Privacy Notice

Last updated: 11 July 2026

1. About this notice
This privacy notice explains how Strathem Ltd collects, uses, shares and protects personal information. It applies to people who:

  • visit our website;

  • contact us or make an enquiry;

  • are clients, prospective clients, suppliers or professional contacts;

  • work for or represent one of those organisations;

  • are involved in matters on which we have been instructed; or

  • apply to work with us.

2. Who we are

Strathem Ltd is a private limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 09436482.

Our registered office is:

3rd Floor
86–90 Paul Street
London
England
EC2A 4NE

You can contact us about privacy or data protection at:

Email: laura@strathem.com
Telephone: +44 (0)20 3962 2021
Mobile: +44 (0)7943 776259

Strathem Ltd is normally the controller of the personal information described in this notice.

When we process personal information solely on a client’s documented instructions, the client may instead be the controller and Strathem may act as its processor. In those circumstances, the client’s privacy notice may also apply.

3. Information we collect

Depending on your relationship with us, we may collect and use:

  • Identity and contact information, including your name, job title, employer, business address, telephone number and email address.

  • Professional information, including your role, professional interests, work history, areas of expertise and information about your organisation.

  • Enquiry and correspondence information, including messages, emails, telephone notes, meeting notes and other communications with you.

  • Client and project information, including information needed to understand an issue, advise a client, manage a project, communicate with stakeholders or provide our services.

  • Financial and administrative information, including billing details, payment records, contractual information and information required for accounting, taxation and compliance.

  • Website and technical information, including your IP address, browser, device, operating system, approximate location, referring website, pages viewed, links followed and the date and time of visits.

  • Marketing information, including your communication preferences and records of invitations, briefings or other communications sent to you.

  • Recruitment information, including CVs, application materials, employment history, references and interview notes.

We do not seek to collect more personal information than we reasonably need.

4. How we obtain information

We may receive personal information:

  • directly from you;

  • from your employer or organisation;

  • from a client, adviser, supplier or project participant;

  • through professional introductions and referrals;

  • from publicly available sources, including company websites, professional directories, Companies House, news reports and social media;

  • through correspondence, meetings and events; and

  • automatically when you use our website.

Where we receive information about you from another person or organisation, we will use it only where we have a lawful reason to do so.

5. How and why we use information

We may use personal information to:

  • Respond to enquiries and discuss potential work

We use contact details and correspondence to respond to you, understand your requirements, prepare proposals and take steps before entering into an agreement.

Our lawful bases are taking steps at your request before entering into a contract and our legitimate interests in developing and managing our business.

  • Provide and manage our services

We use information to advise clients, carry out research, develop strategy and content, manage issues and projects, communicate with relevant people and fulfil our contractual obligations.

Our lawful bases are performance of a contract and our legitimate interests, and those of our clients, in obtaining and providing effective professional services.

  • Manage professional relationships

We may keep records of clients, prospective clients, suppliers, advisers, journalists, stakeholders and other professional contacts.

Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in managing relationships and operating a strategic communications business.

  • Administer contracts, billing and business records

We use information to issue invoices, make and receive payments, maintain accounts, conduct audits and comply with tax, company and regulatory requirements.

Our lawful bases are performance of a contract, compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests in administering our business.

  • Protect our business and legal rights

We may use information to prevent fraud or misuse, maintain security, obtain professional advice, manage complaints and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Our lawful bases are compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests in protecting our business, clients and legal rights.

  • Operate and improve our website

We use necessary technical information to provide the website, maintain security, diagnose faults and understand its performance.

Our lawful bases are our legitimate interests in operating a secure and effective website and, where required, your consent to non-essential cookies or similar technologies.

  • Send relevant professional communications

We may contact business and professional contacts about Strathem’s services, publications, events or developments that we reasonably believe may be relevant.

We will do this only where permitted by data-protection and electronic-marketing law. Depending on the circumstances, our lawful basis will be consent or legitimate interests. You may ask us to stop at any time.

  • Recruitment

We use applicant information to assess applications, arrange interviews, take recruitment decisions and meet legal obligations.

Our lawful bases are taking steps before entering into an employment or consultancy contract, compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests in recruiting suitable people.

6. Sensitive and criminal-offence information

Because of the nature of strategic communications, crisis, issues and litigation-related work, information supplied to us by a client may occasionally include:

  • health or other special-category information;

  • political opinions or affiliations;

  • information about alleged or actual offences, investigations or legal proceedings; or

  • other particularly sensitive information.

