Privacy notice
Your family question stays with the enquiry, not the advertising.
Known Again is the trading name of Nick James, a sole trader. Nick is the controller of the personal information described here.
Known Again uses the information you provide to assess and answer your family-history question, administer any work you later commission and keep the service secure.
01 / What is collected
The details needed to understand and answer your question.
Your enquiry
When you use the form, Known Again receives your name, email address, whether the enquiry is for you, your family or a gift, and the family question or starting point you enter. For a family-tree assessment, this can also include up to three starting people's names, their relationship to you or the recipient, approximate birth year and place, other or maiden names, and death year or place where you choose to provide them. The service also creates a lead reference, time and administrative status.
If you commission work
Known Again also records the agreed proposal and terms, your acceptance, billing name and address, payment and refund status, correspondence, material you supply, research notes and the report. Payments are handled through Stripe's secure hosted invoice page. Stripe receives the information needed to issue and process the invoice, including your name, email and billing address, the amount, currency, payment status and a project-only reference. Card or bank details are entered directly with Stripe; Known Again does not receive your full card number or security code.
Website and enquiry administration
The form can record the enquiry page, referrer and campaign parameters, and can carry an advertising click identifier present in the page address after you allow advertising measurement. Campaign labels in a link can be carried between our research pages so an enquiry can retain its campaign source. This does not create a visitor identifier, use browser storage or copy Google click identifiers between those pages. Limited request information is used temporarily to validate submissions, prevent abuse and apply rate limits.
AI-assisted research
AI tools may assist with organising information, analysis and drafting. Nick remains responsible for reviewing the evidence and the finished report. Known Again does not upload identifiable client material or private family records to an AI service until the provider, account settings, permitted use, retention and safeguards have been checked and the relevant information has been provided to the client. While that review is open, AI use is limited to public, non-identifying material and synthetic examples; it is not permission to share your enquiry or records with an unspecified provider.
Information from other sources
Family information may come from the person enquiring, a gift purchaser or another family member, and from archives, libraries, registration authorities, record databases, published historical sources and lawfully used public websites. If research identifies a living person indirectly, Nick considers whether that person should receive this notice directly and records the reason if a legal exception applies. Public availability does not remove that person's rights.
You are not legally required to give Known Again information. A way to contact you and enough starting information are needed to assess your question. If you commission work, the agreed project and payment information are also needed. Without them, Known Again may be unable to assess, accept or complete the work.
Approximate years are enough for the free assessment; please do not provide an exact date of birth, sensitive information or criminal-offence information about a living person in the form. Known Again does not deliberately research sensitive or criminal-offence information about a living person without first documenting a lawful basis, the required additional condition and suitable safeguards. Material received without those conditions is isolated, redacted or deleted as appropriate. If a document may help, Nick will arrange a suitable way to share it after replying.
02 / Why it is used
Assessment, correspondence and an agreed commission.
Enquiries and research
Your information is used to assess and reply to the question you send, take steps you request before a contract, perform an agreed research commission, administer payment and deliver the report. Relevant records are also used for service security, rights and complaints, legal claims and tax obligations.
Lawful bases
The relevant bases are taking steps at your request before a contract and performing a contract; Known Again's legitimate interests in answering enquiries, conducting proportionate historical research, administering and securing the service; and legal obligation where a record must be kept by law. Optional Google Ads measurement relies on your consent.
Your right to object: you may object at any time to processing based on legitimate interests. Email nick@knownagain.co.uk. The right is not absolute, but every objection will be considered.
An enquiry is used for service correspondence and is not treated as permission to send promotional email.
03 / Services and measurement
The small group of services that support the website and reply.
