Privacy policy

Babble is run by Babble Beach Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15796260). Our registered office is Ground Floor, 19 New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UF, and you’ll find us at Hove Beach Park, Kingsway, Hove, BN3 4GP.

Babble Beach Limited is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. That means we decide how and why it’s used, and we’re responsible for looking after it properly under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

If you have any questions about this policy or your data, email us at [email protected] or write to us at the registered office above.

Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:

• Identity and contact details, such as your name, email address, phone number and, for deliveries, your address.
• Booking details, such as the date, time and size of your party, the occasion you’re celebrating, seating preferences and any notes you add.
• Dietary requirements and allergies. Allergy and some dietary information counts as health data, which the law treats as a special category. We only ask for it so our kitchen can keep you safe, and we only use it for that.
• Order and transaction details, such as what you ordered, what you paid, gift voucher codes and balances. Card payments are processed by our payment providers, so we never hold your full card number.
• Loyalty and account details, such as your points, rewards, referrals and your order history if you create an account on our website.
• WiFi details, such as the name and email address you sign in with, your device type, its MAC address and when you connected.
• Technical and usage data, such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit and how you found us.
• Marketing preferences, such as whether you’ve agreed to hear from us and which emails you’ve opened.
• Anything you choose to tell us when you email us, fill in a form, send a job application or message us on social media.

We don’t knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you think a child has given us their details, get in touch and we’ll delete them.

• Directly from you, when you book a table, order food, buy a gift voucher, join our loyalty scheme, sign up to our newsletter, log in to our WiFi, fill in a form, apply for a job or get in touch.
• Automatically, through cookies and similar technology when you use our website. There’s more on this in the cookies section below.
• From the services we use, such as SevenRooms when you book through a third party site like Google, or our WiFi provider when you log in using a social media account.

Data protection law says we need a lawful reason, known as a lawful basis, for everything we do with your personal data. Here’s what we use it for and the basis we rely on.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. It won’t affect anything we did before you changed your mind.

We’d love to keep you posted on events, new menus and offers, but only if you want us to. We’ll only send marketing emails if you’ve opted in, for example through the “Stay in touch” form on our website, when you book, when you join our loyalty scheme or when you log in to our WiFi.

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of any email, or by emailing [email protected]. Unsubscribing from marketing won’t stop the messages we need to send about a booking or an order.

We never sell your data or share it with other businesses for their own marketing.

We use a small number of trusted companies to help us run Babble. They only get the information they need to do their job, they’re bound by contracts that require them to keep it secure, and they can’t use it for their own purposes.

We may also share information with our professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers, and with the police, HMRC or other authorities where the law requires it. If Babble is ever sold or restructured, your data may pass to the new owner, who would have to keep treating it in line with this policy.

Some of our providers, including SevenRooms, Google and Stripe, are based in or use servers in the United States or elsewhere outside the UK. When your data leaves the UK, we make sure it’s protected to the standard UK law requires. That means the country has been approved as adequate by the UK government, or the provider is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or the transfer is covered by approved contract terms such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

Cookies are small text files saved on your device when you visit a website. Some are essential, because the website can’t work properly without them, like remembering what’s in your basket. Others help us understand how the website is used, and we only use those if you say yes.

When you first visit, a banner asks whether you’re happy for us to use analytics cookies. None of them are set until you choose, and saying no doesn’t stop anything on the website working. You can change your mind at any time using the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.

Essential cookies. These are always on.

Analytics cookies. These are only set if you accept them.

Our booking widget (SevenRooms), newsletter form (Leat) and map (Google Maps) are loaded from those providers, and they may set their own cookies. Their privacy policies explain how they use them.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you block cookies that are needed for the website to work, parts of it, like the basket, may stop working properly.

We only keep personal data for as long as we need it.

• Bookings and guest profiles: up to 3 years after your last visit.
• Allergy and dietary notes: kept with your booking and removed when your guest profile is deleted, or sooner if you ask.
• Orders, gift vouchers and payments: 6 years, because the law requires us to keep financial records for that long. Gift voucher details are kept until the voucher has expired or been used.
• Loyalty accounts: for as long as your account is open, then deleted within 12 months of closing it or 3 years of it going unused.
• Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe.
• WiFi log in details: up to 2 years after your last connection.
• Website analytics: up to 14 months in Google Analytics.
• Emails and enquiries: up to 2 years.
• Job applications: 6 months after the role is filled if you’re unsuccessful, unless you ask us to keep your details on file for longer.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to stop your data being lost, misused or accessed by anyone who shouldn’t see it. Our website runs on an encrypted connection, access to our systems is limited to the people who need it, and our providers are chosen with security in mind. If a data breach ever happens that puts your rights at risk, we’ll tell you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as the law requires.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it.
• Correct anything that’s wrong or incomplete.
• Delete your data, where there’s no good reason for us to keep it.
• Restrict how we use your data, for example while we check it’s accurate.
• Object to us using your data, including for marketing at any time.
• Move your data to another organisation in a commonly used format.
• Withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We may need to check your identity first. There’s no charge, and we’ll reply within one month. If your request is complicated, we’ll let you know if we need longer.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, please talk to us first at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to put it right.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection regulator. You can reach them at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

We’ll update this policy whenever the way we use your data changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If we make a significant change, we’ll let you know by email where we can.