Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2 May 2026

This privacy policy applies to May Busch & Associates Ltd, trading as Career Mastery (“we”, “us”, or “our”). We are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, use and share your personal data. It applies to all personal data we handle, whether we collect it through our website, in person, or through other means.

This Privacy Policy applies to the Career Mastery platform and related services.

Information we collect

Identity and contact details

• Name, address, email address and phone number
• Professional details

Service related information

• Transaction details for services you’ve purchased from us or enquiries about our services
• Your preferences for our services and your marketing preferences and where relevant information related to loyalty programmes
• Feedback, complaints and compliments and survey responses
• Content you voluntarily provide through the platform, including profile information, career achievements, reflections, journal entries, and other materials

User-Generated Content

• Our Services allow you to voluntarily submit content, including profile information, career achievements, reflections, and other materials.
• You are responsible for the content you choose to provide and must not include confidential, sensitive, or proprietary information (including information belonging to your employer or any third party) unless you have the right and permission to share that information.
• We process this information in order to provide and improve our Services, including delivering personalized features and recommendations.
• If community features (such as a members-only forum or messaging functionality) are introduced in the future, any content you choose to share may be visible to other members in accordance with the functionality of those features.

Financial and payment information

• We do not store full payment card details. Payments are processed securely by our third-party payment provider (Stripe).
• We may receive limited information about transactions, such as payment status, billing information, and partial payment details (for example, the last four digits of a card), in order to manage subscriptions and provide our Services.

Digital information

• IP address and general location information derived from your IP address
• Search and browsing behaviour and user journeys
• Website usage patterns
• Cookie preferences and tracking

Recordings of Coaching Sessions (“Career Mastery Lives”)

• We may record live coaching sessions conducted as part of our Services. These recordings may include audio, video, and any information voluntarily shared by participants during the session.
• Recordings are made available to other paying members within the platform as part of the Services for educational and training purposes.
• By participating in a recorded session, you acknowledge that your voice, image, and any information you choose to share may be included in these recordings and made available to other members.
• We encourage participants to be mindful of the information they share during recorded sessions.
• If you prefer not to be recorded, you may choose not to participate in live sessions or limit the information you share, for example by turning off your camera.

How we collect personal data

• Directly from you when you: when you interact with us, create your account, contact us, fill out forms.
• Automatically when you: visit our website, use our technologies, interact with our online services.
• From third parties: service providers acting on our behalf, and organisations you have authorised.
• From publicly available sources: such as Companies House and professional networking sites such as LinkedIn.

How we use your information

Data protection law requires us to have proper legal reasons for using your personal data. We can only use your information when we have one or more of these legal bases.

• Consent – You have clearly agreed to us using your personal data for a specific purpose.
• Performance of a contract – We need to use your information to fulfil a contract with you, or because you’ve asked us to do something before entering into a contract.
• Legal duty – We must use your information to comply with the law.
• Vital interests – We need to use your information to protect someone’s life.
• Public interest – We need to use your information to perform a task in the public interest or carry out official functions that have a clear legal basis.
• Legitimate interests – We have a genuine business reason to use your information, or a third party does, but only if this doesn’t unfairly override your rights and interests. Where we rely on legitimate interests as our legal basis, we have conducted balancing tests to ensure our interests do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms. These assessments consider:
  • The nature of our legitimate interest
  • The impact on you
  • Any safeguards we can implement
  • Your reasonable expectations
  • The broader context of our relationship

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one legal basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. We have listed the reasons we process your data and the legal basis below. Please reach out to us if you need further details about the specific legal basis we are relying on to process your personal data.

Managing your account and providing our services

Use of User-Generated Content

• We do not use personal content you submit to the platform (such as journal entries, reflections, or achievement logs) in identifiable form for marketing, advertising, or promotional purposes.
• We may use aggregated and anonymised insights derived from user activity to better understand common challenges, improve our Services, and inform the content we create and share.
• We do not routinely access or review individual entries. Access is limited to what is necessary to provide support, maintain the platform, or improve the Services.

What we use your information for

• To enable you to access and use our software, including providing login credentials
• To provide our services to you, including, access to training content, coaching sessions, and platform features
• To contact and communicate with you about our services, including responding to support requests and enquiries and for dealing with complaints or claims
• Internal record keeping, administrative, invoicing and billing purposes
• To personalise your experience on the platform, including recommending content, resources, or features based on your preferences, career stage, and areas of interest
• To support our marketing and advertising activities, including understanding our audience, measuring the effectiveness of campaigns, and building relevant audiences for outreach on third-party platforms.

