Effective Date: August 2025

1 WHO WE ARE

Your personal information is collected by Surviving Economic Abuse (“SEA,” “we,” “us,” “our”), a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Our registered office is located at 483 Green Lanes, London, N13 4BS.

1.1 PURPOSE

This privacy notice describes how we look after your personal data when you visit our website and tells you about your data protection rights and how the law protects you.

1.2 CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY NOTICE AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES IN YOUR PERSONAL DATA  

We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice and will notify you by updating this notice, so please check it from time to time, especially if you have ongoing dealings with us. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

1.3 THIRD-PARTY LINKS  

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications.   When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2 THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU  

As a charity working with frontline organisations to support individuals affected by economic abuse, we are committed to collecting and handling your personal data in a way that is respectful, transparent, and safe.

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect, use, store and share different categories of personal data about you which we have categorised as follows:

• Identity Data – includes first name, last name, date of birth, and gender.
• Contact Data – includes postal address, email address, and telephone number.
• Support Data – includes any information related to the help or services you have accessed or are being offered. It may cover background information necessary to tailor support.
• Referral Data – includes details shared with us by partner a referring organisation as part of the referral process.
• Donor Data – if you choose to support us financially, we may collect your name, contact details, donation amount and payment method (via secure third-party platforms).
• Communications Data – includes your preferences for receiving updates, newsletters, or event invitations, and how you interact with these communications.
• Lived Experience and Story Submissions – if you are joining the Experts by Experience Group to share your story, lived experience or feedback, we will also ask you for further information via a membership onboarding form.  This is always optional and treated with sensitivity.
• Technical and Usage Data – such as your IP address, browser type, and how you interact with our website and digital tools. This helps us improve access and user experience.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data, such as general statistics and trends for research, advocacy, and reporting. This type of data is not considered personal data by law as it does not identify you directly or indirectly.

In certain cases, and only where it is strictly necessary for delivering appropriate support, or where required by law, we may collect Special Category Data. This may include:

• Health information, where it affects your support needs or is relevant to your situation;
• Racial or ethnic background, religious or philosophical beliefs, or sexual orientation, where this may help us understand circumstances surrounding the abuse – for example, where abuse may be linked to or influenced by cultural, religious, or social dynamics.

We take additional steps to protect this kind of sensitive information and will only collect it with your clear consent or where a lawful exemption applies.

We do not typically collect, or process Special Category Data related to genetic or biometric information, political opinions, or trade union membership. Where we do, it is always done with your explicit consent, unless we are legally required or permitted to do so.

3 HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We use different methods to collect the categories of data described above from and about you including through:

• Direct interactions. You may give us your personal data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by mail, phone, and email, or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

• apply online or otherwise for our support services including our training courses;
• request information, materials, or resources to be sent to you.

Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, log files, and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. We passively collect and log the following information from visitors to our site such as:

• Browser type
• IP Address
• Domain Name
• Access Time
• Operating System
• Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:

• We may receive Technical Data from the following parties:
• analytics providers such as Google
• advertising networks

4 HOW WE USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data where permitted by law. We collect and use data to support individuals affected by economic abuse, engage with partner organisations, manage referrals and safeguarding concerns, improve our services, and comply with our legal and charitable obligations.

We do send marketing communications from time to time, but only where we have a lawful basis to do so, for example, with your consent or where you have a pre-existing relationship with us. You can opt out of receiving these communications at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions in our emails or by contacting us directly. We are committed to respecting your data rights, and this privacy notice will be updated if there are any significant changes to how we use your information.

4.1 PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE WILL USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA  

Below is a table outlining how we use your personal data and the legal bases we rely on.

4.2 DISCLOSING INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES

We generally do not share your personal data with any organisation outside SEA unless it is necessary to:

• Work with trusted partners to provide support or services;
• Fulfil legal or regulatory obligations;
• Process donations or carry out administrative functions;
• Protect someone from harm through safeguarding disclosures.

When we share data with sub-contractors or trusted third parties, we ensure appropriate contractual and confidentiality safeguards are in place.

We may also disclose data to law enforcement or authorities where required by law.

4.3 COOKIES  

Our website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and improve site functionality. This includes both cookies we set directly and third-party cookies from services we embed (such as YouTube).

We use cookies to:

• Record user-specific information about which pages are accessed or visited;
• Store information on past activity to support usability and personalisation;
• Manage sessions;
• Provide embedded content (e.g. videos via YouTube), which may set additional cookies, including those used for advertising and tracking by the third-party provider.

These cookies help ensure a better user experience and allow returning visitors to interact with the site more effectively. Please note that while we do not directly use cookies for advertising purposes, embedded third-party services such as YouTube may place advertising or tracking cookies on your device.

Cookies in Use on Our Website

Below is a list of the cookies currently set on our website, including their purpose, duration, and category (e.g. necessary, analytics, functional, advertising).

Managing Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. To find out how to disable cookies, visit allaboutcookies.org. Please note that if you disable or refuse cookies, some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

4.4 CHANGE OF PURPOSE  

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

4.5 INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We do not directly transfer your personal data outside the UK. However, some of our trusted third-party service providers (such as IT hosting or cloud services) may store or process data on servers located outside the UK, including in countries such as the United States. Where this occurs, we take steps to ensure that your data is protected to UK standards. This includes:

• Ensuring that data is only transferred to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK.  
• Putting in place appropriate safeguards, such as the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), which require service providers to protect your personal data to the same standard as in the UK.

We do not rely on international transfers without safeguards. If no adequacy decision or suitable contractual protection is in place, we will only allow transfers where a specific legal exception (a “derogation”) applies under the UK GDPR.

If you would like further details on how we safeguard international data transfers, please [email protected].

5 DATA SECURITY

We and our third-party hosting partners have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

6 DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your data: see the section below entitled “Your Rights” for further information.

We may also anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

7 YOUR RIGHTS  

Under certain circumstances, you have the following rights under the UK GDPR in relation to your personal data:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at [email protected].

7.1 NO FEE USUALLY REQUIRED  

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data or to exercise any of the other rights. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

7.2 WHAT WE MAY NEED FROM YOU  

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

7.3 TIME LIMIT TO RESPOND  

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month of receipt of the request. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

8 HOW TO CONTACT US OR MAKE A COMPLAINT  

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or our data handling practices, please contact us at [email protected].

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the ICO via its website (www.ico.org.uk). Alternatively, you may call their helpline on 0303 123 1113 or visit their office at Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

9 GLOSSARY

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of a Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.

Consent means processing your data where you have freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of your wishes.