Effective Date: August 27th, 2026 · Last Updated: August 27th, 2026
The short version
We are an event planning firm. We collect the information you give us when you inquire about our services, subscribe to our email list, pay us, or use our client portal — and some information collected automatically by cookies, analytics, and advertising tools. We use it to respond to you, plan and produce your event, run our business, and market our services. We share it with the vendors, venues, and service providers who make an event happen, and with analytics and advertising partners.
Some of that advertising-related sharing may be treated as a “sale” of personal information or as “targeted advertising” under certain state privacy laws. You can opt out at any time using the Your Privacy Choices link in our website footer, or by emailing us at [email protected].
We honor requests to access, correct, or delete your information from anyone who asks, wherever you live. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. We do not collect biometric information such as facial-geometry scans.
This summary is for convenience only. The sections that follow control.
1. Who we are and how to reach us
This Privacy Policy describes how Hampton Events ([Hampton Events, e.g., Hampton Events LLC]) (“Hampton Events,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and protects information in connection with [https://www.hamptonevents.com] (the “Site”) and the services we offer through it.
Mailing address
[2553 W Hirsch St, Chicago, IL 60622]
Privacy email
[[email protected]]
General email
[[email protected]]
Phone
[224-795-0960]
Principal
Nicole L. Hampton
2. What this policy covers — and what it does not
This policy covers the Site: our public pages, inquiry and contact forms, newsletter signup, online payment pages, and the client portal.
This policy does not replace your contract. If you engage Hampton Events for an event, our handling of your planning file, budget, guest list, vendor contracts, and event data is governed primarily by the services agreement you sign with us. Where this policy and a signed services agreement conflict as to a client’s event data, the services agreement controls.
Event attendees and guests: if you are an attendee or guest at an event we are planning, we generally handle your information on behalf of and under the instructions of our client — the person or company hosting the event. See Section 10.
3. Information we collect
3.1 Information you give us directly
Inquiry and contact forms. Your name, email address, phone number, company or organization, event type, preferred or confirmed event date, estimated guest count or attendance, city and venue (if known), budget range, how you found us, and the content of your message.
Decision note. You told us the Site may not have a standard inquiry form. This subsection assumes one exists, because a client portal and online payments imply an intake path. If the Site has no inquiry or contact form at all, delete the “Inquiry and contact forms” paragraph. Delete this note before publishing.
Newsletter and marketing list. Your name, email address, and any preferences you select. If you give us a mobile number for text updates, we collect that number and your consent record.
Client portal accounts. Your name, email address, a password, account and profile settings, and records of your activity in the portal (files viewed, uploads, comments, approvals, and timestamps).
Files and content you upload. Documents, spreadsheets, images, brand assets, presentation files, floor plans, and other materials you place in the portal or send us — which may include guest and attendee lists, seating assignments, contact details for your guests, VIP and executive lists, speaker information, and vendor contracts.
Payment information. When you pay a retainer, installment, or invoice, our third-party payment processor collects your payment card or bank account details. We do not receive or store full payment card numbers or bank credentials. We receive a confirmation, the last four digits, the card brand, the billing name and postal code, the amount, and the date.
Event planning information. Everything reasonably necessary to plan and produce your event: objectives and KPIs, stakeholder and decision-maker lists, brand guidelines, budget details, vendor and venue selections, timelines and run-of-show documents, and your preferences.
Applications and vendor inquiries. If you apply for a role with us or pitch us as a vendor, the information in your submission.
3.2 Information collected automatically
When you visit the Site we and our service providers may automatically collect: IP address, approximate location derived from IP, browser type and version, operating system, device type and screen size, referring and exit URLs, pages viewed, links clicked, search terms used on the Site, session duration, date and time stamps, and cookie and similar identifiers. See Section 4.
3.3 Information from other sources
We may receive information about you from: our payment processor (transaction confirmations and status); social media platforms where you interact with our accounts or ads, subject to their own privacy settings; venues, vendors, and referral partners who connect us with you; your employer or colleagues where a company engages us; and publicly available sources used for ordinary business diligence.
3.4 Sensitive information — and what not to send us
Event planning sometimes requires information that privacy laws treat as sensitive, including dietary restrictions, food allergies, medical or mobility needs, and accessibility accommodations, and occasionally information revealing religion where a religious ceremony or observance is part of an event. We collect this only where it is necessary to plan and execute the event safely, we use it only for that purpose, and we share it only with the vendors who need it — typically the caterer, the venue, and the transportation provider.
Please do not send us, upload to the portal, or enter into any Site form: Social Security numbers or other government identification numbers, full payment card or bank account numbers, medical records or diagnoses beyond the accommodation itself, login credentials for your own systems, or biometric data. If you send information we did not ask for and do not need, we will delete it.
