Privacy Policy

Last updated: 27 March 2026

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how F4I LTD (company number 15809823), trading as “Wiseones”, a company registered in England and Wales with its registered office at 18 Anne Street, York, England, YO23 1JW (“we”, “us”, “our”), collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when you visit our website wiseones.co.uk (“the Website”) and use our services.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).

By using this Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use the Website.

2. Data Controller

F4I LTD is the data controller responsible for your personal data. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, you can contact us at:

F4I LTD (trading as Wiseones)
18 Anne Street, York, England, YO23 1JW
Email: privacy@wiseones.co.uk
Website: wiseones.co.uk

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information you provide directly

We may collect personal data that you voluntarily provide to us, including:

Survey responses: When you complete a survey on our Website (such as the Wiseones Financial Survey), we collect the information you provide, including your name, email address, country of residence, and your responses to survey questions.
Prize draw entries: If you enter a prize draw, we collect your first name, email address, country of residence, and optionally your phone number.
Newsletter subscriptions: If you subscribe to our Substack newsletter, we collect your email address.
Contact form submissions: If you contact us via email or any contact form, we collect your name, email address, and the content of your message.
Comments: If you leave comments on our Website, we collect the data shown in the comments form, your IP address, and browser user agent string.

3.2 Information collected automatically

When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect certain technical data, including:

Device and browser information: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, screen resolution, and language preferences.
Usage data: Pages visited, time and date of visits, time spent on pages, referring website addresses, click patterns, and navigation paths through the Website.
Cookies and similar technologies: Information collected through cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies (see Section 10 below).

3.3 Information from third parties

We may receive limited personal data from third-party services we use, such as website analytics providers or email service providers, in accordance with their own privacy policies.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

Purpose	Lawful Basis (UK GDPR)
To operate, maintain, and improve the Website	Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f))
To administer surveys and analyse responses (in anonymised, aggregated form)	Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f))
To administer prize draws, including entry validation, winner selection, notification, and prize delivery	Performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)) — the prize draw terms and conditions
To send you marketing communications (e.g. the Wiseones Substack newsletter)	Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) — only where you have opted in
To respond to your enquiries, comments, or feedback	Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f))
To detect, prevent, and address fraud, security issues, and technical problems	Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f))
To comply with legal obligations	Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c))
To enforce our terms and conditions and protect our rights	Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f))

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have conducted a balancing test to ensure our interests do not override your rights and freedoms. You may request details of this assessment by contacting us.

5. Marketing Communications

We will only send you marketing communications (such as the Wiseones newsletter via Substack) where you have given your explicit, freely given consent by opting in. Consent for marketing is always separate from any other activity (such as entering a prize draw) and is never a condition of using the Website or entering a promotion.

You can withdraw your consent to marketing at any time by:

Clicking the “unsubscribe” link in any marketing email;
Managing your subscription preferences on Substack; or
Contacting us at privacy@wiseones.co.uk.

Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

6. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients, strictly for the purposes described in this policy:

Hosting providers: Our Website is hosted on servers in the United Kingdom. Our hosting provider processes data on our behalf under a data processing agreement.
Survey and form providers: Where we use third-party tools to collect survey responses (e.g. WPForms, Gravity Forms, or similar), your data is processed in accordance with their privacy policies and our data processing agreements.
Substack: If you subscribe to our newsletter, your email address is shared with Substack Inc. (based in the United States) for the purpose of delivering the newsletter. Substack’s privacy policy applies to their processing.
Amazon: If you win a prize draw involving Amazon gift cards, limited personal data (email address) may be shared with Amazon solely for prize delivery.
Fourthwall: If a prize draw winner receives an alternative physical prize, limited personal data (name and delivery address) may be shared with Fourthwall for fulfilment purposes.
Analytics providers: We may use analytics services (such as Google Analytics or privacy-focused alternatives) to understand how visitors use our Website. These services may collect anonymised or pseudonymised data.
Professional advisers: Our accountants, lawyers, or other professional advisers where necessary for our legitimate business purposes.
Law enforcement and regulatory bodies: Where required by law, court order, or regulatory obligation.

