Skyline Drone Services (trading as Skyline Visuals) is a sole trader business operated by Neil, based in Northamptonshire, UK. We provide professional drone services including aerial photography, thermal inspection, survey, and event coverage.
For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, Skyline Drone Services is the Data Controller for all personal data collected through this website and our services.
We only collect data that is necessary to provide our services or to communicate with you.
| Data Type | When Collected | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Enquiry, booking, or quote form | First and last name |
| Email address | Enquiry, booking, or quote form | Personal or business email |
| Phone number | Booking form | Mobile or landline |
| Property address | Booking form | Service location postcode & address |
| Payment information | Checkout | Processed directly by Stripe — we never see or store card details |
| Service details | Quote or booking form | Property type, service tier, special requirements |
| Chat messages | AI chat widget | Questions typed into the Skyline AI assistant |
When you visit our website, standard server logs and analytics tools may collect your IP address, browser type, pages visited, and approximate location. This data is used only to understand how our site is used and to diagnose technical issues. It is not linked to your personal identity.
| Purpose | Legal Basis |
|---|---|
| Processing and confirming your booking | Contract performance |
| Sending booking confirmations and reminders | Contract performance |
| Processing payments and managing deposits | Contract performance |
| Carrying out the drone service at your property | Contract performance |
| Delivering your photos, videos, or reports | Contract performance |
| Responding to your enquiries | Legitimate interest |
| Sending follow-up communications about your booking | Legitimate interest |
| Complying with financial and legal record-keeping obligations | Legal obligation |
| Improving our website and services via analytics | Consent (optional) |
| Providing the AI chat assistant | Consent (optional) |
We will never sell your personal data to third parties, use it for unsolicited marketing, or share it with anyone who does not need it to fulfil your service.
Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following lawful bases:
Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b)): The majority of processing is necessary to deliver the service you have booked. Without it, we cannot take a booking or carry out the flight.
Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)): We are required by law (HMRC) to retain financial records for seven years.
Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): We may use your contact details to follow up on an enquiry or a completed booking where it is reasonable to expect this and where our interest does not override your privacy rights.
Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): Analytics and AI chat features are only activated where you have given explicit consent via our cookie preferences banner. You may withdraw consent at any time by revisiting your cookie settings.
We use trusted third-party services to operate our website and booking system. Each acts as a Data Processor on our behalf and is contractually bound to handle your data securely and only for the purpose specified.
Our website includes an AI-powered chat assistant, branded as Skyline AI, which is powered by Claude — an AI model developed by Anthropic. This feature is optional and only activated if you have consented to AI Features in our cookie preferences.
When you type a message in the chat widget, it is securely transmitted to Anthropic's API for processing. Anthropic generates a response, which is returned to your browser.
Your messages are never used to train AI models. Anthropic's API terms explicitly exclude customer API data from model training. Anthropic may retain API inputs and outputs for up to 30 days for safety monitoring purposes, after which they are deleted.
We do not store your chat messages on our own systems beyond the duration of your browser session. Once you close or refresh the page, the conversation is gone.
We recommend that you do not share sensitive personal information (such as financial details or passwords) in the chat window. For sensitive enquiries, please contact us directly at info@skylinevisual.co.uk.
View Anthropic's full privacy policy: anthropic.com/privacy ↗
We keep your data only for as long as is necessary and legally required.
| Data Type | Retention Period | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Payment & transaction records | 7 years from transaction date | HMRC legal requirement |
| Booking records | 6 years from last financial transaction | Tax compliance and potential legal disputes |
| Customer names & email addresses | 2 years after last service or contact | Administrative continuity — deleted on request at any time |
| Aerial imagery captured on site | 12 months after delivery to client | Client review period and potential follow-up — securely deleted thereafter unless archival is contracted |
| AI chat messages | Session only (our systems) / up to 30 days (Anthropic) | See AI Chat Feature section above |
| Analytics data (GA4) | 26 months (Google default) | Aggregated and anonymised — not linked to individuals |
Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data.
To exercise any of these rights, please email us at info@skylinevisual.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days of receiving your request.
Our website uses cookies to make core features work and, with your consent, to enable optional analytics and AI functionality. Here is a summary:
| Category | Services | Consent Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Netlify, Stripe, Google Calendar API | Always On |
| Functional | Google Maps API | Always On |
| Analytics | Google Analytics GA4 | Opt-In |
| AI Features | Claude / Anthropic API | Opt-In |
You can manage your preferences at any time using the cookie settings banner, which appears on your first visit and can be reset by clearing your browser's local storage. Your choices are stored locally in your browser and are not sent to our servers.
Our website is served over HTTPS (TLS encryption) at all times. Payments are handled exclusively by Stripe — we never see, transmit, or store your card details. Our booking system and serverless functions are hosted on Netlify's secure infrastructure with environment variables used for all API keys.
Whilst we take all reasonable steps to protect your data, no internet transmission can be guaranteed 100% secure. If you have concerns about how your data is stored, please contact us directly.
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or the third-party tools we use. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
If changes are significant, we will make reasonable efforts to notify customers who have an active booking or recent service relationship with us.
If you have any questions about this policy, want to exercise your rights, or have a concern about how we handle your data, please get in touch:
If we have not resolved your concern to your satisfaction, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK's data protection regulator: