Cruising As Crew / Sail for Success

Privacy Policy

Effective date: 20 May 2026  ·  Last updated: 20 May 2026

Business name: Cruising As Crew  ·  Owner: Lucy Southerton  ·  Website: cruisingascrew.com  ·  Course and community platform: Heartbeat.chat  ·  Contact email: lucy@cruisingascrew.com

1. Owner and Data Controller

Cruising As Crew / Sail for Success is operated by Lucy Southerton. In this Privacy Policy, "we", "us" and "our" refers to Cruising As Crew and Sail for Success.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a safe, transparent and lawful way.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal information when you visit our website, join our email list, purchase a product or course, take part in the Sail for Success programme, contact us, or interact with us online.

By using our website, signing up to our emails, purchasing our products, or joining Sail for Success, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

2. What Personal Data We Collect

Personal information you provide to us

We may collect and process personal information you provide to us, including:

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Billing information
  • Payment information
  • Country or region
  • Login details for course access
  • Information you provide in forms, surveys, questionnaires or applications
  • Information you provide when asking for support or guidance
  • Information you share during one-to-one calls, mock interviews, CV reviews, Voxer messages, community posts or emails

Course-related information

If you join Sail for Success, we may collect information such as:

  • Your career goals
  • Your cruise ship job preferences
  • Your previous work experience
  • Your CV or resume
  • Your interview preparation notes
  • Your progress through the course
  • Your questions, comments or messages inside the course community
  • Your participation in Zoom calls, Voxer support, mock interviews or feedback sessions

Technical and website data

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect technical and usage data, including:

  • IP address
  • Browser type and version
  • Device type
  • Time zone
  • Pages visited
  • Time spent on pages
  • Links clicked
  • Referring websites
  • General usage data
  • Cookies and similar tracking data

3. How We Collect Your Data

We may collect your personal data when you:

  • Visit our website
  • Sign up to our email list or newsletter
  • Download a free resource
  • Register for a masterclass, webinar or free training
  • Purchase Sail for Success or another product
  • Create a course account
  • Complete a form, questionnaire or survey
  • Submit your CV for feedback
  • Book or attend a Zoom call
  • Send us a message by email, social media, Voxer or another platform
  • Join or interact inside the course community
  • Comment on or interact with our social media content
  • Use our website, course platform or payment pages

4. Why We Use Your Personal Data

We may use your personal data to:

  • Provide access to the Sail for Success course
  • Deliver products, services, downloads, masterclasses or resources you have requested
  • Process payments and manage purchases
  • Send order confirmations, login details and important service updates
  • Review your CV and provide feedback, where included in your purchase
  • Provide mock interview preparation, one-to-one calls or Voxer support, where included in your purchase
  • Respond to your questions and support requests
  • Manage the Sail for Success community
  • Send newsletters, updates, educational content and promotional emails
  • Improve our website, course, products and services
  • Understand how users interact with our website and content
  • Run advertising, remarketing or analytics
  • Protect the security of our website, course platform and business
  • Comply with legal, tax, accounting and regulatory obligations
  • Enforce our terms, refund policy, money-back guarantee or other agreements

5. Lawful Basis for Processing Personal Data

Where UK GDPR or GDPR applies, we rely on one or more lawful bases for processing your personal data.

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to provide something you have purchased or requested from us. For example, giving you access to Sail for Success, reviewing your CV, delivering course content, providing support, or processing your payment.

Consent

We may process your data where you have given consent, such as when you sign up for marketing emails, accept non-essential cookies, or agree to receive certain communications. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

Legitimate interests

We may process your data where we have a legitimate business interest, provided your rights and freedoms do not override that interest. This may include improving our services, responding to enquiries, preventing fraud, managing customer relationships, or understanding how users interact with our website.

Legal obligation

We may process your data where required to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, business records or regulatory requirements.

6. Email Marketing

If you sign up to our email list, download a free resource, register for a masterclass, or purchase from us, we may send you emails about cruise ship jobs, working at sea, Sail for Success, offers, updates, resources and related content.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or by contacting us at lucy@cruisingascrew.com.

We will not sell your email address to third parties.

7. Payments

Payments for Sail for Success or other Cruising As Crew products may be processed through third-party payment providers such as Stripe, PayPal or another payment processor.

We do not store your full card details on our own servers. Your payment information is handled securely by the relevant payment provider.

We may keep records of your purchase, including your name, email address, product purchased, amount paid, payment date and billing details, for accounting, tax, customer service and legal purposes.

8. Course Platform and Community

Sail for Success is hosted on Heartbeat.chat, a third-party course and community platform.

When you join Sail for Success, your personal information may be processed through Heartbeat.chat so that you can access the course lessons, community area, resources, messages, comments and other course features.

This may include your name, email address, profile information, login details, course progress, community posts, comments, messages, uploaded documents or files, and participation in discussions, group calls or course activities.

Heartbeat.chat may process this information in order to provide the course and community platform.

Please be mindful when posting inside the community. Any information you share in community spaces may be visible to other members.

We ask all members to treat personal information shared inside the course community respectfully and confidentially.

9. CV Feedback, Mock Interviews and Mentorship

If your purchase includes CV feedback, mock interviews, Zoom calls, Voxer support or mentorship, we may process additional personal information you choose to share with us.

This may include your employment history, career goals, nationality or location, qualifications, documents, cruise ship job preferences, interview answers, and other information relevant to helping you apply for cruise ship jobs.

We use this information only to provide the service you have purchased, support your progress through the programme, and communicate with you about your application journey.

10. Money-Back Guarantee

If you request a refund under a money-back guarantee, we may ask you to provide evidence that you have completed the required steps, such as course progress, applications submitted, CV updates, interview preparation or communication history.

We use this information to assess whether the terms of the guarantee have been met.

11. Cookies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites function properly, remember preferences, analyse traffic, improve user experience, and support marketing or advertising.

We may use the following types of cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are required for the website or course platform to work properly. They may be used for login access, security, checkout functions and page navigation. These cookies cannot usually be switched off.

Analytics cookies

These cookies help us understand how visitors use our website, which pages are popular, how long users stay on the site, and how people find us. We may use tools such as Google Analytics or similar services.

Marketing and advertising cookies

These cookies may be used to show relevant adverts, measure advertising performance, or retarget visitors on platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or other advertising platforms.

Functionality cookies

These cookies help remember your preferences and improve your experience.

Social media cookies and pixels

Our website may include links, embeds, videos, buttons or pixels from platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or other social media platforms. These third-party platforms may collect information about your interaction with their content, depending on your privacy settings and whether you are logged into those platforms.

12. Managing Cookies

When you visit our website, you may be given the option to accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can also manage or delete cookies through your browser settings.

Please note that if you block some cookies, parts of the website or course platform may not work properly.

13. Third-Party Services We May Use

We may use trusted third-party service providers to help us run our business, website, course, payments, marketing and customer support.

These may include, but are not limited to:

  • Website hosting providers
  • Heartbeat.chat for course and community hosting
  • Email marketing platforms
  • Payment processors
  • Analytics providers
  • Video hosting platforms
  • Social media platforms
  • Advertising platforms
  • Scheduling tools
  • Form or survey tools
  • Cloud storage providers
  • Customer support or messaging tools
  • Accounting or business administration tools

Examples may include platforms such as Heartbeat.chat, Stripe, PayPal, Google Analytics, YouTube, Zoom, Voxer, MailerLite, Google Workspace, Meta, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon Associates or similar providers.

We only share personal data with these providers where necessary for them to provide services to us or to you.

14. International Data Transfers

Some of the third-party platforms we use may store or process personal data outside the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, or your country of residence.

Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal data is protected in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

15. How Long We Keep Your Data

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected. This may include:

  • As long as you have an active course account
  • As long as needed to provide support or services
  • As long as you remain subscribed to our email list
  • As long as needed for legal, tax, accounting or business record purposes
  • As long as needed to resolve disputes or enforce agreements

When your data is no longer needed, we will delete it or anonymise it where appropriate.

16. How We Protect Your Data

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction.

