Last Updated: October 19, 2025
Welcome to Hartsford Academy, a distinguished UK-based educational institution dedicated to delivering exceptional online learning experiences through our websites hartsford.co.uk and hartsford.org. We specialize in courses covering financial trading analysis, market research, and related disciplines, designed to empower our students with practical and theoretical knowledge. At Hartsford Academy, we are deeply committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your personal data in full compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
This Privacy Policy provides a comprehensive and transparent overview of how we collect, process, store, share, and protect your personal information when you interact with our websites, enroll in our online courses, or engage with any of our services. We value your trust and strive to maintain the highest standards of data protection to foster a safe and reliable learning environment. By accessing our websites or services, you agree to the data practices described in this policy. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding your personal data, please contact us.
Hartsford Academy is a premier UK-based institution focused on delivering high-quality online education. Our mission is to provide accessible, professional, and engaging learning experiences, particularly in the fields of financial trading analysis and market research. As the data controller under UK data protection laws, we are responsible for ensuring that your personal data is handled with care, transparency, and compliance. Our commitment to privacy is a cornerstone of our operations, reflecting our dedication to building trust with our students, prospective learners, and website visitors.
For any inquiries or to reach our Data Protection Officer (DPO), please contact us at:
The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to provide you with a clear, detailed, and accessible explanation of how Hartsford Academy manages your personal data. We aim to inform you about the types of information we collect, the reasons for collecting it, the legal grounds for processing, the measures we take to protect it, and the rights you have under UK data protection laws. This policy applies to everyone who interacts with our websites or services, including students enrolled in our courses, prospective learners exploring our offerings, and visitors browsing our content. We also detail our use of cookies, third-party services, and the procedures for addressing data breaches, complaints, or account deletion requests, ensuring full transparency in our data practices.
To deliver our educational services effectively, we collect various types of personal data depending on how you engage with us. Below, we provide a detailed breakdown of the categories of data we collect, ensuring you understand the scope and purpose of our data collection practices.
When you register for a course, create an account, or interact with our services, you voluntarily provide us with personal information that enables us to deliver a personalized and efficient learning experience. This includes your full name, title, date of birth, and gender, which we collect during the registration process to verify your identity and tailor course content to your profile. For example, knowing your age or professional background may help us recommend specific modules within our financial trading courses that align with your goals.
We also collect contact information, such as your email address, phone number, billing address, and delivery address. This information allows us to communicate with you about course updates, send invoices, or deliver physical course materials (if applicable). For instance, we may use your email to send course access instructions or your billing address to process payments accurately.
Financial information is another critical category. When you enroll in a course or subscribe to our services, we collect payment details, such as credit or debit card numbers or bank account information, to process fees securely. We work with trusted payment processors like Stripe to ensure these transactions are safe and compliant with industry standards.
Additionally, we gather profile-related data to enhance your user experience. This includes your username, password, course enrollment history, preferences (e.g., preferred language or course format), feedback, and responses to optional surveys. These details help us customize your learning journey and improve our offerings based on your input. For students, we collect educational data, such as your course progress, quiz results, certificates earned, and interactions with our learning management system (LMS). This allows us to track your academic performance, provide personalized feedback, and issue certifications upon course completion.
Finally, we record your marketing preferences to respect your choices regarding promotional communications. If you opt in to receive newsletters or course updates, we use this data to send relevant information about new courses, webinars, or special offers related to financial trading analysis.
As you interact with our websites, we automatically collect certain types of data to optimize your experience and improve our services. This includes technical data, such as your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, and time zone. These details help us ensure our websites function correctly across different devices and regions, providing a seamless user experience.
We also collect usage data, which includes information about the pages you visit, the time spent on our websites, course access logs, clicks, and interactions with course materials (e.g., videos, quizzes, or downloadable resources). For example, we may track which financial trading modules you spend the most time on to identify popular content and refine our course offerings.
Our websites use cookies and similar tracking technologies, such as those provided by Google Analytics, to analyze website performance and user behavior. Cookies are small data files stored on your device that help us understand how you navigate our sites, allowing us to enhance functionality and deliver personalized content. You can manage your cookie preferences through our cookie consent tool, which is displayed when you first visit our websites.
In some cases, we receive data from third parties to support our services. For example, when you make a payment, our payment processors (e.g., Stripe or PayPal) may provide us with transaction details, such as payment status or confirmation. If you log in to our platform using social media accounts (e.g., Facebook or LinkedIn), we may receive limited profile information, such as your name or email address, to facilitate account creation.
We may also receive data from marketing partners or affiliates if you have consented to targeted promotions. For instance, if you sign up for a webinar through a partner platform, we may receive your contact details to follow up with course information. All third-party data sharing complies with UK GDPR requirements and is subject to strict data protection agreements.
We process your personal data for a variety of purposes to deliver our educational services, enhance your learning experience, and comply with legal obligations. Below, we explain the key ways we use your data, ensuring transparency about our practices.
First and foremost, we use your data to deliver our online courses effectively. This includes registering you for courses, granting access to our learning management system, tracking your progress, and issuing certificates upon completion. For example, we use your identity and contact data to create your student profile and ensure you receive the correct course materials. Educational data, such as quiz results or module completion rates, helps us provide personalized feedback and support to enhance your learning outcomes in financial trading analysis.
We also use your data to process payments securely. Financial information is used to handle course fees, subscriptions, or refunds, ensuring smooth transactions through trusted payment processors. Contact information allows us to send payment confirmations, invoices, or refund notifications as needed.
