Privacy Policy

This is the privacy policy for kindlink.global and associated apps. Some of our other sites and services have their own policies, and there is more about how to find these below.

Everything that we do is guided by our values – including our editorial approach and how we use data.

We use your personal data for many reasons, from understanding how our users engage with our journalism to informing our marketing and advertising. Ultimately, this allows us to publish the journalism that you read on our sites and apps.

These are the main reasons why we collect and use data about our users:

• To show you journalism that is relevant to you and to improve your experience on our site
• To provide the services you sign up for, such as subscriptions
• To carry out marketing analysis and send you communications when we have your permission, or when permitted by law
• To enable us to show advertising on our sites.

We think carefully about our use of personal data, and below you can find the details of what we do to protect your privacy. This policy covers, among other topics :

• Information about your rights and our obligations
• Clarity about our dealings with you and transparency about how we collect and use your personal data
• Commitments on how we protect your personal data
• Commitments on how we will facilitate your rights and respond to your questions.

We will continue to examine how we can provide more clarity to our users about our use of data.

About this privacy policy

This privacy policy explains how we (KindLink Limited) collect, use, share and transfer your personal data when you use the services provided on kindlink.global (“our sites”) and our related mobile applications (“our apps”).

Personal data is any information about you by which you can be identified. This can include information such as:

• your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, phone number, mobile number;
• debit card details;
• information about your device (such as the IP address, which is a numerical code to identify your device that can provide information about the country, region or city where you are based); and
• information relating to your personal circumstances and how you use our sites, apps and services.

Sometimes our sites and apps may contain links to third party sites and services. These sites and services have their own privacy policies. If you follow a link to a third party, you should read the privacy policy shown on their site.

Who we are and how to contact us

The data controller for our sites and apps is KindLink Ltd. 75 Christian Court, Rotherhithe str., London, SE16 5UA.. This means that we are responsible for deciding how and why we hold and use your personal data. If you want to contact us, you can find our contact details in the “Contact us” section below.

What personal data we collect and how we use it

We collect personal data when you sign up for our services and when you browse our sites or use our apps. This information is used to provide our journalism and other services, display advertising and analyse how visitors use our sites or apps.

When you use our sites or apps we may also use cookies or similar technology to collect extra data, including:

• your IP address – a numerical code to identify your device and which can provide information about the country, region or city where you are based;
• your browsing history of the content you have visited on our sites, including information on how you were referred to our sites via another website; and
• details of your devices, for example, the unique device ID, unique advertising ID and browsers used to access our content.

Some of our services, such as Professional Networks, may give you the option of providing more information about your preferences, so that we can tailor your experience. Signing up for membership or a subscription may also mean you need to provide other details such as your address details:

We will not collect special categories of data – such as information about your race, political opinions, religion, health or sexual orientation – unless you have chosen to provide that information to us.

How we collect personal data

We collect personal data when you:

• Subscribe to our newsletter
• attend our events;
• enter our competitions and surveys;
• sign up to our editorial emails;
• post in our online community;
• sign up for marketing communications;
• use mobile devices to access our content;
• access our sites, through cookies and other similar technology; and
• when you contact us via email, social media, our apps or similar technologies or when you mention us on social media.

Why we use your personal data

We use personal data collected throughout our sites and apps for a number of purposes, including the following:

• To provide the services you sign up for, such as sending out subscriptions. We also use the personal data for related internal administrative purposes – such as our accounting and records – and to make you aware of any changes to our services.
• To send marketing communications when we have your permission, or when permitted by law.
• To personalise our services (for example, so you can sign in), remembering your settings, displaying personalised advertising as well as measuring how effective our online adverts are, recognising you when you sign in on different devices and tailoring our marketing communications based on what you read on our sites
• To carry out marketing analysis, for example we look at what you have viewed on our sites and apps and what products and services you have bought (including what you have looked at and what products or services you have bought on our other platforms, for example kindlink.com) to better understand what your interests and preferences are, and to improve our marketing by making it more relevant to your interests and preferences. You can opt out from having your personal data used for marketing analysis by going into your account to the tab “Emails and marketing”.
• To improve our marketing communications, we use a similar technology to cookies to confirm whether you have opened a marketing email or clicked on a link in the email.
• For statistical purposes such as analysing the performance of our sites and apps and to understand how visitors use them.
• To respond to your queries and to resolve complaints.
• For security and fraud prevention, and to ensure that our sites and apps are safe and secure and used in line with our terms of use.
• To comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Legal grounds for using your personal data

We will only use your personal data where we have a legal ground to do so. We determine the legal grounds based on the purposes for which we have collected and used your personal data. In every case, the legal ground will be one of the following:

• Consent: For example, where you have provided your consent to receive marketing emails from us. You can withdraw your consent at any time. In the case of marketing emails you can withdraw your consent by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email.