We do not run advertising pixels or session-recording tools on our client portal, our login pages, our payment pages, or any intake page that collects dietary, medical, or accessibility information. See Section 4.4.
4. Cookies, analytics, and advertising
4.1 What these technologies are
Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We and our providers also use closely related technologies — pixels or tags (tiny code snippets that report activity), local storage, and software development kits.
4.2 Categories we use
a)Category
b)What it does
c)Can you turn it off?
(a) Strictly necessary
(b) Loads pages, keeps you logged in to the portal, secures forms, remembers your privacy choices, processes payments
(c) No — the Site will not function correctly without these
(a) Analytics / performance
(b) Tells us which pages are visited, how visitors navigate, and where the Site is slow or broken
(c) Yes — see 4.3
(a) Advertising / targeting
(b) Measures the performance of our social media advertising and allows us to show ads to people who have visited the Site
(c) Yes — see 4.4
(a) Functional
(b) Remembers preferences such as region or form progress
(c) Yes, though some features may degrade
4.3 Analytics
We use Google Analytics to understand how the Site is used. Google Analytics sets cookies and collects the automatic information described in Section 3.2. Google processes this data on its own terms; see Google’s privacy notice at https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can prevent Google Analytics from using your data by installing Google’s browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
4.4 Advertising and social media pixels
We use the Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram) [AND: INSERT ANY OTHER AD PLATFORM — e.g., Google Ads, Pinterest, LinkedIn] to measure the effectiveness of our advertising and to reach people who have shown interest in our services. These tools may set cookies and transmit identifiers — including cookie IDs, IP address, and in some configurations a hashed version of an email address you have given us — to the platform, which uses that information for its own purposes as well as ours.
Because those platforms use the data for their own purposes, this activity may be treated as a “sale” of personal information, as “sharing,” or as “targeted advertising” under various state privacy laws.
To opt out: use the Your Privacy Choices link in the Site footer, set your browser or extension to send a Global Privacy Control signal (we honor GPC as a valid opt-out), or email [[email protected]]. You may also adjust ad settings directly with the platforms and use the industry tools at https://optout.aboutads.info and https://optout.networkadvertising.org.
Where we deliberately do not track. We do not deploy advertising pixels, cross-context behavioral advertising tags, or session-recording tools on:
4.5 Cookie banner and consent
We do not use a cookie consent pop-up. Instead, we disclose our use of cookies and similar technologies in this policy, we link to it prominently from every page of the Site, and we give you a persistent Your Privacy Choices control in the footer that you may use at any time.
4.6 Do Not Track
Browsers may offer a “Do Not Track” setting. There is no common industry standard for how to respond to it, and we do not currently respond to Do Not Track signals. We do honor Global Privacy Control signals as described in Section 4.4.
5. How we use information
We use the information described above to:
6. How and with whom we share information
We share information with the following categories of recipients. We do not publish or make your information generally available.
(a) Recipient category
(b) Why
(a) Venues and event vendors — caterers, bar services, production and AV companies, florists, décor and rental houses, photographers, videographers, entertainment, staffing, security, transportation
(b) To plan, quote, and execute your event. Guest counts, dietary and accessibility needs, timelines, and contact details are shared only as necessary.
(a) Payment processor [INSERT NAME — e.g., Stripe, Square, QuickBooks Payments]
(b) To take and reconcile payments. It receives your payment details directly under its own privacy policy.
(a) Email marketing platform [INSERT NAME — e.g., Mailchimp, Flodesk, Klaviyo]
(b) To send and measure newsletters and marketing email.
(a) Client portal and file storage provider [INSERT NAME — e.g., HoneyBook, Aisle Planner, Google Workspace, Dropbox]
(b) To host your account, files, and planning documents.
(a) Website host and infrastructure providers [INSERT NAMES]
(b) To operate the Site.
(a) Analytics and advertising partners — Google, Meta [AND OTHERS]
(b) As described in Section 4. These partners use the information for their own purposes as well as ours.
(a) Professional advisers — attorneys, accountants, insurers, insurance brokers
(b) For legal, tax, accounting, and insurance purposes.
(a) Government authorities and others
(b) Where required by law, subpoena, court order, or regulatory demand; to enforce our terms; to protect the rights, safety, or property of Hampton Events, our clients, or the public; or in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to this policy.
Your event host. If you are an attendee or guest, we share your information with the client hosting the event. See Section 10.
No independent sale of contact lists. We do not rent, trade, or sell our client, inquiry, or newsletter lists to unrelated third parties for their own marketing. This does not change the fact that our advertising and analytics activity described in Section 4.4 may be treated as a “sale,” “sharing,” or “targeted advertising” under state privacy laws, and you may opt out of that activity as described there.
