Privacy Notice
We know that information about your business and your future can be personal. This notice explains what we collect, why we use it, who may have access to it and how you can contact us.
Last updated: 9th November 2026
1. Who we are
Exit Compass is operated by 1619 Digital Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 09160377), with its registered office at 11 Searson Close, Tallington, PE9 4RF. We are the data controller for the personal information described here.
For privacy questions or requests, contact Emily Potts at emily.potts@exitcompass.co.uk. Our Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) registration number is ZC283169.
2. What information we collect
- Contact details: your name, email address, business name and information you choose to include when contacting us.
- Assessment information: your answers about your business, its finances, people and operations, and your own plans, priorities and readiness for a future change; the resulting Exit Readiness Map and related assessment records.
- Access and security information: sign-in link details, session and case identifiers, dates and times of activity, and records of relevant backoffice access. Our website and hosting services may also process technical information needed to operate and protect the site.
- Contact choices: whether and when you opted in to occasional Exit Compass emails or to one personal follow-up email about your results.
- Bookings and coaching: booking details, information you share in sessions, notes, agreed written summaries, and, where you separately agree, session recordings or transcripts.
- Newsletter and Netwalking contacts: details you give us when subscribing, enquiring or booking a place through a linked external service.
Some Assessment answers touch on personal circumstances such as retirement, family timing, financial pressure, health, energy or capacity as a reason for considering change. We do not ask you to give a medical diagnosis or medical history in the Assessment. We treat the information you provide as confidential.
3. Why we use information
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Provide the free Assessment, enable secure return access and produce your Exit Readiness Map. | To provide the service you have requested (contract). |
| Manage security, access logs, necessary administration and enquiries. | Our legitimate interests in running a secure and reliable service, or a legal obligation where applicable. |
| Arrange and deliver coaching or paid sessions, provide agreed follow-up materials and manage bookings. | Contract; and legitimate interests for relevant business administration. |
| Send occasional Exit Compass updates if you choose to receive them. | Your consent for optional email marketing. |
| Send one personal email about your Assessment results if you select that option. | Your separate consent for this follow-up email. |
| Maintain appropriate accounting, tax and legal records. | Legal obligation, where applicable. |
The information needed to start the Assessment, such as your name, business name and email, is required to provide and personalise that service. The two contact choices are optional; you receive the Assessment and report whether or not you tick them.
4. How your Assessment works and the use of AI
The Exit Readiness Assessment applies a defined, rules-based methodology to the answers you give. Generative AI does not score your responses or decide which material appears in your automated report. The resulting Exit Readiness Map is intended to support reflection and planning. It is not a formal valuation, a recommendation of a particular exit route, or legal, tax, insolvency or regulated financial advice.
Emily may review Assessment answers and reports to provide the service, respond to questions and, if you have opted in, write one personal follow-up email. We do not feed identifiable Assessment answers or reports into a generative AI tool to produce Assessment results or marketing content.
If you later work with Emily in a coaching or advisory session, she may, with your permission, use a recording, transcription or AI-assisted note-taking service to help prepare a summary. This is separate from the Assessment. You can decline recording, transcription or AI-assisted note-taking and still receive the service, with notes taken manually instead.
5. Your choices about emails
When you start the Assessment, you may tick an optional box to receive occasional Exit Compass insights and updates. This is separate from the Assessment itself, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
At the end, a different unticked box offers a personal follow-up: “I’m happy for Emily to send me a personal follow-up email about my results.” If you tick it, Emily may send one personal email about your Assessment results. It does not enrol you in marketing emails. Emily may need to review answers in the course of running the service whether or not you choose that email.
We may still send you essential service messages, such as secure sign-in links or information needed to access your report. These are not marketing emails. Netwalking emails and Exit Compass marketing emails are separate subscriptions.
6. Who may see your information
Your Assessment responses and report are not public. You can access only your own Assessment through your secure sign-in. Emily can review Assessment records. Authorised backoffice administrators and technical support personnel may also be able to access them where necessary to operate, maintain or protect the system. Access to the Assessments section is permission-controlled, and backoffice openings are logged.
We use trusted service providers for particular tasks, including Microsoft Azure (website, Assessment database and sign-in emails), contact and email administration platforms such as HubSpot and MailerLite where relevant, and Calendly and Stripe when you book and pay for sessions. We may also use Microsoft 365 for email and documents, and, with your permission for individual sessions, recording or transcription services such as Fireflies or Granola and AI tools such as ChatGPT.
We do not send Assessment answers, scores or reports to HubSpot. We do not sell your personal information or use Assessment answers for advertising profiles. Other websites you choose to visit through our links, such as Calendly or Eventbrite, have their own privacy information.
7. Where information is held
The Assessment application and database are hosted in Microsoft Azure’s UK West region, with backups stored in the paired UK South region. Our assessment reports are stored in the database. Some other providers, and support personnel working for providers, may process personal information outside the UK. Where a restricted international transfer takes place, we will use an applicable UK adequacy arrangement or other legally recognised safeguards. You can contact us for more information about these arrangements.
8. How long we keep information
- Incomplete Assessments: deleted 90 days after the most recent Assessment activity.
- Completed Assessments and reports: retained for five years after your most recent answer or submission on any Assessment. Viewing a report alone does not reset this period.
- Backups: copies of deleted Assessment data may remain in secure backups until they expire, normally within seven days.
- Coaching recordings and transcripts, where agreed: kept for up to 12 months after our work together ends. Handwritten notes are normally destroyed within one month of the session. Written coaching summaries are kept for up to three years after our work together ends.
- Contact records: non-client, non-subscriber records are normally reviewed and removed 12 months after the last meaningful contact. Marketing subscription records are kept while you subscribe, subject to periodic review; we may retain minimal unsubscribe information to respect your choice.
- Financial and statutory records: held for the periods required by law. Essential security and access records may have separate, proportionate retention periods.
You can ask us to delete information earlier. Some information may need to be retained where the law permits or requires it. Assessment data, contact records, email copies and downloaded files may be held in separate systems, so we check those separately when responding to a request.
9. Keeping your information secure
We use safeguards appropriate to the service, including secure connections, passwordless sign-in links, restricted system access and encrypted database storage. Access to the backoffice is logged. No internet-based service can guarantee absolute security, but we take sensible steps to protect personal and confidential business information.
10. Your rights
Depending on the circumstances, you have rights to request access to your personal information, have inaccuracies corrected, ask for deletion, restrict or object to certain processing, and receive your information in a portable form where applicable. You can withdraw consent for optional emails at any time without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing.
To exercise your rights, email emily.potts@exitcompass.co.uk. We will normally respond within one month. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
11. Cookies and changes to this notice
Our separate Cookie Policy explains the cookies and similar technologies used on the website. We will update this notice if our services or data-handling arrangements change, and show the date of the latest version.
The website and Assessment are intended for adult business owners and managers, not children.