Privacy policy

Last updated: July 2026

Black History Studies Limited (“Black History Studies”, “BHS”, “we”, “us” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal information when you interact with Black History Studies, including when you visit our website, book or attend an event, course or tour, purchase goods, complete a registration form, join our mailing list or otherwise communicate with us.

We process personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), the Data Protection Act 2018 and other applicable UK data protection and privacy legislation.

1. WHO WE ARE

Black History Studies Limited provides educational activities and resources relating to Black history and heritage. Our activities may include courses, talks, presentations, workshops, film screenings, educational and heritage tours, community activities, online events and the sale of educational products and resources.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Black History Studies Limited is the data controller of personal information where we determine why and how that information is processed.

Organisation: Black History Studies Limited
Website: www.blackhistorystudies.com
Email: info@blackhistorystudies.com
Registered/Business Address: 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
Company Number: 6626747

Questions about this Privacy Notice or the way we process your personal information should be sent to us using the contact details above.

2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The information we collect depends upon how you interact with us.

We may collect:

your name;
postal address;
email address;
telephone number;
event, course, workshop or tour booking details;
information provided when purchasing goods from us;
payment and transaction information;
mailing-list preferences;
information provided on registration forms and attendance registers;
correspondence and enquiries you send to us;
feedback, survey responses and evaluation information;
photographs, audio or video recordings where appropriate;
information necessary to administer particular educational, heritage or community activities; and
technical information generated when you use our website.

We only seek to collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

3. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION

We may collect personal information directly from you when you:

book an event, course, workshop, presentation or tour;
purchase goods or services;
register for an activity;
complete an attendance register;
complete an online or paper form;
subscribe to our mailing list or newsletter;
contact us by email, telephone, website, social media or another method;
attend one of our activities;
participate in a survey, consultation or community project; or
otherwise provide information to us.

We may also receive information through organisations providing services on our behalf, such as event-booking, payment-processing, website, email-marketing or e-commerce providers.

4. WHY WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

Depending upon the circumstances, we may rely upon:

Contract – where processing is necessary to provide something you have booked or purchased.

Legal obligation – where we need to process or retain information to comply with the law, including relevant financial, accounting and taxation requirements.

Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for the legitimate operation, administration, improvement or protection of Black History Studies and those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.

Consent – where you have freely given us permission to use your information for a particular purpose and consent is the appropriate lawful basis.

We do not rely upon your general use of our website as blanket consent to process your personal information.

5. EVENTS, COURSES AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

When you register or book for an event, course, presentation, workshop or other activity, we may collect information including your name, email address, telephone number and booking details.

We use this information to:

process and administer your booking;
provide confirmation and joining instructions;
communicate changes, cancellations or important information about the activity;
maintain appropriate attendance records;
answer enquiries relating to your booking; and
provide the activity you have requested.

Where you have paid for an activity, our primary lawful basis for processing information necessary to administer your booking will normally be performance of a contract.

6. TOURS

Where you book a walking tour, museum tour, heritage tour or other educational visit, we may process information necessary to administer and deliver the tour.

Depending upon the nature of the tour, this may include participant contact details and other information reasonably necessary for administration, safety or communication.

For more complex tours, particularly those involving travel, accommodation or international destinations, we may need additional information and may need to share necessary information with relevant service providers. Where this applies, appropriate information will be provided at the point of collection.

7. PURCHASING GOODS

When you purchase books, educational resources, merchandise or other goods from Black History Studies, we may collect information including your:

name;
contact details;
billing information;
delivery address;
order details; and
transaction information.

We use this information to process your order, take or confirm payment, arrange delivery, deal with returns or queries and maintain appropriate business and financial records.

Processing necessary to fulfil an order will normally be based upon performance of a contract.

Some transaction records may subsequently need to be retained because of our legal obligations.

We do not need your consent to process information that is necessary to fulfil an order you have placed.