7. Email and text message communications
Email. We send transactional and service email about your event and your account. If you have subscribed to our newsletter or marketing list, or if we have another lawful basis to send you marketing, we may send promotional email. Every marketing email contains a working unsubscribe link and our physical mailing address. We honor unsubscribe requests within ten (10) business days, and the unsubscribe mechanism remains functional for at least thirty (30) days after we send a message. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop transactional messages about an event or account you have with us. We do not sell, transfer, or release an email address that has opted out, except to a provider helping us honor the opt-out.
Text messages.
Decision note. Text-message marketing carries the highest statutory-damages exposure of anything on this list — $500 per message, tripled to $1,500 for a knowing or willful violation, with a private right of action and no cap. If you do send texts, obtain prior express written consent through a clear, unchecked opt-in that names Hampton Events, discloses the mobile number, states that consent is not a condition of purchase, and is stored with a timestamp.
If you give us your mobile number and agree to receive text messages, we may text you about your event, appointments, and — where you have separately agreed — promotions. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. You may opt out at any time by replying STOP, QUIT, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, REVOKE, or OPT OUT, or by any other reasonable method including a reply in plain words, an email to [[email protected]], or a phone call to [224-795-0960]. We honor opt-outs within ten (10) business days and generally much sooner. Reply HELP for assistance. We do not place marketing calls or texts outside 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in your local time zone.
8. Photographs, video, and your likeness
Event photography and video are central to how we show our work — and they are also the area where we are most careful.
9. Biometric information
We do not collect, capture, store, convert, transmit, or otherwise obtain biometric identifiers or biometric information — such as scans of face or hand geometry, fingerprints, voiceprints, or retina or iris scans — through the Site, our galleries, or our portal.
A photograph by itself is not a biometric identifier under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14/1 et seq. (“BIPA”). However, data derived from a photograph — such as a facial-geometry template generated by an automatic face-tagging or face-recognition feature — can be. We therefore keep face detection, face tagging, and face recognition features disabled in every gallery, storage, and content platform we use, and we require our providers to confirm that no facial template is generated or retained.
If we ever adopt a technology within BIPA’s scope, we will first: tell you in writing that a biometric identifier is being collected and stored; tell you the specific purpose and the length of term of collection, storage, and use; obtain your written release (which may be a logged electronic signature); and publish a written retention and destruction schedule providing for destruction when the purpose is satisfied or within three years of your last interaction with us, whichever comes first.
Decision note. Turn off “Faces,” “People,” or “Smart tagging” in your gallery platform, your cloud photo storage, your digital asset manager, and any image CDN with smart cropping. Get the vendor’s written confirmation. This is cheap to do and it is what makes the statement above true. Delete this note before publishing.
10. Event attendee and guest information
If you are an attendee, guest, speaker, or sponsor at an event we are planning:
11. How long we keep information
(a) Information
(b) Typical retention
(a) Inquiry and proposal records
(b) [2] years from last contact
(a) Client event files, planning documents, and portal content
(b) [7] years after the event, then deleted or archived
(a) Guest and attendee lists supplied by a client
(b) Returned or securely deleted within 60 days after the engagement ends, or earlier on the client’s written request, subject to reasonable backup retention
(a)Payment and accounting records
[7] years, as required for tax and audit purposes
(a) Newsletter and marketing list
(b) Until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record kept indefinitely so we do not re-add you
(a) Portal account records
(b) Duration of the engagement plus [1] year
(a) Website analytics data
(b) [14] months
(a) Contracts and signed releases
(b) [10] years, consistent with the limitations period for a written contract in Illinois (735 ILCS 5/13-206)
We keep information longer where necessary to comply with law, resolve a dispute, or enforce our agreements.
12. How we protect information
We implement and maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information we hold, consistent with our obligation under the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530/45. These include access controls and least-privilege permissions, multi-factor authentication on our business accounts, encryption in transit, reputable hosted providers for payment and file storage, and periodic review of access.
No system is perfectly secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, and you are responsible for keeping your portal password confidential and not reusing it elsewhere. Tell us immediately at [[email protected]] if you believe your account has been compromised.
13. If there is a data breach
If we discover an unauthorized acquisition of personal information that compromises its security, confidentiality, or integrity, we will notify affected Illinois residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, and will notify other affected individuals and regulators as and when required by applicable law, consistent with the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530/1 et seq.
Note that under Illinois law a portal username or email address together with a password or security question answer is itself protected personal information, even without your name. Where a breach involves only such credentials, we may notify you electronically and direct you to change your password and security questions.
