Founders4Schools Privacy Policy

Founders4Schools ("we", "us" and "our") is a registered charity (charity number 1162197) located at 22 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1LS. We are the data controller in relation to the processing activities described below which means that we decide how and why your personal information is processed. We are registered on the public register of data controllers maintained by the Information Commissioner in the UK.

Please take time to read this Policy as it describes our policy and practises with regard to all processing of Personal Information (as defined below) we undertake in relation to your use of our website www.founders4schools.org.uk, and the Founders4Schools platform (“Platform”).

Personal Information - the basics

“Personal Information" means any information that relates to a living individual who can be identified from that information. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to protecting the privacy of any Personal Information you give us, or we collect from you. Except to the extent that we are permitted or required by law, any Personal Information we collect will be used, processed and shared only for the purposes and in ways set out in this Policy.

Personal Information we collect and process about you

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal information about you which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or similar identifier, title, business address and gender.
  • Contact Data includes email address and telephone numbers.
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this Platform.
  • Profile Data includes your username and password, events you have registered for or have been accepted by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our Platform and services.
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
  • Sensitive Personal information includes information on your racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and disability information, DBS number and data of issue, and biometric data such as photographs or videos of you.
  • Cookies for further details on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, please refer to our Cookie Policy.

We may also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your Personal Information but is not considered personal information in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Platform feature or to report on number and frequency of volunteer hours in a specific period. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your Personal Information so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as Personal Information which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

If you fail to provide Personal Information

Where we need to collect Personal Information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel a service offered to you, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

How we collect your Personal Information

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your identity, contact and financial data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes Personal Information you provide when you:
    • create or attend events or encounters;
    • create an account on our Platform, or upload forms or content to our Platform;
    • subscribe to our service or publications;
    • request marketing to be sent to you
    • make a donation to us;
    • provide feedback and comments on case study forms; or
    • give us feedback or otherwise contact us.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our Platform, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this Personal Information by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other Platforms employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive Personal Information about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
    • Technical Data from the following parties:

a) analytics providers such as Google, Twitter, Facebook based outside the UK;

b) advertising networks such as Google Ads or Facebook Audience Network Ads based inside and outside the UK; and

c) search information providers such as Google based inside and outside the UK.

How we may use, process and share your Personal Information

We may process your Personal Information for the following purposes and have listed below the appropriate legal bases we rely on to do so:

Performance of the contract with you or take steps to enter into a contract. We may use and process your personal information to enable you to use our services. For example, to establish your qualifications as educators/business leaders, to facilitate encounters and events with educators/business leaders and students and to manage donations.

Legitimate interests. We may use and process your personal information where it is necessary for us to pursue our legitimate interests as a charitable organisation. For example:

  • for marketing activities (other than where we rely on your consent to contact you by email or text with information about our products and services, as explained below);
  • for analysis to inform our strategy, and to enhance and personalise your user experience (including improving the recommendations we make to you on our Platform);
  • to monitor usage of our site, record traffic flows, and to carry out research about its user demographics, interests and behaviour in order to better understand the users of our Platform;
  • to correspond or communicate with you, including about our services and any changes or improvements to our Platform or services;
  • to carry out database and Platform administration;
  • to verify the accuracy of data that we hold about you and create a better understanding of you as a user (if applicable);
  • for network and information security in order for us to take steps to protect your information against loss or damage, theft or unauthorised access;
  • for prevention of fraud and other criminal activities;
  • to comply with a request from you in connection with the exercise of your rights (for example where you have asked us not to contact you for marketing purposes, we will keep a record of this on our suppression lists in order to be able to comply with your request);
  • to assess and improve our services;
  • for the management of queries, complaints, or claims; and
  • for the establishment and defence of our legal rights.

Consent for data processing. We may use and process your Personal Information where you have consented for us to do so. This includes contacting you with marketing information about our products and/or services if you have:

  • signed up to our mailing list/e-newsletters via our Platform or other medium where available; or
  • when you refresh your marketing preferences and provide a consent when responding to a request from us to do so.

We may also process your Sensitive Personal Information where we have obtained your explicit consent for us to do this (or where we have another lawful basis to process this information) for the following purposes:

  • to monitor and promote diversity and inclusion;
  • to carry out obligations relating to your attendance at encounters or events, including additional support measures you may require and our obligations under social security and social protection law;
  • to protect your vital interests;
  • for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; and
  • for reasons of substantial public interest.

You may withdraw your consent for us to use your information in any of these ways at any time.

Vital interests. We may use your personal information to contact you if there are any urgent safety notices to communicate to you or where we otherwise reasonably believe that the processing of your personal information will prevent or reduce any potential harm to you.

Legal requirement. We will use your personal information to comply with our legal obligations: (i) to assist any public authority or criminal investigation body; (ii) to identify you when you contact us; and/or (iii) to verify the accuracy of data we hold about you.

We may disclose your Personal Information to third parties

  • Group / Sister Companies: We may share your information with other companies within our group or our affiliated companies, including sharing with our sister company Workfinder Ltd, for their work experience services.
  • Educators or Business Volunteers: We share your information with educators or business volunteers for the purposes of allowing educators to select matching volunteers for events, notifications of or participation in encounters or events, or otherwise for the purposes of providing the services offered on our Platform.
  • Suppliers and Service Providers: We may disclose your information to our third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other organisations for the purposes of providing services to us or directly to you on our behalf. Such third parties may include subcontractors engaged to carry out infrastructure works, cloud service providers (such as hosting and email management), IT providers, legal advisers, advertising agencies and administrative services.

