Privacy Policy
This policy explains what the studio records, why it records it and how it keeps the record safe. It covers the appointment book, the website and the written notes that sit beside them.
Becca Kearl LLC keeps a studio appointment book for ceramics work and for computer integrated systems design projects, and that book is built on trust. This Privacy Policy explains how the studio collects, uses, stores and protects personal information. It was prepared by the developer BeccaKearl on behalf of Becca Kearl LLC, and it applies to every visitor, client and member who interacts with the studio online or in person.
The studio believes that a record should be short enough to read and honest enough to rely on. For that reason this policy avoids legal fog where plain language will do, and it explains each decision rather than hiding it behind a phrase. Where the studio must refer to itself, it uses the name Becca Kearl LLC. Where it refers to the person you should speak to about a privacy question, it names the developer BeccaKearl, who maintains the records and answers enquiries.
Becca Kearl LLC is located at 2985 Bannock Dr, Provo - 84604-4242, United States (US). The studio can be reached by email at appointments@beccakearl.lat and by telephone at +16628139879. If any part of this policy is unclear, please write to that email address before making a booking, because a clear understanding of the record is part of the service itself.
This policy should be read together with the Terms of Service, which explain the agreement that governs bookings, sittings and project engagements. The Terms of Service deal with obligations and payment, while this policy deals with personal information. Where the two documents overlap, both apply, and neither replaces the other.
Becca Kearl LLC is a professional studio and systems design firm operating from Provo, Utah. The firm provides ceramics studio bookkeeping, appointment records, glaze logs, class notes, open studio windows, kiln review rounds and wheel sittings, and it also provides services in computer integrated systems design within the wider professional, scientific and technical services sector. For the purposes of applicable data protection law, Becca Kearl LLC is the controller of the personal information described in this policy.
As controller, the firm decides why information is collected and how it is used. The firm does not sell personal information, does not rent mailing lists and does not trade client records with advertisers. The studio is small, and its approach to privacy reflects that scale: information is collected because a booking requires it, kept because a record requires it and deleted when neither reason remains.
The developer BeccaKearl is responsible for the technical care of the website and the digital parts of the appointment book. Enquiries about this policy, requests to access a record or requests to correct a record should be addressed to the studio at appointments@beccakearl.lat, and they will be handled by the developer working with the studio.
This policy applies to personal information that Becca Kearl LLC collects through the studio website, through email and telephone contact, through the appointment book at the front desk and through the written notes that accompany a booking. It applies to visitors who only browse the website, to clients who book a sitting and to members who reserve open studio windows. It also applies to suppliers and professional contacts who work with the studio on systems design projects.
This policy does not apply to information collected by other organisations that the studio may link to. If a visitor follows a link to a third party website, the privacy policy of that website governs what happens next. The studio has no control over those external practices and cannot accept responsibility for them. Visitors should read the privacy notice of any third party site before sharing information there.
This policy does not apply to information that has been fully anonymised so that it can no longer be connected to an individual. The studio may use aggregated and anonymised figures about bookings and studio usage to understand demand, plan staffing and improve the appointment system, and those figures are not personal information because they cannot be traced back to any person.
The studio collects only the information it needs to run a booking and keep an honest record. That information falls into several groups, and each group has a clear purpose.
The studio collects your name, email address, telephone number and, where relevant, a postal address. These details allow the studio to confirm a booking, send a reminder and reach you if a session must change. A name is also required so the appointment slip can be filed under the right person.
The studio records the service you request, the date and time of the sitting, the bench or board assigned to you and any notes you provide about your project. For a ceramics sitting this may include the material or glaze you plan to use. For a systems design engagement this may include a short description of the project and the milestone you are working towards.
After a sitting the instructor or studio assistant may write a closing note describing what was made, what was learned and what the next booking should open with. These notes are part of the appointment record and are kept so that a client can pick up where they left off. Notes are written in plain language and never contain sensitive personal information that is not needed for the work.
When you email or telephone the studio, the studio keeps a record of the conversation so that the appointment book stays complete. This may include the content of your message, the date it was received and the reply that was sent. Keeping the correspondence preserves the context of a decision and prevents the same question from being answered twice.
Where a booking requires a fee, the studio records that a payment was made and any reference needed to reconcile it. The studio does not store full card numbers on its own systems. Card payments are handled by a payment provider, and the studio receives only the confirmation needed to update the appointment record.
When you visit the website, routine technical information may be recorded by the hosting service, such as the type of browser used, the pages visited and the approximate region from which the request came. This information is used to keep the site available and secure and is not used to build a profile of individual visitors.
Most of the information the studio holds comes directly from you. You provide it when you fill in the contact form, when you send an email, when you telephone the studio or when you speak with the front desk in person. The studio does not use hidden forms, covert trackers or data brokers to obtain personal information about clients.
A smaller amount of information is created by the studio itself as a by-product of serving you. The closing note after a sitting, the kiln review entry that mentions your piece and the record of a reminder that was sent are all examples of information the studio writes rather than receives. These entries exist to keep the record complete, and they are treated with the same care as information you provide directly.
