Privacy Policy
Effective Date: 12 June 2026
Governing Law: England and Wales
A note from us
We take your privacy seriously. We only collect what we need to run The Lonely Hearts Club to publish your ads, send your letters, and keep the paper ticking along. We’ll never sell your data, never share it without reason, and never spam your inbox.
1. Who We Are
The Lonely Hearts Club (“we”, “us”, “our”) is operated by Pierre Menard Ltd., registered in England and Wales under company number 13433395, with its registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, England, WC2H 9JQ.
We are the data controller, responsible for the personal information collected and processed through our website, print services, and postal correspondence.
If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at:
hello@thelonelyheartsclub.co.uk
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and pay the data protection fee annually, in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
2. What Data We Collect
We collect and process only the data necessary to operate the publication and related services, including:
Name and contact details (for correspondence and reply forwarding)
Payment details (processed securely via Squarespace Payments)
Submission content (ads, letters, and related materials)
Communication records (emails, postal correspondence, or forms)
Technical data such as IP address, browser type, and usage information (via Squarespace Analytics)
We do not collect sensitive personal data unless you voluntarily include it in an ad or letter.
3. How We Use Your Data
We use your personal data to:
Process and publish advertisements, features, and submissions
Forward replies safely and anonymously by post
Manage subscriptions, payments, and fulfilment
Respond to enquiries and customer support requests
Send occasional editorial updates or newsletters (with consent)
Comply with legal or tax obligations
We never sell your data.
4. Lawful Basis for Processing
We process personal data under the following lawful bases (as defined by UK GDPR):
Contractual necessity: to publish your ad or forward replies.
Consent: for newsletter or email communications.
Legal obligation: to comply with accounting, recordkeeping, or regulatory requirements.
Legitimate interests: for business administration, fraud prevention, and maintaining service quality.
5. Data Sharing and Third Parties
We share data only with trusted service providers that support our operations, all of which comply with UK GDPR:
Google Workspace (Gmail): for email communication
Squarespace: for website hosting, forms, and analytics
Squarespace Payments: for secure payment processing
Squarespace Email Campaigns (or Mailchimp, if adopted): for newsletters and editorial updates
We do not share or sell personal data to any other third parties except when required by law (e.g., to comply with a lawful request from authorities).
6. Data Retention
We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including providing our services, administering memberships, complying with legal obligations, resolving disputes, preventing fraud and enforcing our agreements.
As membership of The Lonely Hearts Club is currently provided on a lifetime basis, we will generally retain the personal data associated with your membership for as long as your membership remains active.
You may request deletion of your personal data at any time by contacting us at hello@thelonelyheartsclub.co.uk.
Where you request deletion, we will delete or anonymise your personal data unless we are required or permitted to retain certain information for legal, regulatory, safeguarding, fraud prevention, dispute resolution or other legitimate business purposes.
We retain records linking members to their advertisements and correspondence for as long as your membership remains active and as necessary to administer our services, manage enquiries and maintain our records.
Advertisements published by The Lonely Hearts Club are anonymous and do not contain personally identifying information. Copies of published advertisements, magazines and related publications may be retained indefinitely for archival, historical, editorial, research or celebratory purposes, including future anthologies, exhibitions, publications and events connected with The Lonely Hearts Club.
Payment and transaction records are retained for up to seven years to comply with legal and tax obligations.
Mailing list and marketing preference data is retained until you unsubscribe, withdraw your consent, or we otherwise determine that continued retention is no longer necessary.
When personal data is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or anonymised in accordance with our retention procedures.
7. Your Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:
Access a copy of the data we hold about you
Request correction or deletion of inaccurate data
Withdraw consent at any time (for marketing or newsletters)
Object to processing or request data portability
To exercise these rights, email us at hello@thelonelyheartsclub.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.
8. Data Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational safeguards to protect your data, including encryption, access controls, and secure storage. While no system is completely secure, we take every reasonable step to prevent loss, misuse, or unauthorised access.
9. International Transfers
Some of our service providers (e.g., Google, Squarespace) may store data outside the UK. These transfers are protected by standard contractual clauses approved by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to ensure your data remains secure.
10. Cookies and Tracking
Our website (via Squarespace) uses essential cookies for functionality and limited analytics cookies to understand site performance.
You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect operational or legal changes. Updates will be published on our website with a revised “Effective Date.”
12. Complaints
If you have any concerns about how we collect, use, store or otherwise process your personal data, you have the right to make a complaint directly to us.
You can submit a complaint by contacting us at hello@thelonelyheartsclub.co.uk. Please provide sufficient information to help us understand and investigate your concerns.
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and investigate the matter. We aim to provide a substantive response within 30 calendar days of receiving your complaint. If the matter is particularly complex and requires additional time, we will inform you and keep you updated on the progress of our investigation.
Making a complaint to us does not affect your right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office ("ICO") at any time if you believe that your personal data has been processed in a way that does not comply with applicable data protection law.
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, United Kingdom.
Website: ICO