Privacy Policy

Who we are

Bool Audio is a sole trader business based in the United Kingdom, designing and handmaking precision hi-fi components.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Bool Audio is the data controller for the personal information collected through this website:

Data controller: Bool Audio (sole trader), United Kingdom
Contact: info@boolaudio.com

Analytics

We use Umami, a privacy-friendly, open source analytics tool, to understand how visitors use this website. Umami collects basic information such as page views, referral sources, browser type, and country — but does not use cookies, does not track you across other websites, and does not collect any personally identifiable information. The analytics data is stored on our own private server and is not shared with any third party.

As Umami is configured without cookies and does not collect information that identifies individual visitors, we do not require consent for its use under the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

Cookies

We do not use any advertising, marketing, or cross-site tracking cookies, and our analytics (above) are cookie-free. The only cookies this website uses are strictly necessary ones, which under UK privacy law (PECR) do not require a consent banner:

• Session cookie — a first-party cookie that remembers the contents of your shopping basket and keeps you signed in to secure areas of the site. It is essential for the shop to function and is not used to track you.
• Payment cookies — when you reach the payment step, our payment processor Stripe sets a small number of cookies needed to process your payment securely and to help prevent fraud. These are essential to completing your purchase and are not used for advertising or cross-site tracking.

What information we collect

We collect personal information only when you actively provide it to us:

• Enquiry form — your name, email address, and the message you send us.
• Blog comments — your name, email address, and comment text. Your email address is not displayed publicly.
• Shop orders — when you buy through the shop on this website, your name, email address, shipping address, and the details of your order. Your card details are entered directly with our payment processor (Stripe) and are never seen or stored by us.
• Certificate of Authenticity register — when we issue a Certificate of Authenticity for a product you have purchased, we record the owner's name and the product's serial number as a proof-of-authenticity and guarantee record.
• Stock notifications and interest registrations — if you ask to be notified when an out-of-stock item comes back, or register your interest in a product that is still in development, we record your email address and which product it relates to. You provide this only if you choose to.

The only cookies we use are strictly necessary — see the Cookies section above.

How we use your information

We use the information you provide solely to:

• Respond to your enquiry or question.
• Display your approved comment on the relevant blog post.
• Process and fulfil your shop order, take payment via Stripe, and send you an order confirmation and receipt.
• Send you a one-off email letting you know when a specific product you asked about comes back into stock or becomes available to buy — and for that product only.

We will never use your details to send you unsolicited marketing. We will never sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for their own purposes. We do not use your personal data for automated decision-making or profiling.

Our legal basis for processing

Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Contract performance — processing your order, shipping your product, issuing invoices, and maintaining our authenticity and guarantee records.
• Legal obligation — retaining financial records for a minimum of six years to comply with UK tax and accounting record-keeping obligations.
• Legitimate interests — responding to enquiries you have sent us.
• Consent — publishing the name and comment you choose to submit on our blog; and emailing you about a product's availability when you have asked us to notify you. You can withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us, and we will remove you from the list.

Orders and customer data

When you place an order with Bool Audio — whether through the shop on this website, directly by email, via eBay, or through one of our authorised distributors — we collect and process personal information necessary to fulfil that order. This may include your name, email address, and postal address.

Website shop orders

When you buy through the shop on this website, we collect your name, email address, shipping address, and order details in order to take payment, process your order, and dispatch it to you.

Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card details are entered directly into Stripe's secure payment fields and sent straight to Stripe — they never pass through or get stored on our servers. Stripe acts both as our payment processor for processing payments on our behalf and, for certain activities such as regulatory compliance, fraud prevention and financial record keeping, as an independent data controller, in accordance with the Stripe Privacy Policy. Stripe is a global payment provider and may process data outside the UK under appropriate safeguards (see "Where your data is stored" below). Stripe may email you a receipt for your payment.

Email and bank transfer orders

When you order directly, we use your name, email address, and postal address to process and ship your order, and to send you an invoice. We do not store your bank account details. Order and invoice records are retained for a minimum of six years to comply with UK tax and accounting record-keeping obligations.

eBay orders

If you purchase through eBay, your personal data is handled in accordance with eBay's Privacy Notice. We receive only the information necessary to fulfil and ship your order.

Orders via our distributor

Bool Audio products are also available through authorised distributors. If you purchase through a distributor, your personal data is handled primarily by them under their own privacy policy. We may receive limited order information (such as product and quantity) for production and warranty purposes, but we do not receive your personal contact or payment details from distributor sales.

Invoicing

We use custom invoicing software, operated exclusively on private infrastructure under our direct control, to issue and store invoices. No invoice data is transmitted to or processed by any third-party service. This software processes your name, email address, postal address, and the details of your order.

How long we keep your data

We keep different data for different periods depending on its purpose:

• Enquiries — retained for 12 months from the date of enquiry, then deleted. You may request earlier deletion at any time by contacting us at info@boolaudio.com.
• Blog comments — retained for as long as the blog post is published, or deleted on request.
• Stock notification and interest lists — retained until we have notified you that the product is available, or until you ask us to remove you, whichever is sooner — and in any event no longer than 24 months. If a product is permanently discontinued, we delete its notification list.
• Order and invoice records — retained for a minimum of six years from the date of the transaction to comply with UK tax and accounting record-keeping obligations, on our private invoicing infrastructure in the United Kingdom. These records cannot be deleted earlier as retention is a legal obligation. Orders placed through the website shop are held in the website database only until they have been fulfilled, then moved to that invoicing system and removed from the website database.
• Certificate of Authenticity records — the owner name and serial number in our authenticity and guarantee register are retained for six years, in line with our order and invoice records.

Where your data is stored

Website enquiries, blog comments, and stock-notification and interest signups are stored securely in a private database hosted by Railway, a cloud infrastructure provider based in the United States, which acts as our data processor.

Orders placed through the shop on this website are initially received into the same Railway-hosted database so we can process and dispatch them. Once an order has been fulfilled, its record is transferred to our private invoicing infrastructure in the United Kingdom — under our direct control — for the retention period required by law, and is then removed from the website database. Invoice records for orders placed directly (by email or bank transfer) or through our authorised distributors are likewise held only on our private invoicing infrastructure in the United Kingdom and are not stored by Railway.

Your card details are never stored on our systems — they are handled entirely by Stripe (see "Website shop orders" above).

International transfers: some of our service providers — including Railway (website hosting) and Stripe (payment processing) — are based outside the United Kingdom, so using them involves transferring personal data internationally. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on providers that put appropriate safeguards in place in accordance with UK GDPR — such as the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or another lawful transfer mechanism.

We take reasonable technical measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) and access controls on our systems.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct any inaccurate information.
• Request deletion of your personal data, where applicable under UK data protection law.
• Object to how we process your data.
• Restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Data portability — receive a copy of the personal data you have provided, in a portable format, where applicable.
• Withdraw consent at any time (where consent is our legal basis).

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at info@boolaudio.com. We will respond within one month, as required by UK GDPR.

Third-party links

Our website contains links to third-party sites (such as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to read their own privacy policies.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated date at the top.

Complaints

If you have a concern about how we handle your data, we would appreciate the opportunity to address it first — please contact us at info@boolaudio.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator.