Who I am

Valerie Builds is a trading name of Aldermoor Holdings Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17301265. Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ.

Aldermoor Holdings Ltd is the controller of the personal information described here. In this notice, "I", "me" and "my" mean Valerie Builds and Aldermoor Holdings Ltd. You can contact me about anything on this page at valerie@valeriebuilds.com.

The short version

  • I collect the business contact details I need to get in touch with businesses I think I can help, to talk to people who contact me, and to do the work my clients ask for.
  • I don't sell personal information, and this website uses no advertising cookies.
  • If you ask me to stop contacting you, I stop straight away.

When I contact your business

I look for independent businesses I'd like to help, such as clinics, therapists and local shops, and write to them by email. To do that I use details that businesses publish about themselves: the business name, address, phone number, email address, website, Google rating and reviews, and, for companies, the names of directors listed at Companies House.

I get these from public sources: Google Maps listings (often through data providers that collect them), the business's own website, and Companies House. Before writing, I check that the email address works, so my emails don't bounce.

Sometimes I build a free preview of a new website for a business, using the same public details and images from its own website. Preview pages sit on demo.valeriebuilds.com, are hidden from search engines, and I'll take one down whenever you ask.

My emails come from addresses on domains ending in valeriebuilds.com, such as hello@metrovaleriebuilds.com, which keeps my main address reliable. I don't track whether you open my emails.

When someone opens a preview I've made for their business, an analytics tool (PostHog, hosted in the EU) records that the preview was viewed: which parts were looked at, the type of device and an approximate city, and it may keep a screen recording of the visit with anything typed hidden. It's linked to the business, not to a named person, and it uses no cookies. It tells me whether a follow-up is welcome.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests. I have a legitimate interest in offering my services to businesses that may benefit from them. I only use the contact details a business lists for itself, and every email makes it easy to say no.

If you'd rather not hear from me, reply "no thanks" or "unsubscribe", or email valerie@valeriebuilds.com. I'll stop straight away and add your email address to my do-not-contact list, so you're never contacted again, even if your details turn up in a new list.

When you get in touch or book a call

If you email me, reply to one of my emails, message me on WhatsApp or book a call, I use your name, contact details and what you tell me to reply to you, to arrange the call and to keep a record of our conversation.

Calls are booked through cal.com, which collects your name, email address and anything you add to the booking, and sends you a calendar invite with a video link. Messages on WhatsApp are carried by WhatsApp under its own privacy policy.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests (replying to you and keeping a record), or taking steps you've asked for before we agree any work.

When you become a client

I use your contact and billing details, the content for your website, any logins you share with me, and our emails to do the work we've agreed, to send invoices and to take payments. Monthly plans are paid by Direct Debit through GoCardless, which handles your bank details; I don't store them.

Lawful basis: to carry out our contract, and to meet legal duties such as keeping accounting records.

When I build or run a website for you, you're responsible for the personal information your own customers give through it, and I handle it only on your instructions.

This website

valeriebuilds.com has no forms. Booking a call and messaging me happen through cal.com and WhatsApp, which open on their own sites.

The site's hosting provider counts visits and measures how quickly pages load. For each visit it records the page, the site that sent you, your browser, your language and a rough country based on your device's time zone. It doesn't ask for or record your name or email address.

I also use PostHog, hosted in the EU, to see how the site is used so I can improve it: which pages are visited, what is clicked, how far down a page people read, how quickly pages load and any errors. It records your device type and an approximate city, never your name, and it uses no cookies and stores nothing on your device, so each visit is counted on its own.

Some pages are made for one business, such as a personal plan page or a page with a preview I built for you. On those pages PostHog also records which parts were opened and tapped, including the pay buttons, and keeps a screen recording of the visit with anything typed hidden. I can see which business the page was made for, and I use this to know whether a follow-up would be welcome. On the rest of the site a screen recording is kept for about 1 in 5 visits, also with typing hidden. Recordings are deleted after 30 days.

If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, none of this is recorded.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests, in understanding and improving the site, and in knowing whether a business I made a page for would welcome a follow-up.

Cookies and similar technology

This site uses no advertising or social media cookies. It does use:

  • session-id, set by the hosting provider's visit statistics. It holds a random code so that the pages you look at in one visit count as one visit, and it expires after 30 minutes.
  • __cf_bm, set by Cloudflare, which protects the site from automated attacks. It expires after 30 minutes.
  • Session storage in your browser, used by the site itself to remember your place on a page when you go back. It's cleared when you close the tab.
  • One local storage setting, vb_team_device, that exists only on my own and my team's devices and tells the site not to count our own visits. Visitors never get it; the site only checks whether it's there.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and the site still works without them.

Who I share it with

I don't sell personal information. I share it only with the service providers who help me run the business, and only what they need:

  • Google, for email, documents and calendars
  • Instantly, which sends my outreach emails and collects replies
  • cal.com, for booking calls
  • GoCardless, for Direct Debit payments, and my bank
  • Cloudflare, for website security, email routing and file storage
  • PostHog, for the website and preview statistics described above
  • my website hosting provider
  • data and verification providers, which supply public business listings and check that email addresses work
  • software providers that help me write and organise emails, research businesses and keep records

I may also share information with professional advisers such as my accountant, or where the law requires it.

Where it's stored

Some of these providers are based in, or store data in, the European Union or the United States. Where personal information leaves the UK, it's protected either by UK adequacy regulations (which cover the EU, and US companies certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or by contract terms approved for international transfers.

How long I keep it

  • Business contact details used for outreach: until you ask me to stop, or for up to two years after my last contact with your business if we don't end up working together.
  • Your do-not-contact entry: for as long as I contact businesses, so that you're never contacted again.
  • Client records and invoices: for six years after our work ends, as UK tax and company law expects.
  • The visit statistics code on this site: 30 minutes.

Your rights

You have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of the personal information I hold about you
  • ask me to correct it
  • ask me to delete it
  • object to my using it, including for marketing, which I'll always respect
  • ask me to restrict how I use it
  • ask for information you gave me in a format you can take elsewhere, where that applies

To use any of these rights, email valerie@valeriebuilds.com. I'll reply within one month.

If you're unhappy with how I've handled your information, please tell me first so I can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

If I change how I use personal information, I'll update this page and the date at the top.