We process this information only where it is necessary, proportionate and subject to an additional legal condition. Depending on the circumstances, this may include explicit consent, information deliberately made public by the individual, the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or another condition permitted by data-protection law.

We apply additional access, confidentiality and security controls where appropriate.

7. If you do not provide information

Where information is needed to respond to an enquiry, enter into or perform a contract, comply with the law or provide our services, we may be unable to proceed if it is not supplied.

8. Who we share information with

Where necessary, we may share personal information with:

  • clients and organisations involved in the relevant project;

  • consultants, researchers, designers, writers and other professional collaborators;

  • website, email, cloud-storage, IT-support and cybersecurity providers;

  • Squarespace, as our website hosting and platform provider;

  • accountants, auditors, insurers, banks and payment providers;

  • solicitors, barristers and other professional advisers;

  • regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies and public authorities where required or permitted by law;

  • prospective purchasers, investors or advisers in connection with a reorganisation or sale of the business; and

  • other parties where you have asked or authorised us to disclose the information.

We require service providers handling personal information on our behalf to protect it and use it only for the relevant services.

We do not sell personal information.

9. International transfers

Some of our technology suppliers, clients or professional collaborators may be located outside the United Kingdom, or may store information in other countries.

Where a restricted international transfer occurs, we use an appropriate legal mechanism. This may include:

  • transfer to a country covered by UK adequacy regulations;

  • the UK International Data Transfer Agreement;

  • the UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses; or

  • another safeguard permitted by UK data-protection law.

We also consider the circumstances and risks of the transfer and apply additional safeguards where appropriate.

10. Cookies and website analytics

Our website is hosted by Squarespace.

Squarespace may process information about your browser, network, device, IP address, referring pages and use of the website in order to provide, secure and maintain the site.

We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

Necessary technologies help the website function securely and correctly. These cannot generally be disabled through our website.

Analytics and performance technologies help us understand visits and improve the website. Where consent is required, these technologies will not be activated unless you accept them.

You can accept, reject or manage non-essential cookies through the cookie controls on the website. You can also delete cookies using your browser settings.

We do not use advertising or behavioural-profiling cookies unless this is clearly explained through the cookie banner and you have been given the appropriate choice.

Third-party content or integrations may collect information when you interact with them. Their own privacy notices will apply to their independent processing.

11. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, regulatory, contractual, accounting and dispute-resolution requirements.

Our normal retention periods are:

  • general enquiries that do not lead to work: up to two years after the last substantive contact;

  • client, contractual and project records: normally six years after the relevant engagement ends, unless a longer or shorter period is justified;

  • accounting, tax and payment records: for the period required by applicable law;

  • marketing contacts: until you unsubscribe, object or the information is no longer relevant, subject to retaining a minimal suppression record so that we respect your preference;

  • unsuccessful recruitment applications: normally six months after the recruitment process ends, unless you agree to a longer period; and

  • website and security records: according to our provider settings and for no longer than reasonably required for analytics, security and fault diagnosis.

We may keep information for longer where there is an existing or reasonably anticipated dispute, investigation, legal hold or regulatory requirement. We may anonymise information so that it no longer identifies anyone and retain that anonymised information for statistical or business purposes.

12. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

  • ask for access to your personal information;

  • ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;

  • ask us to delete information;

  • ask us to restrict how information is used;

  • object to processing based on legitimate interests;

  • object at any time to direct marketing;

  • ask for certain information in a portable format;

  • withdraw consent where we rely on consent; and

  • complain about our use of personal information.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal exemptions.

We do not use personal information to make decisions about individuals that have legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing.

To exercise a right, contact info@strathem.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

13. Marketing preferences

You can ask us to stop sending marketing or business-development communications at any time by:

  • using the unsubscribe facility in the communication; or

  • contacting info@strathem.com.

Stopping marketing communications will not prevent us from sending necessary service, contractual, legal or administrative messages.

14. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or destruction.

Access is limited to people who reasonably need the information for their work and who are subject to confidentiality obligations.

No internet transmission or storage system is completely secure, but we regularly consider the nature of the information, the risks involved and the safeguards appropriate to our business.

15. Data-protection complaints

You can raise a data-protection complaint by emailing info@strathem.com or writing to our registered office.

Please include enough information for us to understand the concern and identify the relevant records.

We will:

  • acknowledge your complaint within 30 days;

  • take appropriate steps to investigate it without undue delay;

  • keep you informed where appropriate; and

  • tell you the outcome of our investigation.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider and resolve your concern first.

16. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice to reflect changes in our services, technology, business practices or legal obligations.

The latest version will appear on our website with its revision date.