Privacy notice
Last updated: October 2026. Next review: October 2027.
In short
- We only use what you type into the enquiry form to reply to you.
- We only send you course news if you tick the box to say yes.
- Analytics and advertising cookies stay off unless you agree, and you can change your mind at any time.
- We never sell your information, and card payments are handled by Stripe, so we never see your card number.
- To see, correct or delete what we hold, email GDPR@smarttar.co.uk.
1. Who we are
SmartEdge is the short course academy and a trading name of Smart Training and Recruitment Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 04735396. Our registered office is Suite 18, Mill Court Business Centre, Furrlongs, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2AA.
For this website, Smart Training and Recruitment Limited is the data controller. That means we decide what information is collected and why.
This notice covers the enquiry form, paying for a course online, and the cookies on this website. If you book a course, our learner privacy notice explains how we use your information while you study, and you'll be asked to read it when you first log in.
- About a course: askus@smartedgetraining.com or 01983 475006.
- About your information: GDPR@smarttar.co.uk, for the attention of our Data Protection Officer, Jon Rogers, or write to the registered office above.
2. What we collect, and why
We collect information in three ways: what you type into the enquiry form, what you give us when you enrol and pay online, and, only if you agree, information about how you use the website.
The enquiry form
| What we ask for | Why we ask for it |
|---|---|
| Your name | So we can address you properly when we reply |
| Your organisation | To understand who the training is for |
| Your email address | To reply to your enquiry |
| Your phone number (optional) | To call you back if that is easier than email |
| Qualification of interest and group size | To prepare a relevant reply rather than a generic one |
| Anything you write in the message box | To understand what you are trying to achieve |
If you enrol and pay online
| What we ask for | Why we ask for it |
|---|---|
| Your title, name, email address and phone number | To enrol you, send your receipt, set up your login for our learning platform and contact you about your course |
| Your date of birth and gender | To register you with CMI, the awarding body for our courses, and to check you're 18 or over, as our courses are for adults |
| Your home address and postcode | To keep your learner record accurate and, if needed, post your certificate |
| Your employer's name | To understand who the training is for and keep your learner record accurate |
| How you'd prefer us to contact you | So we get in touch the way that suits you |
| An emergency contact (optional): their name, relationship to you, email and phone number | So we can reach someone if there is an emergency while you are studying. Please let them know you have given us their details and point them to this notice |
| Your ethnicity (optional) | To check our courses are open to everyone. This is special category information under data protection law, so only the people who need it can see it, and we never use it to decide whether to accept you. You don't have to answer. If you have a learning difficulty, disability or health condition, you can tell us in your induction, and our learner privacy notice explains how we use it. |
| Your acceptance of our terms, including the 14-day cancellation period | So we have a record of what you agreed to when you paid |
| Your card details | You enter these into Stripe's secure payment field on our enrolment form. They go straight to Stripe, and we never see or store your full card number |
How you use the website (only with your agreement)
If you accept analytics or advertising cookies, we collect information such as the pages you visit, how you arrived (for example from a search, an email or a LinkedIn ad), your IP address, which is used to work out your approximate location (town or country, not your address), and the type of device and browser you use. This is covered in section 4.
We do not use any of this to build a profile of you or to make automated decisions about you. We never sell your information.
3. Our lawful basis
| What we do | Our lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiry | Legitimate interests. You asked us about our courses, and replying is the obvious and expected use of the details you gave us |
| Send you news about future courses, if you tick the box | Your consent. You can withdraw it at any time using the unsubscribe link in any of our emails, or by emailing GDPR@smarttar.co.uk, and it does not affect our reply to your enquiry |
| Set analytics and advertising cookies | Your consent, given through the cookie banner. You can change your mind at any time (see section 4) |
| Take your payment, register you with CMI and deliver a course you book | Performance of our contract with you |
| Tell an employer who paid for your place that you have enrolled, and when you achieve your qualification | Legitimate interests. Your employer has paid for your place and needs to know it's being used and what it has achieved |
| Contact your emergency contact | Legitimate interests. Being able to reach someone if there is an emergency while you are studying, which is in your interests as well as ours |
| Use your ethnicity information | Because this is special category information, we need an extra condition as well as a lawful basis. We rely on substantial public interest (equality of opportunity or treatment, under the Data Protection Act 2018), to check our courses are open to everyone. |
4. Cookies
When you first visit, a banner asks whether you agree to analytics and advertising cookies. Nothing except the cookies needed to run the site is set until you choose. If you reject them, or close the banner, they stay off and the site works exactly the same.
