CONTENTS
- What will this privacy notice tell me?
- What is personal information?
- Who are we?
- How can you contact us?
- What personal information do we collect about you? How do we use it? What is our legal reason for using it?
- Visiting our website
- Visiting our social media pages
- If you contact us on our website or by email
- Using your photo or a video of you and your feedback on our website and social media pages
- If you sign up to receive our newsletter
- Attending one of our events (online or in person) or insight days and work experience placements
- Do we use your personal information to make decisions that humans are not involved in?
- Can we change the way that we use your personal information?
- What happens if you don’t give us the personal information that we have asked for?
- How long will we keep your personal information?
- Can anyone else see your personal information?
- Will your personal information be sent outside of the UK or EEA?
- How do we keep your personal information safe?
- How will you tell you about any changes that we make to this privacy notice?
- How will we keep your personal information up to date?
- What about links to other websites?
- What rights do you have over your personal information and how can you complain?
WHAT WILL THIS PRIVACY NOTICE TELL ME?
This document is our privacy notice and it will help you to understand how we look after and use your personal information when you visit our website or get involved in our Next Tech Girls community. Our privacy notice will also tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
There is a lot of information in this privacy notice. If you need help understanding it, contact us at gdpr@nexttechgirls.com.
WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Your personal information (also known as ‘personal data’) is any information about you that you can be identified from. Your name, your birthday, or a picture of you are all examples of personal information.
WHO ARE WE?
Our company is called Empiric Solutions Limited and we run Next Tech Girls. Anytime we say “we”, “us”, or “our” in this privacy notice we mean Empiric Solutions Limited. Our main address is 6th Floor, Kings House, 9-10 Haymarket, London, United Kingdom.
Our main business is as a recruitment agency, but we also run Next Tech Girls. Next Tech Girls is a social enterprise set up to tackle the skills and gender gaps in the tech industry. We partner with companies, schools, colleges, and universities to run inspiring tech-focussed events and work experience placements for girls (mostly between the ages of 14 and 21). We focus on those from lower income or ethnic minority backgrounds.
We decide why and how the personal information you give us is handled (this means that we are called a ‘controller’ according to the law) but we only do it in the ways explained in this privacy notice.
HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US?
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact us on gdpr@nexttechgirls.com.
WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU? HOW DO WE USE IT? WHAT IS OUR LEGAL REASON FOR USING IT?
We have set out below what personal information we collect about you and how we use your personal information. We have also explained our legal reasons for using your personal information as we need to tell you this under data protection law.
Visiting our website
What personal information do we collect?
We collect:
- Information about the device you are using (e.g., device ID, model, type of device, operating system and version, type and settings of your browser, and language setting);
- Location data, if this is activated or can be worked out from your IP address (e.g., details of the region or city you are in when you access the website). We do not collect your specific address; and
- How you use our website (e.g., which pages you access, at what time, how often and how long you stay on a page and the links you click on).
This personal information is obtained through cookies (these cookies are not the tasty kind but are small files that are stored on your computer or phone when you visit a website that remember information about you).
How we use your personal information
We will use the personal information that we collect about you to:
- Ensure a good connection to our website;
- Work out what went wrong if our system crashes;
- Analyse how people are using our website so that we can make it even better;
- Improve and maintain our system security; and
- Other administrative reasons.
Our Cookie Policy will give you more information on what cookies we use plus what cookies are essential and which are non-essential. Essential cookies are required so that you can use our website. However, it is your choice whether to give us permission (or not to!) to use non-essential cookies to collect your personal information. You can find our Cookie Policy here: Cookie Policy | Empiric.
Our legal reasons for using your personal information
When we collect your personal information from our website using essential cookies and other similar technologies, we will use your personal information for the legal reason that we have good reasons to do so (the technical term for good reasons is ‘legitimate interests’) because we want to have a website that works properly so that you can visit it.
When we collect your personal information using non-essential cookies (these are the kind of cookies that you can choose if we are allowed to use or not) our legal reason is that you have told us you are happy with us collecting your personal information in this way (i.e. you have given us your consent). Please remember that you can change your mind and ask us not to use non-essential cookies at any time by deleting our non-essential cookies or by managing your browser’s cookie preferences. For more information on how to get rid of cookies please see www.allaboutcookies.org.
Visiting our social media pages
What personal information do we collect?
If you contact us through our social media pages, the social media platform (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube or X (the new name for Twitter)) may provide us with personal information about you. This could include the publicly accessible profile information that you provide (e.g., your Facebook username and contact details), details of the device you are using and the identification number that the social media platform has given you (e.g., Facebook ID).
Our website includes links to our social media pages including TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (the new name for Twitter), Facebook, and YouTube. If you use the links on our website to access our social media pages, the social media platform might ask you if it can store cookies (or similar technologies) on your device. You will need to look at the social media platform’s privacy notice if you want more information about this.
How we use your personal information
If you contact us on any of our social media pages, we will use your personal information to work out who you are and to reply to you.
If you use the links on our website to get to one of our social media pages, the social media platform will use your personal information in the way set out in its own privacy notice. Please read their privacy notice for more information about how they use it.
Our legal reason for using your personal information
We will use your personal information to reply to you via our social media pages on the basis that we have good reasons to do so (the technical term for good reasons is ‘legitimate interests’) because we need to be able to reply to your questions.
Please read the privacy notice of the social media platform to understand what their legal reason for using your personal information is.
Other information we might collect from our social media pages
We may also collect information from our social media pages to help us understand visitor behaviour and to tell us what is popular and interesting to our visitors to help us to make our content even better.
If we collect this information, the information will be collected by the social media platform using cookies or similar technology but we do not actually receive any of your personal information as it is all provided to us anonymously. This means we cannot work out who the information is about. It is not your personal information once it is anonymised.
If you contact us on our website or by email
What personal information do we collect?
We collect:
- Your full name;
- Your email address;
- Other contact information (if you give this to us or we ask for it);
- Your category (e.g., are you a student, aspiring girl in tech etc.);
- Your job title;
- Your gender;
- Your company’s name (if you work for a company);
- The country you live in; and
- The details of your questions.
How we use your personal information
We will use your personal information to respond to you and to deal with your query or a complaint that you have raised. In order to ensure that we can respond to your query or complaint, we will retain previous conversations which we have had with you.
Our legal reason for using your personal information
We will use your personal information on the basis that we have good reasons to do so (the technical term for good reasons is ‘legitimate interests’) in order to be able to respond to your questions.
Using your photo or a video of you and your feedback on our website and social media pages
What personal information do we collect?
If you attend one of our events, insight days, or work experience placements, we might use photos or videos which could show you in them. We might also use your name and the feedback you provide us about your experience with Next Tech Girls.
We will ask you to fill in a form confirming you are happy for us to use your photo, video, name, and/or feedback. On the form we will ask for your name, signature, and address.
If you are under 18, we will ask your parent (or legal guardian or person with parental responsibility) for permission to use your picture, video, name, or your feedback.
How we use your personal information
We will use photos or videos which could include you, your name, and the feedback you provide us on our website, newsletters, and social media to share news about Next Tech Girls and tell others about the work we do.
Our legal reason for using your personal information
Our legal reason for using your personal information in this way is because you have told us that you are happy for us to use your personal information in this way (i.e. you have given us your consent). If you change your mind, you can contact us at any time to tell us and we will then stop using your photo, video of you, your name, or your feedback.
Parents, legal guardians, and those with parental responsibility
If you are a parent (or legal guardian or person with parental responsibility) of someone under the age of 18 we will ask you to consent to use your child’s photo, video, name, or feedback.
We will collect your name, email address, child’s name, signature, and address.
We will use your personal information to keep a record of your consent to use your child’s image.
Our legal reason for using your personal information is that it is in our legitimate interests (i.e. it is reasonable and proportionate) to keep a record of who has given consent for use to use a child’s photo, video, name, or feedback.
If you sign up to receive our newsletter
What personal information do we collect?
We collect:
- Your full name;
- Your email address;
- The country you live in;
- Your interests (e.g., if you are interested in our events or work experience placements); and
- Your category (e.g., are you a student, aspiring girl in tech etc.).
How do we use your personal information?
We will use it to send you our newsletter. We also check how people respond when they receive our newsletter. We do not know if you specifically have read it or clicked on links in our newsletter as the information we receive only tells us the number of people who have read it or clicked on the links.
Our legal reason for using your personal information
We will only use your personal information to send you the newsletter where you tell us you are happy for us to send it to you (i.e. you have consented to it).
You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time by using the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the end of each e-mail. If you prefer, you can send your unsubscribe request by e-mail to gdpr@nexttechgirls.com. If you unsubscribe, your e-mail address will be deleted from our mailing list.
Attending one of our events (online and in person) or insight days and work experience placements
We have a wide range of events including Next Tech Fest, Role Models Meetup, Trailblazers Panel Events, and Online Workshops. We also arrange insight days and work experience placements with our industry partners.
What personal information do we collect?