14. Your choices and your privacy rights
14.1 Our commitment, whoever you are
Framing note — important, do not delete this section without reading. Hampton Events is a small business and is very likely below the applicability thresholds of every state comprehensive privacy law — most of which apply only to businesses processing the personal data of 25,000 to 175,000 residents of that state, or with revenue of $25 million or more. That means the rights below are, for the most part, a voluntary commitment we are choosing to make rather than a statutory obligation we are reciting. That framing is deliberate and it is the safer one: a policy that claims to be complying with a statute that does not apply to it can create its own liability if the promises are not kept. Keep this section as a commitment, and keep the commitment.
Regardless of where you live, you may ask us to:
14.2 How to make a request
Email [[email protected]] with the subject line “Privacy Request”, or write to us at the mailing address in Section 1. Tell us what you would like us to do and give us enough information to find your records.
14.3 Where a state privacy law does apply to us
If and to the extent a state comprehensive privacy law applies to Hampton Events, we will honor the rights that law provides on the terms and within the timelines it requires, including any right to appeal and any right to opt out of profiling in furtherance of decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects. Residents of California may direct requests to the same contact points above; where applicable we will also honor the rights to know categories of information collected and disclosed, to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.
14.4 Global Privacy Control
We honor the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) signal as a valid request to opt out of targeted advertising and of any sharing treated as a sale. GPC applies to the browser or device sending it, so you may need to enable it on each browser and device you use.
15. Children’s privacy
The Site is intended for adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. Please do not submit information about a child under 13 through any Site form or the portal. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email [[email protected]] and we will delete it promptly.
Children frequently appear in wedding and family event photography and on guest lists supplied by our clients. Where a child’s image would be used in our portfolio or marketing, we obtain written consent from a parent or legal guardian before publishing, as described in Section 8.
16. Third-party links, embeds, and platforms
The Site links to and embeds third-party content — vendor and venue websites, photo galleries, maps, a payment page, social media feeds, and possibly a scheduling or chat tool. Those services have their own privacy policies and we do not control them. Reviewing their notices before providing information is your responsibility. A link is not an endorsement.
17. Where information is processed
We operate from Illinois and our providers are primarily located in the United States. Information you give us will be processed in the United States, which may not offer the same protections as the country where you live. By using the Site you understand that your information will be processed in the United States.
18. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as our business, tools, or the law change. We will change the Last Updated date at the top and, for a material change, [post a notice on the Site homepage for at least 30 days / email account holders and newsletter subscribers at least 14 days before the change takes effect]. Your continued use of the Site after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.
We keep dated copies of prior versions and will provide one on request.
19. Contact us
Questions, requests, or complaints about privacy:
Hampton Events — Attn: Privacy [2553 W Hirsch St, Chicago, IL 60622] [[email protected]] · [224-795-0960]
The short version
We are an event planning firm. We collect the information you give us when you inquire about our services, subscribe to our email list, pay us, or use our client portal — and some information collected automatically by cookies, analytics, and advertising tools. We use it to respond to you, plan and produce your event, run our business, and market our services. We share it with the vendors, venues, and service providers who make an event happen, and with analytics and advertising partners.
Some of that advertising-related sharing may be treated as a “sale” of personal information or as “targeted advertising” under certain state privacy laws. You can opt out at any time using the Your Privacy Choices link in our website footer, or by emailing us at [email protected].
We honor requests to access, correct, or delete your information from anyone who asks, wherever you live. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. We do not collect biometric information such as facial-geometry scans.
This summary is for convenience only. The sections that follow control.
1. Who we are and how to reach us
This Privacy Policy describes how Hampton Events ([Hampton Events, e.g., Hampton Events LLC]) (“Hampton Events,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and protects information in connection with [https://www.hamptonevents.com] (the “Site”) and the services we offer through it.
Mailing address
[2553 W Hirsch St, Chicago, IL 60622]
Privacy email
[[email protected]]
General email
[[email protected]]
Phone
[224-795-0960]
Principal
Nicole L. Hampton
2. What this policy covers — and what it does not
This policy covers the Site: our public pages, inquiry and contact forms, newsletter signup, online payment pages, and the client portal.
This policy does not replace your contract. If you engage Hampton Events for an event, our handling of your planning file, budget, guest list, vendor contracts, and event data is governed primarily by the services agreement you sign with us. Where this policy and a signed services agreement conflict as to a client’s event data, the services agreement controls.
Event attendees and guests: if you are an attendee or guest at an event we are planning, we generally handle your information on behalf of and under the instructions of our client — the person or company hosting the event. See Section 10.
3. Information we collect
3.1 Information you give us directly
Inquiry and contact forms. Your name, email address, phone number, company or organization, event type, preferred or confirmed event date, estimated guest count or attendance, city and venue (if known), budget range, how you found us, and the content of your message.