These steps may include:

  • Using secure third-party platforms
  • Password-protected systems
  • Limited access to personal data
  • SSL technology on websites and checkout pages
  • Secure payment processors
  • Regular monitoring of systems where possible

However, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

17. Sharing Your Data

We do not sell your personal data.

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to:

  • Provide the course or services you purchased
  • Process payments
  • Manage email communications
  • Host the website or course platform
  • Provide customer support
  • Run analytics or advertising
  • Comply with legal obligations
  • Protect our rights, property, users or business

We may also disclose personal data if required by law, regulation, court order, government request or legal process.

18. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under data protection laws. These may include the right to:

  • Access the personal data we hold about you
  • Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
  • Ask us to delete your personal data
  • Ask us to restrict how we process your data
  • Object to certain types of processing
  • Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
  • Request a copy of your data in a portable format
  • Complain to a data protection authority

To exercise your rights, contact us at lucy@cruisingascrew.com.

We aim to respond to valid requests within one month, unless a longer period is permitted by law.

19. Complaints

If you are based in the UK and you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office. However, we would appreciate the opportunity to deal with your concern first, so please contact us at lucy@cruisingascrew.com.

20. Children's Privacy

Our website, products and Sail for Success programme are intended for people aged 18 or over.

We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.

If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 13 without appropriate parental or guardian consent, we will delete it as soon as reasonably possible.

If you believe we may have collected information from a child, please contact us at lucy@cruisingascrew.com.

21. Links to Other Websites

Our website, course materials, emails or resources may contain links to third-party websites, including cruise lines, recruitment agencies, maritime authorities, STCW providers, medical providers, visa resources, Amazon links, social media platforms or other external websites.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content or policies of third-party websites.

We encourage you to read the privacy policy of any external website you visit.

22. Affiliate Links

Some links on our website, inside Sail for Success, or in our resources may be affiliate links. This means we may earn a commission if you click a link and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.

Affiliate partners may use cookies or tracking technologies to record referrals and purchases. Where required, affiliate relationships will be disclosed.

23. Testimonials and Success Stories

If you provide a testimonial, review, success story, screenshot, video, comment or feedback, we may ask for your permission to use it for marketing purposes.

We will not publish sensitive personal information without your consent.

If you want us to remove a testimonial or success story that includes your personal data, please contact us at lucy@cruisingascrew.com.

24. Zoom Calls, Recordings and Voice Notes

If you attend a Zoom call, group call, mock interview or mentorship session, the session may be recorded where appropriate.

If a session is recorded, we will let you know.

Recordings may be used for course delivery, student support, internal review or training purposes. We will not publicly share private coaching calls, mock interviews or Voxer voice notes without your permission.

25. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "last updated" date.

If we make significant changes, we may notify you by email or by placing a notice on our website.

Your continued use of our website, course or services after changes are posted means you accept the updated Privacy Policy.

26. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how your personal data is handled, please contact us:

Cookie Policy

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website.

They help websites function properly, remember your preferences, improve your experience, analyse website traffic and support marketing or advertising.

2. Types of Cookies We Use

Strictly necessary cookies — these cookies are essential for the website, checkout pages and course platform to work. They may be used for login access, security, account management, checkout and navigation.

Analytics cookies — these cookies help us understand how visitors use our website, including which pages are visited, how long people stay on the site and how users find us.

Marketing cookies — these cookies may be used to show you relevant adverts, measure advertising performance or retarget users who have visited our website.

Functionality cookies — these cookies help improve your experience by remembering your preferences.

Third-party cookies — third-party platforms such as YouTube, Google, Meta, Instagram, TikTok, payment providers, email platforms, Heartbeat.chat or other course platforms may place cookies when you interact with embedded content, forms, payment pages, videos or social media features.

3. Cookie Consent

When you first visit our website, we may ask you to accept or reject non-essential cookies.

Strictly necessary cookies are required for the site to function and cannot usually be turned off.

You can change your cookie preferences through your browser settings or, where available, through the cookie banner on our website.

4. Managing Cookies

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. You can usually find cookie settings in your browser's privacy or security section.

If you disable cookies, some parts of the website or course platform may not function correctly.

5. Contact

If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy, please contact lucy@cruisingascrew.com.