Effective Date: 25th May 2018
Last Updated: 6th October 2021

This Privacy Statement explains how Support U Ltd and our Grant Bodies/Business Partners collect, control, process, and use information about you (which we call “personal data”).

When we say “Support U”, “us”, “our”, or “we”, we mean Support U Ltd.

Our current Grant Bodies and Business Partners can be found on the “Our Partners” web page. Grant Bodies and Business Partners collect, process, and use your personal data as necessary to facilitate the delivery of our services to you and the effectiveness of these services.

When we talk about the “Service”, we mean our drop-in (face to face) support service, counselling services, contact centre, platforms; which include our websites, support service, mobile applications, communications we send or services we provide to you, social networking sites, or any other websites or services we offer that link to or reference this Privacy Statement.

Change

We routinely update this Privacy Statement to clarify our practices and to reflect new or different privacy practices, such as when we add new services, functionality, or features to the service. If we make any material changes we will notify you, either by email (sent to the email address specified in your account), by means of notice on our website or by using other methods. You can determine when this version of the Privacy Statement was adopted by referring to the “Effective Date” above.

You understand that your continued use of our services after we send a notice about our changes to the Privacy Statement means that the collection, control, processing, and use of your personal data is subject to the updated Privacy Statement.  If you object to any changes, you may discontinue to the use of our services as described below.

1. Personal Data We Collect

We will collect the following personal data when you interact with the Service:

● Authentication and identification information (e.g. your name, email address, and password). This information is necessary to set up and log you into your support account. If you don’t provide it, we may not be able to provide our services to you;

● Basic personal details (e.g. your name, date of birth, gender and sexuality);

● Contact details (e.g. your postcode, telephone number, and email address). We may need some of this information to contact you, or report on usage of our services, and won’t be able to carry out these services if you don’t provide it;

● Information about your contacts with Support U (e.g. call recordings, emails to our team, instant messages on our site, and user generated content).

We will also automatically collect personal data when you interact with the Service through your computer, mobile device, or other device. This personal data includes the following:

● Analytics data (e.g. information about site visits, clicks and web page histories), which may include data collected from cookies and other types of device identifiers;

● Support Request information (e.g. what support you require, information about your request and associated actions taken). This may include data about your location. With respect to geolocation information collected from your device, we will only collect this for the purposes of ensuring we are best placed to serve you; and

● Device details (e.g. MAC address and IP address).

We will collect the personal data described above at various stages in your relationship with us when you:

● First or subsequently use the Service;

● Register, subscribe, authorise the transfer of, or create an account with us;

● Open or respond to emails or messages from us;

● Provide information to enrol or participate in programs provided on behalf of, or together with our Grant Bodies/Business Partners, with your consent or as necessary to provide services you have requested;

● Visit any page online that displays our content;

● Purchase commercial products or services on or through the Service;

● Connect, log-in, or link to the Service using social networking tools; and

● Post comments to the online communities sections of the Service.

We also create profiles about you based on the personal data you provide to us or that is collected from you, as described above. We do this to ensure our services are tailored to your needs. The contents of that profile include:

● Account details. For example, we store your information so that our agents are able to remember your previous encounters with the service, and any support offered;

● Audience information. We create audiences based on parameters such as gender, sexuality, age, and location (e.g. % of services users who identify as gay males in Reading), and if your personal data matches those audiences, you’ll be assigned to it. This is to help you receive relevant information from us, and to provide insight into anonymised service user data to our Grant Bodies.

2. Your Choices

You can manage the types of personal data you provide to us and can limit how we communicate with you. At the same time, we think that the more you tell us about yourself and what you like, the more relevant and valuable your experience with the Service will be.

You can manage your email, telephone number, location information and contact preferences by logging into your account through the our website or by:

● Subscriptions.  You can also manage your subscriptions by following subscription management instructions contained in any commercial emails that we send you. You may choose to subscribe to messages, and may choose not to subscribe to, or to unsubscribe all together. You may update your subscription preferences at any time. Even if you decide not to subscribe to, or to unsubscribe, from promotional email messages, we may still need to contact you with important support information related to your requests. For example, even if you have unsubscribed from our promotional email messages, we will still send you appointment confirmations when you request to meet us to discuss your concerns;

● Cookies.  You can manage how your browser handles cookies. You may also manage how your mobile device and mobile browser share information on and about your devices with us, as well as how your mobile browser handles cookies;

● Social networking.  You may also manage sharing certain personal data with us when you connect with us through social networking platforms or applications. Please refer to Section 8 below and also the privacy policy and settings of the social networking website or application to determine how you may adjust our permissions and manage the interactivity between us and your social networking account or your mobile device.

