Data and Privacy Statement

Summary

The Skater’s Companion uses account, service, equipment, payment, and contact information to provide skating, skate-care, workshop, retail, optional support plan, payment, and support services.

All information supplied as part of an account, including personal identification details and equipment information, may be viewed by The Skater’s Companion for the purposes of providing services, customer support, safety checks, billing, administration, fraud prevention, and account management.

Skate-care tracking information is treated differently. Discomfort and fit logs, RoH check logs, progression data, and time-on-ice data are not, by default, viewable by The Skater’s Companion in normal service or admin views. However, this data may be visible to developers and technical providers who build, maintain, host, debug, secure, or support The Skater’s Companion's website and online service portal.

The Skater’s Companion may occasionally ask you to share skate-care information when it is useful for advice, fitting, sharpening, progression support, or another service. Access for normal service use is controlled through Support Network links or a specific service invitation.

When data is necessary to provide a service, The Skater’s Companion may invite you to fill out one of these skate-care sections. If you accept that invitation, the response is automatically shared with The Skater’s Companion because it was requested for that service.

Personal Data We Collect

The Skater’s Companion may collect and use the following categories of personal data:

• Account details: names, contact details, login details, linked family or skater accounts, optional support plan status, card codes, account preferences, Skater Circle preferences, and Support Network links.
• Service details: workshop requests, skate drop-off records, service notes, repair or sharpening requirements, appointment details, collection status, service history, payment status, and messages sent to or from The Skater’s Companion.
• Equipment details: skate type, brand, model, size, blade details, fitting information, sharpening preferences, repair history, and related equipment notes.
• Payment and transaction details: payment links, basket items, Shopify checkout references, payment method references, transaction status, refund or failure information, and accounting records. The Skater’s Companion does not need to store full card numbers.
• Skate-care tracking data: discomfort and fit logs, skate-feel check-ins, RoH check logs, progression records, time-on-ice records, practice notes, and related images or map-style annotations where the feature supports them.
• Communication data: SMS, WhatsApp, email, phone, form, and support-message history where needed to provide services and maintain a record of advice or customer instructions.
• Expert connection requests: selected supporter, topic, subject, message, requesting login and skating account, timestamps, decision and supporter reply. The selected supporter receives the message and skating account name; other skating records are not shared by sending a request.
• Technical and security data: IP addresses, device/browser data, session records, access logs, error logs, security events, and rate-limit records.

Some skate-care entries may include information about discomfort, pain, injury, or other health-related matters if you choose to provide it. The Skater’s Companion asks you not to include medical diagnoses or sensitive medical information unless it is necessary for the service or advice you are requesting. The Skater’s Companion does not provide medical diagnosis or medical treatment.

How We Use Personal Data

• Create, maintain, secure, and support free skater accounts.
• Identify customers, skaters, optional support-plan holders, and equipment.
• Provide workshop, sharpening, fitting, retail, progression, skate-care, and related services.
• Assess service requests, manage appointments, issue reminders, process payments, prepare orders, and support collection or dispatch.
• Keep records of work performed, advice given, payments, messages, disputes, and customer instructions.
• Respond to questions, service issues, safety concerns, complaints, and support requests.
• Send service-related communications, including payment links, booking updates, collection reminders, and responses to enquiries.
• Improve service quality, diagnose faults, maintain security, prevent misuse, and protect The Skater’s Companion, customers, staff, and other users.
• Comply with legal, tax, accounting, consumer protection, fraud prevention, and regulatory obligations.

The Skater’s Companion does not use private skate-care tracking records for normal service advice unless you have shared them, accepted a service invitation, or The Skater’s Companion has another lawful reason to access them. Developers and technical providers may need access to this data for website and portal development, hosting, debugging, testing, security, backup, support, fault diagnosis, legal compliance, or incident response.

Lawful Basis for Processing

• Contract: where data is needed to provide a requested service, manage an account, take payment, fulfil an order, or handle service communications.
• Legitimate interests: where data is needed for service administration, customer support, security, fraud prevention, record keeping, service improvement, and internal business management, provided those interests do not override your rights and freedoms.
• Consent: where you choose optional sharing, optional marketing, or optional account features that are not necessary for the service you requested.
• Explicit consent: where you choose to share information that may reveal health-related or similar special-category information, such as discomfort, injury, pain, or detailed fit concerns.
• Legal obligation: where The Skater’s Companion must keep or disclose information for tax, accounting, legal, regulatory, consumer protection, or law-enforcement reasons.

If The Skater’s Companion asks for consent, you may withdraw that consent later. Withdrawal does not affect processing that already happened lawfully before withdrawal and may not require The Skater’s Companion to delete service, payment, safety, accounting, or legal records that it still needs to keep.

Skate-Care Privacy Controls

The following data is private by default from normal The Skater’s Companion service/admin access, but may still be visible to developers and technical providers who operate, maintain, debug, secure, or support The Skater’s Companion's website and online service portal:

• discomfort and fit logs;
• skate-feel and fit check-ins;
• RoH check logs;
• progression data;
• time-on-ice data;
• practice notes and related optional tracking records.

You can share this data with a supporter organization through Support Network, or with The Skater’s Companion for a specific service invitation. The former account-level The Skater’s Companion access flags and per-entry The Skater’s Companion sharing checkboxes are no longer used for progression, time-on-ice, skate fit/feel, discomfort, or RoH check data.

