Privacy Policy

Last updated 24 October 2022

Through the course of carrying out family history research and DNA analysis, personal information needs to be captured for you and your ancestors.  This includes DNA related information.  In addition, data needs to be collected to allow our services to be carried out (e.g. allow communication and payment).  The following Privacy Policy presents how this information will be handled.

Amelia Bennett (known as “the Genealogist” in this Policy) is registered with the Information Commissioner (number ZA528618) and all data is stored and used in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA2018).  You (“the Client”) have the right to ensure that your personal data is being processed lawfully.  Your subject access right can be exercised in accordance with DPA2018.  The Genealogist will provide your personal data to you within the statutory time frames. To enable any of your personal data that the Genealogist may be holding to be traced, the Genealogist may need to request further information from you. If you have a complaint about how the Genealogist has used your information, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The following types of personal information may be collected, stored and used by the Genealogist and the Mia Genealogy website:

1. Information supplied by you.  This may be via the contact form, through correspondence or verbally.  This may include name, address, phone number, e-mail address and genealogical or DNA information and other information pertinent to the your project.
2. Information about you and your relatives that is collected during the course of the family history research and/or DNA analysis.
3. Video recordings of consultations via the Zoom platform if a recording was requested by you.
4. Participant details attending one of the talks or courses given by the Genealogist.
5. Information the Mia Genealogy website collects about you.  This is collected anonymously (and hence will not be linked to you as an individual) via analytical tools such as Google Analytics.  This may include information about your visit (e.g. pages visited, time on site, date of visit) and technical data (e.g. truncated and anonymised version of your Internet protocol (IP) address, browser information, operating system).

The personal information will be used for the following purposes:

1. Conduct the services of the business including, but not limited to, correspondence, invoicing, setting up meetings, carrying out family history research and DNA analysis.
2. Understanding the effectiveness of the Mia Genealogy website to allow improvements to customer experience and site security.
3. The underlying research and DNA analysis may be used as part of anonymised case studies for talks and blog posts where there is no potential for you to be identified.  You can refuse this use via correspondence with the Genealogist at the time the work is being undertaken.
4. With explicit agreement of you only, the Genealogist may use a redacted version of a report produced for you to support an application to a professional body (e.g. the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA)) to allow demonstration of their capabilities.

All information is held in confidence and will not be shared with (or sold or rented to) any third party except with your explicit permission unless the Genealogist is required to release such data under a legal requirement. The exception is the sharing of relevant data with an assistant to the Genealogist for the purpose of carrying out administrative tasks (e.g. managing emails and calendar, preparing invoices).

All data including family tree information, DNA results, emails, invoices and any other information generated as part of carrying out your project or providing your consultations will be kept for at least seven years unless an alternative time period is requested by you (this can be shorter or longer).  Note that this does not guarantee all information will be retained after the project has terminated if lost due to computer error or other unforeseen circumstances.  Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although the Genealogist will do her best to protect your personal data, the Genealogist cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to her or the Mia Genealogy site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once the Genealogist has received your information, she will take appropriate measures to try to prevent unauthorised access.