Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible for your data

UK Gambling Therapy is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. We are based in Manchester, United Kingdom, and we handle your data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. For any privacy question, or to exercise any right below, write to hello@ukgamblingtherapy.co.uk or to 2nd Floor, 82 King Street, Manchester, M2 4WQ, United Kingdom.

2. What we collect, and why

What	When	Why (lawful basis)	Kept for
Name and contact details you give us	When you use the contact form, email or call	To reply to your enquiry — legitimate interests, and steps prior to entering a contract	12 months from last contact if you do not become a client
Clinical records and session notes	Once therapy begins	Provision of health care — Article 6(1)(b) contract and Article 9(2)(h) health care	7 years from the end of therapy, as our professional bodies require
Payment records	When you pay a fee	Legal obligation — tax and accounting	6 complete financial years
Server logs (IP address, page requested, time)	Automatically, on every visit	Security, fraud prevention and keeping the website available — legitimate interests	30 days, then deleted
Optional analytics data	Only if you press “Accept optional”	Consent, which you can withdraw at any time	26 months maximum

3. What we deliberately do not collect

We do not require an account, we do not operate a mailing list, and we do not run advertising, remarketing or social-media tracking pixels on this website. We do not use any third-party advertising cookie. We do not fingerprint your device. Most importantly, the nine-question self-check transmits nothing at all: your answers are held in your browser’s memory, are never sent to our server, and disappear the moment you close or refresh the page.

If you arrive here from an advertisement, the advertising network may record that click on its own systems, under its own privacy policy. We do not send any information about what you then do on this website back to any advertising network.

4. Health data is treated as special category data

Anything you tell us about gambling, mental health or treatment is “special category” data under UK GDPR and receives the highest level of protection we can give it. It is processed for the provision of health care under Article 9(2)(h), by clinicians bound by a professional duty of confidentiality. Please do not include detailed health information in a website enquiry form — a first name and a way to reach you is genuinely all we need.

5. Who we share it with

Nobody, other than the following, and only to the extent necessary: our IT and email hosting providers under written data-processing agreements; our accountants for payment records; our professional indemnity insurers in the event of a claim; and a regulator, court or emergency service where we are legally obliged, or where there is a serious and immediate risk to life. We do not transfer personal data outside the UK or the European Economic Area for any routine purpose.

6. How it is protected

Clinical records are held encrypted at rest on UK-based infrastructure with access limited to the clinicians who need it. Devices are encrypted and access requires multi-factor authentication. Enquiry details are not persisted on the public web server. We test our arrangements annually and would report a qualifying breach to the ICO within 72 hours, and to you without undue delay where the risk to you is high.

7. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• ask what we hold about you, and receive a copy (a subject access request);
• have inaccurate information corrected;
• ask us to delete information, where no legal or clinical obligation requires us to keep it;
• restrict or object to processing carried out under legitimate interests;
• receive data you gave us in a portable format;
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting anything done before you withdrew it.

Write to hello@ukgamblingtherapy.co.uk and we will respond within one month and free of charge. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would rather you came to us first, but you do not have to.

8. Children

Our services are for adults. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, tell us and we will delete it.

9. Cookies

Cookies are covered separately and in full in our Cookie Policy, which lists every cookie this website is capable of setting. You can change your choice at any time using the “Cookie settings” link in the footer.

10. Changes

When this policy changes we update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use data about existing clients, we will tell those clients directly rather than relying on this page.

Related: Cookie Policy · Terms Of Service · Disclosure