Legal basis for using this information

• Performance of a Contract
• Legal Duty (for billing and record-keeping requirements)
• Legitimate interests

Types of information we use

• Identity and contact details
• Service related information
• Payment and Transaction Information
• Digital information

Website enquiries and customer service

What we use your information for

• To contact and communicate with you about any enquiries you make with us via our website

Legal basis for using this information

• Legitimate interests

Types of information we use

• Identity and Contact Data
• Digital Information

Business improvement and development

What we use your information for

• Analytics on our website
• Market research and business development
• To operate and improve our services, associated applications and associated social media platforms

Legal basis for using this information

• Legitimate interests

Types of information we use

• Digital Information

Marketing and communications

What we use your information for

• To send you promotional information about our events and experiences and information that we consider may be of interest to you
• To run promotions, competitions and offer additional benefits to you

Legal basis for using this information

• Legitimate interests

Types of information we use

• Identity and Contact Data
• Digital Information

Recruitment and employment purposes

What we use your information for

• To consider your application if you have applied to work with us and to keep you up to date with its progress
• In relation to self-declared disabilities in order for us to make a reasonable adjustments to support your application and any possible future employment
• In relation to any diversity or equal opportunities monitoring questionnaire data, to monitor and report on our equality and diversity composition and ensure fairness in the recruitment process
• In relation to any right to work information we collect, in order to ensure we comply with the law in employing you
• To keep you updated on any other suitable vacancies

Legal basis for using this information

• Legitimate interests
• Legal Duty
• Consent
• Performance of a Contract

Types of information we use

• Identity and Contact Data
• Professional Data

Legal compliance

What we use your information for

• Comply with our legal obligations or if otherwise required or authorised by law

Legal basis for using this information

• Legal Duty

Types of information we use

• All relevant Personal Data

Our disclosures of personal data to third parties

We share personal data only with trusted service providers who assist us in operating our Services.

These service providers act as data processors on our behalf and are contractually required to process personal data only as necessary to provide their services to us.

A current list of our key service providers (sub-processors), including their locations and purposes, is available here: https://careermastery.com/data-protection/

Service providers

• Data storage providers
• Web hosting and server providers
• Payment processors (such as Stripe)
• Marketing and email service providers (such as Kit, Mailchimp, Twilio SendGrid)
• Analytics providers (such as Amplitude and Fathom)
• Video conferencing providers (such as Zoom)
• Customer support providers (such as Freshworks)
• AI technology providers (such as Anthropic)

Professional advisers

• Bankers
• Auditors
• Insurers and insurance brokers
• Legal advisers

Corporate transactions

If we merge with or are acquired by another company, or sell our business assets:

• Your information may be disclosed to our advisers
• Your information may be disclosed to the potential purchaser’s advisers
• Your information may be included in the transferred assets

Legal and regulatory bodies

• Courts and tribunals
• Regulatory authorities including as required for reporting obligations
• Law enforcement officers

Other parties

• Third parties you have authorised
• Emergency services when necessary
• Any other parties as required or permitted by law

We do not sell your personal information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share limited information with trusted service providers and partners for marketing and advertising purposes as described in this Privacy Policy.

Overseas transfers

International Users

Our Services are available globally. By using our Services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries where our service providers operate.

We take steps to ensure that your personal data is protected in accordance with applicable data protection laws, regardless of where it is processed.

Where we store and access your information

We store and process personal data using systems and service providers located in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other jurisdictions where our service providers operate.

• When our service providers are located overseas
• When we work with overseas business partners
• When using cloud-based services or data storage solutions
• When required by law or legal proceedings

Our approach to overseas transfers

When we transfer your personal data outside the United Kingdom, we ensure it receives appropriate protection by:

• Only transferring your information to countries that UK data protection law recognises as providing adequate protection for personal data, or
• Putting in place a contract with the third party that means they must protect personal data to the same standards as the UK.
• Transferring personal data to organisations that are part of specific agreements on cross-border data transfers with the UK.

What this means for you

We only transfer the minimum amount of personal data necessary and require all recipients to:

• Protect your information to the same standards required by UK law
• Use your information only for the purposes we’ve agreed
• Allow us to monitor how they handle your information
• Provide you with the same rights over your information that you have under UK law

Children’s personal data

Our Services are intended for individuals aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect or process personal data from anyone under the age of 18.

If we become aware that personal data has been collected from a person under 18, we will take steps to delete that information.

Data retention

How long we keep your information

We only keep your personal data for as long as we need it to:

• Provide our services to you
• Meet our legal, tax, accounting or regulatory obligations
• Handle any complaints or legal issues that may arise

We may keep your information for longer periods if:

• You make a complaint that we need to investigate or respond to
• We reasonably believe legal action involving our relationship with you might occur
• The law requires us to keep it for specific timeframes

How we decide retention periods

When determining how long to keep your information, we consider:

• How much information we have and how sensitive it is
• The risk of harm if the information was accessed without permission
• Whether we can achieve our purposes in other ways
• What legal, regulatory, tax or accounting rules require
• The nature of our relationship with you and the services we provide

What happens when we no longer need your information

Once we no longer need your personal data, we will securely delete or destroy it in accordance with our data retention policies and legal requirements.

Your Rights

You can request information about retention periods for your data and ask for early deletion where legally possible.

Your privacy rights and choices

Providing information

You can choose whether to provide personal data to us. Some information (such as account registration details) is required for us to provide the Services, while other information (such as profile details, journal entries, and content inputs) is optional and provided at your discretion.

