PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated September 23, 2024

Smarter Britain is the “controller” of the personal data you provide to us, as we make decisions on what information we hold and what we do with it. This privacy notice describes how and why we might use your personal data. It will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us:

Email: hello@smarterbritain.co.uk.

Address: Smarter Britain Limited, 2 West Street, Henley On Thames, Oxfordshire, England, RG9 2DU

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
  2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
  3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
  4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
  5. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?
  6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
  7. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
  8. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN?
  9. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
  10. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
  11. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information directly from you:

In short: we collect personal information that you provide to us.

We collect personal information from you when you register for our services, when you participate in activities on the services, or otherwise when you contact us. We will only collect personal data that is required to fulfil our services and legitimate interests.

The personal information we collect may include the following:

  • Name
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Physical address
  • Job title
  • Payment details
  • Profile picture, when choosing the register user

Social Media Login Data: Your existing social media accounts

'HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?' below.

Information automatically collected:

In short: some personal information, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser and device characteristics, is automatically when you visit our services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit the services. This information does not reveal your specific identity and is needed to maintain the security and operation of our services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

The information we collect includes:

  • Log and usage data: Depending on how you interact with us, this log data may include your IP address, device information, browser type, and settings and information about your activity in the services (such as the date/time stamps associated with your usage, pages and files viewed, searches, and other actions you take such as which features you use), device event information (such as system activity, error reports (sometimes called 'crash dumps'), and hardware settings).
  • Device data: We collect device data such as information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other device you use to access the services. Depending on the device used, this device data may include information such as your IP address (or proxy server), device and application identification numbers, location, browser type, hardware model, internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, operating system, and system configuration information.
  • Location data: We collect location data to ensure we offer our service to those located in relevant locations.

We also collect information through cookies and similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy.

2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our services, including:

  • To facilitate account creation and authentication and manage user accounts.
  • To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user.
  • To manage your enquiries.
  • To enable user-to-user communications, if you choose to use any of our offerings that allow for communication with another user.

3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In short: we only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e. legal basis) to do so.

We rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

  • Contract – we use the lawful basis of contract for subscribers and guests to our services.
  • Legitimate Interests – we use this lawful basis for our other business functions, including marketing and sales activities.
  • Legal Obligations - we may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as reporting to or cooperating with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercising or defending our legal rights, or otherwise sharing your information when required to by law.
  • Consent - we use this lawful basis for cookies. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In short: we may share information in specific situations described in this section.

We may share your data with third parties for a number of reasons. The categories of third parties we share personal information with are as follows:

  • Other users: when you share personal information (for example, by posting comments, contributions, or other content to the services) or otherwise interact with public areas of the services, such personal information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly made available outside the services in perpetuity.
  • Requesting or fulfilling services: when you interact with our services, such as requesting a mentor, agreeing to become a mentor, applying for funding, or engaging with service providers for business advice or resources, your personal data will be shared with relevant users to facilitate these services.
  • If you interact with other users of our services and register for our services through a social media account, within the Smarter Britain platform other users (such as mentors, investors, or service providers) will be able to see your profile, view your activity, and communicate with you as part of the services provided.
  • Third-party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents: these  third parties who perform services for us or on our behalf require access to personal data to do that work. We have contracts in place with our third parties, which are designed to help safeguard your personal information. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it and will only retain it for the period we instruct. They will also not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us.

5. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?

In short: if you choose to register or log in to our services using a social media account, we may have access to certain information about you.

Our services offer you the ability to register and log in using your third-party social media account details (LinkedIn or Google). Where you choose to do this, we will receive certain profile information about you from your social media provider. This will include your name, email address, and profile picture

Please note that we do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third-party social media provider. We recommend that you review their privacy notice to understand how they collect, use, and share your personal information, and how you can set your privacy preferences on their sites and apps.

6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

In short: we keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

If you are, or have been, a subscriber, we will retain your data for up to 5 years after the end of your contract, or the last point of contact (whichever is latest) for marketing as part of our legitimate interest and as part of our statutory obligations. We will retain personal data required for tax and accounting by law following the current guidelines.  

If you are not a subscriber and we send you marketing communications, we will keep your information for a maximum of 5 years after the last point of contact. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by contacting us using the details above or unsubscribing on the marketing emails we send you.

7. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?

In short: we aim to protect your personal information through a system of organisational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. We use encryption protocols , firewall protection and strong access control to prevent unauthorised access to data. Regular software updates are in place. Intrusion detection systems are used to identify any unusual activity. Regular, back up processes are in place to prevent any potential loss of personal data.

8. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN?

In short: some of our services are available to children over the age of 13.

We offer some subscriptions to children who must be over the age of 13. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 13, please contact us at hello@smarterbritain.co.uk.

9. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

You have a number of rights regarding the processing of your personal data: You have the right to have your personal data corrected if it is not correct or incomplete. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please visit: smarterbritain.co.uk/dashboard/profile/data-export. You have the right to have your personal data deleted. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please visit: smarterbritain.co.uk/dashboard/profile/data-export. Please note that we may not be able to fulfil our contractual obligations without your contact details You have the right to have personal data transferred to another party. Please ask us if this is what you would like to do. You have the right of access to your data. Please contact us and we will let you know
what personal data we hold. You can ask us to restrict the use of your information, by contacting us on the contact details above. You have the right to register a complaint regarding the use of your personal data to a supervisory authority at any time. The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK authority, details of which can be found at ico.org.uk We do not carry out profiling or automatic decision making.

 If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can: log in to your account settings and update your user account. Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information in our files to comply with applicable legal requirements.

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at hello@smarterbritain.co.uk.

10. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated 'Revised' date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

11. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may contact us at hello@smarterbritain.co.uk.