• Our legitimate interests: Where it is necessary for us to understand our readers, promote our services and operate our sites and apps efficiently for the creation, publication and distribution of news, media and related journalistic content both online and in print form, globally. For example, we will rely on our legitimate interest when we analyse what content has been viewed on our sites and apps, so that we can understand how they are used. It is also in our legitimate interest to carry out marketing analysis to determine what products and services may be relevant to the interests of our readers. You can opt out from having your personal data used for marketing analysis by emailing contact@kindlink.global.

• Compliance with law: In some cases, we may have a legal obligation to use or keep your personal data.

Personal data that we receive about you from other organisations

Adding to or combining the personal data you provide to us

When you sign up to our services we may add to the personal data you give us by combining it with information shared with us by other trusted organisations. This includes, for example, information about the region that you are located in, so that we can show you the prices for subscriptions or other products in your local currency. We may also add information to improve the accuracy of your delivery address when we send out mail. We may also obtain information from partners whose offers we include in some of our marketing communications and we use this information to ensure that we do not send you irrelevant marketing.

We also use information on the content you have viewed on our sites and apps and your interaction with the content to add you to groups with similar interests and preferences, so that we can make our online advertising more relevant. Sometimes we use data about your interests or demographics that third parties have collected from you online to add to these groups. Please refer to our cookies policy for more information on how we use cookies.

Information shared by event partners

When you register or book a ticket for a KindLink event organised by an event partner, your registration data may be shared with us by the event partner.

Using children’s personal data

We do not aim any of our products or services directly at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal data about children under 13. Some of our services may have a higher age restriction and this will be shown at the point of registration.

Security of your personal data

We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational controls to protect your personal data against unauthorised processing and against accidental loss, damage or destruction. You are responsible for choosing a secure password when we ask you to set up a password to access parts of our sites or apps. You should keep this password confidential and you should choose a password that you do not use on any other site. You should not share your password with anyone else, including anyone who works for us. Unfortunately, sending information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data once with us, we cannot guarantee the security of any personal data sent to our site while still in transit and so you provide it at your own risk.

Who we share your personal data with

Depending on where you live, we may share your personal data with the KindLink group of companies currently based in the UK and the EU. For example, if you book an event held in Australia, at first we may hold your data on our systems in the UK and then we may share it with the KindLink in Australia for administration purposes.

If you are going to one of our events hosted by an event partner, we may share your personal data with that partner for event administration purposes.

Sometimes we may receive a letter, email or another form of communication from you that we consider to be significant to the history of the KindLink. We may decide to share this with the KindLink Foundation for historic and archiving purposes.

We do not share your personal data with other people or organisations that are not directly linked to us except under the following circumstances:

• We may share your data with other organisations that provide services on our behalf such as dealing with online payments and other forms of payment processing, ie credit card transactions and preventing fraud.
• We may also share your data with our advertising partners, as set out in the section about Online Advertising below.
• We may reveal your personal data to any law enforcement agency, court, regulator, government authority or other organisation if we are required to do so to meet a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of anyone else.
• We may reveal your personal data to any other organisation that buys, or to which we transfer all, or substantially all, of our assets and business. If this sale or transfer takes place, we will use reasonable efforts to try to make sure that the organisation we transfer your personal data to uses it in line with our privacy policy.

Any organisations which access your data in the course of providing services on our behalf will be governed by strict contractual restrictions to make sure that they protect your data and keep to all data privacy laws that apply. We may also independently audit these service providers to make sure that they meet our standards.

We will not share your personal data with anyone else for their own marketing purposes unless we have your permission to do this.

