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Privacy policy

This policy explains how Andrew Pain ("we") collects and uses personal data when you use this website or get in touch. We are the data controller for the information you provide.

Information we collect

  • Contact details you give us – your name, email, organisation and message when you use the contact form or email us.
  • Newsletter sign-ups – your email address, if you choose to subscribe.
  • Visit counts – Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits to each page, without cookies, unless you switch it off. See "Counting visits" below.
  • Usage data – if you accept analytics, Google Analytics records which pages you look at, what sent you here, your rough location and your device and browser. See "Analytics and cookies" below.

How we use it

  • To respond to enquiries and arrange speaking or coaching work.
  • To send occasional updates, if you have asked us to.
  • To count visits and improve the website, with Cloudflare Web Analytics, unless you switch it off.
  • To understand in more detail how the website is used – only if you have accepted analytics.

Sharing & third parties

We use third-party services to run the site and our work, which process limited data on our behalf. We do not sell your data.

  • Cloudflare Pages – hosts this website. Like any web host, its servers see your IP address when your browser asks for a page.
  • Cloudflare Web Analytics – counts visits for us, covered in its own section below.
  • Web3Forms – takes what you type into the contact form and passes it on to Andrew's email inbox.
  • Google – Google Analytics and YouTube, both covered in their own sections below.
  • Buzzsprout – hosts the podcast audio.
  • A-Speakers – an international bookings agency, for enquiries that come through them.
  • A newsletter provider, if you subscribe to the newsletter.

Counting visits

We count visits to this website with Cloudflare Web Analytics, so that we know how many people arrive and which pages they read. It counts whether or not you accept Google Analytics, unless you switch it off below.

It sets no cookie and keeps nothing in your browser. Each time you open a page, it sends Cloudflare the address of that page (leaving out anything after a question mark), your browser and operating system, and figures on how quickly the page loaded and how much memory it used. Cloudflare also sees your IP address and your browser's description of itself, as any website you open does. Its reports to us can show the site that sent you here, your type of device and your country. We see only totals – how many visits, to which pages, from which countries – never one person's visits. Cloudflare says it does not track anyone from one website to another. It cannot count contact-form messages; Google Analytics does that, if you accept.

Why it does not ask first. Since February 2026, UK law has let a website count its visitors without asking, under an exception the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 added. The counting must serve only to improve the website, the company doing it must act only for the website, what the website sees must be totals, and you must be told about it and be able to switch it off free of charge. Cloudflare counts for us alone, under its data processing terms, and we use the figures only to improve this site. Cloudflare is a United States company; it covers transfers out of the United Kingdom by its certification under the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, with standard contractual clauses in its data processing terms as well.

Switching it off. Press the button below. This browser is then not counted from the next page you open. We keep that choice in your browser's local storage, not in a cookie; clearing your browser data clears it, and counting starts again. If JavaScript is switched off, or your browser does not let websites keep a choice, the counter never runs.

Analytics and cookies

We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and to see which pages people find useful. It is off until you say yes. The first time you arrive, a slim bar at the foot of the page asks you to accept or decline. Until you accept, no Google Analytics code is loaded and no analytics cookie is set.

If you accept, Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser (one named _ga, and one beginning _ga_) holding a random identifier for that browser. We do not shorten Google's default cookie lifetime, so the _ga cookie lasts two years unless you clear it. Google Analytics records the pages you look at, the site or search that sent you here, your rough location, worked out from your IP address, and your device and browser type.

Google's "enhanced measurement" is switched on for this site, so Google Analytics also records these on its own, wherever the site offers them: how far down a page you scroll, clicks on links that take you to another website, anything you type into a search box on this site, files you download, videos you play, forms you start and send, and pages that change without the whole page reloading. None of it tells us your name, and we never try to work out who you are from it.

How long Google keeps it. The property is set to keep event and user data for 14 months, counted from your most recent visit. If you come back, the clock starts again. After that Google deletes it.

Google processes this information for us under the Google Analytics terms of service and Google's data processing terms. Google is a United States company, so the information may be handled outside the United Kingdom. Those terms include Google's standard contractual clauses together with the United Kingdom addendum issued by the Information Commissioner's Office, and that is the safeguard covering transfers out of the United Kingdom. Google's own privacy information is at business.safety.google/privacy.

If you decline, Google Analytics is never loaded and nothing is sent to it. If you had accepted earlier and then change your mind, we switch analytics off and clear the analytics cookies straight away; Google Analytics is already running on the page you are on, so a last few requests can reach Google before you move to another page, after which it does not load again. We do not use any advertising or profiling tags on this site, whichever way you answer.

We keep your answer in your browser's local storage, not in a cookie, so we do not ask you again. Clearing your browser data clears it, and the bar comes back.

Changing your mind. Use the Cookie choices link at the foot of any page to bring the bar back and switch your answer.

Video

Videos on this site are shown first as a still picture with a play button. That still picture is served from this website, not from YouTube, so nothing is fetched from YouTube and YouTube is told nothing about you until you press play. When you do, the video is embedded through youtube-nocookie.com, YouTube's no-cookie player. YouTube is owned by Google, and from that point it receives your IP address, as any site you open does.

Your rights

Under UK data-protection law you can ask to access, correct or delete your personal data, or object to its use. To do so, contact us at [email protected].

Contact

Andrew Pain, Birmingham, UK, B67 5JG. Email [email protected] · 0121 420 3457.

Image credits

The Times masthead: crest vector by Moonrivers, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.