Lope Ariyo Cookery School logo

Privacy Policy

Third-party services and embedded content

Some pages on this site, including the homepage, embed posts directly from TikTok and Instagram. When you view those pages, your browser fetches the post from TikTok or Instagram, and those platforms may receive information about your visit (such as your IP address, the page you are viewing, and any tracking identifiers stored in your browser) and set their own cookies. This processing is governed by their privacy policies — see TikTok (privacy policy) and Meta / Instagram (privacy policy).

We do not share any personal data we hold with TikTok or Instagram for this purpose, and we do not use the embeds to track you across other websites. If you would like to avoid this entirely, you can stop your browser from loading the embed (for example, by blocking third-party cookies or using a content blocker).

Last Updated: April 2026

1. Introduction

This privacy policy explains how Lope Ariyo (sole trader, trading as Lope Ariyo Culinary and Creative Group, operating the Lope Ariyo Cookery School) collects, uses, and protects your personal information when you visit our website at school.lopeariyo.com or participate in our cookery classes.

We process your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Data Controller: Lope Ariyo, sole trader, trading as Lope Ariyo Culinary and Creative Group (t/a Lope Ariyo Cookery School)

Website: school.lopeariyo.com

Contact: school@lopeariyo.com

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version will always be available at school.lopeariyo.com/legal/privacy-policy.

2. What Personal Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

  • Identity data: first name, last name
  • Contact data: email address, telephone number (optional)
  • Booking data: class bookings, ticket details, attendance history, class preferences
  • Dietary and health data: dietary requirements and food allergies (special category data — see section 5)
  • Financial data: payment information processed securely by Stripe — we do not store your card details
  • Location data: city and country, collected via sign-up forms and on-site tracking
  • Marketing preference data: email marketing preferences, and your relationship with West African food (collected via our sign-up forms to help us send more relevant communications)
  • Technical data: IP address, browser type and version, device type, pages visited, time on site
  • Photography and video: images and footage taken during classes (with your explicit consent — see section 10)
  • Enquiry data: information submitted via corporate or private event enquiry forms
  • Feedback data: responses to surveys and feedback forms

3. How We Collect Your Information

We collect information about you in the following ways:

  • When you book a class through Ticket Tailor, Eventbrite, ClassBento, or EatWith
  • When you subscribe to our newsletter or download a lead magnet via our website sign-up forms
  • When you join a class waitlist on our website
  • When you submit a corporate or private event enquiry form
  • When you submit feedback via Google Forms or Tally
  • When you communicate with us by email
  • When you visit school.lopeariyo.com (via Plausible Analytics and Klaviyo on-site tracking)
  • When you participate in a cookery class and provide dietary or health information

4. Third-Party Services and Embedded Content

Some pages on this website embed posts from TikTok and Instagram. When you load those pages, your browser fetches content directly from those platforms. As part of that, TikTok and Meta/Instagram may receive your IP address and other browsing data, and may set their own cookies in your browser, according to their own privacy policies. We do not control this processing and we do not share any personal data we hold with these platforms for this purpose.

If you would prefer to avoid this, you can use your browser’s privacy settings to block third-party cookies, or avoid pages that contain embedded social posts.

5. Special Category Data — Dietary and Health Information

Your dietary requirements and food allergy information is special category data under Article 9 of the UK GDPR. We process this data on the basis of your explicit consent, solely to ensure your safety and comfort during class participation.

This data is:

  • Collected only when you book a class
  • Used only to plan and deliver the class safely
  • Not shared with third parties beyond what is strictly necessary for class delivery
  • Retained for six years for legal record-keeping purposes

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting school@lopeariyo.com. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

6. Legal Basis for Processing

Contract performance: Processing your booking, communicating about your class, and delivering the class you have paid for.

Legitimate interests: Running the school efficiently, improving our services, marketing to past and prospective students, maintaining business records, and operating website analytics. We have balanced these interests against your rights and are satisfied this processing is proportionate.

Consent: Marketing email communications, photography and video use, dietary and health information, and behavioural profiling via Klaviyo. You may withdraw consent at any time.

Legal obligation: Retaining financial records for HMRC purposes (minimum six years under UK tax law).