Some of our webpages use social plug-ins from other organisations (such as the “Facebook Recommend” function, Twitter’s retweet function, Google+ function). These other organisations may receive and use personal data about your visit to our sites or apps. If you browse our site or view content on our apps, information they collect may be connected to your account on their site. For more information on how these organisations use personal data, please read their privacy policies.

International data transfers

Data we collect may be transferred to, stored and processed in any country or territory where one or more of our KindLink group companies or service providers are based or have facilities. While other countries or territories may not have the same standards of data protection as those in your home country, we will continue to protect personal data that we transfer in line with this privacy policy.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the European Economic Area (EEA), we ensure similar protection and put in place at least one of these safeguards:

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been found to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.
• We may also use specific approved contracts with our service providers that are based in countries outside the EEA. These contracts give your personal data the same protection it has in the EEA .
• Where we use service providers in the United States, we may transfer personal data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield scheme, which requires them to provide a similar level of protection of your personal data to what is required in the EEA.

If you are located in the EEA, you may contact us for a copy of the safeguards which we have put in place for the transfer of your personal data outside the EEA.

How long we keep your personal data

We keep your personal data for only as long as we need to. How long we need your personal data depends on what we are using it for, as set out in this privacy policy. For example, we may need to use it to answer your queries about a product or service and as a result may keep personal data while you are still using our product or services. We may also need to keep your personal data for accounting purposes, for example, where you have bought a subscription. If we no longer need your data, we will delete it or make it anonymous by removing all details that identify you. If we have asked for your permission to process your personal data and we have no other lawful grounds to continue with that processing, and you withdraw your permission, we will delete your personal data. However, when you unsubscribe from marketing communications, we will keep your email address to ensure that we do not send you any marketing in future.

How we may contact you

Service communications

From time to time we may send you service emails, for example, telling you your subscription is coming to an end or thanking you when you contribute or place an order with us.

Marketing communications and editorial newsletters

If we have your permission, we may send you materials we think may interest you, such as new KindLink offers and updates. Depending on your marketing preferences, this may be by email, phone, SMS or post.

We offer a range of editorial newsletters. You can manage your subscription by emailing us on contact@kindlink.global

You can decide not to receive these emails at any time and will be able to “unsubscribe” directly by clicking a link in the email.

Market research

Sometimes we may contact you for market research purposes, for example about a survey. You can opt out from being contacted in this way by emailing contact@kindlink.global

Responding to your queries or complaints

If you have raised a query or a complaint with us, we may contact you to answer your query or to resolve your complaint.

Cookies and similar technology

When you visit our sites or when you use our apps, we may collect personal data from you automatically using cookies or similar technology. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your device that allows us to recognise and remember you.

This privacy policy includes our cookie policy, where you can find details of our key advertising partners.

Online advertising

Advertising on our sites that is based on cookies and similar technology

We use personalised online advertising on our sites. This allows us to deliver more relevant advertising to people who visit kindlink.global and kindlink.com. It works by showing you adverts that are based on your browsing patterns and the way you have interacted with our sites and apps. It then shows you adverts which we believe may interest you.

Our editorial content is not influenced by the advertising we display and our journalists are free to, and often do, challenge the activities of companies and organisations that advertise and sponsor content that appears in KindLink Global Sites and publications.

When you browse our sites or use our apps, some of the cookies and similar technology we place on your device are advertising cookies, so we can understand what sort of pages you are interested in. We can then display advertising on your browser based on these interests. For instance if you have been reading a lot of food and drink articles, we may show you more advertisements for food and drink.

We do not collect or use information such as your name, email address, postal address or phone number for personalised online advertising.

We may also share online data collected through cookies and similar technology with our advertising partners. This means that when you are on another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on kindlink.global or kindlink.com. We may also show you advertising on kindlink.global or kindlink.com. website based on your browsing patterns on other sites that we have obtained from our advertising partners.

Online retargeting is another form of online advertising that allows us and some of our advertising partners to show you advertising based on your browsing patterns and interactions with a site away from our sites.

For example, if you have visited the website of an online clothes shop, you may start seeing adverts from that same shopping site displaying special offers or showing you the products you were browsing. This allows companies to advertise to you if you leave their website without making a purchase.

