Privacy Policy

 

Your Mate Union and its trading subsidiary Your Mate ltd are committed to safeguarding the privacy of everyone who uses our services. This policy sets out how we will use your personal data.

 

This policy reflects our duties under the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act (2018) and all applicable Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations. It describes how we use personal data fairly, keep it secure, make sure it is accurate and uphold your rights as a data subject.

This policy does not apply to other organisations to which we may link and whose privacy policies may differ.

 

Please read the following policy to understand how your personal information will be treated. It may change from time to time, so please check back periodically. It was last updated in January 2024.

 

Who we are

 

Your Mate Union is the data controller for the information you provide. Our address is:

 

Your Mate 

128 City Road,

London, EC1V 2NX

 

Your Mate Union's Data Protection Officer can be contacted at membership@yourmate.org.uk

 

How Your Mate Union uses your personal data

 

We routinely use your personal data for the following purposes:

 

Registering you as a Your Mate Union member.

Contacting you about your membership and about essential trade union activities.

Representing you effectively.

Meeting our legal obligations as a trade union.

The lawful basis for this processing is Your Mate Union pursuing our legitimate interests as a trade union. We may also use legitimate interest as our lawful basis for the following data processing:

 

• Holding your data on our membership database.

• Processing your subscription payments.

• Confirming your identity when you contact us.

• Sending you statutory communications (these are communications that, as a trade union, we have to send you by law).

• Administering membership benefits and determining your eligibility for these benefits.

• Ensuring you have a vote in all Your Mate Union elections and ballots that you are eligible to vote in.

Ensuring you are represented through Your Mate Union's democratic processes, such as conferences and meetings.

Statistical analysis of our membership and of employers and workplaces.

Accessing your personal data within Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd.

 

Some of your personal data will be available to Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd's employees and workplace representatives and others formally instructed by Your Mate Union for the purposes of carrying out trade union duties.

 

The type of personal data shared will be relevant to the purpose for which the data is used, so for example, unless you have expressly asked us not to, workplace representatives will be given your workplace details.

 

Data security

 

Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd use industry standard efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information, such as firewalls and SSL (secure socket layers). We make every effort to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control. However, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

 

Your Mate Union takes data security extremely seriously. Any data protection breaches are handled in line with our Your Mate Union Breach Reporting Policy.

 

Sharing your personal data with third parties

 

By third parties, we mean organisations that are not Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd.

 

We share your information with third parties such as:

 

Mailing houses that print and send our communications to you.

Providers of membership benefits.

Returning officers (who ensure our elections are run fairly) and scrutineers (who count the votes when we ballot).

When we share your data, we only share the minimum required for the purpose of the data processing (for example if the purpose is to send you a mailing by post, we wouldn’t share your email address with the mailing house, because they don’t need it). We also ensure that processes are in place so that data is always transferred to third parties securely.

 

Market research

 

Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd may contact and invite you to participate in market research activities to help us to get valuable feedback on how we work well and where we can improve our services. The contact may be whilst your membership is active, or during a short period after you have left. The process may involve you completing a survey with an independent third-party organisation who will share its findings with Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd. Whilst your participation is very helpful and always appreciated, you are not obliged to participate in such research. If you don’t want to, simply ignore the email.

Transfers overseas and safeguards

 

We don’t routinely transfer your data outside of the UK. Where it is necessary, we ensure appropriate data protection measures are in place.

 

Retention of data

 

Retention means how long we keep your data for. We do this in accordance with Your Mate Union's data retention policy. This includes:

 

Application form – retained for one year after processing, then securely destroyed.

Membership record – retained for seven years after membership lapses, then minimised.

Case files – retained for seven years after the case is closed, then securely destroyed. 

 

Your rights as a data subject

 

You have rights as a data subject. These rights are:

 

The right to be informed – this means we must inform you how we are going to use your personal data. We do this through this privacy policy and by informing you how your data will be used each time we collect it.

The right of access – you have the right to access your personal data (e.g. data that is about you) that we hold. This is called a subject access request. We must respond to your request within one month. To request access to your data, please email membership@yourmate.org.uk. It is very helpful if you tell us what of your personal data you are seeking.

