Privacy
Privacy
19 August 2026
We hold as little as we can, for as short as we can, for the work we are doing with you. This notice is for designlabnorth.com, the account behind Sign in, and the live hosts we run for you on our names.
Other products in the greenhouse — Swarm Fund, Choozlist — and a client’s own public site have their own hosts. Where those sites keep a separate book, that book has the last word.
Who we are
Design Lab North are Ewan Kirkwood and Dave Kirkwood. The public site is designlabnorth.com. Enquiries: build@designlabnorth.com. Company details will sit here once they are filed. Until then this is the trading name, and that mailbox is how you reach us.
What we collect
Only what the work needs.
- An enquiry: name, email, optional phone, what you said you need, and any message you typed on Practice.
- An account: email or login handle, display name, a hashed password, optional picture, optional mailbox and phone if we onboarded you that way.
- A session cookie (
dln_session) so we know it is you on this site and on a gated plot we host. - The account book: invoices, line items, whether a payment was marked sent, and when it was recorded paid. We do not take card numbers on this site.
- Notes you leave on a live host, and the plans we sweep from those notes so we can come back with an update.
- Ordinary server logs: IP, time, path — to keep the host up and to notice abuse.
- A press-kit cookie (
dln_epk) if someone types an access code at /epk, so that browser can open that house’s pack. No email.
The ground you pick in the footer stays in your browser (local storage). It is not sent to us.
Why
To answer an enquiry, to sign you in, to show you your site and not someone else’s, to invoice and match a bank payment, and to keep the host secure. Legal bases: taking steps toward a contract, performing that contract, and legitimate interests (security and running the studio).
Cookies
The session cookie is essential. It is httpOnly, scoped to designlabnorth.com (including plot subdomains we put it on). It lasts up to ninety days and refreshes while you use the site. A press-kit cookie lasts thirty days and only names which pack that browser opened. Neither is an advertising tracker. There is no analytics tag on this site. If that changes, we will say so here first.
How long
Enquiries stay while they are open, then a short archive. Accounts last for the life of the project plus a short archive, then we delete them. Invoices stay as long as the book needs them — they are the record of what was issued and paid. Logs are rotated. You can ask us to delete what we no longer need for the work or the law.
Sharing
We do not sell data. Hosting sits on our own server. If we send mail (an onboard login, a reply to an enquiry), that goes through the mail path we have set; we will name a provider here if one is in use. A bank transfer is between you and the account on the invoice — we do not process the payment through this site.
Ewan and Dave both see the studio desk. We do not pass your account to another agency.
Your rights
If you are in the UK or EEA you can ask to see, correct, or delete what we hold, to restrict or object, and to complain to the ICO. Ask us first — we would rather just sort it. Write to build@designlabnorth.com.
Children
This site is for people commissioning design and build work. It is not aimed at anyone under 18.
Changes
If this notice changes in a way that matters, the date at the top moves, and we will tell people with an account if they need to know.
How we work together is on Terms.