Customer support is another critical area where we use your data. When you reach out with inquiries, technical issues, or feedback, we use your contact and profile data to respond promptly and effectively. For instance, if you report a problem accessing a course module, we may access your account details to diagnose and resolve the issue.
For marketing purposes, we may use your data to send newsletters, promotional offers, or updates about new courses, webinars, or events related to financial trading. However, we only send marketing communications if you have explicitly consented to receive them. You can opt out at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in our emails.
We also use your data for analytics to improve our services. By analyzing usage data and feedback, we can identify trends, optimize course content, and enhance website functionality. For example, if we notice that many students struggle with a particular financial trading module, we may update the content to make it clearer or more engaging.
Finally, we use your data to comply with legal obligations, such as reporting financial transactions to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) or responding to data protection inquiries from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This ensures we operate within the legal framework of the UK.
Under UK GDPR, we are required to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. We rely on the following legal bases, depending on the purpose of processing:
We may share your personal data with trusted third parties to deliver our services, but only when necessary and under strict data protection agreements. Below, we outline the categories of recipients with whom we may share your data.
We work with third-party service providers to support our operations. For example, we use payment processors like Stripe and PayPal to handle course payments securely. These providers receive limited financial data (e.g., card details or transaction IDs) to process transactions on our behalf. They are contractually obligated to protect your data and comply with UK GDPR.
We may also share data with IT and platform providers that host our websites and learning management system. For instance, our LMS may be hosted by a provider like Moodle, which processes data such as course progress or quiz results to ensure seamless access to our educational content. These providers operate under strict data processing agreements to safeguard your information.
For marketing purposes, we may share limited data (e.g., your email address) with affiliates or partners to send targeted promotions, but only if you have consented to receive such communications. For example, if you opt in to our newsletter, we may share your email with a marketing platform like Mailchimp to manage email campaigns.
In certain cases, we may share data to comply with legal obligations. For instance, we may disclose information to HMRC for tax purposes or to the ICO in response to a data protection inquiry. We may also share data with law enforcement or judicial authorities if required by law or to protect our legal rights.
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes. Any data sharing is strictly limited to what is necessary to provide our services or meet legal requirements, and we ensure all recipients adhere to UK GDPR standards.
We take the security of your personal data seriously and have implemented robust measures to protect it from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration. Our websites use industry-standard encryption protocols, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to safeguard data transmitted between your device and our servers. For example, when you enter payment details or log in to your account, your data is encrypted to prevent interception.
We store your data on secure servers located within the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), which are compliant with UK GDPR requirements. Access to your data is restricted to authorized personnel only, who are trained in data protection and bound by confidentiality obligations. We also conduct regular security audits and use firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and anti-malware software to protect our systems.
In the unlikely event of a data breach, we have procedures in place to respond promptly. If a breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the ICO within 72 hours, as required by UK GDPR. We will also take immediate steps to mitigate the breach and prevent future occurrences.
Under UK GDPR, you have several rights regarding your personal data. We are committed to helping you exercise these rights, which include:
To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer. We will respond to your request within one month, as required by UK GDPR, although this may be extended by two months for complex requests. There is no fee for exercising your rights, unless the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Our websites use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience and analyze usage. Cookies are small data files stored on your device that allow us to remember your preferences, track website performance, and deliver personalized content. For example, cookies may remember your login details or track which financial trading modules you access most frequently.
We use the following types of cookies:
When you first visit our websites, you will see a cookie consent banner that allows you to accept or decline non-essential cookies. You can also manage your cookie settings at any time through your browser or our website’s settings page. For more information about cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
We partner with trusted third-party service providers to deliver our services. These providers may process your data on our behalf, but only under strict data protection agreements. Below is a list of key third-party services we use, along with links to their privacy policies:
These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and comply with UK GDPR. We carefully vet all third parties to ensure they meet our high standards for data security and privacy.
As a UK-based institution, we primarily store and process your data within the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), which has equivalent data protection standards. However, some of our third-party service providers (e.g., Mailchimp) may be based outside the UK/EEA, such as in the United States. In such cases, we ensure that any international data transfers comply with UK GDPR through mechanisms like Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or adequacy decisions approved by the ICO. We also verify that third parties have appropriate safeguards in place to protect your data to the same standard as in the UK.
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or to comply with legal obligations. For example:
Our services are not directed at individuals under the age of 16, as our courses are designed for adult learners, particularly those interested in financial trading analysis. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If we discover that a child under 16 has provided us with personal information, we will immediately delete it from our systems. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so we can take appropriate action.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or service offerings. When we make significant changes, we will notify you by posting the updated policy on our websites and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data.
If you are concerned about how we handle your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer. We will investigate your complaint promptly and respond within one month. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection authority. You can contact the ICO at:
If you wish to delete your account with Hartsford Academy, you can request the removal of your personal data from our systems. To do so, please follow these steps:
Once we receive and verify your request, we will delete all personal data associated with your account from our records, except for data we are required to retain for legal purposes (e.g., financial records for HMRC compliance, which may be retained for up to 7 years). We will process your request within one month, and you will receive confirmation once the deletion is complete.
We are here to assist you with any questions, concerns, or requests regarding your personal data or this Privacy Policy. Please contact our Data Protection Officer at:
We aim to respond to all inquiries within 48 hours, though complex requests (e.g., DSARs) may take up to one month as per UK GDPR guidelines.