The right to rectification – if you think the data we hold on you is incorrect, tell us so we can put it right. 

The right to erasure – you have the right to request that we delete your data. We will do so, provided that we do not have a compelling reason for keeping it. To request this, please email membership@yourmate.org.uk.

The right to restrict processing – you can change your communication preferences. To request this, please email membership@yourmate.org.uk.

The right to data portability – you can obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services, for example different unions. To request this, please email membership@yourmate.org.uk.

The right to object – you have the right to object to

a) Direct marketing from Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd or from third parties we have shared your data with for direct marketing purposes.You can opt out of direct marketing any time by emailing membership@yourmate.org.uk.

b) Any processing where our lawful basis is legitimate interest (see above).If you would like to formally object to any of our legitimate interest processing, please email membership@yourmate.org.uk.

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling – this is not something we do at Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd. If that ever changes, this policy will be updated accordingly.

At Your Mate Union we are committed to upholding your rights as a data subject. If you think we have not done so, please contact membership@yourmate.org.uk.

 

You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your rights have not been upheld. The ICO is the data protection regulator and their website is: www.ico.org.uk.

 

Consent

 

There are some types of data processing that we only do if you have given us your consent. These are:

 

Sending direct marketing messages by email.

Sharing your data with third party providers of membership benefits.

​

You are in control of what consent you give us. You can withdraw your consent at any time by by emailing membership@yourmate.org.uk. There will also be instructions on how to unsubscribe included in any direct marketing message that we send to you.

 

Statutory data requirements

 

As a trade union, we have a statutory requirement to keep an accurate register of members’ names and addresses. If you wish to be a Your Mate Union member, you must provide this information to us.

 

Data collected on our website

 

Personal data collected by this website will only be used for the purposes (or closely related purposes) for which it was collected.

 

We may use your personal information to:

 

Administer the website.

Improve your browsing experience by personalising the website.

Enable your use of the services available on the website.

Deal with enquiries and complaints made by you relating to the website.

Email

 

All emails that we send you are tracked.  This helps us to ensure that you only receive emails from us that are of interest to you.  You can unsubscribe from emails at anytime by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of an email.

 

Cookies

 

When on our website, data may be stored on a “cookie”. This is a tiny element of data that our site can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your hard drive. This small amount of information does NOT contain any private information stored on your computer.

 

Like most websites, Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd uses cookies to improve our users’ experience.  We ask when you first access our site if you are happy for cookies to be used. If you choose not to use cookies, it may be difficult to use some parts of our website.

 

Our cookies policy explains which cookies we use and why, along with where you can find more information about cookies.

 

Social media buttons

 

On many of the pages of the site you will see ‘social buttons’, such as share buttons for Twitter, and Facebook ‘Like’ buttons.

 

When you click on any of these buttons, these sites will be registering that action and may use that information.

 

You should check the respective policies of each of these sites to see how exactly they use your information and to find out how to opt out, or delete, such information.

 

Facebook advertising

 

From time to time we may use Facebook advertising to promote Your Mate Union events and campaigns and encourage people to join Your Mate Union. We do not collect any personal data from Facebook profiles. We do not provide or sell member data to third parties for the purposes of Facebook marketing. To no longer receive Facebook ads click on the top right hand corner of the ad

 

External web services

 

We use a number of external web services on the Your Mate Union site, mostly to display content within our web pages. For example, to display images we sometimes use Flickr; to show videos we use YouTube. This is not an exhaustive or complete list of the services we use, or might use in the future, when embedding content, but these are the most common.

 

As with the social buttons, these sites may use information about usage of embedded content. If you are not logged in to these external services, then they will not know who you are but are likely to gather anonymous usage information e.g. number of views, plays, loads etc.

​

Terms and conditions

​

These terms and conditions outline your obligations when accessing and using the Your Mate Union website. 

 

The Your Mate website is provided by Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd on the following terms:

 

Acceptance of terms

 

By using the Your Mate website you are indicating that you accept these terms and conditions, which shall take effect immediately on your first use of the YOURMATE website.

 

If you do not agree to be bound by all of the following terms then you may not access, use and/or contribute to the Your Mate website.

