QUEERS OF THE NORTH CIC – PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated: June 2026

Welcome to Queers of the North CIC ("we", "our", "us"). We are deeply committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal data when you interact with our website, landing pages, mailing list, and digital community platforms, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. WHO WE ARE

Queers of the North CIC is a registered Community Interest Company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, providing and promoting safe spaces, resources, and networks for the LGBTQIA+ community across the wider Northern region.

  • Contact Email: hello@queersofthenorth.com

For the purpose of the UK GDPR, we act as the "Data Controller" for the personal information you share with us.

2. THE DATA WE COLLECT

When you sign up for our network via our website, landing pages, or digital forms, we collect the following personal information:

  • First Name and Last Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Email Address

3. HOW WE USE YOUR DATA

We process your data strictly for the following purposes:

  • To deliver community updates, organisational announcements, newsletters, and curated information about Queers of the North CIC events, campaigns, resources, and partnerships.
  • To monitor and analyse our digital engagement metrics (such as email open rates and click-through tracking) to elevate the quality and relevance of our content.
  • To manage our network infrastructure securely and maintain accurate administrative records.

We rely exclusively on your explicit consent to send you marketing and community communications. You hold the absolute right to withdraw this consent at any moment by clicking the "unsubscribe" link found at the bottom of any email we dispatch.

4. COOKIES, ANALYTICS, AND TARGETED ADVERTISING

To steadily develop our network and effectively reach marginalised LGBTQIA+ individuals across the region, we employ standard digital analytics and tracking tools on our web pages (including platforms like Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel).

  • Operational Mechanics: These tools utilise cookies to evaluate how visitors interact with our digital spaces. This tracking data enables us to measure campaign efficacy and occasionally serve relevant event notices or informational advertisements on social media platforms (such as Instagram and Facebook) to previous site visitors or demographics with matching interests.
  • User Controls: You possess the ability to restrict, filter, or block cookies via your native browser configuration frameworks at any time. We strictly prohibit the direct sale, rent, or transfer of raw email addresses, names, or private identities to third parties for commercial exploitation.

5. DATA RETENTION AND INACTIVITY MANAGEMENT

In accordance with the UK GDPR principle of storage limitation, we do not maintain personal records indefinitely. To maintain an accurate, premium, and active community hub, our systems regularly audit database engagement levels.

We reserve the explicit right to permanently remove your email address and profile files from our active database if your profile triggers prolonged inactivity flags. Typically, if a profile fails to open or interact with our communication distributions for a consecutive period spanning 6 to 12 months, the associated records are securely deleted. This system ensures we only commit server resources and communications to individuals who actively desire them.

6. DATA SHARING AND GOVERNANCE ECOSYSTEMS

  • Data Processors: We partner with trusted corporate infrastructure providers, such as MailerLite, to act as our technical data processors for storing records and deploying email distributions. They are legally and contractually bound to preserve data security to the highest industry benchmarks.
  • Grant and Stakeholder Reporting: As a formalised CIC, we apply for structural funding, public grants, and corporate sponsorships to ensure that the network is sustainable. We routinely compile aggregate, entirely anonymised statistics for these funding bodies (e.g., "We expanded our network by 150 community members this quarter"). This reporting is completely stripped of names, contact entries, or tracking attributes, rendering individual identification entirely impossible.

7. THIRD-PARTY COMMUNITY SPACES (WHATSAPP COMMUNITY)

We offer our network members optional access to collaborative peer-to-peer social ecosystems, currently facilitated via WhatsApp Communities.

  • Platform Architecture & Visibility: WhatsApp is an external utility governed by separate privacy mandates. While WhatsApp's primary "Community Announcements" feed natively hides participant telephone numbers from standard subscribers, crossing over into specific internal sub-chat groups or topic threads will display your telephone digits and profile metadata to all active participants within that sub-group.
  • Limitation of Liability: Queers of the North CIC manages the creation and high-level structural moderation of these chats but does not control private, unmoderated user behaviors. We explicitly decline legal responsibility or liability for interactions executed by individuals outside our direct moderation tools, including any non-consensual direct communication between members.
  • Behavioral Mandates: Unsolicited direct messaging, data-scraping, out-of-chat targeting, or targeted harassment of community profiles constitutes a total breach of our WhatsApp Safe Space Policy. Infractions will prompt immediate, unconditional removal from all Queers of the North CIC physical and digital ecosystems.

8. DATA SECURITY AND BORDER CROSSINGS

Your electronic entries are retained within protected, encrypted environments managed by our processors. In instances where operational pathways transfer digital data streams outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area (EEA)—such as global host servers—we enforce rigorous security validation clauses (Standard Contractual Clauses) to guarantee your data security mirrors full UK legal standards.

9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under the statutory frameworks of the UK GDPR, you maintain comprehensive individual rights. You are fully empowered to:

  • Request transparency and direct copies of the personal data entries we retain on your profile.
  • Demand immediate correction or amendment of inaccurate data records.
  • Demand complete, permanent erasure of your personal data from all active networks.
  • Object to or legally restrict specific methods of data processing.

To activate any of these legal statutory protections, contact our administrative desk directly at hello@queersofthenorth.com, and our team will fulfill your request promptly.

10. UPDATES TO THIS FRAMEWORK

We reserve the right to modify this operational Privacy Policy dynamically to accommodate changing digital systems or updated statutory regulations. Any revisions will appear on our live digital footprints accompanied by a revised execution date