PRIVACY & DATA POLICY

Last updated: 11/06/25

1. Introduction

The Co-Operative Venture Society of South Yorkshire, T/A Venture.Community, ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting the privacy of our members and ensuring transparency in how we collect, process, and use personal data. This policy outlines how we handle personal information in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR).

If you have any questions regarding this policy or how we handle your data, you can contact us at:Thomas Goldthorpe

Email: [email protected]

2. What Data We Collect

We collect the following personal data from our members:

Names

Email addresses

Phone numbers

We do not collect:

IP addresses or device information

Special category data (e.g., health, biometric, political opinions)

We use Stripe for payment processing and do not store payment details ourselves.

3. How We Collect Data

We collect personal data directly from users when they:

Register as a member of our society

Provide information through our membership platform, including Nethub

Contact us for support or inquiries

Apply for our accelerator programme

4. Purpose and Legal Basis for Processing

We process personal data for the following purposes:

Providing services to members

Customer support and communication

Marketing (sending updates and relevant communications)

Regulatory compliance (as required by the FCA)

Enabling community networking and discoverability via the Nethub members directory

The legal basis for processing data is:

Consent – For marketing communications where users have opted in.

Contractual necessity – To provide membership services.

Legitimate interest – To facilitate member networking (including through Nethub) and compliance with our organisational objectives.

5. Data Sharing & Third Parties

We share limited personal data with:

Other members through our membership platform, including Nethub, our online members directory and networking platform, for the purpose of community-building and collaboration (names, emails, and phone numbers).

Third-party service providers, including:

Stripe (payment processing)

Cloud storage providers (for secure document and data storage)

CRM systems (for member management and communications)

We do not transfer data outside the UK or EU.

6. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain personal data indefinitely, unless a member requests deletion.

If a deletion request is received, we will apply soft deletion, meaning the data is removed from active use but may be retained in secure archives for compliance purposes.

7. User Rights Under GDPR

Members have the following rights regarding their personal data:

Right to access – Request a copy of personal data we hold.

Right to rectification – Request corrections to inaccurate or incomplete data.

Right to erasure ("Right to be forgotten") – Request deletion of data.

Right to restrict processing – Request limitations on how we process your data.

Right to object – Opt out of marketing communications.

Right to data portability – Request transfer of data in a structured format.

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling.

To exercise these rights, members can contact us at [email protected]. Requests will be processed within 5 working days.

8. Cookies & Tracking

We do not use cookies or tracking technologies on our platform.

9. Security Measures

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including:

Firewall protection

Access controls to restrict data access

10. Complaints & Regulatory Compliance

If you have concerns about how we handle your data, please contact us first at [email protected].

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the relevant Data Protection Authority:

UK: Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) – https://ico.org.uk/

EU: Your local Data Protection Authority

11. Policy Updates

We will update this policy as needed, and any significant changes will be communicated via email. The latest version will always be available on our website and through the Nethub platform.

Contact Us

For any data protection inquiries, please contact:

Thomas Goldthorpe

Email: [email protected]