Privacy Policy

Exceptionalways is a multidisciplinary creative and technology agency with offices in London, Dubai, and Lagos. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller responsible for your personal information.

Registered Name: Exceptionalways Creative Agency  ·  Contact: privacy@exceptionalways.org

We collect information you provide directly, information collected automatically, and information from third parties.

Information you provide:

• Name, email address, and phone number when you contact us or create an account
• Payment information (processed securely by Stripe — we never store card details)
• Project details submitted via our Start a Project form
• Profile information if you create a shop account

Information collected automatically:

• IP address, browser type, and device information
• Pages visited, time on site, and referral sources via analytics
• Cookie identifiers (see our Cookie Policy)

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• To process and fulfil your digital product orders and deliver download links
• To respond to your enquiries and provide customer support
• To send transactional emails (order confirmations, download links, password resets)
• To improve our website, products, and services through analytics
• To send marketing communications where you have given consent
• To comply with our legal obligations

We never sell your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

We share your data only with trusted third parties who are necessary for us to provide our services:

• Stripe — Payment processing (PCI DSS compliant)
• Mailgun / AWS SES — Transactional email delivery
• Vercel — Website hosting and CDN
• Google Analytics — Website analytics (data anonymised)
• Sentry — Error monitoring

All third-party processors are bound by data processing agreements and are required to protect your data in accordance with applicable law.

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to improve your experience. For full details, please read our Cookie Policy.

You can manage your cookie preferences at any time using our Cookie Settings panel or your browser settings.

We retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected:

• Account data: Retained for the lifetime of your account plus 2 years after closure
• Order and purchase records: 7 years (tax and accounting requirements)
• Enquiry and contact data: 3 years from last contact
• Analytics data: 26 months (Google Analytics default)
• Marketing consent: Until you withdraw consent

Under UK GDPR and applicable data protection law, you have the following rights:

• Right of access — Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure — Ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances
• Right to restrict processing — Ask us to limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability — Receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to object — Object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing
• Rights related to automated decision-making — We do not use automated decision-making that produces legal effects

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@exceptionalways.org. We will respond within 30 days.

Exceptionalways operates from offices in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Nigeria. Some of our third-party processors may transfer your data outside the UK/EEA.

Where such transfers occur, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place including Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the UK ICO.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction:

• All data transmitted via SSL/TLS encryption (HTTPS)
• Passwords hashed using bcrypt (cost factor 12)
• Sensitive data encrypted at rest using AES-256
• Access controls and role-based permissions for staff
• Regular security reviews and dependency audits

Our services are not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child, please contact us immediately so we can delete it.

For any questions about this Privacy Policy or to exercise your data rights, please contact our Data Protection Lead:

Email: privacy@exceptionalways.org
Post: Exceptionalways Creative Agency, London, United Kingdom
Response time: Within 30 days

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.