Decision note. You told us the Site may not have a standard inquiry form. This subsection assumes one exists, because a client portal and online payments imply an intake path. If the Site has no inquiry or contact form at all, delete the “Inquiry and contact forms” paragraph. Delete this note before publishing.
Newsletter and marketing list. Your name, email address, and any preferences you select. If you give us a mobile number for text updates, we collect that number and your consent record.
Client portal accounts. Your name, email address, a password, account and profile settings, and records of your activity in the portal (files viewed, uploads, comments, approvals, and timestamps).
Files and content you upload. Documents, spreadsheets, images, brand assets, presentation files, floor plans, and other materials you place in the portal or send us — which may include guest and attendee lists, seating assignments, contact details for your guests, VIP and executive lists, speaker information, and vendor contracts.
Payment information. When you pay a retainer, installment, or invoice, our third-party payment processor collects your payment card or bank account details. We do not receive or store full payment card numbers or bank credentials. We receive a confirmation, the last four digits, the card brand, the billing name and postal code, the amount, and the date.
Event planning information. Everything reasonably necessary to plan and produce your event: objectives and KPIs, stakeholder and decision-maker lists, brand guidelines, budget details, vendor and venue selections, timelines and run-of-show documents, and your preferences.
Applications and vendor inquiries. If you apply for a role with us or pitch us as a vendor, the information in your submission.
3.2 Information collected automatically
When you visit the Site we and our service providers may automatically collect: IP address, approximate location derived from IP, browser type and version, operating system, device type and screen size, referring and exit URLs, pages viewed, links clicked, search terms used on the Site, session duration, date and time stamps, and cookie and similar identifiers. See Section 4.
3.3 Information from other sources
We may receive information about you from: our payment processor (transaction confirmations and status); social media platforms where you interact with our accounts or ads, subject to their own privacy settings; venues, vendors, and referral partners who connect us with you; your employer or colleagues where a company engages us; and publicly available sources used for ordinary business diligence.
3.4 Sensitive information — and what not to send us
Event planning sometimes requires information that privacy laws treat as sensitive, including dietary restrictions, food allergies, medical or mobility needs, and accessibility accommodations, and occasionally information revealing religion where a religious ceremony or observance is part of an event. We collect this only where it is necessary to plan and execute the event safely, we use it only for that purpose, and we share it only with the vendors who need it — typically the caterer, the venue, and the transportation provider.
Please do not send us, upload to the portal, or enter into any Site form: Social Security numbers or other government identification numbers, full payment card or bank account numbers, medical records or diagnoses beyond the accommodation itself, login credentials for your own systems, or biometric data. If you send information we did not ask for and do not need, we will delete it.
We do not run advertising pixels or session-recording tools on our client portal, our login pages, our payment pages, or any intake page that collects dietary, medical, or accessibility information. See Section 4.4.
4. Cookies, analytics, and advertising
4.1 What these technologies are
Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We and our providers also use closely related technologies — pixels or tags (tiny code snippets that report activity), local storage, and software development kits.
4.2 Categories we use
a)Category
b)What it does
c)Can you turn it off?
(a) Strictly necessary
(b) Loads pages, keeps you logged in to the portal, secures forms, remembers your privacy choices, processes payments
(c) No — the Site will not function correctly without these
(a) Analytics / performance
(b) Tells us which pages are visited, how visitors navigate, and where the Site is slow or broken
(c) Yes — see 4.3
(a) Advertising / targeting
(b) Measures the performance of our social media advertising and allows us to show ads to people who have visited the Site
(c) Yes — see 4.4
(a) Functional
(b) Remembers preferences such as region or form progress
(c) Yes, though some features may degrade
4.3 Analytics
We use Google Analytics to understand how the Site is used. Google Analytics sets cookies and collects the automatic information described in Section 3.2. Google processes this data on its own terms; see Google’s privacy notice at https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can prevent Google Analytics from using your data by installing Google’s browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
4.4 Advertising and social media pixels
We use the Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram) [AND: INSERT ANY OTHER AD PLATFORM — e.g., Google Ads, Pinterest, LinkedIn] to measure the effectiveness of our advertising and to reach people who have shown interest in our services. These tools may set cookies and transmit identifiers — including cookie IDs, IP address, and in some configurations a hashed version of an email address you have given us — to the platform, which uses that information for its own purposes as well as ours.
Because those platforms use the data for their own purposes, this activity may be treated as a “sale” of personal information, as “sharing,” or as “targeted advertising” under various state privacy laws.
