Privacy Notice

A Note now the UK has left the European Union

On 31st December, 2020, at 11pm, the UK left the European Union.  At this point certain EU laws, including GDPR, fell back to UK domestic law equivalents.  To cover the immediate future, the EU and UK governments have put in place a “EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement interim bridging mechanism for personal data“, due to last for a 4-6 month period*+.  For details on this please see this UK Government link.

If you live outside the UK and your personal information was provided to us prior to 31st December, 2020, then this is now called ‘Legacy Data‘. Legacy data also covers personal data provided while the new Cooperation Agreement is in place (i.e: under ‘provision of EU law that applies in the UK by virtue of the Withdrawal Agreement‘).

In the meantime, GDPR still remains in UK law although now being maintained alongside the UK Data Protection Act (2018). It is now called ‘UK GDPR’ and equates to the ‘frozen GDPR‘ as it stood on 31st December, 2020 (ie any changes made to EU GDPR in 2021 and beyond do not apply in the UK)

Note that Clanns.App is not classed as a Relevant Digital Service Provider and as such we are exempt from the NIS Regulations and Directive on digital provision.  We are however, still bound by the EU E-Commerce directive as we are providing access to our content to our students in Europe.

*Note: Agreement also ends if the UK makes a change to these laws that the EU does not agree with.

+ As a small business, we are following the details of this ICO document

1. General

Please see the associated Terms and Conditions which go in partner with this Privacy Notice.

‘Clanns’, ‘Clans.App’, ‘the Clanns App’,  ‘Clanns.io’, ‘Clanns.online’, ‘Clanns Online’, ‘us’ and ‘we’ are interchangeable and refer to the owners and operators of this website – Clanns.App

This Privacy Notice sets out how Clanns App uses and protects any information that you give Clanns App when you use this website

Clanns App is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement

Clanns App may change this Privacy Notice without notice. You should check this page from regularly to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

This policy is effective from 10th March, 2022

2. UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (here after “UK GDPR”) replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and was designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy

The key articles of UK GDPR, as well as information on its business impact, can be found on the dedicated site by clicking here (opens in new window).  The Supervisory Authority for this site is the Information Commissioner’s Office (UK) – click here for their site.  The GPPR became law in Europe on the 25th May, 2018 and was replaced on 30th January, 2020 when the UK withdrew from the European Union at 11pm on 31st December, 2020

The GDPR is laid out in 11 Chapters, the relevant ones to you are :-

  • Chapter 2 – “Principles”
  • Chapter 3 – Your Rights “Rights of the Data Subject”

Note that we may integrate to third parties when processing your data (e.g. for storage of email contacts).  Please refer to their Privacy Policies to ensure these meet your requirements

3. UK GDPR Chapter 2: Principles

This chapter covers some basic things about UK GDPR that you should know and that we need to adhere to. It  covers terms like ‘Data Subject” (You) and ‘Controller” and “Processor” (us)

3.1. Scope

UK GDPR covers the protection of UK and EU citizens regardless of where this data is stored or processed.  Even a website on the other side of the planet, if it is intending to process data for UK and EU citizens, must conform to the UK GDPR regulations

3.2. Principles

In protecting UK and EU citizens’ data the UK GDPR looks to the following principles regarding your data :-

“Data is specified, explicit and legitimate”.  When we ask you for your data we are required to tell you what it is for in terms that specify exactly what it is we need, why we need it and that when we explain this it is written out in clear and understandable terms

The 5 main principles UK GDPR sets out are as follows:

  • Data Minimisation
    • the data we ask you to provide us should only be relevant to what we need it for
  • Accuracy
    • the data is to be “accurate”.  For example, if you change your email address and you tell us this then we are required by law to update our records where we have them to reflect this change
  • Storage Limitation
    • your data should be with us for no longer than is necessary for us to process it.  We are no longer allowed to maintain your records indefinitely (unless we are required to do so by State law – our “Lawful Obligation“).  This is a risk limitation strategy introduced to protect your data from potentially falling in to the wrong hands. Note that Lawful Obligation in the UK is 7 years from the end of the financial year that the data was last accessed
  • Integrity and Confidentiality
    • Any processing we do on your data must be of a lawful nature and we must prevent against “accidental loss, destruction or damage”. Your data is exactly that – your data! And as such we should treat it with the same respect as if we were dealing with you yourself
  • Accountability
    • Essentially this means that we as an organisation need to be able to show that we have in place processes that adhere to the above earlier 4 principles.  We’re accountable to the Supervisor Authority in the UK which is the Information Commissioner’s Office 

3.3. Lawfulness of Processing

This article essentially lays out that we have to ask you for your consent to process your data, that the processes we’re going to put that data through is relevant to our activity of providing the services we have for you and that there’s a real need for the data collection in order for us to proceed

3.4. Conditions for Consent

This is one of the more important articles that you should be aware of.  There are 3 main parts to it as follows :-

