Data and Privacy Policy

Go and make yourself a cup of tea and then bring it back to read this…it’s a big one.  Perhaps, whilst you are drinking your cup of tea, watch this video.

This is a draft policy to be reviewed by our legal advisors once further funding is available.  It will change and update.

Your privacy is important for DigiClerk (DC), and we look after your personal information in a safe and secure way, handling it responsibly and complying with data protection laws.

Our full Privacy Statement is below.  Please take the time to read and understand it.

Definitions, meanings and abbreviations

UK law only (other countries will covered as DC grows geographically).

governed by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).

data protection law is overseen by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

DC processes the personal data and is the Data Controller.

Processing means anything that the data controller does with the personal data

Data subject means any living natural person who can be identified from the personal data.

The only data DC holds on Members is the data they submit during the sign-up process.  The required data is minimal but later, if the Member wishes to enhance their experience on DC, they can add more detail.

DC will not pass Members’ data onto any third party.

Payment related data is not held by DC but is held by the third-party payment system.

The data related to the records and image of the record itself is available on the platform to DC Members with the consent of the DO.  The physical record belongs to the DO, but the digitised record belongs, in shared ownership, to both the DO and DC.

The digitised record is screened to assess whether the subject(s) of the record is(are) still alive and what risk the record will pose to their rights.

Every record will have a button to challenge the record and rectify if required by the subject or DO.

Every record will have a button to initiate the delete and remove process by the subject or DO.

• ‘Member(s)’ = either: Founder Member +, Founder Member, Member + and Member, or all.  Someone who has subscribed to the platform.
• ‘platform’ = the website www.digiclerk.uk, however it is accessed
• ‘Special categories of data’ = sensitive data such as religious belief.
• Abbreviations:
• ‘admin’ = Administration
• ‘DC’ = DigiClerk Ltd
• ‘DO’ = Data Owner
• ‘DPPR’ = Data Protection Public Register
• ‘DPO’ = Data protection Officer
• ‘info’ = information
• ‘photo’ = photograph
• ‘QA’ = Quality assurance
• ‘T&C’ = Terms and Conditions
• ‘UX’ = User Experience

Privacy statement

The platform is owned and operated by DC, a UK based and registered company.  12204438 – Incorporated on 12 Sep 2019.  61 Station Road, Sudbury, Suffolk, England, CO10 2SP.  The full details can be viewed here  Companies House

DC is committed to protecting your privacy and maintaining the security of any personal info received from you, strictly adhering to the requirements of the data protection legislation in the UK.  We are not yet registered on the DPPR and therefore do not have a number yet.  DPPR number [DPPR no.]. Our DPO, when appointed, will be happy to deal with any queries or requests regarding the data we hold about you. Contact 

Collected information about you

When you register as a Member on our platform, we collect your name and email address. This allows us to process your Membership registration and send you important service messages.  It also ensures a level of QA and provenance for the data that you might upload.

Later, to enhance the usefulness of DC to you, we will ask for more details about yourself and your interests on DC. Providing this info is optional.

We do collect some info from cookies, pixels and similar software which allows us to understand how you arrive on our platform, how you use and navigate around. This info is used to improve our services and communication. We obtain info about your location to give us insight on usage across different geographic areas and help create the DC community.

We have yet to develop a policy covering the interaction between yourself, DC and selected social media sites.  This functionality has not yet been activated.

If you use the DC app on your phone, we do collect the mobile device identifier provided by your mobile device operating system from users of the DC App. The device ID allows us to link your device to your account online.   In the future we may want to send you notifications about the DC records in your location, but that functionality has not yet been developed.

In order to purchase a Membership of DC you must be over 18 years old. More info about our age restrictions can be found in our T&C.

Information you give to DC

When you upload content onto the platform, DC also collects that info, which may include personal info about you and other people. You should ensure, if you provide personal info about people in your family who are living and not deceased, that you have the consent from the relevant individual to include that personal info on the platform.

