Last updated on 9 September 2026.

This privacy policy sets out how the Internet Watch Foundation uses and protects your personal data.

1. Important information and who we are

This privacy policy gives you information about how the Internet Watch Foundation collects and uses your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide when you use the tool to generate an email to a Member of the European Parliament to take part in our EU Campaign 2026, or when you register for our marketing communications.

This website is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Controller

Internet Watch Foundation is the controller and responsible for your personal data, referred to as IWF, we, us or our in this privacy policy. If you have any questions, or wish to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the information in section 10.

2. The types of personal data we collect about you

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, grouped as follows.

• Identity Data includes first name and last name.
• Contact Data includes country of residence and email address.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, operating system and platform, device identifier and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Usage Data includes information about how you interact with and use our website.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data, which is not personal data as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity.

3. How is your personal data collected?

Your interactions with us. You may give us your personal data by using the campaign tool on the website, by giving us feedback, or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you request marketing to be sent to you.

Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, using cookies, server logs and similar technologies. Technical Data is also collected from analytics providers such as Google, based outside the United Kingdom.

4. How we use your personal data

Legal basis

The law requires us to have a legal basis for collecting and using your personal data. We rely on one or more of the following legal bases.

Legitimate interests. We may use your personal data where it is necessary to conduct our activities and pursue our legitimate interests. We consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights, both positive and negative, before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you, unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law.

Legal obligation. We may use your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to. We will identify the relevant legal obligation when we rely on this legal basis.

Consent. We rely on consent only where we have obtained your active agreement to use your personal data for a specified purpose, for example if you subscribe to an email newsletter.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

Contact Data, specifically country of residence, is used for the campaign tool, on the basis of consent. We do not retain it.

Identity Data, Contact Data and Marketing and Communications Data are used to manage our relationship with you, including notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy and dealing with your requests, complaints and queries, on the basis of consent. This data is deleted once you opt out of marketing communications or request deletion.

Technical Data is used to administer and protect our activities and this website, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data, on the basis of our legitimate interests in the provision of administration and IT services and network security. It is retained for up to 14 months.

Technical Data and Usage Data are used for analytics, to improve our website and user experience and to measure the effectiveness of our communications and campaigns, on the basis of our legitimate interests in keeping our website relevant and informing our campaign strategy. This data is retained for up to 14 months.

Identity Data, Contact Data and Marketing and Communications Data are used to send you relevant marketing communications, on the basis of consent. This data is deleted once you opt out or request deletion.

Direct marketing

When using the tool to take part in our EU Campaign 2026, you will be asked to indicate your preferences for receiving direct marketing communications from IWF.

Third-party marketing

We will obtain your express consent before we share your personal data with any third party for their own direct marketing purposes.

Opting out of marketing

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing communications at any time, by following the opt-out links in any marketing communication sent to you, or by contacting us.

Cookies

This section is being finalised and will be published before the campaign website opens to the public. It will list the cookies used on this website and explain how to change your cookie preferences.

5. Disclosures of your personal data

We may share your personal data where necessary with the parties set out below, for the purposes set out above.

We use third-party service providers and partners who help us operate and improve our website and campaigns. For example, we use tag management technologies to manage analytics and website functionality. These technologies help us deploy and control the campaign on our website and may process personal data in accordance with this privacy policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes, and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6. International transfers

We may transfer your personal data to service providers that carry out certain functions on our behalf. This may involve transferring personal data outside the United Kingdom to countries whose laws do not provide the same level of data protection as United Kingdom law.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the United Kingdom to service providers, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it. We may use specific standard contractual terms approved for use in the United Kingdom, which give the transferred personal data the same protection as it has in the United Kingdom, namely the International Data Transfer Agreement. To obtain a copy of these contractual safeguards, please contact us.

7. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach, and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. Data retention

Details of retention periods for the different categories of your personal data are set out in section 4. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data. See section 9 for further information.

9. Your legal rights

You have a number of rights under data protection law in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data, commonly known as a subject access request. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal data we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide.
• Request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances, where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it. We may not always be able to comply for specific legal reasons, which will be notified to you at the time of your request.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we rely on a legitimate interest. In some cases we may demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds which override your right to object. You also have an absolute right to object at any time to processing for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party, in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. This right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use, or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you.
• Request restriction of processing, where you want us to establish the accuracy of the data, where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it, where you need us to hold the data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or where you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in section 10.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data, or to exercise any of your other rights. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask for further information in relation to your request, in order to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer if your request is particularly complex, or if you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

10. Contact details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, about the use of your personal data, or if you want to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us by email at legal@iwf.org.uk, or by post, addressed to Legal, at Canopy House, 296 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WD, United Kingdom.

11. Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner Office, the United Kingdom regulator for data protection issues, at www.ico.org.uk. Before doing so, please make sure you have first made your complaint to us, or asked us for clarification if there is something you do not understand. The regulator will expect you to have done this before reviewing your complaint. Our complaints form is available at report.iwf.org.uk.

12. Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 9 September 2026. Historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us, for example a new address or email address.

13. Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.