When we use third party service providers, and they are acting as our processors, we only disclose to them any personal information that is necessary for them to provide their service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it other than in accordance with our specific instructions.

  • Other ways we may share your personal information: We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation. We may also transfer your personal information if we’re under a duty to disclose or share it in order to comply with any legal obligation, to detect or report a crime, to enforce or apply the terms of our contracts or to protect the rights, property or safety of our visitors and customers. We will always take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

We may process your Personal Information for marketing purposes

We may keep you informed about our work and services that we believe may be of interest to you where you have opted to receive marketing from us.

We may share your personal information with our selected third-party partners for them to contact you with marketing information about their services only where you have expressed an interest for us to do so. We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes. Once shared, the relevant third party’s privacy policy will apply to their processing of your personal information, not ours. If you’d like to opt-out of receiving marketing from a third party after providing your consent, you can do so at any time by contacting the relevant third party directly.

You can unsubscribe from receiving such newsletters at any time by clicking the "Unsubscribe" option at the bottom of our emails and within your dedicated preference page. Please note that if you unsubscribe you will no longer receive our newsletters via email until such time as you re-subscribe.

Where we store your Personal Information

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers which are located within the US and Ireland.

We may transfer your Personal Information to third parties (as set out above) located in countries that are outside of the United Kingdom (“UK”), for example, we may send your Personal Information to third-parties, educators or business partners located outside the UK. Your Personal Information may also be processed by staff operating outside the UK who work for us or for one of our service providers / suppliers (including hosting providers).

If at any time we transfer your personal information to, or store it in, countries located outside of the UK, we will ensure that your Personal Information is treated securely and shall only be transferred to: (i) countries that have been approved as adequate for data protection purposes by the UK government (this includes all EU countries); or (ii) where appropriate safeguards are in place for that transfer, storage and where enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects are available as required by applicable law.

Security of your Personal Information

Whilst we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your Personal Information, no transmission over the Internet can ever be guaranteed to be secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the security of any Personal Information that you transfer over the Internet to us and any such transmission is at your own risk.

You should avoid sharing any information on our system that you would not be comfortable sharing in public.

How long do we keep your Personal Information for

We will store your personal information for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, as explained in this privacy notice. Where your information is no longer needed, we will ensure that it is disposed of in a secure manner. In some circumstances, we may store your personal information for longer periods of time, for instance where we are required to do so in accordance with legal, regulatory, tax, and accounting requirements.

In specific circumstances we may store your personal information for longer periods of time so that we have an accurate record of your dealings with us in the event of any complaints or challenges, or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation relating to your personal information or dealings.

You can amend, update or delete your personal information via your preference page on our website, or alternatively request your personal information is updated or deleted via an email to us.

Your rights and access to Personal Information

You have the right to ask us to:

  • provide you with copies of the Personal Information that we hold about you at any time by sending an email or writing to us at the relevant address set out below;
  • update and correct any out-of-date or incorrect Personal Information that we hold about you free of charge by sending an email or writing to us at the relevant address set out below;
  • by sending an email or writing to us at the relevant address set out below, erase your Personal Information in limited circumstances where:
    • it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected;
    • you have withdrawn your consent (where the data processing was based on consent);
    • you have asked us not to process your Personal Information for marketing purposes or objected to the processing of your Personal Information (see below);
    • it has been processed unlawfully; or
    • to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject.

We are not required to comply with your request to erase Personal Information if the processing of your Personal Information is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

You also have the right to:

  • ask us not to process your Personal Information for marketing purposes. We will usually inform (before collecting your information) if we intend to use such information for marketing purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your information. In addition, you can exercise this right at any time by updating your Personal Information in your preference page, emailing or writing to us at the addresses set out below;
  • object to any processing of your Personal Information which has our legitimate interests as its legal basis, if you believe your fundamental rights and freedoms outweigh our legitimate interests. If you raise an objection, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate interests which override your rights and freedoms;
  • obtain a copy of, or reference to, the safeguards under which your Personal Information is transferred outside of the European Union. We may redact data transfer agreements to protect commercial terms; and
  • lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority if you have concerns about how we are processing your personal information. We ask that you please attempt to resolve any issues with us first, although you have a right to contact your supervisory authority at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of the above rights, please send us an email to: privacy@founders4schools.org.uk or write to us at Founders4Schools, 22 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1LS.

Third party sites and applications

Our Platform contains links to other Platforms operated by third parties. Please note that this Policy applies only to the Personal Information we collect through our Platform and we are not responsible for any Personal Information that third parties may collect, store and use through their app(s) or Platform(s). You should always read the privacy policy of each such third-party app/Platform you visit carefully.

Changes to our Policy

This Policy was last updated on 20.04.21. This Policy may change from time to time and, if it does, the up-to-date version will always be available on our Platform.

Queries and our contact details

If you have any questions, comments and/or requests relating to this Policy, please get in touch with us by email at: privacy@founders4schools.org.uk or write to us at: Founders4Schools, 22 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1LS.

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