Privacy Policy
Data Protection & Your Privacy
At Make IT STEM, we take your privacy seriously. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, protect, and share your personal information.
Who Is Responsible for Your Data
The data controller for this website is Giuseppe Romano, trading as Make IT STEM, a sole trader established in the United Kingdom.
- Controller: Giuseppe Romano, trading as Make IT STEM
- Trading address: 4 Ferndale House, Ferndale Rise, Cambridge, CB5 8ET, United Kingdom
- Email: contact@makeitstem.com
Our terms of service are set out separately in our Terms & Conditions.
1. Information We Collect
We collect information you voluntarily provide through:
- Contact Forms: Name, email address, career stage, message content, and which language version of the site you used
- Mentoring Bookings: Personal details needed to schedule mentoring and tutoring sessions
- Group Session Recordings: Video and audio of group tutoring sessions, which may include your name, image, voice and anything you say or share in the session. You can keep your camera off if you prefer.
- Email Communications: Any information you include in direct emails
- Website Analytics: General usage data (pages visited, time spent, device type)
2. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal data for:
- Responding to your enquiries and contact requests
- Scheduling and conducting mentoring and tutoring sessions
- Recording group tutoring sessions and sharing the recordings with that group’s participants
- Issuing certificates of attendance
- Sending you updates about our services (with your consent)
- Improving our website and services
- Meeting legal and compliance obligations
3. Legal Basis for Processing
We process your data based on:
- Consent: When you submit a contact form or sign up for mentoring
- Contract: When we're providing mentoring services to you
- Legitimate Interests: Improving our services and website security
4. Data Storage & Security
Your data is securely stored and processed in compliance with GDPR. We use industry-standard encryption and security protocols to protect your information. Data is stored only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this policy.
5. Third Parties & Data Sharing
We never sell your personal data. We do use a small number of third-party providers (processors) to run this site and deliver our services. Each receives only the data it needs for its function:
| Provider | What it does | Data it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Formspree | Delivers our contact and free-resource form submissions to our inbox | Name, email, career stage, message content, IP address |
| Mailchimp | Manages the course waitlist and email updates | Email address, subscription and engagement data |
| Google Analytics | Aggregated website usage statistics — only with your consent | Truncated IP address, pages viewed, device and browser type |
| Google Fonts | Serves the typefaces used on this site | IP address and browser details, as part of the font request |
| GitHub Pages | Hosts this website | IP address and request data in standard server logs |
We may also disclose data where required by law, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
International transfers. Some of these providers are based in, or transfer data to, the United States. Where that happens, transfers are covered by appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.
6. Your Rights
Under GDPR and data protection laws, you have the right to:
- Access: Request a copy of your personal data
- Rectification: Correct inaccurate information
- Erasure: Request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten")
- Portability: Receive your data in a portable format
- Objection: Opt out of marketing communications anytime
- Withdraw Consent: Stop processing at any time
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contact@makeitstem.com
7. Cookies & Analytics
A cookie is a small file stored on your device. We keep our use of them to a minimum, and we group them into two categories.
Essential — always active
These are needed for the site to work and do not require your consent. They include the
record of your own cookie choice (stored in your browser as
mis-cookie-consent, kept until you clear it).
Analytics — only with your consent
We use Google Analytics 4 to see which pages are useful so we can improve the site. These cookies are blocked until you accept them. We go further than a standard cookie banner: the Google Analytics script is not loaded at all until you choose “Accept analytics”. If you reject, or simply ignore the banner, no request is ever made to Google Analytics and no analytics cookie is created. We also implement Google Consent Mode v2, with analytics storage set to “denied” by default.
| Cookie | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|
_ga | Distinguishes returning visitors | 2 years |
_ga_NL49D78HZD | Maintains the analytics session state | 2 years |
IP anonymisation is applied by default in Google Analytics 4, and we have not enabled any advertising, remarketing or ad-personalisation features.
Changing your mind. You can accept or reject analytics cookies at any time via Cookie Settings — also linked in the footer of every page. Rejecting them does not affect your access to any part of this site. You can also delete cookies through your browser settings at any time.
Legal basis. We rely on your consent for analytics cookies (under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and UK GDPR), and on our legitimate interests for essential cookies that keep the site secure and functional.
8. External Links
Our website contains links to external sites (Google Scholar, LinkedIn, MentorMeet). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external websites. Please review their privacy policies before sharing personal information.
9. Contact Form & Newsletter
When you submit a contact form or subscribe to updates:
- We store your email address and communication history
- You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time
- All emails include an unsubscribe link
- We never send unsolicited or spam communications
10. Data Retention
We retain your data for:
- Contact Enquiries: 24 months (unless you request deletion)
- Mentoring Records: Duration of relationship + 3 years (for compliance)
- Group Session Recordings: Up to 6 weeks after the group’s final session, then deleted
- Newsletter Subscribers: Until you unsubscribe
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy periodically. We'll notify you of significant changes by email or by posting the updated policy on this page. The "Last Updated" date at the top indicates when changes were made.
12. Contact Us
If you have questions about this privacy policy or your data, please contact us:
- Data controller: Giuseppe Romano, trading as Make IT STEM
- Email: contact@makeitstem.com
- Trading address: 4 Ferndale House, Ferndale Rise, Cambridge, CB5 8ET, United Kingdom
- LinkedIn: Dr Giuseppe Romano
13. Regulatory Framework
We handle personal data in accordance with:
- UK GDPR and the EU General Data Protection Regulation
- UK Data Protection Act 2018
- Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (cookies and marketing)
By using Make IT STEM's website and services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this privacy policy.