3. Your Rights

You can access, update, rectify, and delete your personal data which makes up some of your profile by logging into your account or contacting us. Keeping your personal data current helps ensure that we can respect your preferences and offer you the services that are most relevant to you.

In accordance with applicable law, you may (i) request access to any personal data we hold about you; (ii) request that it be updated, rectified, deleted or blocked; (iii) request that we delete personal data we hold about you; (iv) request that we restrict our processing of your personal data; and (v) request that we provide you or a third party with a copy of certain personal data about you (that is referred to as the right of  “data portability”). You can also object to any of our uses of your personal data described in this policy, including our marketing activities.

4. How We Use Information

We control and process the personal data you provide to us, which we collect from other sources, and which we generate to:

● Create your account when you sign up and log you in, which is necessary for us to provide our services to you in accordance with the Terms of Use;

● Operate, maintain, and improve the Service by analysing how you and our other service users use and interact with it. This is to meet our legitimate business interests in providing the Service and ensuring that it provides the best experience for our users;

● Validate, facilitate, and prevent fraudulent requests. This may include requesting additional information from you to validate your request.

● Carry-out marketing, which may involve:

o Establishing and analysing individual and group profiles and customer behaviour, in order to determine your or others needs for certain types of products, and services. We do this by analysing your interactions with the Service and your other personal data to determine what your needs are, and what sorts of services people with similar interests also require, which helps us understand what products and services you may be interested in utilising. This is to meet our legitimate interests in understanding the types of products and services our service users are interested in, and to provide the most relevant services to you and our other service users;

o Sending you relevant direct marketing messages and other communications via email or text messages on mobile devices. We will either send these messages on the basis that you have consented to receiving them or, where permitted by applicable law, to meet our legitimate interests in delivering services that are requested or relevant to you; and

o Analysing advertising effectiveness, which may involve analysing the advertising campaigns our users choose to interact with most often. This is to meet our legitimate interests in understanding which types of advertising campaigns are more or less effective than others.

● Answer your questions and respond to your requests, for example in the context of our support portal. This is to meet your needs where these questions or requests are part of a service request or to comply with legal obligations (such as allowing you to exercise your rights as described above), and in other cases to meet our legitimate interests in providing a good service to our customers;

● Send you reminders, notices, updates, alerts, support and administrative messages, service bulletins, and requested information, including on behalf of Business Partners and Grant Bodies. This is to meet our legitimate interests in managing our relationship with you effectively;

● Administer raffles, surveys, prize-draws, contests, or other promotional activities or events, in order to meet raise awareness of or generate funds for the charity;

● Manage our everyday business needs, such as administration of the Service, forum management, fulfilment, analytics, fraud prevention, and enforcement of our charity reporting obligations or to comply with the law; and

● Comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We do this where necessary to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject, or to meet our legitimate interests in enforcing our legal rights and resolving disputes or verifying payments and preventing fraud.

5. When and Why We Disclose Personal Data

We share your personal data as follows:

● with your consent;

● with Local Authorities and or Statutory Bodies where you pose a risk to yourself or others;

● with Business Partners, to deliver, and provide the products or services requested by you (e.g. to manage your case notes we will store these on our third-party system). We may share personal data with unaffiliated third-party organisations in order to meet our obligations to you, and they are not permitted to use your personal data in any way other than for delivering, and/or providing the products or services requested by you;

● with Grant Bodies that provide funding to the charity, so that they can analyse the effective use of their funds in relation to our delivery of services, provided you have consented to this;

● with third parties, to send you emails on our behalf, provided you have consented to receive such emails;   

● to report or collect on debts owed to us; 

● to a subsequent owner, co-owner, or operator of one or more of the Service or any portion or operation related to part of one or more of the Service;

● in connection with a merger, consolidation, or restructuring, the sale of substantially all of our assets, or other company change, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process;

● to comply with legal orders and government requests, or as needed to support auditing, compliance, and charity governance functions, where this is necessary to comply with these legal obligations;

● to combat fraud or criminal activity, and to protect our rights or those of our Business Partners/Grant Bodies, and users, or as part of legal proceedings affecting us and/or Business Partners/Grant Bodies, as it is in our legitimate interests to prevent fraud and protect these rights; or

● in response to a Court Order, or similar legal process, including to law enforcement agencies, regulators, and courts, to the extent this is necessary to comply with such legal obligations.

