Last updated 31 October 2026
1. Who we are
Lincoln Jazz Café is run by Lincoln Jazz Cafe Ltd (company number 14082189), 6 Water Lane, Lincoln, LN1 1TY. We decide how your personal information is used, so we are the “controller” under data protection law. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number ZB590330. Our VAT registration number is 431 1844 23.
If you have a question about your data, email mail@lincolnjazzcafe.co.uk, call 01522 525 526 during opening hours, or write to us at the address above.
This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and your rights.
2. What we collect and why
| When | What we collect | Why we use it | Our lawful basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| You book a table | Name, email, phone, party size, date and time, notes, any live music charge paid, and (for groups of 7 or more) a card check through Stripe. We never see your full card number. | To manage your booking, send confirmations and reminders, contact you about changes, and charge a no-show fee where one applies | Contract |
| You buy tickets, platters or other items online | Name, email, phone, billing address, order details and notes. Card details go straight to our payment provider; we never see or store your full card number. | To take payment, send your tickets, prepare your order, handle refunds and keep accounts | Contract; legal obligation (tax and accounting records) |
| You tell us about allergies or dietary needs | Allergy and intolerance details (this counts as health information) | To keep you safe when preparing food | Your explicit consent; you can withdraw it at any time, but then we can’t serve you a platter safely |
| You buy or use a gift card | Buyer and recipient names, emails, any message, and the balance | To issue the card and track its balance | Contract |
| You contact us (website form, email, phone, Facebook or Instagram messages) | Name, contact details and what you tell us | To reply, and to deal with private hire enquiries | Legitimate interests (answering you); contract (if you go on to book) |
| You use the chat window on our website | What you type into the chat | To answer your questions automatically. The chat is run by an AI assistant, not a person. Please don’t share sensitive details in it. | Legitimate interests |
| You sign up for our newsletter or free guide, or tick the box at checkout | Name and email address, plus whether you open or click our emails | To send you news about events and offers | Consent. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email. |
| You visit our website | IP address, device and browser details, the pages you visit and how you got to our site | To keep the site secure, stop spam and fraud, understand how the site is used and, if you agree, measure our adverts | Legitimate interests (security, statistics); consent (advertising and tracking cookies) |
| You come to an event | Photos or short videos that may include you | To show what our nights are like on our website and social media | Legitimate interests. Tell us if you’d rather not appear and we’ll remove it. |
| You visit the venue | CCTV images | Safety, preventing crime and meeting our licence conditions | Legitimate interests; legal obligation |
| You apply to play or exhibit with us | Name, contact details, links to your work and what you tell us | To consider and arrange bookings | Legitimate interests; contract |
We don’t use your information to make automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
Marketing. We will only send you marketing emails if you have opted in. Booking or buying from us does not sign you up. You can opt in by ticking the box at checkout or by signing up to our newsletter.
3. Who we share it with
We don’t sell your data. We share it only with companies that help us run the business. They may only use it on our instructions, except where they act as an independent controller, such as a payment provider.
- resOS: table bookings and booking emails and texts
- Stripe: card checks and any no-show fee for table bookings made through resOS. Stripe acts as an independent controller for payment data.
- WooCommerce and Modern Events Calendar on our own website: tickets and orders
- Square and PayPal: online and in-venue card payments and fraud checks. They act as independent controllers for payment data.
- Gift Up: gift cards
- Kit (ConvertKit) and OptinMonster: newsletter and sign-up forms
- Chatling: the chat window on our website
- Google: Analytics, Ads, Tag Manager and Site Kit; reCAPTCHA (spam protection); Google Fonts; and Google Drive (secure storage of website backups)
- Atreemo: customer marketing software. If you accept marketing cookies, its code records which pages you visit so that it can be linked to your details if you are on our mailing list.
- Ahrefs: website statistics
- Hostinger: website hosting and our business email
- Wordfence and Melapress: website security
- FluentSMTP: sending order and form emails from our website, through our Hostinger email
- Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube: if you message us or interact with us there, their own privacy policies apply
- Our accountant, our insurers, and the police or the licensing authority if the law requires it
4. International transfers
Some of these providers (for example Google, PayPal, Square, Kit and OptinMonster) are based in the United States or store data there. When your data leaves the UK, we rely on the UK government’s adequacy decisions (including the UK-US “data bridge”) or on the ICO’s approved contract clauses, to make sure your data stays protected. Contact us if you would like more details.
5. How long we keep it
- Orders, tickets, payments and refunds: 6 years from the end of the financial year, for tax and accounting.
- Table bookings: 6 months after your visit.
- Allergy notes: deleted 30 days after your visit.
- Enquiries and private hire quotes that don’t become bookings: 12 months.
- Gift cards: until 6 years after the card expires or is used up.
- Newsletter: until you unsubscribe. After that we keep your email on a suppression list so we don’t email you again.
- Chat transcripts: up to 90 days.
- Website backups: we keep the two most recent daily backups, so a backup is normally replaced within a few days.
- CCTV: 30 days, unless we need footage for an incident.
- Security logs: in line with Wordfence’s own settings, usually a few weeks.
6. Cookies and similar technology
Cookies are small files saved on your device. When you first visit our website, a banner asks whether you accept optional cookies. You can accept all, reject all, or choose by category. Rejecting is as easy as accepting, and nothing optional runs until you choose. You can change your mind at any time using the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page. We remember your choice for 6 months.
- Essential (always on). These make the site work: basket, checkout, payments (Square and PayPal), table bookings (resOS), gift cards (Gift Up), logins, security and spam protection (Google reCAPTCHA). We also store a cookie called ljc_consent to remember your cookie choice.
- Analytics (optional). Google Analytics and Ahrefs tell us how people use the site in total, so we can improve it. They only run if you agree.
- Marketing (optional). Google Ads and Google Tag Manager tags, and Atreemo. They help us measure our adverts and marketing. They only run if you agree.
- Chat and videos (optional). The Chatling chat window, and embedded YouTube or Vimeo videos. These providers may set their own cookies, so they only load if you agree. If you say no, you can still contact us by email or phone.
The resOS booking page has its own cookie choices, which resOS manages.
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you do, some parts of the site, such as checkout, might not work.
7. Your rights
You have the right to:
- get a copy of your data
- have wrong data corrected
- have your data deleted
- restrict how we use it
- object to how we use it, including stopping marketing at any time
- receive your data in a portable format
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent
To use any of these rights, email mail@lincolnjazzcafe.co.uk. We may need to check who you are. We will normally reply within one month. Using these rights is free.
8. Children
Under 18s can only visit with an adult. We don’t knowingly collect personal information online from anyone under 13. Bookings and purchases must be made by an adult.
9. Keeping your data safe
Our website uses encryption (https), security monitoring and limited staff access. Payments are handled by our payment providers, so we never store full card numbers. Only staff who need your details can see them.
10. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first at mail@lincolnjazzcafe.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and let you know the outcome.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Helpline: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
11. Changes
We will update this policy when the way we use data changes. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.
