and recovery, including investigating incidents. Provider-controlled copies follow the provider’s retention cycle. Deleted information can remain in protected backups until replaced; if a backup is restored, relevant deletion requests must be reapplied.
These periods are review rules, not a reason to retain unrelated information indefinitely. Information may need to be retained for a specific legal obligation or dispute even when other information can be removed.
Your choices, rights and complaints
You can ask for access to your personal information, correction, erasure or restriction, and may have rights to object or receive a portable copy depending on the circumstances and lawful basis. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests. Where processing relies on consent, you can withdraw it without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing. Some rights have legal exceptions, including necessary record-keeping.
Email mark@markseton.co.uk. I may need enough information to verify your identity and locate the relevant record; please do not send unnecessary identity documents. If you are unhappy with how your information is handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You do not have to contact me before approaching the ICO.
This notice will be updated when the redesigned site’s services or processing change. The date at the top identifies the latest version.