8. MAILING LIST AND NEWSLETTERS

You may choose to join the Black History Studies mailing list through our website, an online form, a paper form, an event registration form or another sign-up method.

We may use your contact information to send you information about:

upcoming Black History Studies events;
courses and educational programmes;
tours;
film screenings;
talks and presentations;
publications and resources;
community activities;
relevant news and announcements; and
other Black History Studies activities.

Where required, we will rely upon consent for electronic direct marketing.

You can unsubscribe at any time by using the unsubscribe facility included in marketing emails or by contacting us.

Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

We will not require you to receive marketing communications as a condition of purchasing goods or booking an event where marketing is not necessary for that transaction.

9. REGISTERS AND FORMS

We may ask attendees to complete or sign registers or forms at our events, courses and activities.

Information collected may be used to:

record attendance;
administer the activity;
maintain appropriate records;
communicate relevant information to participants; or
allow people to request to join our mailing list.

Where an attendance register is used, signing the register does not automatically mean that you have agreed to receive marketing communications.

Where we invite you to join our mailing list, this will be made clear and, where consent is required, you will be given a genuine choice about whether to subscribe.

10. PAYMENT INFORMATION

Payments may be processed through third-party payment providers.

Where a payment provider processes your payment directly, Black History Studies may not receive or retain your complete payment-card details.

Payment providers process information in accordance with their own privacy and security obligations.

We will only retain financial and transaction information that is reasonably necessary for our business, contractual, accounting, taxation and legal requirements.

11. PHOTOGRAPHY, FILMING AND RECORDING

Photographs, video or audio recordings may sometimes be taken at Black History Studies events and activities.

Where photography or filming is planned, we will take reasonable steps to inform attendees.

Depending upon the circumstances and intended use, our lawful basis may be consent or legitimate interests.

Where consent is the appropriate basis, individuals will be given a genuine choice.

Additional safeguards should be applied where children or vulnerable individuals are involved.

Images or recordings may, where appropriate and lawful, be used for purposes including documenting our work, education, reporting, our website, social media and promotion of Black History Studies activities.

Where possible, anyone who does not wish to be photographed or filmed should make this known to a member of the Black History Studies team.

12. CHILDREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION

Some Black History Studies activities may involve children and young people.

We recognise that children’s personal information requires particular protection.

Where we collect information relating to children, we will seek to collect only information reasonably necessary for the relevant activity and will apply appropriate safeguards.

Where appropriate, information and consent will be obtained from a parent, guardian or other person with parental responsibility.

We will take particular care when using photographs, videos or other information relating to children.

13. SPECIAL CATEGORY PERSONAL INFORMATION

Some types of personal information receive additional protection under UK GDPR. These include information concerning racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, health, sexual orientation and certain other protected categories.

Given the nature of our educational, heritage and community work, information revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs or other special-category information may occasionally arise.

We will only intentionally collect or process special-category information where this is necessary and where we have both an appropriate lawful basis under Article 6 UK GDPR and an appropriate condition under Article 9 UK GDPR.

Depending upon the circumstances, this may include explicit consent or another condition permitted by law.

We will not assume that someone’s participation in a Black history event indicates their racial or ethnic identity, political views, religious beliefs or any other protected characteristic.

14. WEBSITE INFORMATION

When you visit our website, certain technical information may be collected automatically.

This can include:

IP address;
browser type;
device information;
pages visited;
date and time of visits;
referring website; and
information collected through cookies or similar technologies.

This information may be used to operate and secure the website, understand how visitors use it and improve our services.

Where cookies or similar technologies require consent under applicable law, we will seek consent before using them.

15. COOKIES

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.

Some cookies are strictly necessary for the website to function and may not require consent.

Other cookies, including certain analytics, advertising and social-media cookies, will only be used where permitted by law and, where required, after you have provided consent.

Visitors should be provided with a mechanism to accept or reject non-essential cookies and manage their preferences.

Further information should be provided in our Cookie Policy.

