P R I V A C Y P O L I C Y
Effective from 4 December 2024
INTRODUCTION
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The United Party or ukunitedparty.org (collectively the “Site” or “we”), which can be contacted at this link, want to inform you about how we collect, use and disclose personal data from and about you, through this website and its associated mobile sites, applications and widgets (collectively, the “Site Services”). In accordance with Data Protection law we are a Data Controller and accountable for the way we process your data. We have therefore implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both online and offline. The United Party is committed to protecting your privacy and the transparent use of any information you share with us in accordance with our legal obligations. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other policy or contained otherwise on this website, in the event of a conflict, the terms of this Privacy Policy shall prevail.
Personal data means any information that can directly or indirectly identify a living person –
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a) from those data, or
b) from those data and other information, which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.
Contacting us about Data Protection
If you have any questions about this Notice or you would like any more information in regard to how we process, store or use your personal information, please contact The United Party at this link.
In the UK, legislation governing data protection are the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR).
Here at The United Party, we are committed to protecting your personal information to ensure that your personal information is processed in a fair, open and transparent manner.
Who is in control?
We are the “controller” of all personal data collected and used by the United Party for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice. This means that we are responsible for deciding how and why your data is used and for ensuring that your data is handled legally and safely.
What data do we collect and where from?
Website subscription forms
We collect the details you submit to us when you complete an online form asking us to keep you updated on party activities and related issues.
Petitions and Surveys
We also collect information that you voluntarily provide to us when you respond to petitions or surveys including your responses to any questions they might ask.
Membership Signups
When you join as member of the party, we collect all the details you provide including contact details and any other details that are voluntarily provided. We also collect your payment details where necessary to process your membership subscriptions and donations.
Cookies and IP addresses
We collect information about how you interact with our websites using Cookies and your connection’s Internet Connection (IP) Address if your browser is set to accept/provide such..
Social Media
We also collect anonymised publicly available information from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, for example likes, shares, tweets and posts about the United Party and its activities and campaigns. This information is provided to us by the third-party social media platform.
On what legal bases do we use your personal data?
We use the data you provide us to communicate with our membership and supporters about party business, activities and campaigns. We will also communicate with you about fundraising campaigns we run in order to finance the operation of the party and/or support specific campaign causes.
We use your data, including any voluntarily provided information, to choose which campaigns or Party activity we believe may be of interest to you. Our communications may be via Post, Telephone, Email or Social Media.
Your address information (where provided) is used to identify the local, regional (or Wales) United Party in your area and may be used in an automated way to inform you of campaigns of geographical relevance.
This ensures that we can continue to represent supporters’ views in a democratic way and to help us generate revenue to fund our political activities.
WHAT IS OUR LEGAL BASIS FOR USING YOUR DATA?
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In order to process personal data lawfully we may use different lawful grounds for processing. For example, where the law permits, we may use Public Task to send Freepost communications. We may use Consent where it is informed and specific to the purposes for which it was gathered, such as for fundraising or campaigning. In a similar way we may use our Legitimate Interest where we believe the individual may have a reasonable expectation that their data is processed. For members of the Party, we may use Contractual Obligation to process personal data.
Broadly, our processing activities include but are not limited to:
Informing Members and Supporters of United Party Activities and campaigns
We process this personal data on the basis that we ensure that we communicate effectively with actual and potential supporters of the United Party and its campaigns. This ensures that we can continue to represent supporters’ views in a democratic way. This processing is considered to be fundamental to our role in promoting democracy in the public interest. Political opinions are classed as ‘special category’ data under data privacy legislation and our processing of this data is in accordance with Article 9 (g) of the General Data Protection Regulations which states that “processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law…”
Communicating with Members about their membership and constitutional role within the Party
We process your membership and personal data with respect to your membership position in line with the constitution of the Party and your agreed participation. As a membership organisation we require that we be able to communicate with members about constitutional issues (such as leadership elections, conference and changes to the constitution) this is considered to be a fundamental part of our role in promoting democracy in the public interest.
