Privacy notice

Last updated 3 October 2026.

Faraday Keynes Ltd trading as Astronomy Host. Company no. 07914968. 7 Rock Farm Mews, Front Street, Wheatley Hill, Durham, DH6 3NG.

Parties

Version: 3 October 2026 · This document forms part of the hosting agreement between Faraday Keynes Ltd trading as Astronomy Host (“we”, “us”) and the subscribing society (“you”, “Customer”, “society”).

Provider: Faraday Keynes Ltd trading as Astronomy Host (company no. 07914968), registered office 7 Rock Farm Mews, Front Street, Wheatley Hill, Durham, DH6 3NG. Registered in England and Wales. Billing: billing@astronomyhost.com · Support: support@astronomyhost.com · General: info@astronomyhost.com.

1. Who we are

Astronomy Host is the trading name of Faraday Keynes Ltd, company no. 07914968, registered office 7 Rock Farm Mews, Front Street, Wheatley Hill, Durham, DH6 3NG. We are registered with the ICO as a data controller. Data protection contact: support@astronomyhost.com.

2. Scope

This notice covers personal data we process as data controller in the hosting relationship (society officers, billing, support, operator logs). It also summarises roles for society-held data on your site. Your society must publish a separate privacy notice on the public website for members and visitors (/privacy).

Administration and login use strictly necessary cookies and similar storage only: a session cookie, a CSRF token, and (if an officer ticks Trust this device) a 30-day device cookie. They run the signed-in area and are not used for Faraday marketing analytics. Hosting Stripe Checkout runs on Stripe’s hosted page, not inside Administration. Society shop Stripe or PayPal cookies, if any, belong to the society’s own checkout. Each society’s visitor cookie banner (if enabled) is set under Society details → Privacy & cookies.

3. Controller and processor roles

For personal data the society enters about members, officers, volunteers, form respondents, gallery contributors, shop customers, and door attendees, the society is the sole data controller and Faraday Keynes Ltd acts as a processor hosting and operating the software on the society’s documented instructions. We do not use that data for our own marketing or decide why it is collected. This is not joint controllership unless agreed separately in writing.

For billing the society, Hosting support tickets, contract administration, and platform security logging, Faraday Keynes Ltd is controller. Lawful bases typically include contract, legitimate interests (operating and securing the service), and where applicable legal obligation.

4. Categories of data

• Society officers: name, email, role, sign-in and activity logs, optional two-factor setup data.
• Billing: society name, billing contact, payment references (card data handled by the payment provider when Stripe is connected, not stored by us).
• Support: ticket content, email correspondence, optional screenshots, diagnostic metadata.
• Society site content (processor): data the society uploads or collects via forms, membership, gallery, shop, members portal, and door check-in.
• Technical: IP address, user agent, timestamps in server and security logs.
• Marketing site: name, email, and message if you use the public contact or signup form on astronomyhost.com.

5. Storage, security, and sub-processors

Primary hosting is intended in the EU/EEA (for example Hetzner Cloud in Germany or Finland). We use appropriate technical and organisational measures including access control and encryption in transit (HTTPS). Societies must keep their own offline Backup exports; see Hosting terms section 6.

Typical sub-processors: infrastructure hosting, DNS, payment processing if you pay us online, and operator mailbox services used for support. A current list is available on request. We impose data protection terms on sub-processors consistent with UK GDPR Article 28 where applicable.

A society-selected SMTP provider or newsletter embed (Mailchimp, Brevo, and similar) is configured and controlled by the society. It is not a shared Astronomy Host mail relay.

6. Retention

The society is responsible for retention and deletion of member and visitor data it controls, and for keeping its own offline Backup zips.

• Active subscription data: for the term plus any export window in Hosting terms.
• Infrastructure / operator copies: any whole-server snapshots we keep for platform operations (if any) are retained only as long as needed (typically rolling, e.g. up to about 30 days) and are not offered as a society restore service.
• Security and access logs: up to 90 days unless longer retention is needed for an incident or legal requirement.
• Billing and contract records: up to 7 years where required for tax and accounting.

7. International transfers

Where a sub-processor processes data outside the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), UK Addendum to EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or an adequacy decision, as applicable.

8. Individual rights

Members and website visitors should contact the society first for access, correction, erasure, or objection relating to data the society controls. We will assist the society as processor within a reasonable time.

Officers and billing contacts may contact us about data we control directly (billing, support, operator logs). You may have rights to access, rectify, erase, restrict, object, and data portability where applicable, and to complain to the ICO (ico.org.uk).

9. Society obligations (summary)

The society must: maintain a lawful basis for processing; provide its own privacy notice at /privacy; honour unsubscribes and data subject requests; avoid unlawful marketing lists; ensure an appropriate parental consent framework for under-18 members, family dependents, and photos of children at meetings or on observing nights; and not upload special-category data without appropriate safeguards and our prior written agreement where required.

10. Changes

We may update this notice for legal or operational reasons. Material changes will be posted in Administration with reasonable notice.