ProCopywriters Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2 October 2026
Who we are
This policy explains what personal information ProCopywriters collects, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what rights you have. It applies to procopywriters.co.uk, copywritingconference.com, our events, our membership services and the Copywriter Code.
ProCopywriters is the trading name of The Professional Copywriters’ Network Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 07249384). We are the controller of your personal information. Our registered office is Bayside Business Centre, Willis Way, Poole, BH15 3TB. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number ICO ZB321562.
For anything about this policy or your information, email help@procopywriters.co.uk or write to us at the address above.
What we collect
What we hold depends on how you deal with us. Most of it you give us directly. Some comes from the tools we use to run the website and events.
| Who you are | What we collect |
|---|---|
| Website visitor | IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, how you arrived, and cookie data (see Cookies and analytics) |
| Member (free or paid) | Name, email, postal address, phone number, login details, membership tier and payment history, directory profile content, CPD records and anything else you add to your account |
| Event attendee or speaker | Name, email, ticket type, company, dietary or access needs you choose to tell us, and for speakers your biography, photo and talk recording |
| Copywriter Code signatory | Name, location, date you signed, and your public register entry |
| Person reporting a Code breach, or the subject of one | Contact details, the report, evidence supplied, our correspondence and the outcome |
| Client using the directory | Name, email, organisation and the brief or message you send to copywriters |
| Newsletter subscriber | Name, email and which emails you open or click |
| Survey, feedback or mentoring participant | Your answers and any details you choose to give |
We do not see or store your full card details. Payments are handled by our payment providers (see Who we share it with).
When you book a live event, we ask about access needs and dietary requirements so we can support you on the day. These can reveal health information or religious belief, so we ask for your explicit consent when you tell us. We use this information only to make arrangements for you, share it only with the venue or caterer where they need it, and delete it after the event.
How we use it and our legal basis
UK data protection law says we need a lawful basis for each use of your information. Ours are below.
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Run your membership account, take payment and provide member services (workshops, video library, templates, CPD log) | Contract |
| Sell event tickets, run events and give attendees access to recordings | Contract |
| Publish your directory profile and pass client enquiries to you | Contract |
| Pass a client’s enquiry to the copywriters they choose | Legitimate interests (helping clients find copywriters, which is why they contacted us) |
| Keep invoices and accounting records | Legal obligation |
| Run the Copywriter Code public register and handle breach reports | Legitimate interests (maintaining professional standards and protecting clients) |
| Send service emails about your membership, tickets or account | Contract |
| Send our newsletter and marketing emails | Consent, or legitimate interests for existing members and customers (see Marketing emails) |
| Measure how the website is used and improve it | Consent |
| Track which pages email subscribers visit, and measure our advertising | Consent |
| Record event talks and publish them for members | Contract for speakers; legitimate interests for audience members who appear incidentally |
| Run surveys and analyse the results in aggregate | Legitimate interests or consent, as stated on each survey |
| Deal with enquiries, complaints and legal claims | Legitimate interests or legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against yours. You can ask us for details of that assessment, and you can object (see Your rights).
We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
The Copywriter Code
The Copywriter Code is open to any copywriter, member or not. Signing it means some of your information becomes public.
The public register. When you sign the Code, we publish your name and date signed (location and other details are optional) on a searchable register so clients can check you are an active signatory. The register is separate from the member directory. You can ask to be removed from the register at any time, which also ends your status as a signatory.
Reporting a breach. If you report a possible breach, we use your details to investigate, contact you and tell you the outcome. We will normally need to tell the copywriter concerned what the complaint is about. We will not give them your contact details without your agreement unless we must to deal with the complaint fairly, and we will tell you first.
If a report is made about you. We will tell you about it, share the substance of the allegation and give you the chance to respond. Evidence is stored encrypted and is seen only by ProCopywriters staff and the members of the Code committee handling the case.
Outcomes. We publish anonymised summaries of decided cases, with no names or identifying details. If a signatory is suspended or removed from the register, that status appears only when someone searches for their name, and only for 12 months. After that it is removed entirely.
We rely on legitimate interests for this processing: maintaining trust in professional standards and protecting people who hire copywriters. Most reports are closed at triage without referral to the committee.
The directory, events and member services
Directory. Paid members’ profiles are public and searchable. You control what goes in your profile and can edit it at any time. When a client shortlists you or sends a brief, we pass their name, contact details and message to you so you can reply. When a client sends one brief to several copywriters, each of those copywriters receives it.
Events. CopyCon and our workshops are often recorded. Talks and Q&A sessions may be filmed and published to members, and at in-person events we take photos that may appear on our website and social media. We will tell you at booking and at the venue. If you’d rather not appear, tell a member of staff. Online events run on Zoom, and Zoom may produce AI-generated summaries or transcripts that we use to write up sessions.
Video library. When you watch videos while logged in, we record your viewing progress so you can resume where you left off. We may use this in aggregate to see which content members value.