We do not collect sensitive personal info or ‘special categories of data’ about you except when you knowingly provide it and have consented to this.  This might happen when you chose to create a group within DC.

Photographs

DC Members can upload photos to the platform. During the upload process, DC will ask you for some additional info such as the name of the person in the photo, the date and place it was taken and any further contextual detail. The amount of info you provide is up to you, but the more info we have the better the experience will be for others who discover the photograph. We collect this info on the lawful basis of consent.  If the photo of you belongs to you then you will be designated as the DO.

By contributing a photo to the platform, you understand that the photo and all provided contextual info will be available to all Members. Members will be able to view, download and save the image to the device they use to access DC.

We may also use the photo and accompany details for the following: to make it available to all Members; to allow Members to download, print and save copies of your content for their private and non-commercial use; for promotional purposes, such as marketing and advertising; to help  improve our product and service offerings; to form part of the DC database that we build linking user content to records and datasets we hold; to make it available to internet search engines; for other services provided by DC companies. (not yet)

Removal

If you feel at any time that you no longer want your image and contextual info to appear on DC, please contact us at mark@digiclerk.uk and we will delete it from the platform. However, please keep in mind that if other users have downloaded or saved the photo, they may still have a copy and we will be unable to identify or contact them.   We also reserve the right to remove a photograph if we receive a complaint or a person challenges the ownership of the photograph or record.

DC use of your personal info includes:

To process membership subscription, orders and provide our services, goods or online content, to provide you with info about them and to deal with your requests and queries;

For admin purposes. This means we may contact you regarding goods or services ordered or online content you have signed up for, to let you know that a service or online site has been suspended for maintenance, if your subscription is about to expire to ask if you wish to renew it, or if an online account has become dormant to ask if you wish to retain the account before we close it;

To provide advanced website features to you and others (especially Founder Members);

(For IP addresses and device identifiers) to identify the location of users, to establish the number of visits from different countries to limit/cap adverts of a certain type, and to personalise content and emails;

To undertake analysis and research to improve our services and goods offered;

To improve your search results;

To conduct surveys with you (where you have consented to us contacting you for such purpose);

To provide personalised communications (more details below);

To offer users a more relevant, tailored service, based on our analysis of personal info you provide and your activity on our (and other) services; and

To undertake marketing and strategic development activities, where we will only use and disclose info in aggregate (so no individuals are identified).

Communications

Service messages

DC might send service emails to you. Service emails include registration and payment confirmations and emails that provide useful info about how to use a service or feature when you sign up or start using it. We will also send you a service email if we make a fundamental change to the platform, or to the T&C that we think we need to make you aware of, or to let you know important info about your account.

Marketing messages

We use your email address to update you on new products, functionality, services and subscription offers. We will only contact you with your consent.  We will always provide you with a way of opting out of receiving future marketing messages from us each time we send them to you.

Chat

DC will develop an ability on the platform to allow Members to chat to each other and share info either individually or within project or interest groups.  This is all about creating community.  more to follow.  You will be able to remove yourself from this at any stage.

Historic Records

DC will work with a number of trusted third parties to bring you historical records to assist you with your research. Historic records on the site are reproduced under a third-party agreement with licensors or we reproduce records that are within the public domain. We will continue to host these records as long as we retain an agreement with the licensor or as long as they are within the public domain.  You will find info about living individuals in some of our records. The records we hold which contain the names of living people are public record and we provide the data based on our legitimate interest. In the examples, the records have been made public by the General Register Office or the Electoral Register. Records of living individuals allow users to build their family tree and research their family history from the current generation.  If you have any questions about these records, please contact us. We will remove records of living people if it is requested by the individual named in the record.

