Who we are

This website belongs to Mark Nicholson Driving School, run by Mark Nicholson, a driving instructor teaching across East Sussex. We are the “controller” of the personal information described here, which means we decide how it’s used. If you have any questions, call 07830 194817 or use the contact form.

What we collect and why

When you send an enquiry

The enquiry form asks for your name and email address, and optionally your phone number, postcode, the type of lessons you’re interested in, your driving experience, when you’re free and any message you choose to add. We use this only to reply to you, check we cover your area and arrange lessons.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (answering an enquiry you’ve asked us to answer) and, if you go on to book, taking steps to enter into a contract with you.

When you have lessons

If you become a learner, we keep the details we need to run your lessons: contact details, lesson bookings and payments, and notes on your progress. We may also ask to see your provisional licence before your first lesson. This is needed to provide the lessons you’ve booked (contract) and to keep accounts (legal obligation).

When you browse the website

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits and see which pages are popular. It doesn’t use cookies, doesn’t fingerprint your device and doesn’t track you across other websites. Our hosting provider also keeps short-lived technical logs (such as IP addresses) to keep the site secure. Our lawful basis is legitimate interestsin running a secure, working website. See our cookie policy for more.

Who we share it with

We never sell your information or use it for marketing lists. We only share it with:

Cloudflare, which hosts this website, delivers enquiry emails to us, provides the analytics and runs Turnstile, the spam check on the contact form;
our email provider, where enquiry emails are stored;
an accountant, if needed for our tax records;
anyone we’re legally required to share it with, such as HMRC or the police.

Some of these providers may process data outside the UK. Where they do, they use legal safeguards approved under UK data protection law, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or standard contractual clauses.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that don’t lead to lessons: up to 12 months, then deleted.
Learner records: while you’re having lessons, then up to 6 years for accounting purposes.
Website logs and analytics: kept by Cloudflare for a short period, in summary form.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

give you a copy of the information we hold about you;
correct anything that’s wrong or incomplete;
delete your information (where we don’t need to keep it);
restrict or object to how we use it;
pass it to you or another organisation in a portable format.

To make a request, get in touch using the details above. It’s free and we’ll reply within one month. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office atico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Keeping it safe

The website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, and enquiry emails go straight to our inbox; they aren’t stored on the website. We keep learner records secure and only for as long as we need them.

Changes

If we change this policy, we’ll update it here and change the date at the top.

Privacy policy