Mentoring. If you apply to the mentoring scheme, we use your application to match you with a mentor or peer, and share your name, contact details and relevant parts of your application with your match. Notes you record about sessions are visible to you and your match, and to ProCopywriters staff.
Community. If you join our member community on Discord, other members in it will see your name and profile. That platform’s own privacy policy also applies.
Marketing emails
We send our newsletter and news about events, workshops and membership only if you have signed up for it, or if you are a member or customer and we’re telling you about similar things from us. You can unsubscribe using the link in any email or by contacting us. We never sell your details or share them with other organisations for their marketing.
Our emails are sent through ActiveCampaign, which tells us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. We use this to improve what we send. If you accept marketing cookies, ActiveCampaign also records which pages of our website you visit, so our emails can be more relevant to you.
Cookies and analytics
Cookies are small files stored by your browser. We use three kinds.
| Type | What it does | Do we ask first? |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Keeps you logged in, protects the site from bots, runs checkout and remembers your cookie choices | No, the site cannot work without them |
| Analytics | Google Analytics measures pages viewed, visit length and how people find us, so we can improve the site | Yes. Off until you accept, and you can change your mind any time in cookie settings |
| Marketing | ActiveCampaign records which pages our email subscribers visit, and Google measures how our ads perform | Yes. Off until you accept, and you can change your mind any time in cookie settings |
You can change your choices at any time through the cookie settings link in the website footer, or block cookies in your browser settings.
Who we share it with
We use the following suppliers to run ProCopywriters. They process your information on our instructions and may not use it for their own purposes.
| Supplier | What for | Where data is held |
|---|---|---|
| WP Engine | Website hosting | EU |
| Cloudflare | Website security and performance | Global network, US company |
| Amazon Web Services | Storing uploaded images, including profile photos, and sending website emails | UK, EU and US |
| MemberPress | Membership accounts | On our website |
| Stripe and PayPal | Payments | US and EU |
| ActiveCampaign | US | |
| Help Scout | Support chat and our help mailbox | US |
| Ticket Tailor | Event ticketing | EU |
| Zoom | Online events | US |
| Bunny | Video hosting | EU |
| Google Analytics | Website analytics and ad measurement | US |
| Typeform | Forms and surveys | US |
| FreeAgent | Accounting | UK |
We also share information with members of the Code committee who handle a breach case, our professional advisers, and anyone we are legally required to disclose it to, such as HMRC, the police or a court.
We do not sell personal information.
Transfers outside the UK. Some suppliers store data in the US or the EU. Transfers to the EU rely on UK adequacy regulations. Transfers to the US rely on the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the supplier is certified, or otherwise on the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards that apply.
How long we keep it
These are our standard periods.
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Member account and directory profile | While you’re a member, then deleted or anonymised within 12 months of leaving. Directory profiles and articles associated with your account come down when membership ends. |
| Invoices and payment records | 6 years from the end of the financial year (HMRC requirement) |
| Event bookings | 2 years after the event |
| Talk recordings | For as long as they’re in the member library |
| Mentoring applications and session notes | 12 months after the cohort ends |
| Newsletter subscribers | Until you unsubscribe, then a suppression record so we don’t email you again |
| Code register entry | While you’re a signatory |
| Code breach case files | 6 years after the case closes, in case of legal claims |
| Published suspension or removal status | 12 months, then removed |
| Website analytics | 2 months (Google Analytics’ setting) |
| Enquiries and complaints | 2 years after resolution |
Keeping it secure
We use encrypted connections across our websites, restrict access to personal information to the people who need it, and choose suppliers who meet recognised security standards. Code complaint evidence is encrypted and only accessible to staff and committee members assigned to the case.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and report it to the ICO where the law requires.
We will never ask for your password by email or phone.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- get a copy of the information we hold about you
- have inaccurate information corrected
- have your information deleted, where we have no reason to keep it
- restrict how we use it while a concern is looked into
- object to us using it on the basis of legitimate interests, including for marketing
- receive information you gave us in a portable format
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent
To use any of these rights, email help@procopywriters.co.uk. It’s free. We will reply within one month, or tell you within that month if we need longer for a complex request. We may ask for proof of identity, but only what’s reasonable to confirm it’s you.
Making a complaint
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first using our data protection complaints form or by emailing help@procopywriters.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it and tell you the outcome without undue delay.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Visitors outside the UK
ProCopywriters is run from the UK and UK data protection law applies to everything we do, including when people outside the UK join or use our services. If you live outside the UK, you have the rights set out above.
Other websites
Our sites link to other websites, including copywriters’ own sites from the directory. We aren’t responsible for their privacy practices.
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when our services or the law change. The date at the top shows when it was last revised. If a change significantly affects how we use your information, we will tell members by email.
Contact
Email help@procopywriters.co.uk or write to The Professional Copywriters’ Network Ltd, Bayside Business Centre, Willis Way, Poole, BH15 3TB.