The Skater’s Companion may use shared skate-care data to understand fit issues, sharpening preferences, RoH feedback, practice patterns, progression needs, service outcomes, and equipment history. The Skater’s Companion may also add conclusions or service notes to the relevant work or account record where that is necessary to provide or document the service.

Changing a privacy setting may stop future normal access to that category, but it may not remove copies already included in service notes, messages, audit records, completed work records, payment records, legal records, or backups.

Children and Family Accounts

The Skater’s Companion services may be used for children and young people. Where an account or service relates to a child, The Skater’s Companion aims to use privacy-protective defaults, collect only what is necessary, and present information in a clear and age-appropriate way.

Parents, guardians, or account holders responsible for a child should only add information that is appropriate and necessary for the service, support, or tracking feature being used. The Skater’s Companion may need to communicate with the adult account holder about a child's service, equipment, payment, or support record.

Sharing With Third Parties

The Skater’s Companion only shares personal data where there is a valid reason. This may include sharing with:

• payment, checkout, direct-debit, banking, and accounting providers;
• messaging, email, SMS, WhatsApp, phone, hosting, security, analytics, and support-service providers;
• delivery, collection, or fulfilment providers where needed;
• professional advisers, insurers, accountants, legal advisers, or debt-recovery providers;
• regulators, law-enforcement bodies, courts, tax authorities, or public authorities where required or lawfully requested;
• another person you have authorised, such as a parent, guardian, family account holder, or nominated contact.

Third-party providers are expected to process data only for the agreed purpose, to keep it secure, and to comply with applicable data protection requirements.

International Transfers

Some providers used by The Skater’s Companion may process data outside the UK. Where this happens, The Skater’s Companion will use appropriate safeguards where required, such as an adequacy decision, UK-approved transfer terms, standard contractual clauses, contractual commitments, or another lawful transfer mechanism.

Retention

The Skater’s Companion keeps personal data only for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected, including service delivery, account management, customer support, legal, tax, accounting, safety, dispute, fraud-prevention, and security reasons.

• Account records are kept while the account is active and for a reasonable period afterwards.
• Service, payment, order, and communication records may be kept after a service is completed where they are needed for warranty, dispute, tax, accounting, safety, or service-history purposes.
• Optional skate-care tracking data may be kept while the account or feature is active, unless it is deleted earlier or The Skater’s Companion has a valid reason to retain it.
• Security logs and rate-limit records are kept for a limited period unless needed to investigate misuse, fraud, or security incidents.
• Backups may retain data for a limited period after deletion from live systems.

When data is no longer needed, The Skater’s Companion will delete it, anonymise it, or archive it securely where appropriate.

Your Rights

Subject to legal limits and verification of identity, you may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of your personal data;
• ask The Skater’s Companion to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
• ask The Skater’s Companion to delete data where there is no continuing lawful reason to keep it;
• ask The Skater’s Companion to restrict processing in some circumstances;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive certain data in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

The Skater’s Companion may need to keep some data even after a deletion or objection request, for example where it is needed for legal, tax, accounting, payment, dispute, fraud-prevention, safety, or service-record reasons.

Security

The Skater’s Companion uses technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, and disclosure. These include access controls, account authentication, session security, form security, logging, backups, and limiting access to people who need the data for their role.

Developers and technical providers may have access to personal data, including data that is not normally visible in The Skater’s Companion service/admin views, where that access is needed to build, operate, maintain, debug, secure, back up, or support the website and online service portal. They are expected to use the data only for those purposes and to keep it confidential and secure.

No online service can guarantee absolute security. If you believe your account, payment link, card code, or service record has been accessed or used without permission, contact The Skater’s Companion promptly.

Accuracy and Account Responsibility

You should keep account and contact details accurate and up to date. The Skater’s Companion may use the contact details and equipment information in your account or service record to provide services, send payment links, arrange collection, issue reminders, and contact you about service matters.

Do not add personal data about another person unless you have authority to do so, such as adding details for a child, family member, or person whose equipment you manage.

Service Messages and Marketing

The Skater’s Companion may send service messages without marketing consent where the message is necessary for an account, payment, booking, service, safety, or support matter.

Marketing messages are optional. Where The Skater’s Companion sends marketing that requires consent or an unsubscribe option, you can opt out. Opting out of marketing does not stop necessary service messages.

Cookies, Analytics, and Technical Data

The Skater’s Companion websites use essential cookies, session storage, logs, and similar technical data to keep users signed in, protect forms, remember language and pathway preferences, keep service or payment progress, prevent misuse, and diagnose faults.

Analytics and tracking cookies are optional. If analytics is enabled for the site, The Skater’s Companion should only load those cookies after you accept analytics cookies, and uses them to understand aggregate use of the service and improve the website.

Automated Decisions

The Skater’s Companion may use calculators, recommendation tools, validation checks, rate limits, and workflow rules to support service delivery. These tools do not make solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. Important service decisions can be reviewed by The Skater’s Companion where appropriate.

Changes to This Statement

The Skater’s Companion may update this statement as services, systems, providers, or legal requirements change. The updated version should show the date of the latest change. Significant changes should be brought to users' attention where appropriate.

Related Terms

The website and portal terms are available at Terms of Use.