7. Automated Processing and Profiling

We use Klaviyo to send marketing emails. Klaviyo tracks whether you open our emails, click links within them, and visit pages on our website. We use this data to place subscribers into audience segments and to send more relevant communications. This constitutes automated profiling under UK GDPR Article 22.

This profiling does not produce legal or similarly significant effects on you. You have the right to object to this processing at any time by unsubscribing from our emails or contacting school@lopeariyo.com.

8. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell your personal information. We share data only with the following trusted processors:

Booking and ticketing:

  • Ticket Tailor (UK) — class bookings and ticket sales
  • Eventbrite (US) — class bookings and ticket sales
  • ClassBento (UK) — class bookings and ticket sales
  • EatWith (EU) — class bookings and ticket sales

Payments:

  • Stripe (US) — secure payment processing. We do not store card details. Stripe is PCI-DSS Level 1 certified. Standard Contractual Clauses in place.

Email marketing and communications:

  • Klaviyo (US) — marketing email platform and on-site behavioural tracking. Standard Contractual Clauses in place.
  • Resend (US) — transactional email including booking confirmations. Standard Contractual Clauses in place.

Website analytics:

  • Plausible Analytics (EU) — privacy-first website analytics. Plausible does not use cookies and does not collect personal data. All data is processed and hosted within the EU. No consent is required for this processing.

Error monitoring:

  • Sentry (US) — application error monitoring. Sentry may receive technical data including anonymised device and browser metadata when errors occur on our website. We configure Sentry to minimise personal data in error reports. Standard Contractual Clauses in place.

Product analytics (planned):

  • PostHog (US) — product analytics. Not yet active. When enabled, it will use EU data residency and cookie consent controls.

Feedback collection:

  • Google Forms (US) — feedback surveys. Google is certified under the UK-US data bridge.
  • Tally (EU) — feedback and survey forms. GDPR compliant.

Accounting:

  • Xero (New Zealand/UK) — accounting software. May hold your name and email address as part of financial records. GDPR compliant.

9. International Data Transfers

When we transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom, we ensure it is protected to the same standard as in the UK through the following safeguards:

  • Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for all US-based processors
  • EU adequacy decision for processors based in Germany and France
  • UK-US data bridge certification for Google services

If you would like details of the specific safeguard in place for any processor, please contact school@lopeariyo.com.

10. How Long We Keep Your Data

Booking and class data: Retained for legitimate business purposes and to comply with HMRC’s six-year financial record-keeping requirement.

Marketing data: Retained until you unsubscribe. We retain a suppression record after unsubscribing to ensure you are not contacted again in error.

Dietary and health data: Retained for six years from your last class attendance.

Financial records: Minimum six years as required by UK law.

Right to deletion: You may request deletion of your data at any time by contacting school@lopeariyo.com. We will comply except where we are legally required to retain specific information.

11. Photography and Video

We may take photographs and videos during classes for use in marketing materials including on our website, Instagram, and TikTok. We will always ask for your explicit consent before capturing or using images or video that feature you. You are under no obligation to consent and refusing will not affect your participation in any class. You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting school@lopeariyo.com.

12. Cookies

We use Plausible Analytics, which does not set cookies. We do not use Google Analytics.

Klaviyo’s on-site tracking, when active, may set a cookie to identify returning subscribers and personalise your experience. This is a marketing cookie and requires your consent via our cookie consent banner.

Some pages embed social media content from TikTok and Instagram. Loading these pages may cause those platforms to set their own cookies. See our Cookie Policy at school.lopeariyo.com/legal/cookie-policy for full details.

13. Your Rights Under UK GDPR

  • Right of access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
  • Right to rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
  • Right to erasure: Request deletion of your personal data, subject to our legal obligations
  • Right to restrict processing: Request that we limit how we use your data
  • Right to data portability: Request your data in a structured, machine-readable format
  • Right to object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests, including marketing profiling
  • Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact school@lopeariyo.com. We will respond within one month. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

14. Children

Our classes are designed for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe we have done so in error, please contact school@lopeariyo.com.

15. Changes to This Policy

We will update this policy when our practices change. Material changes will be communicated by email where appropriate. The date of the latest update is shown at the top of this page.