Record matching

DC uses graph database technology to suggest possible matches between historical records on DC and associated partners.  Record matching on DC automatically matches historical records for you. These records are pulled from our database. Record matching will save you time with your research and allow you to make fascinating discoveries through historical records such as birth, marriage and death documents and census records.  When record matching is enabled within partner sites or other Desktop Software partners, information from small parts of your family tree is passed between the sites without you having to do anything, to a matching service on the DC website. This information includes basic info such as names, dates and places associated with individuals and their close relatives. DC uses this data to find accurate matches for relevant individuals. The matching service provides partner site users with suggested matches of ancestors’ birth, marriage, and death records. We will also provide matches for census records. As a DC Member, you can then add these records to your tree. The service will match against living relatives.

Please note this info is not retained by DC and is deleted automatically after matches are calculated and displayed to you. Only partner site users receive DC hints. DC users do not receive hints about trees on the partner site.  The partner site will show matches in its search window where matches are found. To find out more about these matches, follow the links provided and review them. You will then be able to accept or reject matches. Please note that some matches can be viewed and confirmed for free, while others require a DC data subscription. In order to review these matches, you will need to subscribe to DC and create an account.

The info passed to DC is never used for any other purpose and will never be displayed, sold, licensed or used in any manner whatsoever. If you have any question or concerns, you can email mark@digiclerk.uk

Sharing your info with third parties

We will not share your personal info with third parties.  Your payment info will be held by our payment processors, providers of card validation services, and credit referencing providers, not us. This is necessary for the performance of the contract. We do not keep a record of your credit or debit card details in our systems. Our payment processors do not decide what is done with your data and only process it on our behalf. These third parties may be located outside the UK; however, we only use providers that provide adequate protection for your personal info at all times. When transferring and storing any personal info outside the UK only do so under one of the legally recognised transfer mechanisms for ensuring the info is safeguarded. These are:

• The country in question has been deemed safe for data transfer;
• The contract for data processing contains the standard contractual clauses laid down by the UK to safeguard the transfer of personal info;
• Binding corporate rules – this is where a large company’s own internal processes for international data transfer have been signed off and agreed by the UK as safeguarding the info;
• If the info is going to the USA, it can be safely transferred to a company that is certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield; and
• Appropriate certification schemes.

We will disclose your personal info in order to comply with any legal obligation. This includes disclosing info to organisations for the purposes of fraud protection, credit risk reduction, or the order of a court or regulator.

Sale of the Business

Currently DC has no intention to sell the business.  However, all of your personal info that we collect may be transferred to a third party if we undergo a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy or other transaction in which that third party assumes control of our business (in whole or in part). Should one of these events occur, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you before your info becomes subject to different privacy and security policies and practices.

Cookies

The platform uses cookies. For more info about what cookies are, what we use them for and how you can delete them, please read our policy. We do collect some info from cookies and similar software that allows us to understand how you arrive on our platform and use and navigate around them so we can improve. We obtain some info from Google Analytics and Facebook. The Facebook info provided is limited to your email address and only that which you have previously agreed with Facebook that they can share.

Protecting your info

DC follows strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of personal info and genetic data which we receive and that you have given us, to prevent unauthorised access to, and loss, misuse or alteration of your info in accordance with UK data protection legislation. We are committed to international security standards and DC are not yet ISO 27001 certified for our info security controls.  You are responsible for keeping secret any confidential passwords or other login or access details that you select or which we allocate to you. While we take steps to ensure the security of your info, there is a risk that any information transmitted over the Internet and stored on a computer may be intercepted or accessed by an unauthorised party. If you think that someone has accessed your info held by us without your permission or gained unauthorised access to your login details, you must notify us at mark@digiclerk.uk. We also recommend that if you use a shared computer or a computer in a public place such as a library that you close your browser when you have finished your session.