We collect:
- Your name;
- Your birthday;
- Your address;
- Your email address;
- Your phone number;
- Your interests (e.g., if you are interested in our events or work experience placements);
- Your category (e.g., are you a student, aspiring girl in tech etc.);
- Your hobbies;
- Your emergency contact information (including their contact details and relationship to you);
- Your school, college, or university and what year you are in there;
- What you are studying at school, college, or university;
- What technology you like using;
- Your CV (if you choose to give it to us);
- Any food allergies and medical conditions you have;
- Whether you are neurodivergent;
- Your gender and preferred pronouns;
- Your ethnicity; and
- Your responses to our questions about your expectations and feelings before the event, insight day, or work experience placement;
- Any questions that you want to ask speakers at our events; and
- Your responses to our request for feedback after the event, insight day, or work experience placement.
If you are under 18, we will ask your parent (or legal guardian or person with parental responsibility) for permission for you to come to our event or go an insight day or work experience placement.
How do we use your personal information?
We will use your personal information to set up the event, insight day, or work experience placement and to run the event and manage attendance.
For online events, we will also use your personal information to send you an online invitation to join the event.
If you are attending an insight day or work experience placement, we may share your personal information with the industry partner that will be hosting you so that they know to expect you and can plan your visit.
Some of the personal information that we collect about you is more sensitive. We collect information about your ethnicity because want to support more girls from ethnic minority backgrounds to get into the tech industry and having this information helps us to understand if we are achieving this goal and enables us to provide access to events, insight days, and work experience placements to girls from ethnic minority backgrounds.
We also collect other sensitive personal information about you such as your food allergies and medical conditions and whether you are neurodivergent so that we can ensure you receive suitable food (if provided) at our events, insight days, or work experience placements and to ensure that reasonable adjustments are in place so that you can fully participate in our events, insight days, or work experience placements.
We collect your preferred pronouns so that we understand how you would like to be addressed.
Our legal reason for using your personal information
We will use your personal information on the basis that we need it to ensure that we meet requirements set out in law or because we have good reasons to do so (the technical term for good reasons is ‘legitimate interests’) because we need to know if you want to join us and organise the event, insight day, or work experience placement, and collect your feedback so that we can understand the impact our events, insight days, or work experience have on you and can make them even better in the future.
Where the personal information that we collect about you is more sensitive (e.g., information about your ethnicity, food allergies, medical information, and whether you are neurodivergent), we can only do this if it meets one of the conditions set out in law. The conditions that we rely on are that we need this sensitive personal information to bring or defend ourselves from legal claims or that you have told us you are happy for us to collect and use the more sensitive personal information (i.e. you have given us your explicit consent). Where the condition we are relying on is your explicit consent, you do not have to give us your sensitive personal information if you do not want to and if you change your mind, you can contact us at any time to tell us and we will stop using your sensitive personal information.
Parents, legal guardians, and those with parental responsibility
If you are a parent (or legal guardian or person with parental responsibility) of someone under the age of 18 we will ask you to consent to your child attending our event, insight day, or work experience placement.
We will collect your name, email address, child’s name, signature, and address.
We will use your personal information to keep a record of your consent to use your child’s attendance.
Our legal reason for using your personal information is that it is in our legitimate interests (i.e. it is reasonable and proportionate) to keep a record of who has given consent for the child to attend the event, insight day, or work experience placement.
Teachers
If you are a teacher who we are liaising with to put on one of our events at your school, we will collect from you or your organisation: your name, your work email and phone number, and your role.
We will use your personal information to set up and run our event at your school or online.
Our legal reason for using your personal information is that it is in our legitimate interests (i.e. it is reasonable and proportionate) to have this information in order to liaise with you to organise our event.
DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO MAKE DECISIONS THAT HUMANS ARE NOT INVOLVED IN?
We do not use your personal information to make decisions that a human is not involved in (this means we do not get computers to make decisions about you without any human involvement).
CAN WE CHANGE THE WAY THAT WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We will only use your personal information in the ways we have explained in this privacy notice. We can only change the ways we use your personal information if the new ways we use your personal information agree with the ways we have explained in this privacy notice and we would tell you if this happens.
HOW LONG WILL WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We only keep your personal information for as long as we need it to do the things we have explained in this privacy notice. In general, this means that we will keep your personal information for a period of seven years.
There might be circumstances where we need to keep your personal information for longer. For example, if a disagreement happens between you and us, we will keep your personal information so that we can try to deal with the issue or any court action.
WILL WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH ANYONE ELSE?
We have explained above that we might share your information with our industry partners so that they can arrange insight days and work experience placements for you.
We might also share your personal information with other organisations that we trust. We will not share your personal information with anyone so that they can market to you or try and sell you anything.
