Written by Kathryn Dunn · Published 24 October 2026 · Last reviewed 24 October 2026
This privacy notice sets out how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this site, www.ibsexplained.co.uk, and the forms on it. It's the same notice that covers Mind Your Guts and HypnoGirl, because the same person runs all three and the Gut Feelings email is shared between them.
By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 18 years of age.
Kathryn Dunn is the data controller and is responsible for your personal data.
Full name of legal entity: Kathryn Dunn, trading as HypnoGirl and Mind Your Guts
Email address: [email protected]
Postal address: 44 Tennent Road, York YO24 3HF
It's very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing [email protected].
IBS Explained is an information site. It doesn't sell anything and it doesn't ask you for health information. There are two forms on it.
The Gut Feelings sign-up at the bottom of every page asks for your first name and your email address, and a tick to say you'd like the emails. We use those to send you Gut Feelings, one short email a week, and the free relaxation recording that comes with it. The emails come from Kathryn Dunn's practice, Mind Your Guts, and you can unsubscribe from any of them with the link at the bottom. Our lawful ground for this processing is your consent.
The contact form asks for your name, your email address and your question. We use those to answer your question and for nothing else. Sending a message doesn't add you to the email list. If you include details about your health in a message, we treat that as sensitive data, we use it only to answer you, and we don't keep it any longer than we need to.
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It doesn't include anonymised data.
We may process the following categories of personal data about you:
We may use user data, technical data and marketing data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests, which is to grow the business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow the business). See the section on marketing communications below.
Sensitive data. This site doesn't ask you for sensitive data. Sensitive data means details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, and data about your health. We don't collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. If you choose to tell us about your health in a message, we process it only to answer you, on the basis of your explicit consent in sending it.
We'll only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. For more information on this please email [email protected]. If we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we'll let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
We don't carry out automated decision making or any type of automated profiling.
We may collect data about you by you providing the data directly to us (for example by filling in forms on this site or by sending us emails). We may automatically collect certain data from you as you use the site by using cookies and similar technologies.
We may receive data from third parties such as analytics providers (such as Google, based outside the UK), advertising networks (such as Facebook, based outside the UK), search information providers (such as Google, based outside the UK), and providers of technical, payment and delivery services.
We may also receive data from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register, based inside the UK.
Our lawful ground for processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow the business).
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, we may send you marketing communications from us if (i) you asked for information from us about our services or (ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications, and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since. Under these regulations, if you are a limited company, we may send you marketing emails without your consent. However, you can still opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time.
Before we share your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes we'll get your express consent.
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you, or by emailing [email protected].
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:
We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
We're subject to the provisions of the UK General Data Protection Regulation, which protects your personal data. Where we transfer your data to third parties outside the UK, we'll make sure safeguards are in place to provide a similar degree of security for your personal data. As such:
If none of the above safeguards is available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You'll have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.
We've put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those people who have a business need to know it. They'll only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.
We'll only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for, we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, whether these can be achieved by other means, and legal requirements.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.
You can see more about these rights at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/individual-rights/
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email [email protected].
You won't have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive, or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data isn't disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you've made a number of requests. In this case, we'll notify you.
If you're not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We'd be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint, so that we can try to resolve it for you.
This site includes links to third-party websites, including the NHS, NICE, the charities and the journals the articles cite. Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We don't control these third-party websites and aren't responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave this site, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
This site runs on a hosted website platform, which sets a small number of cookies to make the site and its forms work and to measure visits. The embedded forms ask for your consent to their own cookies before they set any.
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site, including the forms, may not work properly.