Privacy Policy

• Who we are
• What we collect
• Demonstration tools
• Who we share it with
• International transfers
• How long we keep it
• Your rights
• Privacy enquiries

What this policy covers

This policy explains what personal data this website collects, why, who it is shared with and what your rights are. It is written to describe what the site actually does today. The website is currently a public preview: you can explore the studio’s capabilities and the interactive project-building tools, but project submissions, file uploads, accounts and payments are not open. When the full service launches, this policy will be revised before any of those features are switched on.

Who operates this website

This website is operated under the trading name Studio Variant, a precision manufacturing and design studio based in the New Forest, Hampshire, United Kingdom. Studio Variant is not currently a limited company, so no company registration number applies; if the business is incorporated later, this page will be updated with the registered details.

What we collect, and why

The website has no customer accounts, no payments and no database of visitors. Personal data is processed in the following ways only.

1. The website’s Contact form (switched off during the preview)

During the public preview the Contact form is switched off and the website’s submission service refuses enquiries as well as project submissions, so no enquiry can be sent to us through the website at present. The Contact page instead points you to our Instagram profile (see section 2).

When the form is switched on for the full launch, we will receive the details you type: your name, email address, phone number and company name if you give them, the enquiry type, your message and the address of the page the form was sent from. The form will be delivered to the studio’s mailbox by email and used only to reply to you and deal with your enquiry. This section will be confirmed before the form is switched on.

Lawful basis (when in use): our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries made to the studio, and, where your enquiry is about becoming a customer, taking steps at your request before entering into a contract. Your details are not used for marketing and are not sold or shared for anyone else’s purposes.

2. Messages you choose to send us on Instagram

The Contact page links to Studio Variant’s Instagram profile, @studiovariant_, with a plain link and a QR code image hosted on this site. Opening Instagram is entirely voluntary. Instagram is an external platform operated by Meta, and your activity there, including following the studio, viewing posts or sending a message, is governed by Instagram’s own terms and privacy policy, not by this one. We do not embed Instagram content, widgets or tracking on this website.

If you message us on Instagram, we will see what you send, together with your Instagram username and profile details as shown by the platform. We use that information only to respond to you and to manage ordinary business correspondence. Instagram is not a route for formal project enquiries, which remain closed during the preview, and it is entirely separate from the website’s project-submission system. Please do not send confidential, proprietary or sensitive project information through social media; if a conversation needs that level of detail we will move it to a more suitable channel.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact the studio and in managing business correspondence. Using Instagram does not reduce our obligations under UK data-protection law in respect of the information we receive from you there.

3. Technical information processed by our hosting provider

The website is served through Cloudflare’s global network. To deliver pages and protect the site from abuse, Cloudflare processes technical details of each request: your IP address, the address requested, the date and time, and information your browser sends about itself (for example its type and version). Cloudflare’s network also asks browsers to report failed connections back to Cloudflare (a standard technical mechanism known as Network Error Logging); those reports contain technical connection details, not the content of pages or forms. Cloudflare keeps request logs for a limited period under its own terms. We do not build visitor profiles from this information.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in running a reliable, secure website.

4. Typefaces loaded from Google

The site’s typefaces are loaded from Google Fonts. When a page opens, your browser requests the font files from Google’s servers, which means Google receives your IP address and the usual technical request details. According to Google’s published information for the Fonts service, these requests do not set cookies and are not used for profiling. No other third-party content is embedded in the site.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in presenting the site as designed.

5. Information kept in your own browser

The Start a Project workspace, the Project Navigator and the Material Finder keep what you enter in your browser’s own storage so that a refresh, a lost connection or a move between the tools does not lose your work. This information stays on your device. It is not sent to the studio and we cannot see it. Details of each item are on the Cookie Information page.

What we do not do

• We do not set cookies of our own and we do not run analytics, advertising or social-media trackers. The Instagram link on the Contact page is a plain link; no Instagram feed, button or script is embedded.
• We do not use external AI services. The Project Navigator, Material Finder and Start a Project run entirely in your browser from the site’s own rules and catalogues; nothing you type is transmitted to any AI provider.
• We do not create customer accounts, take payments, or sell or rent personal data.
• During the public preview, no project submissions, file uploads, quotations or project records are created or sent.

The demonstration tools

The Project Navigator, Material Finder and Start a Project (including the concept canvas) are available during the preview as demonstrations. They produce indicative, illustrative results and work entirely on your device. Files you add to the Start a Project workspace are read by your browser only, to show them on the canvas and in your local draft; they are not uploaded. Please use demonstration information only and avoid entering confidential or proprietary details, particularly on a shared computer where browser storage could be read by another user of that device.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of service providers to run the website and receive enquiries. They act on the studio’s instructions and are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes.

Cloudflare, Inc.

Hosting and delivery of the website and its submission service, security and network error reporting.

Resend, Inc.

Transactional email delivery for the Contact form when it is in use: enquiries are passed to Resend, which delivers them to the studio’s mailbox. Not used while the form is switched off for the preview.

Microsoft Corporation (Outlook.com)

The studio’s mailbox, where enquiries are received and held while they are dealt with.

Google LLC (Google Fonts)

Serving the site’s typefaces, as described above.

Instagram (Meta) is different: it is not a service provider acting on our instructions. If you choose to visit or message our Instagram profile, Meta processes your activity on its platform for its own purposes under Instagram’s privacy policy, and the studio receives the messages you send through the Instagram tools available to the account.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, for example to comply with a legal obligation or to protect the studio’s legal rights.

International transfers

The providers above are international companies, and information may be processed on servers outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States. Where that happens the transfer is made under the safeguards in each provider’s data-processing terms, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK–US Data Bridge where the provider is certified.

How long we keep it

• Enquiries (by email when the Contact form is in use, or by Instagram message) are held in the studio’s mailbox or Instagram account for as long as needed to deal with them and, if a project follows, for the life of that project and any period required for business records.
• Hosting and security logs are kept by Cloudflare for a limited period under its own retention terms; the studio does not keep copies.
• Browser storage remains on your device until you clear it, use the workspace’s own Clear option, or, for the per-visit items, close the browser.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS. The submission service holds no credentials in the browser, keeps no database of enquiries and, during the public preview, refuses project submissions and file uploads at the server as well as in the interface. Access to the studio mailbox is limited to the people who handle enquiries.

Your rights

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your information, or to restrict how we use it;
• object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests;
• receive the data you have given us in a portable form, where it applies.

We will respond within one month. If you are not satisfied with how your information has been handled, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to resolve any concern first.

Privacy enquiries

To exercise any of these rights or ask a question about this policy, contact the studio. While the website’s Contact form is switched off for the preview, you can send us a message on Instagram at @studiovariant_; please keep sensitive details out of a social-media message and we will continue by email. A direct email address will be published here once the operator has confirmed it.

Changes to this policy

If the way the site collects or uses information changes, in particular when project submissions open, this policy will be updated and the date at the top revised.