Privacy & Cookies

The Politics Project Privacy and Cookies Policy 

The Politics Project (we/us/our/the Company) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This privacy policy (together with our Website Terms of Use) terms-and conditions sets out the basis on which we will process any personal data we collect about you, you provide to us or may be provided to us by third parties. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your Personal Data and how we will treat it. By visiting www.thepoliticsproject.org.uk  and democracyclassroom.com (the “Site“), including without limitation exploring the Site’s services and accessing and using the Democracy Classroom at www.democracyclassroom.com, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this privacy policy.

“Personal Information” means any information from which a living individual can be identified. This will include (among other things) name, date of birth, gender and personal contact details, as well as Sensitive Personal Information (defined in paragraph 3 below).

For the purpose of this privacy policy, the “Data Protection Legislation” includes : (i) the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“EU GDPR“); (ii) the Data Protection Act 2018, ; (iii) the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003; (iv) “UK GDPR” (which is EU GDPR as it was transposed into UK law on 1 January 2021); and (v) all similar or related legislation relating to the processing of Personal Information and/or privacy applicable in any jurisdiction to which the Company has been, is or will be subject , each as in force at the date of this Agreement or as re-enacted, applied, amended, superseded, repealed or consolidated (and in each case including any legally binding regulations, direction, and orders issued from time to time under or in connection with any such law). For the purposes of the Data Protection Legislation, the data controller is The Politics Project of The Politics Project, 288 Camberwell Rd, London SE5 0DL (our “Company Address“).

1. INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT FROM YOU

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Information you give us. You may give us information about you by filling in forms on the Site or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This could include information you provide when you register to use the Site, subscribe to our marketing database, subscribe to our e- learning platforms or other social media functions on our Site, enter a competition, promotion or survey, fill out forms for subscriptions or other activities, or report a problem with the Site. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, financial and credit card information, personal description and photograph, amongst other information.

Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to the Site we may automatically collect the following information:

  • technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
  • information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from the Site (including date and time); pages you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, downloads and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.
  • information about our services, your views in relation to our services (e.g. educational courses run by us) either online or offline.

Information we receive from other sources. We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. For certain individuals, we may also receive information about you from your organisation in order to facilitate your subscription for and to our E-Portal. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies) and may receive information about you from them where this is permitted under the Data Protection Legislation.

2. COOKIES

The Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of the Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Site and also allows us to improve the Site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Site. They include, by way of general example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of the Site.

Analytical/performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the Site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way the Site works by, for example, ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to the Site. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to the Site, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make the Site and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

You will normally see a message on our Site before we store a cookie on your computer for the first time which describes the types of cookies we use and what information they might collect. We may also use banners and pop-ups from time to time to give you options around cookies use.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance or targeting cookies.

You block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies), you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

3. SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

“Sensitive Personal Information” is Personal Information concerning an individual’s : (i) racial or ethnic origin, ; (ii) political opinions, ; (iii) religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, ; (iv) membership of a trade union, ; (v) physical or mental health or condition, ; (vi) sexual life or orientation, ; (vii) commission or alleged commission of any offence or any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by him/her, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.

We will not record and/or disclose any Sensitive Personal Information about you unless this is permitted by the Data Protection Legislation or necessary to follow the The Politics Project Safeguarding Policy and Procedure and/or instructions from the The Politics Project Safeguarding Officer, instructions from the police or local authorities and/or any other relevant law. Where we do receive and retain Sensitive Personal Information, we will only keep such information for as long as strictly necessary in order to comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Legislation and any other relevant law. Where we do receive and retain Sensitive Personal Information, we will only keep such information for as long as strictly necessary in order to comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Legislation and law. Given the nature of our activities, you may disclose Sensitive Personal Information to us in the form of political opinions for the purpose of publication, and we ask for your consent to use this information as part of the sign up process or research.

4. USES MADE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may use Personal Information held about you in the following ways:

  • As required for publication on the Site of any materials you have provided for this purpose and for disaster recovery and the creation of backups;
  • To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, services and support that you request from us;
  • Where you have explicitly consented or where we otherwise have a right to do so, to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you.
  • To notify you about changes to our service
  • To administer the Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • For our internal business processes, including providing support to our staff;
  • To improve the Site or services to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer and customise it according to your interests;
  • To create an account to access our online portal;
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
  • As part of our efforts to keep the Site safe and secure;
  • For the purpose of legal compliance; and/or
  • For research purposes. You will only be contacted for additional comments or to take part beyond what was already collected if you have opted-in to receive further communications.

We will only use your Personal Information in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. When we process your information as described above, we will be relying on one or more of the following legal rights: (i) to perform a contract with you; (ii) where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (provided these are not outweighed by your interests); (iii) to comply with a legal obligation; or (iv) where you have given your consent.

If you change your mind about us using your Personal Information in the ways described in this privacy policy, please notify us in writing to info@thepoliticsproject.org.uk. You may also opt out of receiving marketing emails from us by following the unsubscribe instructions outlined in the email.

6. COLLECTING INFORMATION FROM MINORS 

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using our services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us harriet.andrews@thepoliticsproject.org.uk.

5. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may share your Personal Information with any member of our group, which means any subsidiaries, any ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.

We may, when this is permitted under the Data Protection Legislation, share your Personal Information with selected third parties, including:

  • Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with you;
  • Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you;
  • Universities and Academic institutions for the sole purpose of research leading to improvements in the field of education, counter-extremism and civic engagement;
  • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of the Site; and
  • Credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you. The Data Protection Legislation will generally permit us to share your Personal Information in this way if you have expressly consented to this or if it is necessary for us to perform a contract with you.

We may also disclose your Personal information if we are under a duty to disclose or share your Personal Information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

6. WHERE WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The Personal Information that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the UK or European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the UK or EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfillment of your enquiries and/or the provision of support services. By submitting your Personal Information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your Personal Information is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We will only transfer your Personal Information to third parties based outside the UK or EEA where you have given your consent or if that party:

(a) is situated in a country that has been confirmed by the relevant body (either the European Commission or the equivalent UK body) to provide adequate protection to Personal Information; or

(b) has agreed (by way of written contract) to provide all protections to your Personal Information as required by the Data Protection Legislation. The agreement shall incorporate an appropriate data transfer mechanism, being the “model clauses” approved by the European Commission to protect your Personal Information or equivalent mechanism approved by the relevant UK body. A copy of the European Commission’s “model clauses” can be found on the European Commission website (https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law- topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/standard-contractual clauses-scc_en).

All information you provide to us is stored on our servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of the Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

7. YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to see the Personal Information we hold about you and to ask us to: (a) make any changes to ensure that any Personal Information we hold about you is accurate and up to date; (b) erase or stop processing any Personal Information we hold about you where there is no longer a legal ground for us to hold it; or (c) in some cases transfer any information we hold about you to a specified third party. For the avoidance of doubt, we will only retain your Personal Information for a reasonable period of time, or for so long as either you or the Data Protection Legislation allows. If you wish to exercise any of your rights set out in this paragraph, please notify us by submitting your request at admin@thepoliticsproject.org.uk.

8. COMPLAINTS

Should you have any queries or complaints in relation to how we use your Personal Information, please contact us in writing at admin@thepoliticsproject.org.uk. Should you wish to take any complaints or queries further, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk), the UK data protection regulator, regarding such issues. Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these websites or their related policies. Please check these policies before you submit any Personal Information via these websites.

9. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

10. CONTACT

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to our Company Address or emailed to info@thepoliticsproject.org.uk