Your rights regarding your Personal Info

Under the Data Protection law, you have a number of rights with respect to your personal info, which are:

• Correcting your Info.  You are entitled to have your personal info updated to ensure it is up to date and accurate. In order to maintain the accuracy of the info we hold, you can update your personal details through your ‘My Account’ page or by sending us an email to mark@digiclerk.uk.
• Withdrawing Consent. You have the right to withdraw your consent to any processing that is currently being done under your consent, such as marketing. Consent can be withdrawn by updating your preferences in the email preference centre or through ‘My Account’. You can also email to mark@digiclerk.uk.
• Obtaining a copy of your Info.  You have the right to receive a copy of the personal info we hold about you. You can do this by contacting mark@digiclerk.uk from the email address attached to your account, providing the full name attached to your account.
• Deleting your info.  You can request that we delete personal info in certain circumstances. These will be specific to each case. You can do this by contacting mark@digiclerk.uk from the email address attached to your account, providing the full name attached to your account.
• Data Portability.  You have the right to ask us to transfer the personal info that you have given us to another controller.
• Restricting Processing.  You can request a restriction on the processing of your data in some limited circumstances. Examples are concerns over data accuracy or we no longer need to hold your data, but you have requested its retention by us to aid you in a legal matter. You can do this by contacting mark@digiclerk.uk from the email address attached to your account, providing the full name attached to your account.

Right to object to Processing

You have the right to request that DC stop processing your data for marketing purposes and in other limited circumstances such as asking us not to process your data by wholly automated means or not to analyse your info for targeted content etc. (also known as profiling). You can action any of these rights by contacting us using the contact links on the header or footer.

Right of complaint to the Regulator for Data Protection (RDP)

The data protection laws in the UK are regulated and enforced by the ICO. Each individual has the right to raise a concern/complaint to the ICO if they have any concerns about how their personal information and/or privacy is treated. You can do this via the ICO’s website However, please do talk to us first.

How long we hold your data for

Some of the info you provide to DC will be necessary to carry out repeated tasks, such as verifying your identity or payment details when signing in to use an account, providing our services to you or when you are using an online checkout. We will keep this info for as long as you remain a registered Member and for so long as reasonably necessary. After this time, we may need to hold your personal data in order to meet our financial obligations or identify or resolve issues or causes of action. If your account is inactive for more than ten years and you are no longer paying for a service, we reserve the right to delete any info you have provided to DC. We will review the need to retain your personal data but please remember you have the right to request the deletion of your personal data at any time.

Links to third-party websites

The DC platform does not currently have links to third party websites but will in the future.  The DC platform will contain links to other websites belonging to third parties which are not covered by this privacy policy. If you want to go through to a third-party website, please make sure that you read the privacy policy for that website.

Cookie Policy

DC understands that your privacy is important to you and are committed to being transparent about the technologies it uses. This Cookie Policy explains how and why cookies, web beacons, pixels, clear gifs, and other similar technologies (collectively “Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies”) may be stored on and accessed from your device when you use the platform.

What are Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies?

A cookie is a small text file that can be stored on and accessed from your device when you visit our platform. The other tracking technologies work similarly to cookies and place small data files on your devices or monitor your website activity to enable us to collect info about how you use the platform. This allows the platform to recognize your device from those of other users of the platform. The info provided below about cookies also applies to these other tracking technologies.

How does the Platform use Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies?

DC uses Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies to identify you and your interests, to remember your preferences, and to track your use of the platform. We also use Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies to control access to certain content on the platform, protect the platform, and to process any requests that you make of DC.

To administer the platform and for research purposes, DC will, in the future, contract third party service providers to track and analyse statistical usage and volume information from platform users. These third-party service providers use persistent Cookies to help us to improve the user experience, manage the platform content, and analyse how users navigate and utilize the platform.

First and Third-Party Cookies

“First party Cookies” are cookies that belong to DC and that DC places on your device. “Third party Cookies” are cookies that another party places on your device through the platform. DC may contract with third party service providers to send e-mails to users who have provided us with their contact info. To help measure and improve the effectiveness of our e-mail communications, and/or to determine whether messages have been opened and links clicked on, the third-party service providers may place Cookies on the devices of these users.