  • We are required to … “demonstrate that the data subject has consented to processing of his or her personal data”.  So no more opt-out check boxes.  You have to actively agree to us processing your data
  • Any form we present to you requires to be … “clearly distinguishable from the other matters, in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language”.  This is pretty straight forward and any requests we ask of you should be too!
  • This is the important one you should know about.  You … “will have the right to withdraw [your] consent at any time. It will be as easy to withdraw as to give consent“.  So the red emphasis is ours but we’re sure you’ll agree this is a big thing.  Ever tried to cancel an online subscription or stop payment for a service you no longer want to receive and been thwarted by layers and layers of red tape? This should make all of that a whole lot easier to do

3.5. Conditions Applicable to Child’s Consent

There are very specific GDPR rules governing data capture for children.  At this point and going forward we’re not going to ask for any data from children. As such this means that only adults, who can give their data willingly, will be allowed access to our site.  The GDPR lays out that a child is “below the age of 16 years”. So you must be 16 years old or over to access our site*

*This is a specific condition in our Terms and Conditions

3.6. Processing Special Categories

The “Special Categories” cover data which reveals any of the following:-

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • religious or philosophical beliefs
  • trade union membership
  • genetic or biometric data concerning health
  • details of sex life or sexual orientation

We must have your consent before acquiring any of the above types of data.  There’s exceptions to this but essentially we won’t be asking you for any of the above anyway.  If someone does ask you for any of the above we suggest you ask them “Why?”

4. UK GDPR Chapter 3: Your Rights (Rights of the Data Subject)

This chapter covers your rights under UK GDPR.  We’ll highlight the bits that we are required to and bits we think you should know

4.1. Transparent Information, Communication and Modalities

UK GDPR allows you to request information about your data from us.  It lays out regulations on what we are required to do when fulfilling this.  Where you ask us we are required to provide :-

  • data “in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language”
  • data “orally” where we’ve previously identified you
  • information on “any action taken on a request”.  We need to keep you informed
  • the information “free of charge”. It’s free unless your request is deemed to be excessive

So you can ask us what you need to know and we should reply in a fair and honest way without trying to dupe you with legalese

 4.2. Information to be Provided

Here’s what we need to tell you when we ask you directly for any of your information :-

  • contact details of the controller
  • contact details of the data protection officer
    • At the moment we’re not required to have one but you can use the details above in the meantime
  • the purposes of the processing
    • we need your contact details to reply to the questions you are asking us.  At the moment we’re only running a ‘Contact Us’ form where you fill out your enquiry and send it to us.  In order for us to reply we need to have an email address that we can send the reply to
    • we’ll also need an account name, email address and password from you when you register to use the Clann Portal.  This allows us to track that we’re providing the correct Clann information to you
  • the legitimate interests pursued by the controller
    • we’re genuinely interested in growing our Clann Communities and the services we provide them here in order to do that. In our early days we were particularly bemused by the lack of response that we received ourselves from enquiries we made to other places so it became our main goal of replying to any requests that anyone sent us (where appropriate).  Even if it’s just to say ‘we don’t know’, you’ll always endeavour to get back to you.   It’s the least we can do
  • the recipients or categories of recipients of the personal data
    • We make use of the following services internally – Email Services.  Your email will be held on our email servers or on external emails services provided by third party solutions  (eg Mailerlite).  
  • if we “intend to transfer personal data to a third country or international organisation”
    • We won’t share or sell your information to anyone (other than those organisations and services named above).  We reserve the right to share information between Clanns.App, Clanns.online (our Marketing site), Clanns.io (our developers) and Crescent 21 Ltd (our owners)

We are also required to tell you :-

  • the period for which the personal data will be stored
    • Your contact details are held on our servers until we process your request. At that point your email address, your request and any other information you supply to us will be permanently deleted.  If you join our subscription service on Clanns.online we will provide you access to the Clann Portal to allow you to create and administer your Clann’s information and we’ll hold your information until you unsubscribe or cancel your subscription with Clanns.online.   Note that there are specific restrictions on the type of content that you can post to your Clann Community and we reserve the right to suspend or cancel any subscription with us
  • Data Subject Access Requests (see the request forms here) – that you have the right to:-
    • request access
      • ie that you can see the data we have on you
    • rectification or erasure of personal data
      • ie that you want your data changed or deleted entirely
    • restriction of processing
      • this covers the situation where you or another party (say the Police) require us to stop processing your data but request that it is not deleted.  For example, the Police may ask us to prevent you from further accessing the site but require us to keep you data as is whilst they perform any investigation.  We’re legally obliged to do as they request
    • object to processing
      • this covers the ‘right to be forgotten’.  For example, say you become married and your change in circumstances now also impacts your willingness to continue to allow us to process your information (you may not wish us to process your new details).  This right allows you to change or remove your consent previously given to us
    • data portability
      • if you request information from us we are obliged to give it to you in a machine readable format (encrypted).  You may also request us to send this information to a supervising authority of your choosing
    • withdraw consent at any time
      • we’ve covered this above but if you change your mind about your consent at any time just let us know and we’ll be happy to address that for you.  Note the additional step you may be required to make to manually cancel any outstanding automatically renewing subscription you have with us.  You’d do this via your payment processor (i.e. PayPal).  We have no authority to do this for you or on your behalf
    • lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority
      • if we fail to act on our best interest, or provide you with the information you are requesting you can of course take recourse elsewhere (see the Information Commissioner’s Office link above).  We’re hopefully this will never happen
  • whether
    • the provision of personal data is a “statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract”
      • by joining our services where a payment is required for continued access you’re agreeing to us processing information, payment details and the like on your behalf.  You’re also agreeing that you understand that should your payments for these services cease for any reason, given or not, that we reserve the right to suspend or cancel your subscription accordingly.  We will of course endeavour to resurrect all services once any outstanding payments are cleared 
    • you are “obliged to provide the personal data and of the possible consequences of failure to provide such data”
      • only in terms in any payment agreement that you setup to pay for the services that we offer you here
  • the “existence of automated decision-making, including profiling”
    • We use Google Analytics but use our own brains to analyse what it tells us (where we can. We’ve pretty small brains!)

