Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 September 2026

Design Counts (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a trading name of Square1 Design Group, operated by Chris as a sole trader, of 5 Hawthorn Grove, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and how we look after it, in line with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, contact us at chris@design-counts.co.uk.

What we collect

  • Contact details you give us directly — name, email address, phone number, firm name — when you get in touch, book a call, or sign up for a package.
  • Billing information processed via GoCardless when you subscribe to a package. We don’t store your card or bank details ourselves — GoCardless handles this as an independent data controller under its own privacy policy.
  • Content you send us for production — meeting transcripts, briefs, brand assets, and similar material you share so we can create your social posts, graphics, or other deliverables. For our Navigator service specifically, this includes meeting transcripts or recordings you upload.
  • Website usage data — collected via Google Analytics when you browse design-counts.co.uk. See our Cookie Policy for details.
  • Communications — emails, call notes, and messages exchanged as part of delivering our services.

Why we use it

  • To deliver the design and content services you’ve signed up for.
  • To manage billing and your ongoing subscription.
  • To respond to enquiries and provide client support.
  • To improve our website and services.
  • To send you service-related updates (not marketing, unless you’ve separately opted in).

Our legal basis is generally performance of a contract (delivering your package) or legitimate interest (responding to enquiries, improving our service). Where we rely on consent — for example, marketing emails or non-essential cookies — you can withdraw it at any time.

Meeting transcripts and Navigator content

If you use our Navigator service, any meeting transcripts or recordings you provide are used solely to produce your agreed content package. We don’t use your transcripts to train any AI model, and we don’t share them with anyone outside Design Counts. We retain transcripts for 3 months after delivery of the related content, then delete them, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.

Who we share it with

We don’t sell your data. We may share it with GoCardless (to process payments), Canva (where we collaborate on your design assets), Google Analytics (for website analytics), and authorities where we’re legally required to.

How long we keep it

We keep client data for as long as you’re an active client, plus 6 years afterwards for accounting and legal purposes, unless you ask us to delete it sooner (subject to our legal obligations, e.g. invoicing records).

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to or restrict how we use it, request a copy in a portable format, and complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO, ico.org.uk) if you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data. To exercise any of these, email chris@design-counts.co.uk.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “last updated” date at the top will always reflect the latest version.