DC will use the following types of cookies:

Persistent Cookies. These improve your experience of using the platform. This includes recording your acceptance of our Cookie Policy to remove the cookie message which first appears when you use the platform.

Session Cookies. These s are temporary and deleted from your machine when your web browser closes. We use session Cookies to help us track internet usage as described above.

You may refuse to accept browser Cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of the platform. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our system will issue Cookies when you direct your browser to our platform.

The data collected by the platform and/or through Cookies that may be placed on your computer will not be kept for longer than is necessary to fulfil the purposes mentioned above. In any event, such info will not be kept for longer than one year.

Our Cookies are used for the following purposes:

Cookie Type	Purpose
Strictly Necessary/ Technical	These are necessary to allow us to operate the platform so you may access them as you have requested. These Cookies, for example, let us recognize that you have created an account and have logged into that account to access platform content. They also include Cookies that enable us to remember your previous actions within the same browsing session and secure our platform.
Analytical/ Performance	These are used by us or third-party service providers to analyse how the platform is used and how it is performing. For example, these Cookies track what pages are most frequently visited, and from what locations our visitors come from. If you subscribe to a newsletter or otherwise register with the platform, these Cookies may be correlated to you. These Cookies include, for example, Adobe Analytics cookies.
Functionality	These let us operate the platform in accordance with the choices you make. These Cookies permit us to “remember” you in-between visits. For instance, we will recognize your username and remember how you customized the platform and services, for example by adjusting text size, fonts, languages and other parts of web pages that are alterable and provide you with the same customizations during future visits.
Third Party Advertising	These collect info about your activities on the platform to provide you targeted communications. We may also allow our third-party service providers to use Cookies on the platform for the same purposes identified above, including collecting info about your online activities over time and across different websites. The third party service providers that generate these Cookies, such as Adobe, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, have their own privacy policies, and may use their Cookies to target advertising to you on other websites, based on your visit to our platform.

 

How do I refuse or withdraw my consent to the use of Cookies?

If you do not want Cookies to be dropped on your device, you can adjust the setting of your  browser to reject the setting of all or some Cookies and to alert you when a Cookie is placed on your device. For further info about how to do so, please refer to your browser ‘help’ / ‘tool’ or ‘edit’ section or see www.allaboutcookies.org . Please note that if you use your browser settings to block all Cookies (including strictly necessary Cookies) you may not be able to access or use all or parts or functionalities of the platform.  If you want to remove previously stored Cookies, you can manually delete the Cookies at any time. However, this will not prevent the platform from placing further Cookies on your device unless and until you adjust your Internet browser setting as described above.  For more info on the development of user-profiles and the use of targeting/advertising Cookies, please see www.youronlinechoices.eu if you are located in Europe or www.aboutads.info/choices if in the United States.

How do we use Other Tracking Technologies in our communications?

DC may collect info about whether you open or click any links in the knowledge, research or event communications that we send to you through web beacons.  A web beacon is a graphic image, which is placed on a website or in an email that alone or in conjunction with cookies compile info about your usage of or your interaction with the platform. For example, we may add web beacons to the knowledge, research or event communications that we send to you to determine whether you have opened our email or clicked a link. The analysis gathered helps us improve the effectiveness of content and format of our websites and email communications.

How do I refuse or withdraw my consent to the use of Web Beacons?

You may avoid web beacons by configuring your email reader program to disable the functionality that enables remote images to load and by refraining from clicking on any links in email messages.

Contact us

If you have any questions about privacy or wish to update your details or have them removed from our mailing list at any time, please use the contact links on the header and footer.

Policy development and updates

The data and privacy policy will be further developed once the first round of funding makes it possible.

DC may update this policy at any time without notice. We may tell you that we have updated the policy by emailing you at the email address you have provided to us and/or by posting an announcement on the website. By continuing to use the platform after DC has emailed you or posted a notice informing you of an update, you accept the changes to this Data Policy which was last updated on 30 March 2023