4.3. Right to Rectification

Where there are omissions in the data we hold you have the following two rights:-

  • “inaccurate data corrected”
  • “incomplete personal data completed”

We only hold details for as long as needed to process and return an answer to you. Should the exchange of emails constitute an ongoing conversation your details will remain with us until we consider the conversation over (or you tell us so). All data at that point is deleted

4.4. Right to be Forgotten

You have the right to have your data removed from our systems.  We can do this where :-

  • “Retention of personal data is no longer necessary” for the processing we told you we would carry out on it
  • you specifically :-
    • “withdraw consent” – see above
    • “object to processing” – see above
  • your data has been “unlawfully processed “
  • your data has to be “erased as part of a legal obligation”

If, prior to us processing your request, you wish to withdraw your consent simply let us know and your data will be immediately deleted.  In this instance we will not attempt to answer your question or pass it on to John as this would constitute ‘processing your data’

4.5. Right to Restriction

We’ve covered some of this before but GDPR details more specific information.  Under this article you have the right to request restriction of processing where :-

  • “data accuracy is contested”
  • you oppose the “erasure [of data] and request restriction instead”
  • we “no longer need the data for intended purpose”
  • you “object to being processed by automated decision making”.  Note that we don’t do any automatic decision making

We’ll store your data when you request us to restrict it and will tell you if this restriction is going to be lifted if restriction has be previously requested for legal reasons

4.6. Right to Object

There’s a couple of specific clauses we’re obliged to tell you about.  Here they are:

  • You have the right to object to processing of personal data for “direct marketing including profiling related to direct marketing”
  • Where you object your “personal data will no longer be processed for direct marketing”
  • You will be told of your “right to object to processing”.  Please consider us doing that here

5. What we Collect

 We may collect the following information:

  1. contact information including a username, email address and password
  2. message content from the in-App messaging feature (further referred to as ‘User Generated Content’ or ‘UGC’)
  3. details regarding any specific question you ask us
  4. that you’ve confirmed that you are aged 16 years or older
  5. that you consent to your data being collected and processed as outlined above under GDPR

Note that GDPR requires that we only collect information that is relevant to the processing we are intending to run on the data you provide us. We are also required to have your consent prior to collection of any processing. Please see the GDPR sections above for full information on this

6. What we do with the Information we Gather

  1. Provide access to an online portal through which you can create and administer community information for the Clann that you create for your members
  2. Provide help and assistance to users of the Clanns Online App
  3. Process any provided User Generated Content by manual or automatic means to identify any content that contravenes our guidelines on acceptability especially in relation to the definition of ‘Online Harms’
  4. Attempt to assist you with the running of the above
  5. Attempt to answer any questions you may raise with us where we can

Note that GDPR specifically grants you the right to be forgotten (erasure), the right to object to processing and the right to restriction.  We also must provide you with specific details on how long we will hold your details for. Please see the sections on GDPR above for more information on this.  

Note that where you provide any user generated content we may be legally required to process and store this content for delivery to any lawful body as part of any existing or future implemented legal requirements covering user generated content.  It’s quite simple.  Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want to explain in a court of law.

7. Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online

8. How we use Cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website

Note that GDPR now provides you rights to withdraw or object to the processing of your data.  Please see the GDPR sections above for more information

9. Links to other Websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question

Note that with the introduction of UK GDPR you should also check the UK / EU GDPR policy of any site that you visit as a result of following any links on this website. We strongly advise you not to provide any website any personal information unless you are satisfied that the Privacy Policy and UK / EU GDPR Policies of the website meets your own requirements

10. Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics to help streamline the services we provide to you. We also think it’s important to keep John informed on where the majority of the website traffic is coming from in the hope he might use this information when deciding which places to travel to teach.

The information provided to Google Analytics is normalised in the sense that it can’t be used in any way to identify you. At most Google Analytics can identify you down to the town/city in which you are roughly located.  Often this in itself is not entirely accurate as it is often linked to your Internet Provider.  All of this information is held by Google

11. Controlling your Personal Information

The introduction of UK GDPR provides you more control over your data that we store and on the processing that you give consent to us to perform.  This is detailed in the sections that appear above.  If there is anything you do not understand or would like to talk to us about please contact us by clicking here