Last updated: 19 October 2026
1. Who we are
The Smart Sole Trader (thesmartsoletrader.co.uk) is a website publishing information and guides for UK sole traders and small businesses. It is one of the publications run by Cragside Media, a UK publishing group.
The controller is NorthPoint Projects t/a Cragside Media.
In this notice, “we”, “us” and “our” mean the controller named above. The controller decides how and why your personal data is used and is responsible for it under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
How to contact us
| What it is about | Contact |
|---|---|
| Privacy questions, or using any of your rights | gdpr@cragsidemedia.co.uk |
| General enquiries about The Smart Sole Trader | smartsoletrader@cragsidemedia.co.uk |
We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer because we are not required to have one. Please send any privacy question to gdpr@cragsidemedia.co.uk.
2. What this notice covers
This notice covers personal data we collect through thesmartsoletrader.co.uk (the “site”). It explains what we collect, why, and what your rights are.
It does not cover other websites. Our site links to other websites, including GOV.UK, HMRC and other organisations and businesses. When you follow a link and leave our site, that website’s own privacy notice and cookie policy apply. Cragside Media’s other websites have their own privacy notices.
3. The data we collect and why
The table below sets out what we collect, why, and the lawful basis we rely on under the UK GDPR.
| Why we use your data | What data | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Email enquiries | Name, email address, your message and anything else you choose to tell us | Legitimate interests: replying to you and running our site |
| Server logs and security | IP address, date and time of visit, pages requested, browser and device details, referring page, error records | Legitimate interests: keeping the site secure, preventing abuse and fixing faults |
| Analytics, if you accept statistics cookies | Pages visited, how you reached the site, approximate location (town or country, worked out from your IP address), device and browser type, and the identifiers in Google Analytics cookies | Consent, given through our cookie banner. You can withdraw it at any time |
| Consent records | Your cookie choices and when you made them, stored in cookies on your device | Legal obligation: being able to show we have your consent |
| Essential cookies | Cookie identifiers WordPress needs to log our team in to manage the site | Strictly necessary, so no consent is needed under PECR. Any personal data involved is used on the basis of legitimate interests |
| Legal and admin | Any of the data above, where relevant | Legal obligation, where the law requires it. Legitimate interests: protecting our rights and dealing with legal claims |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against yours and think the use is reasonable and something you would expect. You can object at any time (see section 8). Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, and this does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.
Email enquiries
We don’t currently have a contact form. You can contact us by email, and we use what you send us only to deal with your enquiry. Please do not send us sensitive information (for example, about your health) unless you need to.
Downloadable guides and templates
Our free downloads, such as the MTD key dates calendar (.ics), download straight from the site. We do not ask for your email address to get them, and you never have to sign up to anything to get a download.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4, added to the site through Google’s Site Kit plugin, to understand how visitors use the site, for example which pages are popular. Google Analytics is provided by Google.
Google Analytics only runs if you accept statistics cookies in our cookie banner. Until you make a choice, and if you reject statistics cookies, our cookie banner stops Google’s tag from loading at all. That means no analytics cookies are set and no analytics data is sent to Google.
Google says Google Analytics does not log or store IP addresses from UK users. It uses the IP address only to work out an approximate location, such as the town or country, and then drops it.
Google acts as our processor for Google Analytics, under the Google Ads Data Processing Terms. Google says these terms are already part of the Google Analytics terms for businesses established in the UK. This means it may only use the data on our instructions. The reports we see are mostly aggregated and do not tell us who you are.
You can change your choice at any time using the Manage consent button at the bottom right of every page.
Advertising
We do not show display adverts on this site, and we don’t currently publish sponsored content. If we do in future, it will always be clearly labelled, and sponsors will not receive any personal data about our readers. We don’t use advertising or marketing cookies.
Affiliate links
We don’t currently use affiliate links. We’ll update this notice and our How we make money and affiliate disclosure page before we do.
Some of our articles link to other businesses’ websites. If you click through and sign up for or apply for a product, the provider handles your data under its own privacy notice. We do not see your application or account details.
Server logs and security
Our web host, 20i, delivers the site through its content delivery network (StackCDN) and protects it with its security service (StackProtect). 20i automatically records technical details when you visit, such as your IP address and the pages you request. We use these records to keep the site running, to spot and block attacks or abuse, and to fix problems.
If StackProtect thinks a visit looks unusual, it may ask your browser to complete a quick check that you’re not a robot. Once you pass, 20i says your IP address is allowed through for 48 hours on sites it hosts.
