Privacy policy

Liberty Investigates privacy notice. Last updated 14 April 2020

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

There are six data protection principles that Liberty must, and does, comply with. The personal information we hold about you must be:

  1. Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
  2. Collected only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes that have been clearly explained to you and not further processed in a way that is incompatible with those purposes.
  3. Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to those purposes.
  4. Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
  5. Kept in a form that permits your identification for no longer than is necessary for those purposes.
  6. Processed in a way that ensures appropriate security of the data.

WHO IS COLLECTING YOUR DATA?

For the purposes of data protection law in the UK, Liberty Investigates is a unit of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties) of Liberty House, 26-30 Strutton Ground, London, SW1P 2HR, which is the data controller in relation to the collection and use of your personal information in the United Kingdom.

As a non-profit, cross-party, non-party human rights organisation, Liberty is committed to protecting and promoting individual privacy. This privacy policy relates to your use of the Liberty Investigates website located at: libertyinvestigates.org.uk.

Please read this privacy policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it. You should also read if relevant Liberty’s overarching privacy policy  which explains how we process data that does not relate to Liberty Investigates.

WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND HOW DO WE COLLECT IT?

We collect personal information in three ways from your use of the Liberty Investigates Website.

  1. Anonymous data is automatically collected from all visitors to the Liberty Investigates Website. For more information, please see the ‘Website Analytics’ and ‘Cookies’ section.
  2. Personal data is voluntarily submitted by you so that we can carry out further investigations based on your data or we can provide you with a service. For more information, please see the ‘Personal Data (including Special Categories of Personal Data) that you volunteer to us directly’ section.
  3. Personal data is collected indirectly through third party service providers to undertake verification checks using their own information sources for the purposes of fact-checking information provided to us.

The type and amount of personal information we collect depends on how you use the Liberty Investigates Website.

By visiting the Liberty Investigates Website, you acknowledge the terms of this privacy policy and the use and processing of your personal information as set out in this privacy policy.

If you do not want us to collect any of the information described in this section, please do not use the Liberty Investigates Website or contact us.

ANONYMOUS DATA

You can access all pages on the Liberty Investigates Website without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information.

WEBSITE ANALYTICS

We collect some information when you visit the Liberty Investigates Website but this does not allow us to identify you personally. The information we collect includes the type of browser visitors use, time and date of visits, which pages are most viewed and which other websites and search engines direct visitors to the Liberty Investigates Website. This enables us to evaluate the Liberty Investigates Website and work to improve it.

The software that we use to analyse the Liberty Investigates Website is called Matomo. Unlike remote-hosted analytics services like Google Analytics, Matomo is hosted on Liberty’s web servers and all data tracked is inside Liberty’s Mysql database. This ensures that visitor behaviour on the Liberty Investigates Website is not shared with advertising companies.

Liberty Investigate has specifically configured Matomo to respect your privacy by anonymising the IP addresses of visitors to our site and by respecting any ‘Do Not Track’ settings that you may have selected within your web browsers.

We do not link any of this anonymous data with any personal information that you may provide to us.

COOKIES

Cookies are small pieces of data sent from a website and stored on your computer by your web browser while you are browsing the website.

For more information on cookies on the Liberty Investigates Website, see our Cookie Policy.

PERSONAL DATA (INCLUDING SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL DATA) THAT YOU VOLUNTEER TO US DIRECTLY

We may collect information directly from you which personally identifies you (such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, age, employment history or any other information which you voluntarily submit) when you participate in the following activities:

  • contacting us, for example by phone, email or through our online contact forms
  • during interviews with our journalists
  • subscribing to an email list to receive more information about our work and how you can get involved or donate
  • attending an event
  • donating to Liberty or the Civil Liberties Trust

The information given may constitute special categories of personal data to the extent that it includes information on your political or religious beliefs, ethnicity, health or any other special category of personal data (as set out in data protection law in the UK) that you disclose within the content of your correspondence with us.

LEGAL BASES FOR USING YOUR DATA

We will seek your opt-in consent for all email, text or phone communication after a confirmation of your initial interaction.

For example, if you have contacted us to provide information for our investigations, you will receive no further information from Liberty unless you opt in to receive this by ticking a clearly labelled box.

You have the right to withdraw your consent to these activities. You can do so at any time by contacting us at libertyinvestigates@libertyhumanrights.org.uk.

The primary type of special category of personal data we collect is information relating to your political beliefs which you may voluntarily disclose to us.

We process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest in furthering Liberty’s campaigning aims.

