01Who we are
Leading Social ("Leading Social", "we", "us") is a performance growth agency based at 105 Baggot Street Lower, Dublin 2, D02 DX60, Ireland. We are the controller of the personal data described in this policy, which means we decide how and why it is used.
We work with businesses, so most of the people we hear from contact us on behalf of a company. This policy applies to the personal data of those individuals, and of anyone else who visits our website or interacts with our ads.
When we run advertising, email or analytics for our clients, we process their customers' data on the client's instructions under a separate agreement. That processing is covered by the client's own privacy policy, not this one.
02What we collect
Information you give us
- Growth report and audit applications: your first name, work email, phone or WhatsApp number, brand or company name, and your answers to the questions about your business (for example revenue mix and marketing channels). If you tick the box to hear from us, we also record that choice.
- Contact and enquiry forms: the details you enter in our contact form and in any lead form you complete on Facebook, Instagram or another platform in response to our ads, typically your name, email, phone number, company, website and what you need help with.
- Resource downloads: the details you enter to receive a guide or report, such as the Ecommerce Reality Check.
- Strategy session bookings: your name, email, the time you choose and any answers you give when booking a call.
- Newsletter: your email address.
- Correspondence: anything you send us by email, phone, WhatsApp or during a call.
Information collected automatically
When you visit our website, our cookies and similar technologies (see section 4) collect technical data such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, how you arrived on the site (for example from an ad) and actions such as submitting a form.
Information from third parties
Advertising platforms such as Meta and Google share aggregated reporting with us about how our ads perform. If you submit a lead form directly on one of those platforms, the platform passes the details you entered to us.
We do not ask for, and ask you not to send us, special category data such as health information.
03How we use it and why
Data protection law requires a legal basis for each use of personal data. These are ours:
| Purpose | What it involves | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Answering enquiries | Replying to your message, preparing the growth report or audit you asked for, and arranging calls. | Steps taken at your request before entering into a contract, and our legitimate interest in responding to business enquiries. |
| Delivering resources | Sending you the guide or report you requested. | Your request, and our legitimate interest in providing it. |
| Sales follow-up | Following up on your enquiry by email, phone or WhatsApp to discuss working together. | Our legitimate interest in developing our business. You can ask us to stop at any time. |
| Marketing emails | Sending our newsletter and occasional insights or offers. | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time using the unsubscribe link. |
| Advertising and measurement | Measuring which ads bring visitors and enquiries, and showing our ads to people who visited our site or who resemble our audience. | Your consent to the relevant cookies and pixels. |
| Running the website | Keeping the site secure, working and fast, and understanding how it is used. | Our legitimate interest in operating a secure and effective website. |
| Legal and compliance | Keeping records, handling disputes and meeting tax and accounting duties. | Compliance with our legal obligations. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed them against your rights and expectations. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
06Transfers outside the EEA
Some of our providers, including Meta, Google, Typeform, Calendly, Formspree and Vercel, are based in or process data in the United States or other countries outside the European Economic Area. When your data is transferred there, we rely on safeguards recognised under EU law, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
07How long we keep it
- Enquiries that do not lead to working together: up to 24 months after our last contact with you.
- Clients: for the length of our relationship and up to 6 years afterwards, to meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations.
- Marketing emails: until you unsubscribe. We then keep a record of your email address only to make sure we do not contact you again.
- Cookies and pixels: for the periods described in section 4.
After these periods we delete or anonymise the data.
08Your rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it;
- have inaccurate data corrected;
- have your data erased;
- restrict how we use your data;
- receive your data in a portable format;
- object to our use of your data based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time;
- withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting anything we did before you withdrew it.
To exercise any of these rights, email hello@leadingsocial.com. We will reply within one month, and may need to confirm your identity first. It is free of charge.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie, or to the data protection authority where you live or work. We would appreciate the chance to resolve it with you first.
09Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including encrypted connections, access controls, and reputable providers with strong security practices. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your data and will act promptly if a breach occurs, including notifying you and the regulator where the law requires it.
10Children
Our website and services are aimed at businesses and are not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.
11Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change significantly affects how we use your data, we will let you know.
12Contact us
For any question about this policy or your personal data: