Privacy policy

01Who we are

Start In Design is an online course for beginner interior designers. It is run by Nikola Starostka, an interior designer based in Poland.

Nikola is the "controller" of your personal data, which means she decides how and why it is used and is responsible for protecting it. You can reach us about anything in this policy at support@startindesign.com.

02What we collect

When you join the waitlist

• Your first name.
• Your email address.
• Your answer to "Where are you starting from?", if you choose one.
• The date and time you joined.

When you visit the website

Like every website, our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes technical data such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you request. It needs this to deliver the site to you and to protect it from attacks. We don't use this data to identify you, and we don't run any analytics.

When you contact us

If you email us or message Nikola on Instagram, we receive whatever you choose to send.

We don't ask for sensitive information, such as details about your health, and we ask you not to send it.

03Why we use it, and our legal basis

The GDPR only allows us to use your data when we have a legal reason, called a "legal basis". Here is each thing we do, and ours.

Giving us your details is voluntary, but we need your email address to add you to the waitlist.

We don't make any automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

04Who we share it with

We never sell or rent your data. We use a small number of trusted service providers, called "processors", who handle it on our behalf under data processing terms that require them to protect it:

• Google (Google Workspace). Stores the waitlist in Google Sheets, processes sign-ups and requests to leave the list, and sends our emails through Gmail.
• Cloudflare. Hosts the website.

If you follow a link from our site or emails to Instagram, Instagram (owned by Meta) handles your visit under its own privacy policy.

We may also share data if the law requires us to.

05International transfers

Google and Cloudflare may process data outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where they do, the transfer is protected by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, as set out in their data processing terms.

06How long we keep it

• Waitlist details: until you leave the list or ask us to delete them. When you use the "Leave the list" link in any of our emails, your details are deleted from the waitlist straight away.
• If the course doesn't go ahead: we'll delete the whole waitlist.
• Emails we've sent you: a copy stays in our email account. We'll delete it if you ask.
• Messages you send us: for as long as we need to answer you, and we'll delete them if you ask.
• Technical data: kept briefly by Cloudflare under its own retention rules.

07Your rights

Under the GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access your data: ask for a copy of what we hold about you.
• Rectification: ask us to correct anything that's wrong.
• Erasure: ask us to delete your data.
• Restriction: ask us to limit how we use it.
• Data portability: receive the data you gave us in a common, machine-readable format, or have it sent to someone else.
• Object to anything we do based on our legitimate interests.
• Withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting anything we did before. The quickest way is the "Leave the list" link in our emails.

To use any of these rights, email support@startindesign.com. It's free. We'll reply within one month, and if a request is complex we may need up to two more months, in which case we'll tell you. We may ask you to confirm your identity first, so we only ever give your data to you.

Making a complaint

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In Poland, that is the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (Prezes Urzędu Ochrony Danych Osobowych, UODO), ul. Stanisława Moniuszki 1A, 00-014 Warszawa, uodo.gov.pl. You can also complain to the authority in the EU country where you live or work.

08Cookies

startindesign.com doesn't use cookies or similar technologies, such as local storage or tracking pixels. We have no analytics, advertising or social media trackers. Our fonts are stored on our own website, so visiting doesn't send your data to a font provider. That's why there's no cookie banner.

If that ever changes, we'll update this policy first and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

Websites we link to, such as Instagram, have their own cookie policies.

09Security

The whole site uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Only the people who run Start In Design can see the waitlist, through our Google Workspace accounts. No way of storing or sending data online is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect yours.

10Children

The course and this website are for adults. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you think a child has joined the waitlist, tell us and we'll delete their details.

11Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If we make a significant change, we'll email everyone on the waitlist before it takes effect.