This Privacy Policy explains how Oscar's Den (London) Ltd, trading as The London Balloon Shop, collects and uses personal data when you visit thelondonballoonshop.com, place an order, create an account, or contact us. It also sets out your rights over your data and how to exercise them.
We are the data controller for this information. Our use of cookies and similar technologies is described separately in our Cookie Policy.
1. Who we are and how to contact us
Oscar's Den (London) Ltd, trading as The London Balloon Shop
Registered in England and Wales – Company Registration No. 00844356
Registered office and trading address: 88b Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BE, United Kingdom
VAT Registration No. GB243673947
Email for all data protection enquiries: sales@thelondonballoonshop.com
Telephone: 0207 328 6683 (Monday to Saturday, 10:00–17:00)
If you have a question about this policy, or you want to exercise any of your rights, please write "Data protection" in the subject line of your email so that it reaches the right person quickly.
2. The personal data we collect
| Type of data | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Identity and contact data | Your name, billing address, email address and telephone number. |
| Order and delivery data | The products you order, the delivery or collection date and time slot, delivery address, access instructions (for example buzzer codes, ward names, venue contacts), any gift message or personalisation text you supply, and the name and contact details of the recipient where you send balloons to someone else. |
| Account data | Your login email address, an encrypted password, saved addresses and your order history, if you choose to create an account. |
| Payment data | Confirmation of payment, the payment method used, the last four digits and type of card, and the transaction reference. Your full card number and security code are entered directly into our payment providers' systems and are never stored by us. |
| Communications data | Emails, contact form messages, telephone enquiries and any correspondence about an order, a quotation or a complaint. |
| Artwork and brand data | Logos, images and text you send us for printed or personalised balloons. |
| Technical and usage data | IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, the pages you view, the products you view, referring pages and the dates and times of your visits, collected through cookies and similar technologies. |
| Marketing preferences | Your consent or objection to receiving marketing emails from us. |
We do not collect special category data (such as health, religious or political data) and we ask you not to send it to us. If you tell us about a latex allergy so that we can supply foil balloons instead, we use that information only to fulfil your order.
3. How we collect it
Most of the data above comes directly from you, when you place an order, create an account, complete the contact form, request a quotation, or call or email us. This policy covers orders placed online, by telephone, by email and in person at our shop in Belsize Lane. Technical and usage data is collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies when you use the website, as described in our Cookie Policy. We also receive confirmation of payment and limited transaction data from our payment providers.
The postcode you enter at checkout is used automatically by the website to calculate your delivery charge before you pay.
4. Why we use your data and our legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis under UK GDPR |
|---|---|
| Taking and processing your order, inflating and arranging your balloons, delivering or preparing them for collection, and contacting you about the delivery | Performance of a contract with you |
| Taking payment and issuing refunds through Stripe, Dojo or PayPal | Performance of a contract; compliance with a legal obligation |
| Managing your account and saved addresses | Performance of a contract |
| Answering enquiries, preparing quotations and handling complaints | Legitimate interests (running and improving our business); performance of a contract where an order exists |
| Keeping records of orders, invoices and VAT | Compliance with a legal obligation |
| Preventing and detecting fraudulent transactions and chargebacks | Legitimate interests (protecting our business); compliance with a legal obligation |
| Sending marketing emails about balloons, seasonal ranges and offers | Consent, or legitimate interests where you are an existing customer and we are contacting you about similar products (you can opt out at any time) |
| Measuring how the website is used, and measuring and improving our advertising on Google, Meta and Pinterest | Consent, given through the cookie banner |
| Keeping the website secure and available | Legitimate interests (security and integrity of our systems) |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether our interests are outweighed by your rights and freedoms, and we have concluded that they are not. You can object to any processing based on legitimate interests: see section 9.
We do not carry out automated decision-making that produces legal effects concerning you. Our payment providers apply automated fraud checks to card transactions as part of their own services.
