1. Privacy Notice
Version: FL-PRIVACY-2.0
Last updated: September 2026
This Privacy Notice explains how Featured Leaders handles personal information in connection with featuredleaders.com, interview invitations and submissions, publication, and related communications.
1. Who is responsible
Contact: contact@featuredleaders.com
Featured Leaders, Leaders Perception and Leaders Thoughts are related publications within the same publishing project. Their relationship does not automatically authorise publication or marketing across all three sites.
2. Our free interview process
Featured Leaders publishes interviews and other leadership and business editorial content. An interview may be offered directly, submitted through an available interview form, or arranged as a second interview following a separate package purchase.
The Featured Leaders interview is free under either invitation route. A purchase is not required to be considered for a directly offered free interview. Participation does not automatically subscribe anyone to marketing.
Where an existing package includes a commitment to arrange or provide this interview, that commitment remains governed by the separate package agreement. This Notice does not alter those contractual rights.
The Interview Submission & Publication Agreement explains the content permissions for the interview. This Notice provides information about personal-data processing; it is not itself a publication licence or consent form.
3. Information and sources
Interview information. We receive information supplied by the interviewee or an authorised representative, such as name, email address, optional telephone number, country, company, professional role, biography, interview answers, photographs, logos and links intended for publication. The exact information depends on the form or interview request used.
Editorial and administrative records. We may keep source material, drafts, corrections, submission and publication status, invitation references, communications, agreement versions, recorded choices, submission identifiers and evidence of representative authority. Where an invitation follows a purchase, a limited referral or order reference may identify the arrangement and track whether the interview has been completed. It is not a public article field.
Information from related publications. We may receive the name, contact information and referral details needed to arrange an interview requested through Leaders Perception or Leaders Thoughts. Reusing a photograph, answer or other material from an earlier interview requires the relevant permission. Participation in the earlier interview is not blanket permission to republish it on Featured Leaders.
Public professional sources. We may consult company websites, professional pages and published sources to verify relevant facts or prepare ordinary editorial material. Public availability does not automatically establish a right to copy protected images or use information for unrelated marketing.
Enquiries. If you contact us, we receive the contact details, message and attachments you provide. We may also process limited publicly available business contact information to assess a relevant editorial invitation. Any electronic outreach must follow the rules applicable to its purpose and recipient; this Notice is not permission to send it.
Technical information. Browsers, the website’s hosting infrastructure and any embedded form service process information needed to deliver and protect their services. This can include IP addresses, requested pages, request times, browser information and security or error events. Technical processing does not require an advertising pixel and does not mean we build an advertising profile of each visitor.
4. What becomes public
An approved interview can include the interviewee’s name, professional and company information, answers and quotations, approved photograph, supplied logo and links provided for publication. Related excerpts and previews may appear on our homepage, interview listings, categories, search results and related-content areas.
Private submission email addresses, private telephone numbers, representative contact details, country-of-residence form fields and acceptance records are not authorised for publication as article fields merely because they were collected. Information intentionally included in an answer for publication may appear in the article, subject to editorial review and the applicable permission.
Published content is accessible worldwide. Search engines and others may index, link to, quote, cache or copy it. We cannot guarantee removal of independently controlled copies, without limiting steps we are legally required to take.
5. Purposes and legal bases
Preparing and publishing a submitted interview: we rely on the featured person’s publication consent, given directly or through a duly authorised representative. The content licence in the interview agreement separately addresses copyright and related material rights.
Submission administration: processing necessary to receive and administer an individual’s requested interview may rely on performance of the interview agreement. Proportionate correspondence, authority checks and editorial coordination may rely on our legitimate interests in accurate and reliable administration. We do not treat a contract with a company as automatically providing a contractual basis for all information about its employees.
An interview following a purchase: we use the minimum referral and status information needed to arrange the interview. Depending on whose information is involved, the basis is performance of the relevant agreement with that individual or our legitimate interests in fulfilling and recording the requested arrangement. Public interview publication remains subject to the applicable publication consent and material permissions.
Ordinary editorial research: we may process relevant public professional information for legitimate interests in preparing accurate, attributable business and leadership reporting, after considering necessity and the person’s rights and reasonable expectations. This is not a basis for disregarding withdrawal of a consent-based interview or for unrelated commercial use. Any freedom-of-expression exception must be assessed in the particular circumstances.
Website delivery, security and enquiries: we rely on our legitimate interests in maintaining a functioning service, preventing abuse, diagnosing errors and responding to relevant messages.
Legal and compliance records: we may process limited information to meet legal obligations or for legitimate interests in proving permissions, handling disputes, respecting opt-outs and establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.
Optional marketing: submitting an interview, accepting its agreement or purchasing another service does not itself give marketing consent. Any optional marketing offered through this process requires its own appropriate permission and information before it begins. Existing consent is used only within its actual recorded scope.
Providing interview information is voluntary. Without the information and permissions necessary for a particular interview, we cannot prepare or publish it. We do not require interview participation to read the website. Refusing marketing does not prevent consideration or publication of a free interview.
6. AI assistance
We use automation and AI-assisted tools for tasks such as organising submissions, improving formatting and readability, preparing drafts and summaries, and assisting editorial production. Relevant interview material may be processed by the providers supporting these tasks.
We limit information provided to what the task needs. Private contact details, approval evidence and unrelated internal records are not intentionally included in editorial generation inputs where unnecessary. We do not intentionally submit interview materials for general-purpose AI model training.
AI output can contain errors and is subject to human editorial review. We do not present fabricated statements or generated paraphrases as the interviewee’s verbatim quotations.
We do not use this interview workflow for solely automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects, such as employment or credit decisions.
7. Recipients and service providers
Providers may process information to support online forms and uploads, website hosting and security, databases, workflow automation, email, AI-assisted preparation, content rendering, storage and backups. Access is limited according to the provider’s task; not every provider receives the complete submission.
Providers acting on our behalf are subject to applicable contractual and data-protection requirements. Some independently process limited information for their own account administration, security or legal obligations.
Other recipients may include advisers, authorities or courts where disclosure is necessary and lawful. Readers and search engines receive information intentionally made public. Within the related publishing project, only relevant information is used for the authorised workflow; this does not create unrestricted cross-publication rights.
We do not sell private interview contact lists. Following an external link takes you to a service with its own privacy practices.
8. International processing
Supporting providers and their authorised subprocessors may process information outside the operator’s country.
You may contact contact@featuredleaders.com for information about the safeguards or a copy where applicable, subject to appropriate protection of confidential information. Consent to worldwide public publication does not replace the safeguards required for transfers to service providers.
9. Retention
We keep information for as long as justified by its purpose:
- Published interviews are intended to remain available without a routine expiry date while publication remains authorised and appropriate, subject to valid removal requests, legal requirements and operation of the website.
- Source materials and approval records are retained as needed to support publication, corrections and evidence of its authorised scope. After publication ends, only records still needed for a lawful purpose are retained.
- Unpublished or declined submissions are kept while the editorial decision or related correspondence remains active and for a proportionate follow-up period. We do not keep them indefinitely simply because they were submitted.
- Referral records are kept as needed to arrange the interview and document performance of a relevant commitment. They do not authorise retention of the entire unrelated order history.
- Correspondence and complaint records are kept while the matter is active and for a justified legal or follow-up period.
- Technical and workflow logs are retained for operational and security needs. Relevant incidents or legal obligations may justify longer retention of limited records.
- Minimal opt-out records may be kept to ensure a communication preference remains respected.
Retention considers publication status, unresolved requests, permission evidence, applicable obligations and relevant claims periods. Restricted backups expire under their configured deletion cycles and are not a reason to restore withdrawn material to public display. You may ask for the period or criteria applicable to a particular record.
10. Cookies, forms and similar technologies
Website delivery, security, browser caching and an embedded interview form can involve technical storage or access needed to provide the service. Completing an embedded form involves the form provider as well as Featured Leaders.
[COOKIES_AND_EMBEDS_DETAILS — insert the verified technologies in use, their purposes, providers, durations and available controls. If there is no non-essential tracking, state that after verification. Do not list Google Analytics, advertising pixels, comments, accounts or newsletters unless actually enabled.]
Browsing is not consent to optional tracking. Any non-essential storage or device access requiring consent must remain inactive until that choice is given. Refusing optional technologies must not prevent access to functions that do not need them. Where available, cookie settings allow a choice to be changed; browser controls can also manage stored data but may affect functionality.
11. Rights and withdrawal
Depending on applicable law and circumstances, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction or portability of eligible information, or object to processing based on legitimate interests. You may object to direct marketing at any time.
Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time through contact@featuredleaders.com, including by replying to the interview correspondence. Withdrawal is free and does not require a reason. It does not make earlier consent-based processing unlawful.
For a consent-based interview, we stop the affected use and address removal or amendment of controlled material without undue delay. We will not use the content licence or silently change legal bases to defeat a valid withdrawal. Limited non-public records may remain where a separate lawful basis justifies retention.
Marketing withdrawal and publication withdrawal are separate choices. You may request either or both. Withdrawing consent for an FL interview does not automatically withdraw permissions for an independently authorised LP or LT publication, or cancel a separate package. We will clarify the scope of an unclear request.
Please identify the relevant submission or page. Identity and representative-authority checks will be proportionate. We respond without undue delay, normally within 30 days, and explain any extension allowed by applicable law within the initial period. Requests are ordinarily free; any lawful exception will be explained.
12. Children, security and changes
The interview process is intended for participants aged 18 or over. We do not intentionally seek children’s submissions or sensitive personal information. Do not include confidential information, unnecessary information about others, health details or similar sensitive material. Contact us if such material is submitted or published inappropriately.
We use proportionate measures to restrict access and protect information. No internet service can guarantee absolute security; we handle incidents and required notifications under applicable law.
We update this Notice when relevant practices change and display the revised date. An update does not retrospectively expand consent. If new information or permission is required for a new use, posting a revised notice alone is insufficient.
Contact: contact@featuredleaders.com