We encourage our unaffiliated third-party organisations, Grant Bodies and Business Partners to adopt and post privacy policies. However, while we share personal data with them only for the above-mentioned purposes, their subsequent processing and use of personal data obtained through us is governed by their own privacy policies and practices and is not under our control (except for the use and processing by Business Partners providing services to us, as described above). Where possible, we contractually restrict how our Business Partners, including merchants, use your personal data and aim to ensure they do not use it for any purposes which are incompatible with those set out in this privacy statement.

In a number of the cases set out above, we will transfer your personal data to a country located outside the European Economic Area that may not be considered as providing the same level of protection for personal data under European law. In such cases, we put in place appropriate safeguards, on recipients of the data, to ensure that there is appropriate protection for your personal data.

6. Security of Personal Data

We have implemented an information security program that contains administrative, technical and physical controls that are designed to safeguard your personal data, including industry-standard encryption technology. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

7. Retention of Personal Data

We will retain your personal data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you request deletion of your account, we will retain your personal data for a period where it is necessary to continue operating our business effectively, to maintain a record of your interactions for reporting purposes or fraud prevention purposes until these purposes no longer exist, and to retain as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

8. Social Networks

Social Community Areas

You may access the Service through, or the Service may contain connections to, areas where you may be able to publicly post information, communicate with others such as discussion boards or blogs, review services and third-party providers, and submit media content. Prior to posting in these areas, please check your content and its uses carefully. All of the information you post may be accessible to anyone with Internet access, and any information you include in your posting may be read, collected, and used by others. For example, if you post your email address along with a public post on our twitter page, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties. You should avoid publicly posting sensitive information about you or others.

Connecting through Social Networks

We offer social networking users the opportunity to interact with friends and to share on social networks. If you are logged into both the Service and a social network, when you use the Service’s social networking connection functions, you will connect your social network account with your Support U account (this happens automatically, if the email addresses match). If the email addresses do not match, we ask you if you want to link them and you must validate that you control the accounts by logging in to your social network account. If you are already logged into the Service but not into your social network site, when you use the Service’s social network connection functions, you will be prompted to enter your social network website credentials or to sign up for the social network.

If you are not currently registered as a service user and you use the Service’s social network connection functions, you will first be asked to enter your social network credentials and then be given the option to register and join Support U. Once you register with us and connect with the social network, you will be able to automatically post content to your social network. Please refer to the privacy settings in your social network account to manage the data that is shared through your account.

When you use the Service’s social network connection function, you will have the opportunity to consent to our accessing all of the elements of your social network profile information that you have made available to be shared (as per the settings chosen by you in your social network profile) and to use it in accordance with the social network’s terms of use and this Privacy Statement. You can withdraw this consent at any time.

9. Privacy Practices of Third Parties

This Privacy Statement only addresses the collection, processing and use (including disclosure) of personal data by us through your interaction with the Service. Other websites/services that may be accessible through links from the Service or our services may have their own privacy statements and personal data collection, processing, use, and disclosure practices. Our Business Partners/Grant Bodies may also have their own privacy statements. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with the privacy statements provided by these other parties prior to providing them with information or taking advantage of our services.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about our privacy practices or this Privacy Statement, if you want to make use of any of the above rights, or other rights that you may have in relation to your personal data, please contact us.

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected] and can also reach us via postal mail at the following address:

Data Protection Officer, Support U Ltd, Citizens Advice Reading, Minster Street, RG1 2JB, United Kingdom.

We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any request, complaint, or concern about our use of your personal data. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist you, you have the right to make a complaint to the data protection authority in the United Kingdom.