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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 October 2026

This policy explains what personal data IE Sourcing collects, why, how it's used, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to iesourcing.com and to any enquiry, order or project you submit through it.

1. What data we collect

We collect data you give us directly, and a small amount collected automatically when you use the site.

Data you give us

• Free Sourcing Direction Check: name, email address, product idea or reference link, target quantity, approximate budget range and target timeline.
• Paid checkout (Factory Intelligence Pack / Supplier Verification Pack): name and email address, passed to our payment processor to prefill your checkout. We do not collect or store your card details — our payment processor handles payment directly and shares only your name, email and order/payment status back with us.
• Project brief (after checkout): the fields above plus product specification, private label and packaging requirements, compliance/certification needs, target market, target price, target timeline, and any files you choose to upload (reference photos, spec sheets, or an existing supplier quote).
• Correspondence: anything you send us by email or in reply to our messages.

Data collected automatically

• Campaign information from the link you used to reach us (for example which advert you clicked, shown as parameters such as utm_source, utm_campaign and utm_content in the web address) and the page you submitted a form from. This tells us which adverts bring in enquiries. It is sent to us only when you submit a form and is stored with your enquiry. So that it is not lost when you move between our pages, the first advert's parameters are kept in your browser tab's temporary session storage (under the name ie_first_touch) and removed when you close the tab. This does not use cookies, does not depend on your cookie choice and holds no personal data.
• Meta Pixel and cookie data, collected automatically when you visit our pages (pages viewed, actions such as submitting a form, and cookie identifiers such as _fbp and _fbc), and, when you submit a form, your browser type, your IP address and those identifiers, so that Meta can match the form submission to its advert. See Section 4.
• A hidden form field used only to catch automated spam submissions — it stays empty for real visitors and is not personal data about you.

2. Why we use it, and our legal basis

Purpose	What we use	Legal basis
Responding to your Free Direction Check and answering enquiries	Contact details, product details	Legitimate interests (responding to your request)
Delivering a paid Sourcing Intelligence pack, and managing your order	Contact details, project brief, order status	Performance of a contract with you
Taking payment	Name and email (card details go directly to our payment processor, never to us)	Performance of a contract with you
Sharing relevant project details with Chinese suppliers to obtain quotes on your behalf	Product specification, quantities, target price — not your name or contact details unless you ask us to introduce you directly	Performance of a contract with you
Operational communications (order updates, requests for clarification)	Contact details	Performance of a contract with you
Advertising and measuring ad performance (Meta Pixel)	Cookie identifiers, device/browser data, IP address, page activity	Legitimate interests (measuring and improving our advertising)
Working out which adverts produce enquiries (campaign parameters on the link you used)	Campaign parameters and landing page, stored with your enquiry	Legitimate interests (measuring and improving our marketing)
Preventing spam and abuse of our forms	Honeypot field, submission timing	Legitimate interests

3. Who we share it with

We don't sell your data. We share it with a small number of service providers who help us run IE Sourcing, each acting under their own data protection terms:

• Our payment processor — processes payment for paid packages. You'll see their name during checkout; they handle your card details directly and we never see or store them.
• Workflow and order-management tools — route form submissions from our website into our internal systems so our team can act on them.
• Our advertising partner (Meta) — Meta receives Pixel data from your browser and, when you submit a form, a record of that event sent from our workflow tools. The record can include your email address and phone number in hashed (scrambled) form, your IP address, your browser type and your Meta cookie identifiers. See Section 4.
• IP address lookup service — your browser asks a third-party service (ipify) for your public IP address so that we can include it in the record sent to Meta.
• Chinese suppliers and factories — where relevant to obtaining quotes or fulfilling an order, we share the product specification and requirements needed to do so. We do not share your name, email or payment details with suppliers unless your project reaches the stage of a direct introduction, and only with your knowledge.
• Hosting and infrastructure providers — host and deliver this website.

We can confirm the specific identity of these providers on request — email admin@influence-exchange.com.

We may also disclose data where required by law, to enforce our Terms of Service, or to protect the rights, property or safety of IE Sourcing, our clients, or others.

4. Cookies and the Meta Pixel

We use the Meta Pixel on our pages. It loads automatically when you visit; we do not show a cookie banner and there is no opt-in step on our site. The Pixel sets Meta cookies (such as _fbp and _fbc), and we send these identifiers, your IP address and your browser details with your form submissions so that Meta can match them to its advert.

The Pixel places cookies in your browser and shares limited data with Meta about pages you visit and actions you take (such as submitting the Free Direction Check form or starting checkout). We use this to measure how our adverts perform and, if you've interacted with our ads, Meta uses it to measure and improve ad delivery. When you submit a form, our workflow tools may also send Meta a record of that submission (see Section 3).

To stop this tracking, you can block the Meta Pixel and its cookies using your browser's cookie and tracking-protection settings or a content blocker, or control Meta's use of data through your Meta ad preferences at facebook.com/adpreferences. You can also object to this processing by emailing us at hello@iesourcing.com, and we will stop sending your details to Meta.

We do not store a cookie choice, because there is no banner. The first advert's campaign parameters are kept in your tab's session storage as described in Section 2.

5. International transfers

Some of the providers listed in Section 3 — including our payment processor, our advertising partner, and our workflow and hosting providers — may process data outside the UK and European Economic Area. Where this happens, we rely on those providers' own safeguards (such as Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent adequacy arrangements) for the transfer. Where we share product/project specifications with suppliers in China to obtain quotes on your behalf, this is a transfer of business data necessary to deliver the service you've asked for, kept to the minimum needed for that purpose.

6. How long we keep your data

• Enquiry and Free Direction Check data, including the campaign information stored with it: up to 12 months if you don't go on to become a client, so we can follow up and improve our response process.
• Client and order data (including project briefs and correspondence): for the duration of our relationship with you, plus 6 years afterwards to meet UK accounting and tax record-keeping obligations.
• Payment data: held by our payment processor under their own retention policy — we don't hold card details ourselves.

7. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Ask what personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it (right of access);
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data (right to rectification);
• Ask us to delete your data, subject to our legal obligations to retain some records (right to erasure);
• Ask us to restrict or object to certain processing, including direct marketing;
• Ask for your data in a portable format;
• Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent (for example, for marketing emails) (this won't affect processing already carried out).

To exercise any of these rights, email admin@influence-exchange.com. We aim to respond within one month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

8. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including restricted access to client records and use of established, reputable third-party platforms for payment, storage and hosting rather than building our own. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take proportionate steps to protect the data you share with us.

9. Children

IE Sourcing is a business-to-business sourcing service and is not directed at, or intended for use by, children. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time as our service or the providers we use change. The version in effect at the time you use the site is the one that applies. Material changes will be reflected in the "last updated" date above.