Privacy
Data protection notice · Edition of 15 September 2026
1. Data controller
The Essential Lifestyle, a SASU with share capital of €100, registered in Marseille, with its registered office at 58 Avenue Prosper Merimee, 13013 Marseille, is the controller of the personal data described in this notice. Contact: contact@the-essential-lifestyle.com.
2. Data collected
Within the contractual relationship (Membership or Per-Assignment Access), The Essential Lifestyle collects the following categories of data:
| Category | Examples | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Surname, first name, date of birth | Entering into the Membership Agreement, invoicing |
| Contact details | Address, telephone, e-mail | Communication, coordination of Assignments |
| Preferences | Habits, tastes, history of requests | Personalising the service, anticipating needs |
| Payment | IBAN, invoicing history | Invoicing, direct debit, reimbursement of disbursements |
| Travel | Itineraries, bookings, travel dates | Performing Assignments relating to travel and stays |
Independently of any contractual relationship, the enquiry form on the-essential-lifestyle.com collects the following data, all provided by the individual:
| Category | Data | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Name | Answering the enquiry |
| Contact details | E-mail address, telephone (optional) | Answering the enquiry |
| Context | Referring individual (optional), text of the enquiry | Understanding the enquiry before answering it |
At the close of an Assignment, the Member or Client may receive a link to a satisfaction survey. Answering it is optional. The answers are retained:
| Category | Data | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | Scores from one to five on the service as a whole and on four criteria, recommendation where given | Measuring the quality of the service over time |
| Comments | Two free-text fields: what should have been done differently, a preference to remember | Correcting the service, personalising subsequent Assignments |
These answers are retained without the individual's name. The link carries a random identifier, devoid of meaning, and it is that identifier which accompanies the answers: the database holding them contains no name, no contact details and no Assignment title. Matching an answer to a Client is possible only from the Provider's internal management tool, where that correspondence alone exists.
The website also measures its own traffic. Two mechanisms contribute to this, both served from the website's own domain, with no third-party origin:
| Data | What is recorded | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Pages viewed | Page address, language | 13 months |
| Referring source | Domain name of the site the visit comes from (never the full address of the originating page) | 13 months |
| Device | Category only: phone, tablet or computer | 13 months |
| Reading depth | Chapters reached on the home page | 13 months |
| Actions | Opening the form, sending an enquiry, opening the conversation | 13 months |
| Visitor identifier | A random number, placed in a cookie inaccessible to the page's scripts, making it possible to know that two visits come from the same browser | 13 months |
The IP address is neither retained, nor hashed, nor truncated: it is not recorded. No cross-referencing with any other processing, no tracking from one site to another, no profiling, no location data, no targeted advertising, no transmission to a third party for advertising purposes.
This strictly limited scope, the thirteen-month retention and the absence of cross-referencing place the mechanism within the exemption from consent provided by the French data protection authority for audience measurement: no banner is presented to the visitor, but the duty to inform remains, and that is the purpose of this article. Opt-out signals sent by the browser (Global Privacy Control, Do Not Track) are honoured: where present, nothing is recorded.
The form carries two anti-robot measures (a hidden field and a minimum completion time) which retain no data.
3. Purposes of processing
- Management of the contractual relationship (Membership, quotations, invoicing)
- Performance of the Assignments entrusted (coordination with third-party Providers)
- Personalisation of the service and anticipation of the Member's needs
- Management of disbursements and the related accounting
- Compliance with legal and tax obligations (invoicing, retention of supporting documents)
- Answering enquiries sent through the website form
- Measuring satisfaction at the close of an Assignment and improving the service
- Measuring website traffic, for statistical purposes and for the Provider alone
- Occasional communication regarding the service (never unsolicited marketing)
4. Legal basis
Depending on the case, processing is based on: performance of the contract (Membership Agreement, accepted quotation, Agency Mandate); compliance with legal obligations (invoicing, accounting); the Provider's legitimate interest in ensuring the quality and personalisation of the service; or, where necessary, the data subject's consent. Enquiries sent through the website form fall under steps taken at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
5. Recipients
Data is intended solely for authorised persons within The Essential Lifestyle, and for third-party Providers strictly necessary to the performance of a given Assignment (for instance a hotel for a booking), limited to the information required for that performance. It may also be disclosed to the Provider's technical suppliers, bound by an obligation of confidentiality and acting as processors within the meaning of Article 28 GDPR:
| Role | Place of processing |
|---|---|
| Website hosting and execution of the form | European Union (Paris) |
| Delivery of e-mails sent from the form | European Union (Ireland) |
| Receipt of electronic correspondence | European Union, with forwarding to a mailbox whose publisher is established outside the European Union (see article 8) |
| Retention of survey answers and audience measurements | European Union (Sweden) |
| Accounting and management tools | European Union |
No data is sold, rented or otherwise made available to third parties for commercial purposes.
6. Retention period
Data is retained for the duration of the contractual relationship, extended by the applicable statutory limitation periods (in particular in commercial and tax matters, up to ten years for accounting records). Thereafter, data is deleted or anonymised, save where a longer retention period is required by law.
Audience measurement data is retained for thirteen (13) months, then deleted automatically.
Satisfaction survey answers are retained for three (3) years from receipt, then deleted automatically. They do not carry the individual's name.
Enquiries sent through the website form are not recorded in any database: the function that transmits them retains nothing. They exist only as electronic correspondence, retained for three (3) years from the last exchange where they do not lead to a contractual relationship.
7. Data security
The Essential Lifestyle implements reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect data against unauthorised access, loss or disclosure, proportionate to the sensitive nature of the information processed (the habits and movements of a private clientele).
8. Transfers outside the European Union
Data submitted through the website form is processed within the European Union: the function receiving the form runs in Paris, and the service delivering the e-mails operates from Ireland.
Correspondence is then forwarded to a mailbox published in the United States. That transfer is governed by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses and by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework to which that publisher adheres.
Otherwise, data is not transferred outside the European Union. Should such a transfer become necessary (for instance to arrange a stay involving a provider outside the EU), it would be limited to strictly necessary information and governed by the appropriate safeguards provided for by the GDPR.
9. Rights of data subjects
In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the French Data Protection Act, every individual has the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability in respect of their data, together with the right to give directions as to the fate of their data after their death.
10. Exercising these rights
These rights may be exercised by e-mail to contact@the-essential-lifestyle.com, or by post to the registered office, together with proof of identity. The Essential Lifestyle responds within one (1) month, which may be extended by two months for complex requests.
11. Complaints
Any individual who considers that their rights have not been respected may lodge a complaint with the French data protection authority (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés, CNIL), 3 Place de Fontenoy, TSA 80715, 75334 Paris Cedex 07, France, or at www.cnil.fr.
12. Website
The website the-essential-lifestyle.com places a single cookie, for the audience measurement described in article 2: a random identifier, unreadable by the page's scripts, kept for thirteen months. It is not placed for advertising or for tracking across sites, and it is not placed when the browser sends an opt-out signal. There are no third-party trackers and no external services: typefaces and display libraries are served from the site itself.
Apart from this measurement, the only collection is the enquiry form, described in articles 2 to 8. It is optional: the page can be read in full without providing anything.
Should the site evolve in a way that requires trackers, an information and consent banner meeting the CNIL's requirements will be put in place beforehand.