Fundraising
We may from time to time contact you directly asking for donations to help fund the work of the Party. Without funding it would be impossible to function as a Political Party and therefore such communication is considered to be a fundamental part of our role in promoting democracy.
Canvassing
As a political party we require an understanding of the political opinions of the UK electorate both nationally and on local campaigns and issues. This understanding is considered to be a fundamental part of our role in promoting democracy. We acknowledge that there is a difference between genuine research activities which may identify the views of the public and help to shape the Party’s policies for the future and gathering data which may be used to target individuals with marketing materials to encourage support.
Third Party Platforms
The United Party website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (Google). Google Analytics uses cookies, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.
Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. We use Google Analytics to make sure our online campaigning is as effective as possible, and it is also one of the ways we make sure that this website is clear and usable.
You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information.
Other processors
From time to time we may need to share some of your data with third party data processors (such as technology providers, website hosts, online systems). Where we do so we will have a data processing agreement with the third party, and where they are located outside the European Economic Area (EEA) we will ensure that they provide enough security and privacy to enable us to meet our legal obligations to you.
An example of this would be where we use a third-party email provider to deliver our emails to you. We would need to share your email address with the supplier to carry out this function, but their processing of your data would be in line with a data processing agreement we would have with them.
How long do we keep your data for?
Where you join as a member of the Party your data will be held for as long as you maintain your membership. If your membership lapses, your status may change to a supporter or may be deleted from our records.
Where you have donated to the Party or one of its campaigns the related data may be held for a period of 6 years to ensure we can comply with our legal obligations.
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS WITH REGARD TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
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You have a number of rights under data protection law. Some of these rights and how you can exercise them are set out in this section, more information can be found from the Information Commissioners office (https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/). If you are based outside of the UK, the complaint should be directed to the relevant Data Protection Authority in that Country.
We will normally need to ask you for proof of your identity before we can respond to a request to exercise any of the rights in this section and we may need to ask you for more information, for example to help us to locate the personal data or ask for a ‘scope’ that your request relates to.
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You have the right to be informed as to how we use your data and under what lawful basis we carry out any processing. This privacy policy sets this information out however if you would like further information or feel that your rights are not being respected please contact us at this link.
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You have a right to ask us to send you a copy of your all personal data that we hold about you (subject to some exceptions). A request to exercise this right is called a “subject access request” and must be made in writing via our contact link here: Contact The United Party.
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You have a right to object to us processing any personal data that we process where we are relying on legitimate interests as the legal basis of our processing. You also have the right to withdraw your consent from our processing that requires it (such as our email communications). Every communication will have an option for you to withdraw your consent directly, or you can email at this link at any time to exercise this right.
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You have the right to opt-out of any marketing or personally addressed direct mailings we send to you. If the communication is electronic it will include simple links and instructions to ‘unsubscribe’. For other media please write to us at this link.
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You have a right to ask us to correct inaccurate data that we hold about you. If we are satisfied that the new data you have provided is accurate, we will correct your personal data as soon as possible.
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You have a right to ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances, for example if we have processed your data unlawfully or if we no longer need the data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice.
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You can ask us to restrict processing of your personal data in some circumstances, for example if you think the personal data is inaccurate and we need to verify its accuracy, or if we no longer need the data but you require us to keep it so that you can exercise your own legal rights. Restricting your personal data means that we only store your personal data and don’t carry out any further processing on it unless you consent, or we need to process the data to exercise a legal claim or to protect a third party or the public.
To exercise any of the rights above please email at this link.
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UPDATE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
The Site may modify or update this Privacy Policy for any reason (including, but not limited to, changes in applicable law and interpretations, decisions, opinions and orders relating to such applicable law). Please look at the Effective Date at the top of this Privacy Policy to see when it was last revised. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be provided in advance by posting the revised Privacy Policy on the Site Services. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy that change the nature of processing or expand our rights to use the personal data we have already collected from you, we will notify you in advance and provide you with a choice about our future use of the personal data, as may be required by applicable law.
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You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioners Office if you would like to complain about us, please see their contact details below:
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Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
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