Enquiry handling
Vercel hosts the website and enquiry endpoint, so it transiently handles the submitted form while forwarding a valid enquiry. Valid enquiries are delivered to an access-controlled Google-hosted lead ledger and email automation, and to the Known Again mailbox hosted by Zoho. If you commission work, Stripe provides the hosted invoice and payment service and shares the payment status and transaction details needed to administer, reconcile or refund it. Stripe acts as a processor for parts of that service and may also process information for its own fraud-prevention, security and regulatory purposes. Read Stripe's privacy policy
Website and advertising measurement
Vercel Web Analytics records cookie-free, aggregated website statistics and anonymous enquiry milestones. Known Again relies on legitimate interests in improving the site and the statistical-purpose rules, with a simple free objection. The statistics are not used to identify or make decisions about visitors and receive no form values. Google Ads measurement remains entirely off until you allow it and is not used for remarketing, audience building or personalised advertising.
Known Again may use carefully selected archives, record suppliers, professional advisers and specialist or technical service providers for hosting, communications, administration and research support. Only information needed for the task is shared. Nick James remains responsible for deciding whether to accept a commission and for reviewing and presenting the findings.
The acknowledgement email contains a small Known Again logo served from this website. If your mail app loads it, the website host receives an ordinary image request that can include network and device information. The image URL contains no unique tracking code. You can prevent the request by blocking remote images in your mail app.
Some providers operate internationally. Vercel, Stripe and consented Google Ads processing use their applicable UK transfer arrangements. Stripe's data-processing terms incorporate its Data Transfers Addendum, including the UK International Data Transfer Addendum where applicable. Known Again is completing the formal supplier-contract and transfer review for the enquiry ledger and mailbox. While that review is open, those systems are limited to what is needed to receive and answer an enquiry. Ask Nick for the arrangement relevant to your information.
If you choose Allow, Google Ads loads and can receive your IP address, browser and device information, and the full current page address including an advertising click identifier. It can use advertising-measurement cookies and identifiers. If you then submit a valid enquiry, Google also receives the receipt-page address, a random enquiry reference, the event time, GBP currency and a zero conversion value. It does not receive your name, email address, family question or other form answers.
Known Again does not sell your personal information. Names, email addresses, family questions and form values are not sent to Vercel Web Analytics. Review or change both measurement choices on the site analytics page
04 / Retention and security
Defined review points, not indefinite storage.
Enquiries and project files
An enquiry that does not become a commission, including a free assessment or expired proposal, is reviewed and deleted 12 months after the last meaningful contact. Active files are kept while work is underway. Supplied source files and working copies are reviewed 12 months after completion; the final report, essential correspondence and contract evidence are kept for six years after completion.
Business and service records
Invoice, receipt, payment, refund and tax records are kept until the later of six years after the work ends and six years after the end of the relevant tax year, and longer only where an HMRC enquiry, unresolved dispute or another legal duty requires it. Rights requests are reviewed three years after closure; complaint and breach records are kept for up to six years where they may be needed for a legal claim.
Vercel's Pro Web Analytics reporting window is 12 months, although the provider may retain aggregate data longer. Vercel automatically discards the visitor session after 24 hours. Vercel runtime logs are available for one day. Preference cookies last up to one year; the successful-enquiry receipt cookie lasts ten minutes.
If you allow Google Ads measurement, Google's reporting policy makes hourly, daily and weekly advertising data available for 37 months and monthly, quarterly and annual data for 11 years. Changing your choice stops future measurement but does not remove reporting data already retained by Google under that policy.
Protection includes access-controlled provider accounts, HTTPS and encrypted provider connections, secrets held outside source code, minimised analytics and application logs, and an encrypted work device. No internet or email service can be guaranteed completely secure.
05 / Your rights
You can ask what is held, correct it or request deletion.
Depending on the circumstances, you may ask for access, correction, deletion, restriction or a portable copy of your information, or object to its use. You may withdraw advertising-measurement consent at any time without affecting earlier lawful processing. Known Again does not make solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects.
To exercise a right or make a data-protection complaint, email nick@knownagain.co.uk or write to the business, correspondence and service address shown above. Rights requests are normally answered within one month. A complaint is acknowledged within 30 days, investigated without undue delay and followed by a written outcome and appropriate progress updates.
If you remain dissatisfied, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office
Privacy notice version 1.3. Campaign-navigation and AI-workflow clarifications: 16 September 2026. Last full review: 25 August 2026. The supplier reviews identified above remain open.