5. Who we share your data with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with the organisations we need in order to run the shop and this website:
| Recipient | Why |
|---|---|
| Stripe, Dojo and PayPal | Processing card, wallet and PayPal payments and refunds, and fraud prevention. Each acts as a controller of the payment data it processes, under its own privacy policy. |
| IONOS | Hosting of this website and its database, on servers located in the United Kingdom. |
| Google (Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Tag Manager) | Measuring website use and the performance of our advertising, where you have consented to analytics and advertising cookies. |
| Meta Platforms (Meta Pixel) | Measuring and targeting our advertising on Facebook and Instagram, where you have consented to advertising cookies. |
| Pinterest (Pinterest Tag) | Measuring and targeting our advertising on Pinterest, where you have consented to advertising cookies. |
| Our own delivery team | Delivering your order. Deliveries are made by our own drivers, not by a third-party courier, so your delivery details stay within our business. |
| Hotels, venues, restaurants and hospitals | Where balloons are delivered to a hotel, venue or hospital ward, we give the recipient's name, and the room, table or ward where relevant, to the concierge, reception desk or ward staff so that the delivery can be handed over correctly. |
| Our accountants, auditors and professional advisers | Keeping proper financial records and obtaining professional advice. |
| Law enforcement, regulators and courts | Where we are legally required to disclose information. |
We require everyone who processes personal data on our behalf to keep it secure, to use it only for the purposes we specify, and to comply with data protection law.
6. Transfers outside the United Kingdom
Our website and order records are hosted in the United Kingdom. Some of the providers listed above, in particular Google, Meta, Pinterest, Stripe and PayPal, may process data outside the UK, including in the United States and the European Economic Area. Where that happens, the transfer is protected by one of the safeguards recognised under UK data protection law: an adequacy decision covering the destination country, or the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with additional technical and organisational measures where appropriate.
7. How long we keep your data
| Data | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Orders, invoices, payment records and related correspondence | Six years from the end of the financial year to which they relate, to meet HMRC and company law requirements |
| Account data | For as long as your account is open; deleted after you ask us to close it, apart from the order records above |
| Enquiries and quotations that do not lead to an order | Up to 12 months |
| Artwork supplied for printed or personalised balloons | Up to 24 months, so that repeat orders can be reproduced, unless you ask us to delete it sooner |
| Marketing preferences and unsubscribe records | For as long as needed to make sure we respect your choice |
| Cookies and analytics data | For the lifetime of each cookie, as set out in our Cookie Policy |
When we no longer need personal data, we delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to you.
8. Sending balloons to someone else
When you order balloons as a gift, you give us the recipient's name, address and often a telephone number. We use those details only to deliver the order and to contact the recipient about the delivery itself, and we keep them with the order record. By providing them, you confirm that you are entitled to share them with us for that purpose. If a recipient asks us what we hold about them, we will explain that their details were given to us to make a delivery.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
- ask us to correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete;
- ask us to delete data where we no longer have a reason to keep it;
- ask us to restrict how we use your data while a concern is investigated;
- object to processing we carry out on the basis of legitimate interests;
- object at any time to the use of your data for direct marketing;
- receive certain data in a portable electronic format, or ask us to transfer it to another organisation;
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent, without affecting anything done before you withdrew it.
To exercise any of these rights, email sales@thelondonballoonshop.com. We will respond within one month. There is no fee, although we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act if a request is clearly unfounded or excessive. We may ask you for information to confirm your identity before we release any data.
10. Marketing emails
We send marketing emails only where you have asked to receive them, or where you have bought from us and we are telling you about similar balloon products and seasonal ranges, such as Christmas, New Year, Halloween and Valentine's Day. Every marketing email contains an unsubscribe link, and you can also opt out at any time by emailing sales@thelondonballoonshop.com. Opting out of marketing does not stop the emails we need to send about an order you have placed, such as order confirmations and delivery updates.
11. Security
This website is served over an encrypted HTTPS connection, and it is hosted in the United Kingdom by IONOS. Access to order data and customer records is limited to members of our team who need it to do their job. Card details are entered directly into the systems of Stripe, Dojo or PayPal and are not stored on our servers. Passwords are stored in encrypted form. Our drivers use password-protected devices for delivery routing, and any notes taken down by hand when an order is placed by telephone or in the shop are entered into our secure systems and then destroyed. No transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data and we have procedures to deal with any suspected breach, including notifying you and the Information Commissioner's Office where we are required to.
12. Children
This website is intended for adults. Orders may only be placed by people aged 18 or over, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.
13. Other websites
Our website contains links to other sites, including Google Maps, our social media profiles and the Oscar's Den website. This Privacy Policy does not cover those sites, and we are not responsible for how they handle your data. Please read their own privacy notices.
14. Changes to this policy
We review this Privacy Policy regularly and will update this page when anything changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. Where a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell you directly.