Legal
Privacy policy
Mediation Guide is a free information site about family mediation in England and Wales. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use the site, why we collect it, and the rights you have over it under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We have tried to keep it short and readable. If anything is unclear, or you want to exercise any of the rights described below, you can reach us through our contact page.
Who we are
Mediation Guide is published by Family Legal Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 16431127. Family Legal Ltd is the data controller for any personal information collected through this site, which means it decides how and why that information is used. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number ZC018853.
Family Legal Ltd is the team behind Mediate UK and Family Law Service. Those services have their own privacy policies. This one covers mediationguide.co.uk only.
What we collect
This site is built to work without collecting much about you at all. You do not need to create an account or give an email address to read our guides or use our free tools. The information we do handle falls into three groups.
Analytics data. If you accept analytics cookies, we collect information about how the site is used: the pages you visit, how you arrived, the type of device and browser you use, and your approximate location based on your internet connection. We look at this in aggregate to see which guides help people and which need improving. It does not identify you by name.
Contact form data. If you write to us through the contact page, we receive whatever you choose to send: usually your name, your email address and your message. We use it only to reply to you.
Tool inputs. Our free tools, such as the co-parenting schedule builder and the mediation vs court calculator, ask for details like dates, rough figures or preferences so they can produce a result. They are designed to run in your browser, and we do not store what you type in them on our servers. No email address is needed to use any tool.
Our lawful bases
UK GDPR requires a lawful basis for each use of personal information. Ours are set out below.
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiries | Legitimate interests: answering the questions people send us. |
| Measure how the site is used | Consent: analytics cookies are only set if you accept them. |
| Keep the site secure and working | Legitimate interests: standard server logs help us detect faults and abuse. |
Cookies
We use a small number of cookies: essential ones that remember your cookie choice, and analytics ones that only load if you accept them. Our cookie policy lists them and explains how to manage or block them in your browser.
How long we keep information
Contact form messages are kept for up to two years after our last exchange with you, in case you come back to a conversation, and are then deleted. Analytics data is held in aggregated form under our analytics provider’s standard retention settings. Because tool inputs are designed to run in your browser rather than on our servers, there is nothing for us to retain from them.
Who we share information with
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with anyone for marketing. The only organisations that handle data on our behalf are our website hosting provider, which processes server logs as part of running the site, and our analytics provider, which processes usage data if you have accepted analytics cookies. Both act under contracts that limit what they can do with it.
We would disclose information beyond that only if the law required it, for example in response to a valid request from a court or regulator.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you (a subject access request), ask us to correct anything inaccurate, ask us to delete it, ask us to restrict how we use it, object to our use of it, and ask for it in a portable format. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time.
To use any of these rights, contact us through the contact page. We will respond within one month. None of these rights costs anything to exercise in normal circumstances.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, the UK’s independent regulator for data protection.
Privacy questions we are asked
Do your free tools store what I type into them?
No. The tools are designed to run in your browser, so the dates, figures and preferences you enter are used to produce your result on your own device and are not stored on our servers. You do not need to give an email address to use any of them.
Do you sell or share my data with advertisers?
No. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for marketing or advertising. The only third parties that touch data from this site are our hosting provider and, if you accept analytics cookies, our analytics provider, both acting under contract on our behalf.
How do I ask for a copy of my information?
Send us a message through the contact page saying you want to make a subject access request. We will confirm what we hold about you, usually just any contact form messages, and send you a copy within one month. There is no charge for a standard request.