If you do not give us your data
You can browse the site without giving us any personal data, apart from the technical data described above. If you email us without the details we need, we may not be able to reply to you or provide what you asked for.
4. Cookies
Cookies are small files placed on your device when you visit a website. We use:
- Strictly necessary cookies, which the site needs to work and to remember your cookie choices. These are always on.
- Statistics cookies from Google Analytics, only if you accept them.
We don’t use preferences, advertising or marketing cookies.
Our cookie banner is run by Complianz. It gives you equal Accept and Reject buttons. Google Analytics does not load, and we do not set statistics cookies, unless you accept them. You can change your choice at any time using the Manage consent button at the bottom right of every page.
See our Cookie Policy for a full list of the cookies we use, who sets them, what they do and how long they last.
5. Who we share your data with
We share personal data only where we need to, with:
- Service providers who process data for us, such as our web host (20i), our analytics provider (Google, for Google Analytics) and our email provider. They may only use your data on our instructions and under a contract that protects it.
- Professional advisers, such as accountants, lawyers and insurers, where they need it to advise us.
- Police, regulators, courts and other authorities, when the law requires it or when we need to protect our rights or someone’s safety.
- A buyer or successor, if our business or a site is sold or restructured. They would have to use your data in line with this notice.
Complianz, our cookie banner plugin, runs on our own site. Your cookie choices are stored on your device, not sent to Complianz.
We do not sell your personal data.
6. International transfers
Some of our providers are based in, or store data in, the United States or other countries outside the UK. Google, which provides Google Analytics, is one of them. When your data is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it is protected by one of these:
- UK adequacy regulations: the UK government has decided the country gives an acceptable level of protection. This includes the UK-US data bridge, where the US provider is certified under it. Google LLC says it is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
- Contract terms approved for the UK: the International Data Transfer Agreement issued by the Information Commission, the UK data protection regulator, which is still known as the ICO, or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Google’s data processing terms include standard contractual clauses as a fallback.
Contact us at gdpr@cragsidemedia.co.uk if you would like more information about the safeguards for a particular provider.
7. How long we keep your data
We keep personal data only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this notice, then delete or anonymise it.
| Data | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Email enquiries | 24 months after our last contact with you |
| Server and security logs | 90 days, unless we need them longer to investigate a security problem |
| Google Analytics data | No more than 14 months, the longest period Google offers on the standard version of Google Analytics. Reports that only show totals may be kept longer |
| Consent records | As set out in our Cookie Policy |
| Cookies | As set out in our Cookie Policy |
We may keep data for longer if the law requires it, or if we need it to deal with a complaint or legal claim.
8. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Access: ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification: ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete.
- Erasure: ask us to delete your data.
- Restriction: ask us to limit how we use your data, for example while we check a correction.
- Objection: object to us using your data where we rely on legitimate interests. You have an absolute right to object to direct marketing. We don’t currently send any, but if you object to direct marketing, we will stop.
- Portability: ask for data you gave us to be sent to you, or another organisation, in a common digital format, where we rely on consent or contract and process it automatically.
- Withdraw consent: where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, for example by changing your choice through the Manage consent button at the bottom right of every page.
Some rights only apply in certain situations. If we cannot do what you ask, we will explain why.
To use any of these rights, email gdpr@cragsidemedia.co.uk. We may need to ask you for information to confirm your identity. We will respond within one month. If your request is complex, or you have made several requests, we may extend this by up to two further months, and we will tell you if we do. We will make reasonable and proportionate searches for the data you ask for.
Using your rights is usually free. We may charge a reasonable fee, or refuse, if a request is clearly unfounded or excessive.
9. Complaints
If you’re unhappy, please complain to us first at gdpr@cragsidemedia.co.uk. We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and respond without undue delay.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commission (still known as the ICO), the UK data protection regulator, which replaced the Information Commissioner on 30 September 2026:
- Website: ico.org.uk
- Helpline: 0303 123 1113
10. Children
Our site is not aimed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you think a child has given us personal data, please contact us at gdpr@cragsidemedia.co.uk and we will delete it.
11. Automated decisions and profiling
We do not make any decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
12. Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, such as secure (HTTPS) connections, access controls, and reputable providers who protect data properly. No website can be completely secure, so please take care when sending information online.
13. Changes to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time, for example if we start using a new provider or the law changes. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when it last changed. If we make an important change that affects you, we will tell you on the site or by email where appropriate.