We will only share the personal information with the organisations we have set out below and for the following reasons:
- Organisations who provide support for our IT systems: we use respected organisations to provide us with IT services such as website hosting and software. They might access your personal information but only if they need it to provide their services;
- Organisations who send out our newsletter: we may share your personal information with the company that helps us to send out our newsletters if you have signed up to receive our newsletter;
- Our group organisations: we might share your personal information with companies in our group which includes other companies that we own in different countries;
- Our industry partners: we may share your personal information with our industry partners who collaborate with us to provide insight days and work experience placements;
- Organisations that we become part of or sell our business to: if we sell all or part of our business or become part of another organisation, we may transfer your personal information along with the other parts of our business to the organisation that we are selling our business to or becoming part of;
- Organisations or people that we need to share your personal information with to comply with law or governmental request: we will share your personal information with organisations, companies, or people outside of the companies that we own where we need to, to comply with any law, rule, regulation, legal procedure, or governmental request that applies to us;
- Organisations or people for legal reasons: we will share your personal information with our professional advisors such as lawyers or accountants if we need to so that we can get their advice or if we need it for legal or tribunal proceedings, or where we need to take action to make sure our agreements are complied with;
- Law enforcement or other government organisations: we may share your personal information with law enforcement (for example, the police) or other government organisations where we are required to in order to report fraud or to respond to a legal request; and
- Other organisations involved in fraud prevention, detection, and risk analysis: we may share your personal information with the company we have chosen to help us prevent and detect fraudulent attacks.
We will only give your personal information to any of the organisations or people above if they need it to carry out their job or purpose they require it for. If you would like to know more about the organisations and people that we may share your personal information with and the legal reason for sharing your personal information with them, please contact us on gdpr@nexttechgirls.com.
WILL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION BE SENT OUTSIDE OF THE UK OR EEA?
What is the EEA?
The EEA is the ‘European Economic Area’ and is includes all the countries that are members of the European Union (these are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden) plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Will your personal information be sent to the EEA and how will it be kept safe?
We might send your personal information to the organisations and people listed above who are outside of the UK but are within the EEA.
EEA countries are considered by the UK Government to provide your personal data with the same level of protection that it would get in the UK.
Will your personal information be sent outside of the UK and EEA and how will it be kept safe?
We might need to send your personal information outside of the UK and EEA to the organisations and people listed above. If we do this, we ensure that your personal information gets a similar level of protection to the UK by making sure that we do at least one of the following things:
- Only sending it to countries that the UK Government considers will provide the same level of protection for your personal information as the UK would; or
- Using special standard contracts which the UK Government has approved which make sure that your personal information has the same level of protection that it would have in the UK or EEA.
Please let us know if you would like more information about how we send your personal information outside of the UK or EEA by contacting us at gdpr@nexttechgirls.com.
HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION SAFE?
We have put security in place to stop your personal information from being accidentally lost, or from being accessed by someone who is not authorised.
We make sure that your personal information is only seen by people who work for us who we have authorised to see it and who are required to keep it confidential.
HOW WILL WE TELL YOU ABOUT ANY CHANGES THAT WE MAKE TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE?
We might change this privacy notice sometimes. If we make small changes, we will post these on our website but if the change will have a big impact on you or the way we use your personal information, we will email you to tell you about the changes. This privacy notice was last updated on 01 November 2024.
HOW WILL WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION UP TO DATE?
It is important that the personal information that we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if your personal information changes.
WHAT ABOUT LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES?
Any links on our website or that we give you to other websites (for example, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc) are not covered under this privacy notice. Those websites should have their own privacy policy which will tell you how they might use your personal information.
WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE OVER YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND HOW CAN YOU COMPLAIN?
Can you complain?
If you are unhappy with how we use your personal information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (also known as the “ICO”). The ICO makes sure that organisations like us are following the rules about how we handle and use your personal information and that your data is safe. You can visit the ICO website for more information about how to complain: Make a complaint | ICO.
Before you complain to the ICO, we would love it if you would give us the chance to try and help sort out the problem. You can contact us by using this email address: gdpr@nexttechgirls.com.
Do you have any other rights?
The law gives you a number of rights over your personal information. We have summarised your rights below but you can learn more about them by visiting the ICO website: Your data protection rights | ICO.
Your rights are:
- Right of access: You have the right to ask us what personal information we hold about you and to ask us to give you a copy of your personal information;
- Right of correction: You have the right to ask us to fix any mistakes in your personal information;
- Right to erasure: You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information in some cases;
- Right to restriction: You have the right to ask us to limit how we use your personal information in some cases;
- Right to transfer your data with you: You can ask us to transfer the personal information we hold about you to another organisation (or to you) but only if we use a computer to use it and you have either given us permission to use your personal information or we need to use it because we have a contract with you.
The legal reason we rely on for using your personal information can affect your data protection rights. You can learn more about this here: Your data protection rights | ICO.
If you want us to help you exercise any of the rights we have just told you about, please contact us at gdpr@nexttechgirls.com.