Advertising that we place on our site or on other sites

We also use personalised online advertising to promote our own products and services. This means that you may see advertising for our products and services on our sites and when you are on other, third party websites, including social media platforms.

Your rights with regard to the personal data that we hold about you

You can contact us with regard to the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• If you would like to have a copy of the personal data we hold on you or if you think that we hold incorrect personal data about you, please write to the Data Protection Officer at KindLink Ltd. 75 Christian Court Rotherhithe Street, London, United Kingdom, SE16 5UA or email contact@kindlink.global We will deal with requests for copies of your personal data or for correction of your personal data within one month. If your request is complicated or if you have made a large number of requests, it may take us longer. We will let you know if we need longer than one month to respond. You will not have to pay a fee to obtain a copy of 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.
• Where you have provided us with consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw this at any time.
• Where applicable, you may also have a right to receive a machine-readable copy of your personal data.
• You also have the right to ask us to delete your personal data or restrict how it is used. There may be exceptions to the right to erasure for specific legal reasons which, if applicable, we will set out for you in response to your request. Where applicable, you have the right to object to processing of your personal data for certain purposes.
• If you do not want us to use your personal data for marketing analysis, please email contact@kindlink.global

If you want to make any of these requests, please contact contact@kindlink.com

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity.

Your California privacy rights

Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, if you live in California and your business relationship with us is mainly for personal, family or household purposes, you may ask us about the information we release to other organisations for their marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to contact@kindlink.global with “Request for California privacy information”in the subject line. You may make this type of request once every calendar year. We will email you a list of categories of personal data we revealed to other organisations for their marketing purposes in the last calendar year, along with their names and addresses. Not all personal data shared in this way is covered by Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code.

Contact us for information about how we use your personal data

If you have any questions about how we use your personal data or if you have a concern about how your personal data is used, please contact the Data Protection Officer at KindLink Ltd. 75 Christian Court Rotherhithe Street, London, United Kingdom, SE16 5UA. Or, email contact@kindlink.global.

Complaints will be dealt with by the Data Protection Manager, and will be responded to within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with the way your concern has been handled, you can refer your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you have a question about anything else, please send an email to contact@kindlink.global

Cookie policy

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your device that allows us to recognise and remember you. It is sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive or tablet or mobile device. When you visit our sites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology.

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our site, including

• Understanding how you use our site
• Showing you journalism that is relevant to you
• Showing you KindLink products and services that are relevant to you
• Working with partners to serve you relevant advertising

Ultimately, this allows us to publish the journalism that you read on our sites and apps.

In the next section, we explain in more detail how we use cookies and similar technology on our sites and apps for a number of purposes.

Other organisations also collect user information on our sites through cookies, tags and pixels. Tags and pixels, also known as web beacons, are similar to cookies but are collected through embedded images.

Using cookies and other technology allows other organisations to help us to analyse how our site is being used, measure the number of visitors to the site, and display advertising.

Cookies that are used by the KindLink are referred to as “first-party cookies” and those that are used by our partners are “third-party cookies”. Because of how cookies work, our website cannot access third-party cookies; nor can other organisations access the data in the cookies we use on our website. There are more details about both in the following sections.

What types of cookies do we use ?

We use four types of cookies, which we describe in this section.

• Essential – cookies that are essential to provide you with services you have requested. For example, these include the cookies that make it possible for you to stay logged into your KindLink account and make comments. If you set your browser to block these cookies, then these functions and services will not work for you. In particular, we won’t be able to save your preferences about cookies.

• Performance – cookies which measure how often you visit our sites and how you use them. We use this information to get a better sense of how our users engage with our journalism and to improve our sites and apps, so that users have a better experience. For example, we collect information about which of our pages are most frequently visited, and by which types of users. We also use third-party cookies to help with performance. For example, the Google Analytics cookie gives us information such as your journey between pages and whether you have downloaded anything (details of how to opt out of it are below).

• Functionality – cookies that are used to recognise you and remember your preferences or settings when you return to our site, so that we can provide you with a more personalised experience. For example, if you are based in the United Kingdom, we will remember this and make sure that you receive the UK homepage when you visit our site, rather than the US or Australia homepage. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies are used.