Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

This Privacy Policy explains how Aysha Al-Safar, trading as Equi Competitions, a sole trader whose business address is at Brightside, Shay Lane, Hale Barns, WA15 8UE (“we”, “our” or “us”), collects, uses and protects your personal data when you visit equicompetitions.co.uk (the “Website”) or enter one of our competitions. We are the data controller for the purposes of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. What We Collect

2.1 When you enter a competition online, we collect:

(a) your email address, which you provide when entering; and (b) the answer you select to the competition question.

2.2 We do not collect or store your payment card details. Payments are handled entirely by our payment processor, Stripe — see Section 4.

2.3 If you enter by post using our free entry route, we collect whatever you include in your entry: your name, postal address, contact telephone number, email address, and your answer to the competition question. This is used only to process your entry and is not published.

2.4 We may briefly process the IP address a request comes from to help prevent automated abuse of the entry system (for example, repeated guessing of the competition answer). This is not linked to your entry, is not stored in our database, and is discarded automatically after a short period.

2.5 If you contact us directly (for example, by email), we will hold the information you send us for as long as reasonably necessary to deal with your query.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data to:

(a) process your competition entry and allocate ticket number(s); (b) verify your answer to the competition question; (c) contact you about your entry, including to confirm your ticket number(s); (d) contact you if you win; (e) administer the random draw; (f) comply with our legal obligations, including keeping records for tax and accounting purposes and demonstrating that competitions were run fairly; and (g) prevent fraud and abuse of the entry system.

Our lawful basis for this processing is performance of the contract formed when you enter a competition (or, for anti-fraud measures, our legitimate interest in running fair and secure competitions). We do not use your data for marketing unless you separately opt in to hear from us, and we do not sell your personal data to third parties.

4. Payment Processing

Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc., a third-party payment processor. When you pay for a competition entry, you are taken to Stripe’s own secure payment page — we never see or store your full card details. Stripe processes your payment data under its own privacy policy, available at stripe.com/privacy. We receive confirmation that payment was successful, together with your email address and the amount paid.

5. Sharing Your Data

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with:

(a) Stripe, to process payments; (b) Vercel Inc. and Neon, Inc., who host our Website and database infrastructure; and (c) any professional advisor, regulator or authority where we are legally required to do so.

Some of these providers may process data on servers located outside the UK. Where this happens, we rely on their standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards approved for international data transfers.

6. Publishing Winner Information

When a competition closes, we publish the winning ticket number and a partially masked version of the winner’s email address (for example, jo***@example.com) on the relevant competition page, so that entrants can see a valid draw took place. We do not publish your full email address, name or address.

7. How Long We Keep Your Data

We keep competition entry data for as long as necessary to administer the competition, resolve any disputes, and meet our legal and accounting obligations (generally up to 6 years after the competition closes, in line with standard UK record-keeping requirements). Postal entry details are kept for the same purposes and no longer.

8. Cookies

Our Website uses a strictly necessary cookie to keep our administrator signed in to the admin area. This cookie is not set for ordinary visitors browsing or entering competitions, and we do not use analytics or advertising cookies.

9. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

(a) request a copy of the personal data we hold about you; (b) ask us to correct inaccurate data; (c) ask us to delete your data, subject to our legal obligation to retain competition records; (d) object to or restrict certain processing; and (e) complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you think we have not handled your data properly.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@equicompetitions.co.uk.

10. Children

Our competitions are only open to entrants aged 18 or over, in line with our Terms and Conditions. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

11. Data Security

We use reputable third-party infrastructure providers with industry-standard security practices, and payment data is handled entirely by Stripe rather than by us. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the personal data we hold.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The version published on the Website applies from the date shown at the top of this page.

13. Contact Us

For any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, contact us at info@equicompetitions.co.uk or by post at: Equi Competitions, Brightside, Shay Lane, Hale Barns, WA15 8UE.