We do not think that any of the above activities prejudice you in any way. However, you have the right to object to us processing your personal data on this basis. You can do so by contacting us at libertyinvestigates@libertyhumanrights.org.uk.

FOR WHAT PURPOSES WILL YOUR DATA BE PROCESSED?

If you are accessing our Contact Us form, your data will be used only for responding to, and further communicating with, you in relation to the purpose of your query.

If you provide information to us in relation to a subject matter which we are investigating, we will use your data for the purposes of carrying out our investigations and publishing our findings in any articles or other editorial content.

If you give opt-in consent, we may contact you by email or post to give you further information about Liberty’s work and ways in which you can support us.

WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH?

We do not disclose your personal data to anyone outside Liberty except:

  • where we have your permission (for example if you agree to provide information for our investigations, it will be disclosed to the Editorial Advisory Board (where necessary) and used in articles and other editorial content accompanied by your name),
  • to other organisations who provide a service to us or you (such as verification check providers), or
  • where we are required to do so by law.

HOW WILL YOUR DATA BE STORED?

Your personal data will be kept by Liberty, in the UK, in a secure environment. We care about protecting your information, which is why we put in place appropriate measures designed to prevent unauthorised access to, and misuse of, your personal data.

We are committed to taking all reasonable and appropriate steps to protect the personal information that we hold from misuse, loss, or unauthorised access. We do this by having in place a range of appropriate technical and organisational measures, including security measures on our servers, restricted access controls and disaster recovery plans.

HOW WE STORE AND TRANSFER YOUR DATA INTERNATIONALLY

We want to make sure that your personal data is stored and transferred in a way which is secure. We will therefore only transfer data outside of the European Economic Area or EEA (the Member States of the European Union (EU), together with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) where it is compliant with data protection legislation and the means of transfer provides adequate safeguards in relation to your data, for example:

  • by way of a data transfer agreement with a third party, incorporating the current standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission for the transfer of personal data by controllers in the EEA to controllers and processors in jurisdictions without adequate data protection laws, or
  • by transferring your data to an entity which has signed up to the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework for the transfer of personal data from entities in the EU to entities in the United States of America or any equivalent agreement in respect of other jurisdictions, or
  • by transferring your data to a country where there has been a finding of adequacy by the European Commission in respect of that country’s levels of data protection via its legislation.

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR?

We will not keep your personal information for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which we collect it unless we believe that the law or other regulation requires us to preserve it (for example, because of a request by a tax authority).

When it is no longer necessary to retain your data, we will delete the personal information that we hold about you from our systems.

YOUR RIGHTS AND HOW TO CONTACT US

As noted above, you have the right to withdraw consent or object to our processing of your data. You also have the right to seek information on which of your personal information we hold and you can, in certain circumstances, implement your rights to erasure, rectification or restriction of our processing. Find about more about your rights here.

If you have comments, questions or requests regarding the processing of your personal data, please contact libertyinvestigates@libertyhumanrights.org.uk or write to us at Liberty, 26-30 Strutton Ground, London, SW1P 2HR.

CHANGE OF POLICY

We may amend this privacy statement from time to time. If we do, we will post a notice of the change on the Liberty Investigates Website.

NOTE ABOUT INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS

Liberty reminds visitors that most internet service providers (ISPs) maintain records of all URLs visited by their customers. Visitors should contact their ISP for more information.

You can find more information on how to protect your privacy online here.

WEBSITE LEGAL STATEMENT

The information contained on this site gives only general guidance as to the law as it applies in England and Wales and is written for people resident in, or affected by, the laws of England and Wales only.

It should not be relied upon as an authoritative statement of the law. If you think you have a legal problem, you should obtain advice from a lawyer or adviser.

Liberty cannot guarantee that information on the site is accurate, complete or up to date. Visitors who rely on any information do so at their own risk. Availability of information is subject to change without notice.

Liberty will not be held liable (to the fullest extent permitted at law) for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on this site.

Within the Liberty Investigates Website, you may be provided with the option to link through to other websites or services. These other domains, apps and websites are subject to their own privacy practices and we encourage you to read the privacy policies of each and every website and application with which you interact. You visit these other websites or applications at your own risk and Liberty takes no responsibility for the contents of linked websites and links should not be taken as an endorsement.

COPYRIGHT

Content on this site is protected by copyright. The copyright owner is Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties).

Liberty encourages people to download or copy the material for personal use. Liberty does request appropriate acknowledgment of the copyright owner if material is re-published in any format.

You may not make alterations or additions to the material on this site, or use it for commercial purposes.