| Type | Who sets it | What it does | Can you turn it off? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | SmartEdge and CookieYes | Keeps the site working and remembers your cookie choice | No, the site needs these |
| Analytics | Google Analytics | Counts visits and shows which pages are used, so we can improve the site | Yes, off unless you agree |
| Advertising | Google Ads and LinkedIn | Measures whether our adverts lead to visits and enquiries, and lets us show our adverts on Google and LinkedIn to people who have visited this site | Yes, off unless you agree |
Full list of cookie names and how long each lasts.
Google and LinkedIn may combine this with information they already hold about you if you have an account with them. Their own privacy notices explain how: Google and LinkedIn.
Changing your mind. Use the cookie settings link at the bottom of every page to change your choice at any time. You can also clear or block cookies in your browser settings.
5. Who sees it
- Our team. Enquiries arrive in a shared mailbox monitored by the people who handle course enquiries, and are passed to the relevant course lead.
- Microsoft. Our email and the systems behind this website run on Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure, under contracts that require them to protect your information and use it only on our instructions.
- CookieYes. Runs our cookie banner and keeps a record of the choice you made.
- Google and LinkedIn. Only if you accept analytics or advertising cookies (section 4). For LinkedIn's advertising cookie, we and LinkedIn share responsibility for the information it collects on this website, and LinkedIn is responsible for how it then uses that information on its own platform. To exercise your rights over that information, you can contact either of us.
- Your employer, if they paid for your place. We email them when you enrol on the place they paid for, and again when you achieve your qualification. We don't share your progress, individual results, support needs or other personal details with them unless you ask us to.
- CMI (Chartered Management Institute). The awarding body for our courses. We share your name, date of birth and the other details CMI needs to register you, check your assessments and issue your certificate. CMI is responsible for that information in its own right, and its own privacy notice explains how: CMI.
- Our learning platform. When you enrol, we create your account on our learning platform (Moodle), which runs on Microsoft Azure. It holds your name, email address and course progress, and the learner privacy notice explains how we use it while you study.
- Zoho. Our enrolment form runs on Zoho Forms, and we record enquiries and bookings in Zoho CRM, our customer records system. Zoho stores this information in the European Union.
- Stripe. Processes card payments when you enrol and pay online. You enter your card details into Stripe's secure payment field on our enrolment form, and Stripe confirms to us that you've paid. Stripe is also responsible for some payment information in its own right, for example to prevent fraud and meet its legal duties, and its own privacy notice explains how: Stripe.
We do not share your details with anyone else unless we are legally required to.
Where it is kept. Your enquiry and booking details are stored in the European Union (EU), which the UK recognises as protecting personal information to the same standard as UK law. Card payments (Stripe) and website analytics and advertising (Google and LinkedIn) use providers that may also process information in the United States. Where that happens, it is protected by the UK's approved safeguards for international transfers, such as the UK–US data bridge or approved contract clauses.
6. How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that don't lead to a booking | 24 months after our last contact with you, as people often come back to us a year or more after first asking |
| Enquiries that lead to a booking | Once you book, your details move into your learner record, and our learner privacy notice explains how long we keep them |
| Payment records | 6 years from the end of the financial year you paid in, as UK tax law requires |
| Website analytics (Google Analytics) | Information linked to your device is kept for 14 months after your last visit, and detailed records of individual visits for 2 months, then both are deleted automatically. Overall reports that don't identify anyone may be kept longer |
| Your cookie choice | 12 months, after which the banner asks you again |
7. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- show you what we hold about you
- correct anything that is wrong
- delete it where we have no continuing reason to keep it
- stop or limit how we use it
- object to our use of it where we rely on legitimate interests
- send it elsewhere in a portable format, where that right applies
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it (including for cookies)
Email GDPR@smarttar.co.uk and we will respond within one month.
8. If you need this in another format
Accessibility matters to us. It is built into how we design our courses, and it applies to this page too. If you would like this notice in large print, as plain text, in an easy-read version or read aloud, email askus@smartedgetraining.com and we will sort it out.
9. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right: GDPR@smarttar.co.uk.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
10. Changes to this notice
If we change how we use your information, we will update this page and the date at the top. We review this notice at least once a year.