 

Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd may change these terms of use from time to time and any revised version will be effective immediately that it is displayed on the YOURMATE website.

 

Your continued use of the Your Mate website will be deemed acceptance of the updated or amended terms.

 

If you do not agree to the changes you should cease using the YOURMATE website.

 

Your registration obligations and conduct

 

As a condition of using certain areas of the Your Mate website you are required to register for a user “account” with a valid log-on ID and select a password.

 

You shall provide true, accurate, complete and updated registration information about yourself.

 

You agree to maintain and promptly update your account/registration information to keep it true, accurate, complete and current.

 

If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd have reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, then Your Mate Union has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Your Mate website (or any portion thereof).

 

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account details, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password and account.

 

Your account is non-transferable. You must not to sell or otherwise transfer your account details to another person.

 

You agree to immediately notify Your Mate Union of any unauthorised use of your password or account or of any other breach of security, and also ensure that you exit the service at the end of each session.

 

As a condition of use you promise not to use the Your Mate Union website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms of use or any other purpose not reasonably intended by Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd.

 

Privacy policy

 

If you supply personal details to Your Mate Union through the Your Mate website then you consent to Your Mate Union and Your Mate ltd maintaining, recording, holding and using such personal data in accordance with its privacy policy .

 

Intellectual property rights

 

Your Mate Union owns or is licensed to use all intellectual property rights in and to the Your Mate website.

 

By using the Your Mate website and information and documents (“materials”) contained on the Your Mate website you undertake to ensure that the intellectual property rights of the copyright holder are not infringed.

 

Materials contained in the Your Mate website may be downloaded, viewed and printed for personal non-commercial use only provided that no trademark, copyright or other proprietary notices contained in or appearing on such material are removed in whole or in part.

 

All other rights are reserved and users must seek Your Mate Union's permission before making any other use of material contained in the Your Mate website

 

You agree not to reproduce, alter, amend or change the materials or reproduce any material in whole or in part and shall not allow any unauthorised user to have access by any means of any part of the materials.

 

Limitation of liability

 

Although every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information on the Your Mate Union website is accurate at the time of publication, it is subject to variation at any time without notice and Your Mate Union does not give any warranty that any such information will be accurate or complete at any particular time or at all.

 

The Your Mate Union website and any information or other material contained in it are made available strictly on the basis that you accept it on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

 

Where you rely on any information or other material contained in it, you do so entirely at your own risk and you accept that all warranties, conditions and undertakings, express or implied, whether by common law or statute or otherwise in respect of the Your Mate Union website are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

 

We exclude all liability whatever, to the fullest extent permitted by law, in respect of any loss or damage resulting or arising from any non-availability or use of the Your Mate Union website or of any other website linked to it, or from reliance on the contents of the Your Mate Union website or any material or content accessed through it.

 

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the appropriate protection against viruses and other security arrangements in place whilst using the Internet.

 

Availability

 

Owing to the nature of the Internet Your Mate Union cannot guarantee that the Your Mate Union website or the websites to which it is linked will always be available to use.

 

Links

 

Links from the Your Mate Union website are provided for information and convenience only and Your Mate Union has no control over these and cannot therefore accept responsibility or liability for the content of any linked third-party website. Your Mate Union does not endorse any linked website.

 

Termination

 

Your Mate Union may terminate or suspend any and all services and your account immediately, without prior notice or liability and may refuse any future use of the Your Mate Union website (or any portion thereof), if you breach any of the terms or conditions of these terms of use. Upon termination of your account, your right to use the services will immediately cease.

 

If you wish to terminate your account, you may simply discontinue using the services. All provisions of the terms of use which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

 

Jurisdiction

 

These terms of use are governed by the law of England and Wales and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

 

Severance

 

If any term condition or provision contained in these terms of use shall be held to be invalid unlawful or unenforceable to any extent such term condition or provision shall not affect the validity legality or enforceability of the remaining parts of these terms which shall remain in full force and effect.

 

Waiver

 

The failure or delay of Your Mate Union to exercise or enforce any right in these terms does not waive Your Mate Union right to enforce that right.