Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

Welcome to Howl ("we", "our", or "us"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you visit howl.ie and use our services.

We're direct about data: we collect what we need to serve you better, we don't sell it, and we tell you exactly why we're collecting it.

2. Information we collect

We collect information in a few ways:

Contact information: When you fill out our contact form, email us, or schedule a call — we collect your name, email, phone number, and what you tell us about your project.

Technical information: Our website logs basic data: your IP address, browser type, device type, pages you visited, time spent, and referral source. This helps us understand what's working and what isn't.

Cookies and tracking: We use cookies and similar technologies to remember your preferences and track how you interact with our site. See our Cookies Policy for full details.

Sensitive information: We don't ask for, collect, or store sensitive personal data (financial information, health data, government IDs) unless you explicitly provide it as part of a service engagement. And if you do, we tell you exactly why.

3. How we use your information

We use the information we collect for these specific purposes:

Service delivery: To respond to your enquiries, send you proposals, deliver our services, and manage our relationship with you.

Website optimisation: To understand how you use our site, identify what's broken or unclear, and fix it.

Communication: To send you relevant information about our services, but only if you've asked us to. We don't spam.

Legal compliance: To comply with Irish and EU law, including GDPR.

We do NOT use your information to:

• Sell or share your data with third parties for their marketing
• Build profiles to manipulate or target you
• Combine your data across websites to track you

4. Legal basis for processing

Under GDPR, we process your information on these legal grounds:

Contract: Information you provide to us when you request our services — we process it to deliver that service.

Consent: When you fill out our contact form or subscribe to updates, you're giving us explicit consent to contact you.

Legitimate interests: We analyse website behaviour to improve your experience. We've balanced this against your privacy rights, and we think it's fair — but you can opt out anytime.

Legal obligation: When Irish or EU law requires us to keep records, report data, or assist with legal proceedings.

5. Your rights

You have control over your information. Under GDPR and Irish Data Protection law, you can:

Access: Request a copy of all the data we hold about you.

Rectification: Ask us to correct information that's wrong or incomplete.

Erasure: Request deletion of your data (with some exceptions for legal or contractual reasons).

Restrict processing: Ask us to limit how we use your information.

Data portability: Get your data in a portable format to move to another service.

Object: Opt out of marketing communications or certain types of processing.

Lodge a complaint: If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Data Protection Commission (see contact details below).

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@howl.ie with your request.

6. How long we keep your information

We keep your information only as long as we need it:

Contact enquiries: 2 years, unless you become a client (then it's longer for contract and accounting purposes).

Clients: For the duration of our engagement plus 7 years for accounting, tax, and legal reasons.

Website tracking: 1 year from your last visit.

Marketing lists: Until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete your data.

We'll delete or anonymise your information once the legal reason for keeping it expires.

7. Who else sees your information

We don't sell your data. We share it only with:

Service providers: Tools we use to run our business (email, hosting, analytics, CRM). These are all GDPR-compliant and bound by confidentiality agreements.

Legal requirement: If a court orders us to disclose information or Irish law requires it.

Business transfer: If Howl is acquired or merged, your data transfers to the acquiring business under the same privacy protections.

We use the following third parties (all GDPR-compliant):

• Hosting: Vercel (US, Privacy Shield-compliant)
• Email: Gmail / Google Workspace (EU data centres available)
• Analytics: Google Analytics (anonymised)
• Forms & CRM: To be confirmed based on client preferences

8. Data security

We use industry-standard security to protect your data:

• HTTPS encryption on all pages
• Secure password storage using hashing
• Limited staff access to personal data
• Regular security audits
• Compliance with GDPR requirements

However, no system is 100% secure. If you believe your data has been compromised, email us immediately at hello@howl.ie.

9. International data transfers

Howl is based in Ireland. If you're outside the EU and provide us with data, we process it in the EU under GDPR. If we transfer data to the US (e.g., via Google or Vercel), we rely on Privacy Shield or Standard Contractual Clauses to ensure the same protection.

10. Cookies

See our dedicated Cookies Policy for full details on how we use cookies, what types we use, and how to opt out.

11. Children's privacy

We don't intentionally collect data from anyone under 18. If we discover we have, we'll delete it immediately.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Any material changes will be posted here with an updated date, and we'll notify you if required by law.

13. Contact us

Email us at hello@howl.ie

Learn more about how we use cookies: View our Cookies Policy →