INSTITUTE

Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information Institute Magazine collects, why we collect it, what we do with it, and the choices you have. We have tried to write it in plain language rather than legal boilerplate.

Last updated: 03 August 2026

Who we are

Institute Magazine is published by NRCI Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15756180), registered office 1 Carisbrooke Avenue, Bexley, London DA5 3HS, United Kingdom. NRCI Limited is the data controller for the information described in this policy.

If you have any question about this policy, or you want to exercise any of the rights described below, write to us at editor@institutemag.co.uk .

The information we collect

When you submit work to us

If you send us an editorial submission we receive whatever you choose to send, which usually includes:

  • your name and email address
  • the photographs or other work you are submitting
  • the credits for everyone who worked on the shoot, including models, stylists, make-up artists and hair stylists, and their social media handles
  • links to your portfolio or website
  • anything else you write to us in the message

If your submission includes credits for other people, please only send us details you have their agreement to share. We publish credits as supplied.

When you contact us

If you use our enquiry form or email us, we collect your name, email address, social media handle if you give one, any links you share and the content of your message. We also record which channel your enquiry came through, so we know where to answer you.

When your work appears in the magazine

When we publish an editorial we publish the credits that came with it. That means your name and, where supplied, your social media handle appear publicly on our website and social channels. This is normal editorial practice and it is how contributors are recognised for their work.

Contributor profile pages

We are building permanent profile pages for photographers we have published. These are assembled from credits already published in our own editorials. A profile page is not public until the photographer claims it and confirms the details are correct. If you would prefer not to have a page at all, tell us and we will remove it. You do not have to give a reason.

When you use our tools

Our media kit generator and similar tools use the details you type in to produce a document for you. We keep a copy so the page you are given continues to work.

Payments

Publication fees are taken through Revolut. We never see or hold your card details — those go directly to the payment provider. We keep a record of what was paid and for what, because we are required to keep accounting records.

When you contact us on social media

We use Instagram and Facebook. Where you comment on our posts or send us a message, we may read and store that message so we can answer it and so it does not get lost. We access this through Meta’s official interfaces for businesses. We do not collect anything about you from your profile beyond your handle, display name and what you have sent us.

When you visit our website

Our site is hosted on WordPress.com, which collects standard technical information and basic analytics. Where we use links that measure whether a feature drove interest, those links deliberately record only that a click happened. They do not set cookies and they do not store IP addresses.

Why we use your information, and our lawful basis

  • To reply to you and to publish your work — this is necessary to perform our agreement with you, or to take steps at your request before entering one.
  • To credit contributors — our legitimate interest in publishing accurate editorial, and the expectation of contributors that they are credited.
  • To run and improve the magazine , including understanding which channels enquiries come from — our legitimate interest in operating the business.
  • To meet our legal obligations , including tax and accounting records.
  • Where you have given consent , such as claiming a profile page or subscribing to anything we send — you can withdraw consent at any time.

Automated decisions and our use of AI

We use automated tools, including AI models, to help us manage a large volume of submissions and messages. Specifically, we use them to sort incoming email, to produce a first assessment of submitted work, to draft replies for our editors, and to tell the difference between an enquiry and a general comment.

These tools support our editors; they do not replace them. No submission is accepted, declined or published, and no payment is requested, without a person at Institute reviewing and approving it. If you would like a decision explained, or you disagree with one, write to us and a person will look at it.

Work you send us is processed by our AI provider strictly to provide that service. It is not used to train their models.

Who we share information with

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for advertising. We use a small number of service providers who process information on our behalf:

  • Automattic (WordPress.com) — website hosting
  • Titan — our email
  • Meta Platforms — Instagram and Facebook, where you contact us there
  • Anthropic — the AI models described above
  • Revolut — payments
  • Telegram — internal notifications to our editors
  • Hetzner — the servers running our own tools, located in the EU

We may also share information where we are required to by law.

Transfers outside the UK

Some of the providers above are based outside the UK, mainly in the United States and the European Union. Where information is transferred outside the UK we rely on the safeguards permitted by UK data protection law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or an adequacy decision.

How long we keep it

  • Submissions we publish — credits stay published as part of the editorial record, unless you ask us to remove them.
  • Submissions we do not publish — kept for up to two years, so we recognise you if you submit again, then deleted.
  • Enquiries — up to two years from your last contact.
  • Payment and accounting records — six years, as UK law requires.
  • Messages and comments from social media — up to two years.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
  • ask us to correct anything that is wrong
  • ask us to delete your information
  • ask us to restrict how we use it, or object to our using it
  • ask us to provide it in a portable format
  • withdraw consent at any time, where we relied on consent

To exercise any of these, email editor@institutemag.co.uk . We will respond within one month. You will never be charged for making a request, and asking will not affect how we treat your work.

How to delete your data

If you want us to delete the personal information we hold about you, email editor@institutemag.co.uk with the subject line “Delete my data”, from the address you contacted us on, or telling us the Instagram handle you used.

We will delete your submissions, your enquiries, any messages we hold, and your contributor profile page if you have one, within 30 days, and confirm when it is done. Two things we may have to keep: published editorial credits, which form part of the public record of work already published, and payment records we are legally required to retain. We will tell you if either applies to you.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies that are necessary for it to work, and basic analytics provided by our host to tell us how many people visited a page. We do not use advertising cookies and we do not track you across other websites.

Children

Institute is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us information, tell us and we will delete it.

Security

We keep access to contributor information limited to the people who need it, our systems are protected by strong authentication, and our own servers are kept up to date. No system is perfectly secure, but if something did go wrong that put your information at risk we would tell you and the regulator as required.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell contributors directly.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. Our ICO registration number is ZC212447.

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Institute Magazine. Published by NRCI Limited, registered in England and Wales (no. 15756180).