Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

The Islamophobia Response Unit is registered (ICO registration reference: ZB333538) under and seeks to comply with the UK GDPR. IRU is committed to protecting your privacy. References to ‘we’ or ‘us’ are to IRU, registered charity no: 1196838 in England and Wales at 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London W1W 5PF.

Whose personal data do we work with?

We regularly process the personal data of people who fall into the following categories:

• Individuals receiving support from our service, including those attending our events
• Individuals receiving support from organisations we support
• Individuals representing partner organisations, funders and other stakeholders relevant to our work.
• Our suppliers, including those delivering work for IRU
• Our supporters, including those who make donations to our work
• Members of our governing body
• Our employees
• Individuals visiting our website

At IRU, we collect and use your personal information to help solve your problems, improve our services, and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.

We only ask for the information we need. We always let you decide what you are comfortable telling us, explain why we need it and treat it as strictly confidential.

Our service is confidential, and we will only share information about you without your consent if we are worried about your safety or someone else’s safety, or if we are required to by law.

When we record and use your personal information, we:

• only access it when we have a good reason
• only share what is necessary and relevant
• do not sell it to anyone

We handle and store your personal information in line with data protection law.

When you use our website, we collect a type of data called cookies which tell us what you are clicking on.

IRU is responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure we follow data protection law. We will record your personal information on our computer system. Only IRU staff can access your personal information if they have a good reason – for example if you contact us for advice or call our helpline. We have rules and controls to stop people from accessing or using your information when they shouldn’t.

You should tell an IRU staff member if you are worried about your details being on our computer system. We will work with you to take extra steps to protect your information.

What we do with your information

When you get advice from a caseworker, legal supervisor, or staff member

We collect and use the details you give us so we can help you. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law. This means it lets us carry out our aims and goals as an organisation. We’ll always explain how we use your information.

We will only ask for information that is relevant to your report. We may ask you to complete a ‘Know your client’ form for us to complete a conflict check against our record of reports. Depending on what you want help with, this might include:

• your name and contact details – so we can keep in touch with you about your case
• Proof of identity and address – to ensure you are a UK resident and are who you say you are
• personal information – for example about family, work, or financial circumstances, or if you’re vulnerable or at risk of harm
• details of services you may have accessed such as the police, your GP
• information like your gender, ethnicity, religion, age, where you live

We occasionally ask for details about someone else like a neighbour or your partner so we can deal with a report. We will only do this if we have a legitimate interest in the information, or if we need it to protect someone’s life.

If you do not want to give us certain information, you do not have to. For example, if you want to remain anonymous, we will only record information about your problem and make sure you are not identified.

We will always ask for your consent to store information about your:

• ethnic origin
• religion
• health conditions
• trade union membership

You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting IRU staff and telling us that you do not want us to store your information. We will delete it.

We might ask your permission to contact you later with an online survey about your experience getting help from us. This is called the ‘Client Feedback’ survey.

We might ask your permission to share your story and might send you a media consent form.

How we use your information

We mainly ask for your information to help solve your problem. We only access your information for other reasons if we really need to. Data protection law lets us do this so long as we either get your consent or we have a legitimate interest. For example, we have a legitimate interest to access your data:

• for training and quality purposes
• to investigate complaints
• to get feedback from you about our services
• to help us improve our services

All staff accessing data have had data protection training to make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.

Understanding your problems

We use some information to create statistics about whom we are helping and what problems are the most common. We might use the information you have told us and your answers to the Client Feedback survey. This information is always anonymised – you cannot be identified.

We share these with funders, regulators, and government departments and publicly on our blogs, reports, social media, and press releases.

The statistics also inform our policy research, campaigns, and media work. We might use a research organisation to help us analyse the information. We have an agreement with them to make sure they store data securely and follow data protection laws. We are still responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure we follow data protection law.

When we share your information with other organisations

With your permission, we might share your information with other organisations so we can:

• help solve your problem – for example, if you ask us to contact your employer we might need to share your name with them
• refer you quickly to another organisation for more advice or support, if relevant
• help you access certain services
• monitor the quality of our services

Organisations we share your data with must store and use your data in line with data protection law. They will have their own privacy policies for handling your information and keeping it safe.

There might be specific organisations we share your information with, depending on what service you access.

When you make a donation to our service

At IRU, we rely on the generosity and support of private individuals like you to carry out our vital work to tackle Islamophobia in the UK.

That is why we want to be completely transparent about why we need the personal details we request when you support us and how we will use them.

When we will get in touch

When you give us your personal details – for example, when you donate, sign a petition, sign up to receive email updates or register for an event – you may receive follow-up information from us directly relevant to this activity, including how your support is helping.

If you have provided us with consent to use your details for marketing purposes, then we may also contact you about our projects, fundraising activities and appeals, and other ways to support us. When you consent to us sending you marketing information, we will treat this as lasting for six years unless we tell you otherwise at the time. We provide easy ways to stop our marketing, and you can opt out at any time.

We always act on your instructions, and we aim to put you in control of your relationship with us. Our aim is to communicate with you in a way that makes you want to stay involved with us for as long as possible, as you see the value and impact of your support. We will not share your data for others’ marketing purposes.

Please be assured that you will not receive offers from other companies or organisations as a result of giving your details to us.

We may need to share limited information with our service providers who help us to prepare and send you our communications or process your donations and other responses. However, we do not allow these organisations to use your data for their own purposes and take care to ensure that they keep your data secure and delete it when it is no longer needed.

How to stop or change how we communicate with you

If at any time, you wish to stop or change how we communicate with you or update the information we hold, please do get in touch, using one of the following options:

Email: info@theiru.org.uk
Call: 0203 904 6555

You can opt out of our emails by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our messages.

What details do we ask for and why

The information we might collect and store includes:

• data to identify you, such as your name, username or your date of birth – for example, if you make a donation
• your contact details, such as email address, postal address and phone number – for example, to be able to process a donation, claim Gift Aid or if you sign up to receive communications from us
• financial data, such as your bank or card details – so that they can process your donation on our behalf
• marketing data, such as your preferences for how we communicate with you
• your reason for donating and specific interests relating to the work of IRU – this means we can make sure our communications with you are relevant
• records of your history with us, including transaction data, details of your donation

We need this information for the following reasons:

• To set up Direct Debits and one-off card payments
• To deliver items to you (items you have purchased or event materials for example)
• If you have agreed to receive post from us, we will use your postcode and address to send you relevant information.

To ensure that the data we hold about you is accurate and up to date, we may occasionally use information sources that are in the public domain to verify your details, such as your postal address. Where you have given permission, we may use third parties to supplement the information that we hold to help us send you information which we believe you will be interested in.

Your data and social media

We may use your email address and phone number to match your account on Facebook or other social media sites to show you IRU content while you are using these services. We will only do this where you have opted-in to our marketing emails and your personal data is always kept secure.

If you want to make a complaint

If you are not happy with how we have handled your data, you can make a complaint.