Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how SMK Marketing collects, uses and protects your personal information.
1. Who we are
SMK Marketing is operated by Seán Kennedy as a sole trader, trading as SMK Marketing. The business provides independent marketing consultancy and advice to small businesses. You can contact SMK Marketing using the contact details provided on this website. A geographical trading address is not published here; if Irish or EU law requires an address to be disclosed for a particular contract, this will be confirmed directly with you before or at the time of booking.
2. What information we collect
The personal information we collect depends on how you choose to interact with SMK Marketing. For example, we may collect information when you:
• Submit an enquiry or contact form.
• Book or purchase a consultancy service.
• Subscribe to SMK Advisory.
• Communicate with us by email or other available channels.
• Enquire about Opinions Matter Podcast advertising, sponsorships or brand partnerships.
Depending on the interaction, this information may include your name, business contact details, the contents of your enquiry, booking and subscription details, relevant correspondence, and information about payment or invoice status. Technical information such as device, browser and basic website usage data may also be collected through Wix or other verified integrations, but only where those tools are actually enabled. We do not intentionally collect sensitive categories of personal data through this website.
3. How we use your information
We use the personal information we collect for purposes such as:
• Responding to your enquiries and providing the information you request.
• Arranging and delivering consultancy services.
• Managing bookings, subscriptions, invoices and payments.
• Communicating with you about your services and any changes to them.
• Handling advertising, sponsorship and brand partnership enquiries.
• Maintaining appropriate business and financial records.
• Protecting the website and helping to prevent fraud or misuse.
• Understanding website performance and improving the visitor experience, where this is appropriate and legally permitted.
We do not automatically add you to unrelated marketing lists or newsletters just because you submit an enquiry or contact us.
4. Legal bases for processing
We process personal data only where we have a lawful basis to do so under data protection law. Depending on the circumstances, this may include:
• Taking steps at your request before entering into a contract, and performing a contract with you (for example, when you book a consultancy session or subscribe to SMK Advisory).
• Complying with legal obligations (for example, keeping certain records for tax or accounting purposes).
• Pursuing our legitimate business interests, where those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests (for example, managing our relationship with you, improving our services and protecting our website).
• Your consent, where consent is the appropriate legal basis (for example, for certain types of optional communications or cookies).
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time using the contact details provided on this website. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew it.
5. How we share your information
We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
We may share your information with trusted service providers where this is necessary to operate our website, manage bookings and subscriptions, process payments, deliver services or meet legal obligations. For example, this may include:
• Wix, which provides the website platform and may support forms, bookings, customer management or payment features that are enabled.
• Revolut Business, where payments are made against direct invoices.
We may also share information where we are required to do so by law, or where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. We do not share aggregated or demographic information with business partners unless and until such practices are clearly defined and communicated.
6. International transfers
Some of our service providers may process or store personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Where personal data is transferred internationally, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that suitable safeguards are in place where required by applicable data protection law (for example, using standard contractual clauses or relying on an adequacy decision).
We do not list specific countries or transfer mechanisms here, as these may change over time and depend on the providers actually used. Further information about international transfers in a particular case can be requested using the contact details on this website.
7. Data retention
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, taking into account the nature of our relationship with you, contractual needs, applicable legal obligations and record-keeping requirements.
Different types of information may be kept for different periods. For example, records relating to bookings and payments may be retained for longer to meet tax and accounting requirements. We do not set out fixed retention periods here, as these depend on the specific context and may change over time. If you have questions about how long we keep particular information, you can contact us using the details on this website.
8. Your rights
Subject to applicable data protection law, you may have the right to:
• Request access to the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Request restriction of certain types of processing.
• Object to certain processing, including where we rely on legitimate interests.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another provider, where the right to data portability applies.
• Withdraw consent where we rely on consent as the legal basis for processing.
• Lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission if you are concerned about how your data is being handled.
These rights are not absolute and may depend on the circumstances of the request. To exercise your rights or raise a privacy question, please use the contact details provided on this website. We will respond in accordance with our legal obligations.
9. Cookies and similar technologies
This website may use essential cookies that are necessary for it to function properly, and, depending on the Wix configuration and any enabled integrations, analytics or other optional cookies and similar technologies.
Non-essential cookies and similar technologies should only be used where the appropriate legal requirements are met, which may include obtaining your consent through a cookie banner or settings tool. Simply continuing to browse the website is not treated as consent where consent is required by law.
The specific cookies and tracking technologies in use may change over time and depend on the services and integrations actually enabled. Before launch, the Wix cookie banner, consent settings, analytics tools and any advertising pixels should be reviewed and configured to reflect the cookies that are in use.
10. Contact details
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how SMK Marketing handles your personal information, or if you wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us using the contact details provided on this website.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission if you are unhappy with how your personal data is being processed.
The contact email address and any postal or geographical address used for privacy-related requests should be confirmed and kept up to date. A home address will not be published without explicit approval. Any additional contact details required by law will be added once confirmed.