Finally, a limited amount of technical information is collected automatically by the hosting infrastructure when you load a page. This is standard for any website and is used only for security, availability and the basic operation of the site.
The studio uses personal information for a short list of purposes, and it does not stretch that list to cover activities it has not disclosed.
The studio does not use personal information to train advertising profiles, to sell audience data or to make automated decisions that produce legal effects. Where the studio would like to send occasional studio news, it asks first and honours any request to stop.
Where data protection law requires the studio to identify a lawful basis for processing, the studio relies on the following bases.
Most processing is necessary to provide the service you have requested. Recording a booking, preparing a bench, writing a closing note and issuing an invoice all depend on the information you supply when you book.
The studio has a legitimate interest in running a safe, accurate and well organised studio. Keeping the appointment book complete, protecting the website from abuse and understanding demand for sittings all fall within that interest. The studio balances those interests against your rights and collects no more than the purpose requires.
The studio must keep certain accounting and tax records for the periods required by law. Where processing is necessary to meet that obligation, the studio relies on it and keeps only the records the law requires.
Where the studio would like to do something that is not covered by another basis, such as sending occasional studio news, it asks for consent and records that consent in the appointment book. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, and withdrawal does not affect processing that took place before the withdrawal.
The appointment book is the heart of the studio, and most of the personal information the studio holds lives inside it. A typical entry contains the name of the client, the contact details needed to confirm the booking, the service requested, the date and time, the bench or board assigned and the closing note written after the session. The entry may also contain the slip number, the bay number and the reference of any glaze log or class note connected to the visit.
These records exist so that a client can return after a long pause and still find the context of the work. If you booked a wheel sitting in the spring and return in the autumn, the book will show the clay you used, the glaze you preferred and the note the instructor wrote about the pieces that worked. That continuity is the point of the service, and it cannot be provided without keeping a record.
Access to the appointment book is limited to the people who need it to run the studio. Paper slips are kept at the front desk, and the desk is not left open when the studio is closed. Digital entries are held in an account protected by a strong password and, where available, a second authentication step. Records are never left on a shared drive that any visitor can read.
Clients may ask to see the part of the appointment book that concerns them, and they may ask for a correction where a detail is wrong. Requests are handled at no charge, and a reply is sent within a reasonable period after the request is verified so that the studio does not disclose a record to the wrong person.
The studio website is a small, static site with a contact form. It does not run advertising networks, social media pixels or third party analytics that track visitors across other websites. When you load a page, the hosting service may record routine technical data, including the internet protocol address of the request, the time of the request, the page requested, the referring page and the browser version. This data is used to keep the site available, to diagnose faults and to block abusive traffic.
The contact form does not store your message on a server. When you submit the form, the site prepares a message in your own email program and opens it so that you can review and send it yourself. That design choice means the studio receives your message as a normal email, with the same protections that apply to email in general, and no additional copy is left on the website.
If a visitor sends an email to appointments@beccakearl.lat through their own provider, the message passes through that provider before it reaches the studio. The studio cannot control how a third party email provider handles the message in transit, but it treats the message as personal information once it arrives and keeps it only for the purpose for which it was sent.
The studio works with a small number of service providers who help it run the website and the appointment system. Each provider is chosen for a specific task, is given only the information needed for that task and is expected to protect it.
The hosting provider keeps the website online and handles routine technical logs. A payment provider processes any card payment and confirms the result to the studio. An email provider delivers and stores correspondence sent to the studio address. A bookkeeping provider helps the studio meet its accounting duties. None of these providers is permitted to use studio information for its own marketing, and none is given access to the appointment book beyond what its task requires.
Where a provider processes information on the studio behalf, the studio relies on a written arrangement that sets out the purpose of the processing, the security expected and the duty to delete information when the arrangement ends. The studio reviews those arrangements when a provider changes or when the nature of the work changes.
The studio keeps personal information only for as long as it is needed, and it sets a review point for every category of record.
When a record reaches the end of its retention period it is deleted or, where deletion is not immediately possible because of a backup cycle, it is placed beyond everyday use and deleted when the backup cycle completes. The studio does not keep information indefinitely simply because storage is cheap.
The studio takes the protection of its records seriously and applies measures that are proportionate to the size of the firm and the sensitivity of the information. These measures cover the paper book, the digital systems and the people who use them.
On the paper side, the appointment book is kept at the front desk and is stored in a locked drawer when the studio closes. Slips are filed promptly so that they are not left loose. On the digital side, accounts are protected by strong passwords and a second authentication step where available, software is kept up to date and access is limited to the people who need it. Backups are taken so that a record can be restored if a device fails.
No system can be guaranteed to be perfectly secure. If a security incident occurs that is likely to result in a risk to the rights of individuals, the studio will investigate promptly, take steps to contain the incident and notify affected clients and the relevant authority where the law requires it. The studio would rather report a problem early than quietly hope it goes away.