To opt out: use the Your Privacy Choices link in the Site footer, set your browser or extension to send a Global Privacy Control signal (we honor GPC as a valid opt-out), or email [[email protected]]. You may also adjust ad settings directly with the platforms and use the industry tools at https://optout.aboutads.info and https://optout.networkadvertising.org.
Where we deliberately do not track. We do not deploy advertising pixels, cross-context behavioral advertising tags, or session-recording tools on:
- the client portal or any page behind a login;
- login, account creation, or password reset pages;
- payment and invoice pages; or
- any intake page or form field that collects dietary, allergy, medical, or accessibility information.
4.5 Cookie banner and consent
We do not use a cookie consent pop-up. Instead, we disclose our use of cookies and similar technologies in this policy, we link to it prominently from every page of the Site, and we give you a persistent Your Privacy Choices control in the footer that you may use at any time.
4.6 Do Not Track
Browsers may offer a “Do Not Track” setting. There is no common industry standard for how to respond to it, and we do not currently respond to Do Not Track signals. We do honor Global Privacy Control signals as described in Section 4.4.
5. How we use information
We use the information described above to:
- respond to your inquiry, prepare proposals, and quote fees;
- plan, design, coordinate, and produce your event, and perform our services agreement with you;
- communicate with you about your event, including scheduling, approvals, and deadlines;
- coordinate with venues, vendors, speakers, sponsors, and staff;
- create and maintain your client portal account and deliver files to you;
- process payments, issue invoices, and collect amounts owed;
- send newsletters, service updates, and marketing communications you have asked for or that are permitted by law, and measure whether they are useful;
- operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Site;
- measure and improve our advertising;
- accommodate dietary, medical, and accessibility needs at events;
- maintain business records, insurance, budgets, and reconciliations;
- prevent, investigate, and respond to fraud, security incidents, and misuse of the Site;
- publish portfolio and marketing content only with the written consent described in Section 8; and
- comply with law, respond to lawful requests, and establish or defend legal claims.
6. How and with whom we share information
We share information with the following categories of recipients. We do not publish or make your information generally available.
(a) Recipient category
(b) Why
(a) Venues and event vendors — caterers, bar services, production and AV companies, florists, décor and rental houses, photographers, videographers, entertainment, staffing, security, transportation
(b) To plan, quote, and execute your event. Guest counts, dietary and accessibility needs, timelines, and contact details are shared only as necessary.
(a) Payment processor [INSERT NAME — e.g., Stripe, Square, QuickBooks Payments]
(b) To take and reconcile payments. It receives your payment details directly under its own privacy policy.
(a) Email marketing platform [INSERT NAME — e.g., Mailchimp, Flodesk, Klaviyo]
(b) To send and measure newsletters and marketing email.
(a) Client portal and file storage provider [INSERT NAME — e.g., HoneyBook, Aisle Planner, Google Workspace, Dropbox]
(b) To host your account, files, and planning documents.
(a) Website host and infrastructure providers [INSERT NAMES]
(b) To operate the Site.
(a) Analytics and advertising partners — Google, Meta [AND OTHERS]
(b) As described in Section 4. These partners use the information for their own purposes as well as ours.
(a) Professional advisers — attorneys, accountants, insurers, insurance brokers
(b) For legal, tax, accounting, and insurance purposes.
(a) Government authorities and others
(b) Where required by law, subpoena, court order, or regulatory demand; to enforce our terms; to protect the rights, safety, or property of Hampton Events, our clients, or the public; or in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to this policy.
Your event host. If you are an attendee or guest, we share your information with the client hosting the event. See Section 10.
No independent sale of contact lists. We do not rent, trade, or sell our client, inquiry, or newsletter lists to unrelated third parties for their own marketing. This does not change the fact that our advertising and analytics activity described in Section 4.4 may be treated as a “sale,” “sharing,” or “targeted advertising” under state privacy laws, and you may opt out of that activity as described there.
7. Email and text message communications
Email. We send transactional and service email about your event and your account. If you have subscribed to our newsletter or marketing list, or if we have another lawful basis to send you marketing, we may send promotional email. Every marketing email contains a working unsubscribe link and our physical mailing address. We honor unsubscribe requests within ten (10) business days, and the unsubscribe mechanism remains functional for at least thirty (30) days after we send a message. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop transactional messages about an event or account you have with us. We do not sell, transfer, or release an email address that has opted out, except to a provider helping us honor the opt-out.
Text messages.
Decision note. Text-message marketing carries the highest statutory-damages exposure of anything on this list — $500 per message, tripled to $1,500 for a knowing or willful violation, with a private right of action and no cap. If you do send texts, obtain prior express written consent through a clear, unchecked opt-in that names Hampton Events, discloses the mobile number, states that consent is not a condition of purchase, and is stored with a timestamp.