7. International Data Transfers

Your personal data is primarily processed and stored within the United Kingdom. However, some of the third-party services we use (such as Substack) are based in the United States or other countries outside the UK.

Where personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, including:

Transfers to countries that have received a UK adequacy decision;
Use of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office;
Other lawful transfer mechanisms as permitted under UK GDPR.

You may contact us for further information about the specific safeguards in place for any particular transfer.

8. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Our specific retention periods are:

Data Type	Retention Period
Prize draw entry data (name, email, country)	90 days after completion of prize delivery, then securely deleted
Survey responses (identifiable)	90 days after the survey closes, then anonymised
Survey responses (anonymised/aggregated)	Retained indefinitely for research purposes (no personal data)
Newsletter subscriber data	Retained until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent
Contact form submissions	12 months from the date of your enquiry
Website analytics data	26 months (or shorter, depending on analytics provider configuration)
Server logs (IP addresses)	90 days

When personal data is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or anonymised so that it can no longer be linked to you.

9. Your Rights Under UK GDPR

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

Right	Description
Right of access	You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (a “Subject Access Request”).
Right to rectification	You can request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Right to erasure	You can request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances (the “right to be forgotten”).
Right to restrict processing	You can request that we limit how we use your personal data in certain circumstances.
Right to data portability	You can request to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
Right to object	You can object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests.
Right to withdraw consent	Where we process your data based on consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time.
Rights related to automated decision-making	You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affect you. We do not currently carry out any automated decision-making.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@wiseones.co.uk. We will respond to your request within one calendar month. In complex cases, we may extend this by a further two months, but we will inform you of any extension within the first month.

There is no fee for exercising your rights, except where requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse the request.

10. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our Website uses cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently and to provide information to the website owner.

10.1 Types of cookies we use

Cookie Type	Purpose	Lawful Basis
Strictly necessary cookies	Essential for the Website to function (e.g. session management, security). These cannot be disabled.	Legitimate interests / PECR exemption
Analytics cookies	Help us understand how visitors use the Website by collecting anonymised data (e.g. pages visited, time on site).	Consent
Functional cookies	Remember your preferences and settings (e.g. language, region).	Consent
Third-party cookies	Set by third-party services embedded on our Website (e.g. Substack embed, YouTube videos).	Consent

10.2 Managing cookies

When you first visit our Website, you will be presented with a cookie consent banner allowing you to accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can change your cookie preferences at any time by:

Adjusting your browser settings to block or delete cookies;
Using our cookie preferences tool (if available on the Website); or
Contacting us at privacy@wiseones.co.uk.

Please note that blocking certain cookies may affect the functionality of the Website.

For more information about cookies and how to manage them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org or www.youronlinechoices.eu.

11. Data Security

We take the security of your personal data seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. These measures include:

SSL/TLS encryption for all data transmitted between your browser and our Website;
Secure server environments with access controls;
Regular security updates and patches;
Limited access to personal data on a need-to-know basis;
Data processing agreements with third-party service providers.

While we take all reasonable precautions, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security but will notify you and the relevant authorities of any data breach in accordance with our legal obligations.

12. Children’s Privacy

Our Website and services are not directed at individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 18, we will take steps to delete that data as soon as possible. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us immediately at privacy@wiseones.co.uk.

13. Links to Third-Party Websites

Our Website may contain links to third-party websites, including Substack, social media platforms, and other external resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

14. Embedded Content

Pages on this Website may include embedded content (such as Substack subscription forms, videos, or social media feeds). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you had visited those websites directly. These third-party services may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content.

15. Comments

If you leave a comment on our Website, we collect the data shown in the comments form, along with your IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection. An anonymised string created from your email address (a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to check if you use it. After approval of your comment, your profile picture (if using Gravatar) is visible to the public alongside your comment.

16. Media

If you upload images to the Website (for example, via a contact form or comment), you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors to the Website could potentially download and extract location data from images.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Last updated” date. Where changes are significant, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you (for example, by a notice on the Website).

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.

18. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, you have the right to complain to the UK’s data protection supervisory authority:

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: ico.org.uk

We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance at privacy@wiseones.co.uk.

19. Contact Us

For any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact: