Change The Chat exists to ensure that we all know our rights and how to advocate for them, and that includes the usage of your personal data. When you visit our website, Change The Chat collects and processes personal data. We regard the security and storage of your data very seriously.

 

This policy covers Change The Chat’s data usage and storage only. It does not include any website that is linked to from this site or our partner websites.

 

FIRST POINT OF CONTACT

If you are concerned about the usage of your own personal information or a wider data breach, please contact Emma Walker, Data Officer at emma@changethechat.org We would like the opportunity to deal with your concerns and to correct any mistakes, so please do let us know as soon as you have a concern. 

 

INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

Emma Walker is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you have any concerns about Change The Chat’s data usage, or how we have handled concerns raised with us, you have the right to make a complaint to the ICO. More information can be found at: www.ico.org.uk 

 

YOUR DATA, YOUR RIGHTS

In the UK, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives you the right to withdraw consent for any data that you have previously consented for us to hold. If you would ever like us to remove your data, in its entirety or partially, please contact emma@changethechat.org

 

We will ask you to opt-in to marketing, newsletters, event information, studies or any other Change The Chat activity. This means that if you don’t give us consent, we will not keep data on you. 

 

We follow the seven principles of GDPR:

 

1: Lawfulness, fairness and transparency

2: Purpose limitation

3. Accuracy

4. Data minimisation

5. Storage limitations

6. Integrity and confidentiality

7. Accountability

DATA STORAGE

 

Change The Chat may store your personal data if: 

 

• You have signed up to our newsletter

• You have made a donation 

• You have signed up for more information on a project

• You have completed a survey

• You have applied for a position working or volunteering with us

• You have bought our services

• You have signed up for an A-Z interview

• You are a case study

• You have registered to attend / attended one of our events (in person or online) 

• You are a client, partner, subscriber or participant

 

This is not an exhaustive list.

 

DONATIONS

 

Online donations are taken via the Ko-fi platform. If you have kindly donated to support one of our projects via the online links, your personal information (such as your name, email address and payment details) is shared with Change The Chat so that we can thank you for your donation. In this instance, Change The Chat is the data controller, independently of Ko-fi. This means that we are responsible for how we use and store this information and we may contact you directly about your support. For more information on Ko-fi’s privacy policy please visit: https://more.ko-fi.com/privacy

 

FORMS

If you have completed a ‘Contact Us’ style form on our website, the data is held in a database on the Wix platform until we have processed it.

 

WHAT WE COLLECT

 

We may collect personal information about you. This includes: 

 

• Personal data such as your name, marital status, title, address, date of birth, job title, telephone number, email address. 

• Protected characteristic data including race, gender, sexuality, disability, religious beliefs, political beliefs. This will only be collected, used or stored when a specific project requires this information and for the most part will be used as anonymous aggregated data (see below). On occasions when it is connected to your personal data, we will treat this information under the legal definition of private data

• Financial data such as your bank account or credit / debit card information

• Situational data such as the information you provide during A-Z interviews, projects, case study gathering, when matching you with a legal advisor, counsellor, journalist or buddy system. We will always ask for your written confirmation before passing your details to any third party

• Technical data which includes internet protocol address (IP), information on your browser, operating system and platform, the type of device you used to access our website, usage data on how you use the site

• Marketing data such as location of events you attended, open rates on emails, bounce rates and response rates, your communication preferences 

 

We also collect, use and share anonymous aggregated data which is taken from personal data you have shared with us and added to other anonymised data. This is not regarded as personal data in law because it is not possible to  use it to ascertain your identity. 

 

HOW WE COLLECT DATA

 

Directly: By completing a form, meeting with a member of our team and providing information, surveys, social media engagement, feedback, complaints and so on

 

Automated: We may automatically gather data about your technology and how you use our website with the use of cookies and server logs. 

 

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Change The Chat is a new organisation and as we grow this policy will grow, too. We will review the policy at least once annually. This policy was last updated on 2nd April 2025. 

 

For more information please contact emma@changethechat.org