If you give us your mobile number and agree to receive text messages, we may text you about your event, appointments, and — where you have separately agreed — promotions. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. You may opt out at any time by replying STOP, QUIT, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, REVOKE, or OPT OUT, or by any other reasonable method including a reply in plain words, an email to [[email protected]], or a phone call to [224-795-0960]. We honor opt-outs within ten (10) business days and generally much sooner. Reply HELP for assistance. We do not place marketing calls or texts outside 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in your local time zone.
8. Photographs, video, and your likeness
Event photography and video are central to how we show our work — and they are also the area where we are most careful.
- We publish images of an event only with written consent. For client events, that consent comes from a signed media and likeness release in the services agreement, or a separate signed release. We do not treat a client’s silence, a social media tag, or a photographer’s delivery of images as consent.
- Illinois law requires this. Under the Illinois Right of Publicity Act, 765 ILCS 1075/1 et seq., we must obtain previous written consent before using a person’s identity — name, image, likeness, or other identifying attribute — for a commercial purpose, which includes advertising and promoting our services. A portfolio gallery is a commercial use, and no news or editorial exception applies to it. For a person under 18, consent must come from a parent or legal guardian.
- Guests and attendees. Where photography or video will occur at an event, our client is responsible for notifying guests and honoring opt-outs. We ask clients to post or distribute a photography notice.
- Third-party rights. Rights in event photography and video are also governed by the photographer’s or videographer’s own contract. We publish only images we have confirmed we are licensed to use.
- Takedown on request. If an image or video of you appears on the Site or our social media accounts and you want it removed, email [[email protected]] with enough detail to identify it. We will remove it from the Site and our own social media accounts within thirty (30) days and will stop using it in new materials. We cannot recall printed materials already distributed or content a third party has republished.
We do not collect, capture, store, convert, transmit, or otherwise obtain biometric identifiers or biometric information — such as scans of face or hand geometry, fingerprints, voiceprints, or retina or iris scans — through the Site, our galleries, or our portal.
A photograph by itself is not a biometric identifier under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14/1 et seq. (“BIPA”). However, data derived from a photograph — such as a facial-geometry template generated by an automatic face-tagging or face-recognition feature — can be. We therefore keep face detection, face tagging, and face recognition features disabled in every gallery, storage, and content platform we use, and we require our providers to confirm that no facial template is generated or retained.
If we ever adopt a technology within BIPA’s scope, we will first: tell you in writing that a biometric identifier is being collected and stored; tell you the specific purpose and the length of term of collection, storage, and use; obtain your written release (which may be a logged electronic signature); and publish a written retention and destruction schedule providing for destruction when the purpose is satisfied or within three years of your last interaction with us, whichever comes first.
Decision note. Turn off “Faces,” “People,” or “Smart tagging” in your gallery platform, your cloud photo storage, your digital asset manager, and any image CDN with smart cropping. Get the vendor’s written confirmation. This is cheap to do and it is what makes the statement above true. Delete this note before publishing.
10. Event attendee and guest information
If you are an attendee, guest, speaker, or sponsor at an event we are planning:
- The client hosting the event owns and controls your information. We handle it on the client’s behalf and under the client’s instructions.
- We use it only to plan and produce that event — check-in, seating, catering counts, dietary and accessibility needs, transportation, and program logistics — and we do not use it for our own marketing.
- We do not sell attendee or guest lists.
- Direct your privacy requests to the host first. We will forward a request we receive and assist the host in responding. If you do not know who the host is, email us and we will tell you if we are permitted to.
- Registration platforms, badge systems, and lead-capture tools are contracted by our client in the client’s own name and are governed by those providers’ terms.
(a) Information
(b) Typical retention
(a) Inquiry and proposal records
(b) [2] years from last contact
(a) Client event files, planning documents, and portal content
(b) [7] years after the event, then deleted or archived
(a) Guest and attendee lists supplied by a client
(b) Returned or securely deleted within 60 days after the engagement ends, or earlier on the client’s written request, subject to reasonable backup retention
(a)Payment and accounting records
[7] years, as required for tax and audit purposes
(a) Newsletter and marketing list
(b) Until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record kept indefinitely so we do not re-add you
(a) Portal account records
(b) Duration of the engagement plus [1] year
(a) Website analytics data
(b) [14] months
(a) Contracts and signed releases
(b) [10] years, consistent with the limitations period for a written contract in Illinois (735 ILCS 5/13-206)
We keep information longer where necessary to comply with law, resolve a dispute, or enforce our agreements.
12. How we protect information
We implement and maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information we hold, consistent with our obligation under the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530/45. These include access controls and least-privilege permissions, multi-factor authentication on our business accounts, encryption in transit, reputable hosted providers for payment and file storage, and periodic review of access.
