How to find out if a sole trader has to give name, address and email on website?

cashferret

I know that a limited company has to give these things, but what about a sole trader who isn't selling goods directly from their site?
I have a friend who is a writer. She wants to set up a website under her pen name. She won't be selling books from the website - rather, she'll be linking to her books on Amazon.
Obviously, she doesn't want to use her real name. And for privacy, she doesn't want to give her home address (she doesn't have any other address and anyone can ask the Royal Mail to tell them who an PO Box belongs to). And she doesn't want to provide an email address (as opposed to a contact form) because she's heard it'll get picked up by bots and spammed to death.
She's searched all over the Internet and has seen a lot of contradictory opinions but can't find up-to-date, authoritative information about this. Ideally, she'd like a government source of info, or something equally solid.
Can anyone help?

Sandtree

Her books? Don't they give her real name as the author? 

So she has a contact form? Therefore she is gathering personal data. Even if she is using something like analytic cookies (eg Google Analytics) or the web server keeps logs then there is personal data being collected. Any personal data collected (even just IP address) then you must have a privacy policy and the policy must disclose who's collecting the data.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/the-right-to-be-informed/what-privacy-information-should-we-provide/

Mickey666

If ever I come across a website selling or promoting anything and there are no contact details then I just ignore it and move on.

cashferret

Sandtree said:

Her books? Don't they give her real name as the author? 

***

No, her books are in her pen name. 

***

Sandtree said:

So she has a contact form? Therefore she is gathering personal data. Even if she is using something like analytic cookies (eg Google Analytics) or the web server keeps logs then there is personal data being collected. Any personal data collected (even just IP address) then you must have a privacy policy and the policy must disclose who's collecting the data.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/the-right-to-be-informed/what-privacy-information-should-we-provide/

***

Thanks, Sandtree, that's very helpful.

*********

cashferret

Mickey666 said:

If ever I come across a website selling or promoting anything and there are no contact details then I just ignore it and move on.

***

Fair enough, but she won't be selling anything from the site and the links would go to established vendors such as Amazon, so a lack of contact details in this case might not be an issue for a lot of people. But if it was, I think she'd rather lose people than disclose her name.

cashferret

I've just had a look at the ICO link.  It says: "What information do we need to provide? The name and contact details of your organisation. What should we tell people? Say who you are and how individuals can contact you. When is this required? Always."

It's not clear from that what, for an author using a pen name, 'the name of your organisation' and 'you' mean. But now she can contact the ICO and get clarification!

Thanks, again, Sandtree.

Sandtree

As she is a sole trader she is entitled to use a trading name, or in this case a pen name, but when disclosing who's gathering the data she would have to use her real name (though she can say Real Name t/a Pen Name).

Ultimately from a GDPR perspective people have a right to know who's got their data and there aren't ways around it. If she incorporated then the website would list the name of the company but put that company name into Companies House and it would reveal the name of the Directors and any shareholders with over 25% holdings.

If she turns off all server logging, removes the contact form, doesn't use anything like Google Analytics then she isn't collecting data and doesn't have to register with the ICO nor have a privacy policy but then she'll know virtually nothing about how successful her website is being.

cashferret

Thanks, Sandtree. That makes sense. Unless there's some special exemption for pen-name authors. But that seems unlikely, given the logic.

Annisele

Would a virtual office work for her purposes? They tend to be used by limited companies wanting a registered address that isn't the director's home address, but sole traders can use them too. I think that would be OK from a GDPR perspective - people would still have a way to contact her/serve notice on her - but I'm not certain of that. It also wouldnt get round the real name thing.

(If she did incorporate, as Sandtree says that wouldn't give her a way around it. Companies House does have some exceptions to the requirement to publish the names of Directors/people with significant holdings, but they're for really exceptional circumstances.)

J_B

Just did a quick 'who is' search on my website - no address details were found, nor any email address, but these are disposable if you are concerned

cashferret

Thanks, Annisele. I don't know anything about virtual offices (and neither does she!). A lot of limited companies use their accountant's address as their registered address but she's heard that accountants don't offer that service for sole traders (though she's not sure if that's true).
I wonder how it would be possible to find out about the regs about those virtual offices.