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Customer
Privacy Notice

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How we collect, use, and protect your personal information.

Our Details

Mark D. Millican

Sole trader, trading as Mark Millican Modern Ancestral Tree Design
31 Grangewood Road
Dundonald, Belfast
BT16 1GW, GB

Contact Us

contact@markdmillican.co.uk

07530827694

What Information We Collect, Use, and Why

To provide services, goods, and delivery:

  • Names and contact details
  • Billing and delivery addresses
  • Purchase and order history
  • Payment details (taken by Stripe for card payments and by PayPal for PayPal payments; card numbers never reach this site)

To design and add to your custom family tree chart:

  • Family names
  • Dates of birth
  • Places of birth

For service updates or customer queries:

  • Names and contact details
  • Correspondence history (emails or text messages regarding your design preferences)

To comply with legal and tax requirements:

  • Name and contact information
  • Financial transaction info (invoices and receipts for HMRC purposes)

Where We Get Personal Information From

We collect personal information directly from you when you place an order or contact us.

How We Count Visits

We keep a simple count of how many people visit each page so we can see which parts of the site are useful. This counter does not use cookies, does not store anything in your browser, and does not record your IP address or device details. It keeps only the page viewed, the time, the name of the website that linked to us (if any), a short tag when you arrived by a link on our own site (for example from the Genealogy Resources Directory), and a scrambled daily code that cannot be traced back to you and is not linked from one day to the next. Individual page-view records are deleted after 13 months; after that only daily totals are kept. No third-party analytics service is used.

Cookies

This website sets one cookie of its own, and it is a strictly necessary one. Because it is essential to run the site, UK law (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) does not require your consent for it, which is why we do not show a cookie banner. We do not use any advertising, tracking or analytics cookies.

Session cookie: PHPSESSID
  • What it does: protects the forms on this site against forgery, remembers the currency you have chosen, and lets an interrupted checkout resume where you left off.
  • What it contains: a random reference number only. It holds no name, email address or other identifying information.
  • How long it lasts: until you close your browser.
  • Who sets it: this website only. It is never shared with anyone else.

A few pages include services from other companies that may set their own cookies while you use them:

  • PayPal on the chart builder and checkout pages, to provide the PayPal payment button and to prevent fraud. These are needed to take your payment when you choose PayPal.
  • Stripe when you pay by card. Payment takes place on Stripe's own secure checkout page, and Stripe's cookies are set there rather than on this site.
  • YouTube where an article embeds a video. YouTube may set cookies once you play the video.

Each of those companies publishes its own privacy and cookie policy. You can delete or block cookies at any time through your browser settings; if you block the session cookie, the contact form, currency switcher and checkout will not work.

How Long We Keep Information

We only keep your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for. Our retention periods are as follows:

Custom Family Tree Data (Names, Dates of Birth, Places of Birth):

Kept for 6 months after your final chart is delivered and accepted. This allows a grace period for any requested reprints, corrections, or follow-up orders. After 6 months, all raw data and digital layout files associated with your tree are securely and permanently deleted. If you would rather not wait, email us after delivery and we will delete them sooner. This applies to every order type, including digital-only orders and bespoke commissions.

Order and Financial Records:

Kept for 7 years to comply with UK HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) legal requirements for business tax and accounting.

Customer Correspondence:

Kept for up to 3 years after your last order to assist with any long-term customer service queries or claims.

Who We Share Information With

We do not sell your data. We only share personal information with essential service providers who help run our business, such as our secure payment processors, printers, framers, and delivery/courier networks.

Our Lawful Bases for Collection

Under UK data protection law, we must have a "lawful basis" for collecting and using your personal information. You can find out more about lawful bases on the ICO’s website. We rely on the following:

  • To provide services and goods: Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you.
  • To add to a customer's family tree chart: Contract – we use the family details provided specifically to fulfill our design contract with you.
  • For legal and tax requirements: Legal Obligation – we process transaction details to comply with our statutory UK tax duties.
  • For dealing with queries, complaints or claims: Legitimate Interests – it is in our legitimate business interests to handle customer support effectively.

Your Data Protection Rights

Which lawful basis we rely on may affect your data protection rights. You can find out more about these rights and exemptions on the ICO’s website. Generally, you have:

Your right of access: The right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification: The right to ask us to correct or delete personal information you think is inaccurate or incomplete.

Your right to erasure: The right to ask us to delete your personal information.

Your right to restriction of processing: The right to ask us to limit how we can use your personal information.

Your right to object to processing: The right to object to the processing of your personal data.

Your right to data portability: The right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you.

If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month. To make a data protection rights request, please contact us using the details at the top of this notice.

How to Complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, please make a data protection complaint to us using the contact details provided at the top of this page.

If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your data after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s Address

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Contact

Helpline: 0303 123 1113

www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Returns & Refunds Policy

Returns Policy Overview

Every product (digital files, unframed prints, or framed prints) available on this site is custom-made to order. To ensure the highest quality and fastest delivery, physical orders are fulfilled by regional print partners (LUMAPRINTS in the US, Artovo in the UK/EU). Because each piece is produced specifically for you upon ordering and data submission, our returns policy is tailored to bespoke manufacturing.

1. Damaged or Defective Items

If your physical order is damaged in transit or contains a manufacturing defect (such as a misprint or structural issue), you are entitled to a free replacement or a full refund.

  • Reporting Timeframe: Please report within 30 days of receiving your item.
  • How to Report: Email contact@markdmillican.co.uk with your order number and photographs of the damaged product and packaging.
  • Resolution: Free replacement expedited at no cost or a full refund to your original payment method.

2. Change of Mind / Buyer's Remorse

Because each design is custom-manufactured exclusively using your unique family data, we do not hold inventory. Therefore, we cannot accept returns or offer refunds for "change of mind" once an order is finalised and approved.

3. Order Cancellations & The Proofing Process

  • Data Pending (Full Refund): Cancel before submitting your GEDCOM or CSV data for a 100% full refund.
  • Proofing Stage (Partial Refund): If you cancel during the proofing stage before final print approval, up to £45 is retained to cover the design work already done and any balance above that is refunded, so a £45 digital-only order is not refundable once proofing has begun.
  • Final Approval (No Refund): Once final proof approval is submitted, printing begins immediately and orders cannot be cancelled or refunded.

4. Lost or Missing Packages

If tracking shows no updates or indicates your package has been delivered but is missing, allow 48 hours and check with neighbours or your local delivery office before contacting us for a replacement claim.

5. Digital Files & Reprints

Your chart files are kept for six months after delivery. In that time a lost digital file is re-sent free of charge, and a further print of the same chart can be ordered at the standard print price without repeating the design stage.

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