Privacy notice

Who we are

A&W Consultancy Services Ltd trading as Game Production Academy (GPA) is responsible for your personal information. Company no. 11995223. Our address is 2 Dudleston Heath Drive, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO8 8AR. We are not VAT registered.

Contact Liam Wickham at liam@game-production.com about this notice or your information.

Information we use, and why

• Enquiries: your name, email, message, enquiry type and page context, plus any organisation details you supply. We use these to reply, discuss your needs and administer our work with you. Required fields help us handle your request; you can also email us.
• SRIS interest: your name and work email, plus optional company, role and interests, to send the Studio Risk Intelligence System trial, pilot or release updates you request. This does not grant access or subscribe you to the newsletter.
• Newsletter: your email, confirmation and subscription status, and unsubscribe or suppression information, to deliver the newsletter and respect your choices.
• Bookings, purchases and learning: contact and account details, booking answers and times, orders, enrolments and learning progress, to arrange and supply what you request.
• Technical information: IP address, requested page, time and browser information used to serve the website, maintain security and diagnose problems.

Enquiry and SRIS forms use Netlify Forms when submissions are available. This website does not collect payment-card details; payment options are shown by the relevant checkout. Please do not send passwords, card details or unnecessary sensitive information in a message.

Why we may use your information

• Contract or steps before a contract: purchases, bookings and requested service discussions where needed to arrange or fulfil a contract with you.
• Legitimate interests: responding to normal business enquiries, administering client relationships, securing the site and keeping minimal suppression records to respect opt-outs. We use this basis only where necessary and proportionate, taking account of your rights.
• Consent: the newsletter and the SRIS updates you choose to request. These are separate choices.
• Legal obligation: statutory records and responding to legal requirements, including applicable data-rights requests.

Your newsletter choices

Signup is optional. New subscribers confirm their choice by email before newsletter delivery starts. Unsubscribed, bounced or spam-suppressed contacts are not automatically reactivated.

Thinkific enrolment or purchase is not newsletter consent. Enquiries, bookings and SRIS interest are also separate. Unsubscribe and suppression preferences take precedence over later imports or signup retries.

Withdraw newsletter consent using the unsubscribe link or email liam@game-production.com. You can use the same address to stop SRIS updates. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of earlier processing.

Services and recipients

We share relevant information with the services needed to run the website and provide what you request:

• Netlify: hosting, forms and the server-side newsletter endpoint. Netlify privacy information.
• MailerLite: newsletter records, confirmation and email delivery. MailerLite privacy information.
• Calendly: scheduling through booking links. Calendly privacy information.
• Thinkific: course accounts, learning access and linked course or paid-service checkouts. Thinkific privacy information.
• YouTube / Google: videos you choose to load or visit. Google privacy information.

Access within GPA is limited to people who need the information for the work. Agreed support may use email, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack or Discord; the tools depend on your engagement. Providers may also process information for their own service purposes, as their notices explain. We may disclose information where the law requires it.

How long we keep information

• Normal enquiries: ordinarily up to 24 months after the last substantive contact, unless needed for an active relationship, dispute or legal requirement.
• Customer, transaction and accounting records: up to six years after the relevant financial year where required.
• Newsletter information: while you are subscribed. After opt-out, we retain only the minimum suppression information necessary to respect your choice.
• Operational and security logs and backups: only as long as necessary for their purpose or through normal provider rotation, then deleted or overwritten.

We remove or anonymise information when it is no longer needed. Requested SRIS update records are kept while you want those updates, with minimal opt-out information retained afterwards.

International transfers

Relevant providers may process information outside the UK. Where UK transfer rules apply, we use applicable UK adequacy arrangements or approved contractual safeguards, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum. Contact us for details of the safeguards relevant to your information.

Cookies, storage and embedded video

We use Smartarget to provide the WhatsApp contact widget. Its loader, configuration, WhatsApp widget code and avatar load before you interact, sending technical request information to the services supplying them. Opening the widget sends Smartarget usage statistics including the page URL, time before the action, action, app name and platform. Our checks found no cookies or local or session storage created in the tested interaction path; this does not establish that every path is storage-free.

Choosing to contact us through WhatsApp takes you into WhatsApp/Meta’s service, where its own privacy terms apply. Other than this Smartarget usage measurement, no analytics or advertising tags are configured. Fonts and most images are served locally. The book cover is served locally.

Some article-list thumbnails load from Wix's image CDN or YouTube's image host. Those hosts receive ordinary technical request information. Our checks found no cookies or storage from those image requests. Calendly, Thinkific and social links connect to those services only when you follow them.

Article videos show a local placeholder first. No YouTube request, player or thumbnail loads from that placeholder until you choose Load video. YouTube may then store or access information on your device. We use privacy-enhanced mode, which still involves processing information. You make an individual choice for each video; that choice is not saved for another visit.

Your data rights

Depending on the circumstances, you can ask for access, correction, erasure, restriction or a portable copy of your information. These rights have conditions and do not always require deletion of every record.

You can object to direct marketing at any time. You can also object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw consent without giving a reason.

Email liam@game-production.com. We may need information to identify you and understand your request. Do not send identity documents unless we request them through an agreed channel.

Questions and complaints

Please contact us with privacy questions or concerns. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

We update this notice when our practices change; the date above identifies this version. For purchase and cancellation information, see our terms and cancellations.