The studio asks clients to help by using a private email address for correspondence, by not sending sensitive documents unless they are needed and by telling the studio promptly if they believe their information has been misused.
Becca Kearl LLC is based in the United States, and the appointment book is kept in the United States. If you contact the studio from another country, your information will be transferred to the United States so that the studio can respond and keep the record. The studio relies on appropriate safeguards where the law of your country requires them for that transfer.
Some service providers used by the studio may operate systems in more than one country. Where that happens, the studio selects providers that offer contractual protections for the information they handle and limits the information given to them to what the task requires. If you would like more detail about the safeguards that apply to a particular transfer, you may write to appointments@beccakearl.lat and the studio will explain them.
Depending on where you live, you may have a set of rights over the personal information the studio holds about you. The studio honours these rights for every client, regardless of where they are based, because the same care that makes a good record also makes a fair one.
You may ask what information the studio holds about you and receive a copy of it. The studio will confirm your identity first so that a record is never released to the wrong person, and it will reply within a reasonable period.
If a detail in the appointment book is wrong, you may ask for it to be corrected. The studio will correct the record and, where the detail has already been used for a purpose such as billing, will take reasonable steps to pass the correction on.
You may ask for your information to be deleted where the studio no longer needs it and where no legal duty requires it to be kept. Some records, such as invoices, must be kept for a fixed period, and the studio will explain when that applies.
You may ask the studio to pause the use of your information while a question about its accuracy is resolved, and you may object to a use that relies on the studio legitimate interests. The studio will consider the objection and explain its decision.
Where the studio processes information you provided on the basis of consent or a contract, you may ask to receive that information in a common, machine readable format or to have it sent to another provider.
If the studio ever relies on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that took place before the withdrawal, and it does not affect processing that relies on another lawful basis.
To exercise any of these rights, write to appointments@beccakearl.lat or telephone +16628139879. The studio answers privacy requests within a reasonable period, and it never charges a fee unless a request is clearly excessive or repetitive.
The studio website and the studio services are intended for adults and for young people who visit with a parent or guardian. The studio does not knowingly collect personal information from a child under the age required for valid consent in the child country without the involvement of a parent or guardian. Where a family booking includes a young person, the appointment is recorded under the name of the responsible adult, and the adult receives the confirmation and the closing note.
If a parent or guardian believes the studio has collected information about a child without their involvement, they may write to appointments@beccakearl.lat and the studio will review the record and delete what should not be there. The studio encourages families to make a booking together rather than allowing a young person to book alone.
The studio sends service messages, such as booking confirmations and reminders, because they are needed to deliver the appointment you requested. Service messages are not marketing, and they continue for as long as you have an active booking.
Occasional studio news, such as a new class note desk or a change to open studio windows, is sent only where you have asked for it. Every news message includes a simple way to stop receiving it, and a request to stop is honoured immediately and recorded in the appointment book so that the studio does not accidentally send again.
The studio does not buy mailing lists, does not add a client to a news list because they made a booking and does not share an email address with an advertiser. A booking is a private arrangement, not a door to a newsletter.
The studio website may link to a third party site where a reference is useful, such as a supplier of clay or a professional body for systems design. Those links are provided for convenience. When you follow one, you leave the studio site and the privacy practices of the other organisation apply.
The studio chooses its links with care, but it does not control the content or the practices of an external site. A visitor who is concerned about how a linked site handles information should read that site own privacy notice and should contact that organisation directly. The studio is not responsible for information collected by a third party site, and it does not receive information from such a site unless you choose to send it onward.
The studio reviews this policy when it changes a service, adopts a new tool or receives guidance that affects how records should be handled. When a change is material, the studio updates the policy on the website and notes the new version at the top of the page so that visitors can see that something has moved.
A change never reduces the protection already given to information collected under an earlier version, unless the law compels it. If the studio were required to apply a new rule to old records, it would explain the effect and, where possible, give clients a chance to ask questions before the new rule took effect.
The current version of this policy is always available at the address on the studio website, and a printed copy can be provided at the front desk on request. The studio recommends checking the page before a new booking if you have not visited for some time.
If you have a question about this policy, a request about your information or a concern about the way the studio has handled a record, please get in touch. The studio would rather hear about a problem than discover it much later.
Becca Kearl LLC
2985 Bannock Dr, Provo - 84604-4242, United States (US)
Email: appointments@beccakearl.lat
Telephone: +16628139879
Enquiries are answered during studio hours, and a privacy request is acknowledged promptly so that you know it has arrived. The developer BeccaKearl maintains the digital records and can usually answer a technical question about the appointment book within the same working day. If you are not satisfied with the reply, you may ask for the matter to be reviewed by the studio, and you may also contact the data protection authority in your country.
Thank you for reading this policy. The studio knows that a privacy notice is rarely the most interesting page on a website, and it is grateful that you took the time to understand how your information is kept.