Right of Access

You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data. You can request other information such as details about where we get personal data from and who we share personal data with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for.

Right to Rectification

You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal data you think is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to Erasure (“Right to be forgotten”)

You can request deletion of your personal data in certain limited circumstances as set out in data protection law, such as where the data is no longer necessary or has been unlawfully processed. This right is not absolute and we may be required or entitled to retain your data for legal, regulatory or legitimate business reasons.

Right to Restrict Processing

You can ask us to suspend processing where:

• You contest the accuracy of the data
• Processing is unlawful but you don’t want erasure
• We no longer need the data but you need it for legal claims
• You’ve objected to processing pending verification of our legitimate grounds

Right to opt-out of marketing communications

You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications at any time. Each marketing communication will include an unsubscribe option. You can change your marketing preferences by contacting us (email: support@careermastery.com). We will process your request as soon as practicable.

Right to Data Portability

Where technically feasible, you can receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used format or have it transmitted to another controller where:

• Processing is based on consent or contract
• Processing is automated

Right to Object

You can object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds.

Right to Withdraw Consent

Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

Depending on your location, you may have additional rights under applicable data protection laws. The following section outlines additional rights that may apply to residents of certain jurisdictions.

Additional Rights for US Residents

If you are a resident of certain states in the United States, including California, you may have specific rights regarding your personal information under applicable privacy laws.

Subject to certain conditions and limitations, these rights may include:

• The right to request access to the personal information we hold about you
• The right to request correction of inaccurate personal information
• The right to request deletion of your personal information
• The right to request information about how your personal information is collected, used, and disclosed

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details set out in the “Contact Us” section of this Privacy Policy. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable law.

We do not sell your personal information. We may share limited personal information with trusted service providers who process data on our behalf for business purposes, such as payment processing, email communications, analytics, for marketing and advertising purposes as described in this Privacy Policy, and providing certain features of our Services. These service providers are contractually required to use personal information only as necessary to provide services to us.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights.

You may also have the right to opt out of certain types of data processing, such as targeted advertising or profiling, where applicable.

How to Exercise Your Rights

You may exercise your rights by contacting us at support@careermastery.com.

Where available, you may also update or delete certain information directly within your account settings.

We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Making a complaint

If you have concerns about how we handle your information

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve used your personal data, please get in touch with us first using the contact details at the end of this policy. When you contact us:

• Give us full details about your complaint
• We’ll investigate your concerns promptly
• We’ll respond to you in writing explaining what we found and what we’ll do to address your complaint

Your right to complain to the regulator

You can also make a complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at any time.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

You don’t have to contact us first before going to the ICO, but we’d appreciate the opportunity to try to resolve your concerns directly with you.

Protecting your information

Technical safeguards

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encryption where appropriate and access controls.

Public information

Please note that any information you choose to share publicly (for example, in comments or recordings) may be visible to others. We encourage you to be mindful of what you share in public spaces, as we cannot control how others may use that information.

Cookies and analytics

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device when you visit our website. They help us remember your preferences and understand how you use our site.

Types of cookies we use

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website to enhance your browsing experience and improve our services.

We may use cookies and similar technologies for analytics, functionality, and marketing purposes, including to deliver relevant advertisements and measure their effectiveness.

We use the following types of cookies:

• Essential cookies: Necessary for the website to function properly
• Performance cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with our website and improve performance
• Functionality cookies: Remember your preferences and settings
• Marketing cookies: Used to measure marketing effectiveness and support outreach on third-party platforms

We use analytics tools (such as Fathom and Amplitude) to understand how users interact with our Services and improve performance. These tools are designed to minimise the use of personal data where possible.

Cookie consent

Where required by law, we will obtain your consent before placing marketing cookies or using similar technologies.

When you first visit our website, you will see a cookie notice explaining our use of cookies. You can choose which types of cookies to accept through our cookie preference centre. You’ll find more information about the cookies we use in our cookie pop-up.

Managing your preferences

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by:

• Using our cookie preference centre on the website
• Adjusting your browser settings to refuse or delete cookies
• Visiting our cookie policy for detailed information about specific cookies

Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website and your user experience.

You can find more detailed information about the cookies we use in our cookie notice: https://careermastery.com/cookie-policy/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies

How we use AI

We use AI-powered features within our Services to help generate content based on information you provide (for example, career-related writing prompts or scripts).

These features are designed to support your thinking and communication, but you remain responsible for how you use any generated content.

If you choose to use these features:

The information you input may be shared with third-party providers (Anthropic) for the purpose of generating responses.

Outputs are generated automatically and may be incomplete or inaccurate;

You are responsible for reviewing and deciding how to use any generated content.

You should not include confidential, sensitive, or proprietary information (including information belonging to your employer or any third party) unless you have the right and permission to share that information.

We do not use your personal inputs to train third-party AI models.

Amendments

We may update this policy at any time by posting the revised version on our website. We recommend that you review our website regularly to stay current with any policy changes.

Our contact details

Privacy contact email: support@careermastery.com