16. SOCIAL MEDIA

Black History Studies may maintain accounts on social-media platforms.

If you interact with us through social media, the relevant platform may process information about you under its own privacy terms.

We may receive information that you choose to provide through those platforms, such as messages, comments or enquiries.

We recommend reviewing the privacy information provided by any social-media platforms you use.

17. WHO WE SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH

We do not sell your personal information.

We may share information where reasonably necessary with organisations that provide services to Black History Studies, including:

website and hosting providers;
email and mailing-list providers;
payment processors;
event registration and ticketing providers;
e-commerce providers;
IT and technical service providers;
accountants and professional advisers;
venues and activity providers where necessary;
travel or tour providers where relevant; and
public authorities where disclosure is required by law.

Where another organisation processes personal information on our behalf as a processor, we will take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate contractual and data-protection arrangements are in place.

We will only disclose information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

18. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

Some organisations providing technology, email, website, payment, booking or other services to us may process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will ensure that an appropriate lawful mechanism or safeguard is used where required by UK data protection law.

This may include an adequacy regulation, appropriate contractual safeguards or another legally permitted transfer mechanism.

Information about applicable safeguards can be requested using our contact details.

19. HOW LONG WE KEEP PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not keep personal information for longer than reasonably necessary.

The appropriate retention period depends upon the type of information, why it was collected and any legal or regulatory requirements.

For example:

booking information will be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to administer the activity and deal with subsequent queries;
financial and transaction records may be retained for periods required by taxation, accounting or other legislation;
mailing-list information may be retained while you remain subscribed;
enquiries and correspondence will be retained for an appropriate period depending upon their nature; and
consent records may be retained where necessary to demonstrate compliance.

When information is no longer required, we will securely delete, destroy or anonymise it where appropriate.

20. SECURITY

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

Access to personal information should be limited to people who have a legitimate reason to access it.

However, no internet-based system or method of electronic storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

21. YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS

Depending upon the circumstances, UK data protection law gives you rights including:

Right to be informed – to receive clear information about how your personal information is used.

Right of access – to request a copy of personal information we hold about you.

Right to rectification – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.

Right to erasure – to ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances.

Right to restrict processing – to ask us to limit how your information is used in certain circumstances.

Right to data portability – in certain circumstances, to receive information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or request its transfer to another organisation.

Right to object – to object to certain processing, including processing based upon legitimate interests in appropriate circumstances.

Rights concerning automated decision-making – protections relating to certain decisions made solely by automated means that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

You also have an absolute right to object to your personal information being used for direct marketing.

Not every right applies in every circumstance.

22. AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING

Black History Studies does not currently use personal information to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

If this changes, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide the information required by law.

23. WITHDRAWING CONSENT

Where we rely upon your consent to process personal information, you can withdraw that consent at any time.

You can do this by contacting us or, in the case of email marketing, by using the unsubscribe mechanism provided.

Withdrawal of consent will not affect processing that was lawful before consent was withdrawn.

24. YOUR RIGHT TO COMPLAIN

If you have concerns about the way Black History Studies uses your personal information, please contact us so that we have an opportunity to address them.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent data protection regulator.

Information about making a complaint is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You do not have to contact us before exercising your right to complain to the ICO.

25. LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may contain links to websites operated by other organisations.

Black History Studies is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites. We recommend reading their privacy notices before providing personal information.

26. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We may update this Privacy Notice periodically to reflect changes to our activities, technology, service providers, legal obligations or data-protection practices.

The latest version will be published on our website and the date at the top of this notice will be updated.

Where a change significantly affects how we use personal information, we will take reasonable steps to bring the change to the attention of affected individuals where appropriate.

27. CONTACT US

For questions about this Privacy Notice, to exercise your data-protection rights or to raise a concern about how your personal information has been handled, please contact:

Black History Studies Limited

Please provide enough information for us to identify your request. We may need to ask for additional information to verify your identity before responding to certain requests.