Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Official Translations (referred to as “we”, “us”, “our”) is the trading name of Official Translations LLC, the data controller responsible for your personal data when you use officialtranslations.com/uk or officialtranslations.uk.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, contact us at contact@officialtranslations.uk.

2. What this policy covers

This policy applies to personal data we collect when you:

• Visit our UK website pages at officialtranslations.com/uk or officialtranslations.uk;
• Upload a document for an Instant Pricing quote or place an order;
• Email, telephone, or message us in any other way;
• Use a third-party service we have integrated (e.g. Stripe for payments, Royal Mail for delivery).

3. The data we collect

We collect the minimum data needed to translate your documents and deliver our service. Depending on what you do on our site, this may include:

Category	Examples
Identity & contact	Name, email address, telephone number, billing address, delivery address
Document content	The contents of the document you upload for translation (which may itself include personal data – e.g. a birth certificate, marriage certificate, or passport)
Order data	Order details, services ordered (certified, standard, apostille), delivery preferences, special instructions
Payment data	Card details are processed by Stripe and not stored by us; we retain only the transaction reference and basic billing information for accounting
Communications	Emails, support messages, and any other correspondence you send us
Technical data	IP address, browser type, device information, page-view information, referral source – collected by our analytics and security providers

4. How we use your data (lawful bases)

Under the UK GDPR, we only process your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so. The lawful bases we rely on are:

• Performance of a contract – to translate your documents, deliver your order, process payments, and send order updates.
• Legitimate interests – to operate and improve our service, prevent fraud, secure our site, and respond to your enquiries.
• Legal obligation – to keep accounting records, respond to regulators (including the ICO), and comply with court or law-enforcement orders.
• Consent – for any non-essential cookies and any marketing communications. You can withdraw consent at any time.

5. Who we share your data with

We share your data only with the third parties we need to deliver our service. We never sell your data. Our current data processors and partners include:

• Translators – we share document content with the qualified translator assigned to your project. All translators are bound by written confidentiality agreements.
• Stripe, Inc. – for payment processing. Stripe's privacy policy.
• Royal Mail / DHL / FedEx – for postal delivery, where you request a hard copy.
• Cloudflare, Inc. – CDN and security. Cloudflare may process IP addresses and request data to protect our site from attacks.
• Google LLC (Analytics, Tag Manager, reCAPTCHA) – for traffic analytics and bot-protection.
• Tilda Publishing – our website hosting / content-management platform.
• Professional advisers – our accountants, auditors, and lawyers, where required.
• UK regulators & law enforcement – where we are required to do so by law.

6. International transfers

Some of our service providers are based outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States and other countries. Whenever we transfer personal data outside the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection by relying on one of the following safeguards:

• Adequacy decisions – transfers to countries that the UK Government has decided provide an adequate level of data protection (for example, the EEA, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, and a list of other approved jurisdictions).
• International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses – where no adequacy decision applies.
• Binding Corporate Rules or other appropriate safeguards approved by the ICO.

You can request a copy of the safeguards we use by contacting contact@officialtranslations.uk.

7. How long we keep your data

We keep personal data only as long as we need it. Our standard retention periods are:

Data type	Retention period
Original uploaded documents	90 days after delivery, then permanently deleted from our active systems
Translated documents (your delivered copy)	12 months after delivery (in case you request a re-issue), then deleted
Order & billing records	6 years (UK HMRC requirement for VAT and accounting records)
Email correspondence	3 years from last contact, unless legal action is anticipated
Marketing consent records	Until you withdraw consent, plus 12 months
Analytics / technical logs	26 months (Google Analytics default) or earlier where possible

8. Your rights under UK GDPR

Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights:

• Right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification – to ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”) – to ask us to delete your data where we no longer have a lawful basis to hold it.
• Right to restriction – to ask us to limit how we use your data.
• Right to data portability – to ask us to provide your data in a structured, commonly-used, machine-readable format and to transmit it to another controller.
• Right to object – to object to our use of your data based on legitimate interests, and to object to direct marketing at any time.
• Right not to be subject to automated decision-making – we do not make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.
• Right to withdraw consent – where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, email contact@officialtranslations.uk. We will respond within one month (extendable to three months for complex requests). We do not charge a fee unless your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

9. How we protect your data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including:

• TLS / HTTPS encryption for all data in transit;
• Access controls limiting who can view your documents;
• Written confidentiality agreements with every translator and contractor;
• Encrypted backups and secure cloud storage providers (AWS / Cloudflare);
• Regular security reviews of our systems and processes.

No system is 100% secure. If a personal-data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and inform you without undue delay.

10. Cookies and tracking

We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies on our website:

• Strictly necessary cookies – needed to run the site (e.g. session, security, fraud-prevention). No consent needed under PECR.
• Analytics cookies – Google Analytics (anonymised IP). Consent required.
• Functional cookies – remember your preferences (e.g. language). Consent required.

You can manage your cookie preferences via your browser settings at any time. Where required, we will ask for your consent before setting non-essential cookies.

11. Children's data

Our service is intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such data, please contact us at contact@officialtranslations.uk and we will delete it.

12. Marketing

We send order-related and service emails as part of fulfilling your order – you cannot opt out of these without ceasing the contract. For any marketing emails (e.g. newsletters), we will only send them with your explicit opt-in consent. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email, or by emailing us.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. The “Last updated” date at the top will show when the policy was last revised. For significant changes we will notify you by email or via a prominent notice on our website.

14. Complaints – the ICO

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first at contact@officialtranslations.uk so we can investigate.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's supervisory authority for data protection issues. You can contact the ICO at:

You can also report a concern online at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

15. Contact us

For any questions about this privacy policy, or to exercise any of your rights under the UK GDPR, please contact us:

• Email: contact@officialtranslations.uk
• Post: Official Translations, c/o data protection, address available on request

We aim to respond to all enquiries within 5 working days, and to formal data-subject requests within one month as required by the UK GDPR.