Privacy Policy

Who We Are

LoadBearing ("we", "us", or "our") is a structural engineering news publication operated by LoadBearing Media Ltd, registered in England and Wales (Company No. 13284756). Our registered address is 4th Floor, 12 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NY, United Kingdom. We are the data controller responsible for your personal data processed through our website loadbearing.co.uk and associated services.

Information We Collect

• Account Information: Name, email address, and password when you create a subscriber account or sign up for our newsletter.
• Contact Data: Name, email address, and message content when you submit our contact form or email us directly.
• Usage Data: Pages visited, time spent on articles, device type, browser, IP address, and referring URL, collected automatically through analytics.
• Subscription Data: Payment information (processed securely by our payment provider, Stripe), subscription tier, and billing history.
• Communication Preferences: Your newsletter and notification settings, including topics of interest.

How We Use Your Data

• Service Delivery: To provide you with access to articles, newsletters, and subscriber-exclusive content.
• Communication: To respond to your inquiries, send editorial newsletters, and notify you of content relevant to your interests.
• Analytics: To understand readership patterns, improve content quality, and optimise the user experience on our website.
• Payment Processing: To manage Pro subscriptions, process payments, and maintain billing records.
• Legal Obligations: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legitimate business purposes.

Legal Basis for Processing

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), we rely on the following legal bases:

• Consent: For marketing communications and newsletter subscriptions. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Contract: To fulfil our obligations under your subscription agreement.
• Legitimate Interests: For website analytics, fraud prevention, and improving our editorial services, balanced against your rights.
• Legal Obligation: To comply with tax, accounting, and regulatory requirements.

Cookies & Tracking

We use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience:

• Essential Cookies: Required for site functionality, authentication, and security. Cannot be disabled.
• Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how readers engage with our content. We use privacy-focused analytics that do not track individuals across websites.
• Preference Cookies: Remember your settings, such as dark mode preference and reading history.

We do not use third-party advertising trackers. We do not sell your data to advertisers or data brokers.

Data Sharing

We share personal data only with the following categories of recipients:

• Payment Processors: Stripe processes subscription payments under their own privacy policy.
• Email Service Provider: Our newsletter platform processes email addresses for delivery purposes only.
• Hosting Provider: Our infrastructure provider stores data in EU-based data centres with appropriate safeguards.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. We do not share data with advertisers.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary:

• Active Accounts: Data is retained for the duration of your account or subscription.
• Inactive Accounts: Accounts inactive for 24 months are flagged for deletion, with 30 days' notice.
• Contact Submissions: Retained for 12 months, then permanently deleted.
• Financial Records: Retained for 7 years as required by HMRC.
• Analytics Data: Aggregated and anonymised after 26 months.

Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure: Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
• Restriction: Request that we limit how we process your data.
• Portability: Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
• Withdraw Consent: Unsubscribe from communications at any time via the link in any email.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including encryption in transit (TLS 1.3), encryption at rest, access controls, and regular security audits. While no system is completely secure, we are committed to protecting your information to the highest industry standards.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email to registered users and displayed prominently on our website. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.