No system is perfectly secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, and you are responsible for keeping your portal password confidential and not reusing it elsewhere. Tell us immediately at [[email protected]] if you believe your account has been compromised.
13. If there is a data breach
If we discover an unauthorized acquisition of personal information that compromises its security, confidentiality, or integrity, we will notify affected Illinois residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, and will notify other affected individuals and regulators as and when required by applicable law, consistent with the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530/1 et seq.
Note that under Illinois law a portal username or email address together with a password or security question answer is itself protected personal information, even without your name. Where a breach involves only such credentials, we may notify you electronically and direct you to change your password and security questions.
14. Your choices and your privacy rights
14.1 Our commitment, whoever you are
Framing note — important, do not delete this section without reading. Hampton Events is a small business and is very likely below the applicability thresholds of every state comprehensive privacy law — most of which apply only to businesses processing the personal data of 25,000 to 175,000 residents of that state, or with revenue of $25 million or more. That means the rights below are, for the most part, a voluntary commitment we are choosing to make rather than a statutory obligation we are reciting. That framing is deliberate and it is the safer one: a policy that claims to be complying with a statute that does not apply to it can create its own liability if the promises are not kept. Keep this section as a commitment, and keep the commitment.
Regardless of where you live, you may ask us to:
- Know and access what personal information we hold about you, and where we got it;
- Correct information that is inaccurate;
- Delete information we no longer need to keep;
- Receive a copy of information you provided to us, in a portable format;
- Opt out of targeted advertising and of any disclosure of your information that may be treated as a sale or sharing (Section 4.4);
- Opt out of marketing email and text messages (Section 7);
- Withdraw consent you previously gave, including a photo or likeness release (Section 8); and
- Be free from retaliation for making any of these requests. We will not deny you services, charge you a different price, or give you a lesser quality of service because you exercised a choice described here.
Email [[email protected]] with the subject line “Privacy Request”, or write to us at the mailing address in Section 1. Tell us what you would like us to do and give us enough information to find your records.
- Verification. We will take reasonable steps to confirm your identity before acting, usually by matching the information you give us against our records or by emailing the address we have on file. We will not create a new account or ask for a government ID for this purpose.
- Timing. We will acknowledge your request promptly and respond substantively within forty-five (45) days. If we need more time we will tell you why and take no more than an additional forty-five (45) days.
- Authorized agents. Someone may make a request for you if you give them written permission and we can verify it.
- Cost. Free, unless a request is excessive or repetitive, in which case we will tell you before doing anything.
- If we say no. We will explain why. If you disagree, reply to our response and ask for an appeal; a different person at Hampton Events will review it and respond within forty-five (45) days. You may also contact the Illinois Attorney General at illinoisattorneygeneral.gov, or your own state’s attorney general.
If and to the extent a state comprehensive privacy law applies to Hampton Events, we will honor the rights that law provides on the terms and within the timelines it requires, including any right to appeal and any right to opt out of profiling in furtherance of decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects. Residents of California may direct requests to the same contact points above; where applicable we will also honor the rights to know categories of information collected and disclosed, to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.
14.4 Global Privacy Control
We honor the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) signal as a valid request to opt out of targeted advertising and of any sharing treated as a sale. GPC applies to the browser or device sending it, so you may need to enable it on each browser and device you use.
15. Children’s privacy
The Site is intended for adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. Please do not submit information about a child under 13 through any Site form or the portal. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email [[email protected]] and we will delete it promptly.
Children frequently appear in wedding and family event photography and on guest lists supplied by our clients. Where a child’s image would be used in our portfolio or marketing, we obtain written consent from a parent or legal guardian before publishing, as described in Section 8.
16. Third-party links, embeds, and platforms
The Site links to and embeds third-party content — vendor and venue websites, photo galleries, maps, a payment page, social media feeds, and possibly a scheduling or chat tool. Those services have their own privacy policies and we do not control them. Reviewing their notices before providing information is your responsibility. A link is not an endorsement.
17. Where information is processed
We operate from Illinois and our providers are primarily located in the United States. Information you give us will be processed in the United States, which may not offer the same protections as the country where you live. By using the Site you understand that your information will be processed in the United States.
18. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as our business, tools, or the law change. We will change the Last Updated date at the top and, for a material change, [post a notice on the Site homepage for at least 30 days / email account holders and newsletter subscribers at least 14 days before the change takes effect]. Your continued use of the Site after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.
We keep dated copies of prior versions and will provide one on request.
19. Contact us
Questions, requests, or complaints about privacy:
Hampton Events — Attn: Privacy [2553 W Hirsch St, Chicago, IL 60622] [[email protected]] · [224-795-0960]
