Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how Emocien uses and protects your personal data.

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE
2. TYPES OF PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
3. DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES
4. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?
5. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
6. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
7. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
8. DATA SECURITY
9. DATA RETENTION
10. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
11. CONTACT DETAILS
12. COMPLAINTS
13. CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES
14. THIRD PARTY LINKS

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

Privacy policy

This privacy policy gives you information about how Emocien collects and uses your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide when you register with us. Emocien is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Controller

Emocien Limited is the controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy). We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights (paragraph 10.), please contact the DPO using the information set out in the contact details section (paragraph 11.).

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 which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, last name, any previous names, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, device ID and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
• Usage Data includes information about how you interact with and use our app, products and services.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
• Special Categories of Personal Data includes physical or mental health conditions, sexual life, sexual orientation, biometric or genetic data.

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. For example, we may aggregate individuals' Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature in order to analyse general trends in how users are interacting with our website to help improve the website and our service offering.

3. DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

Introduction

Emocien complies with all data related laws and regulations, including: The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPAct), this law including provisions related to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Emocien is also registered with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Data protection laws set out seven principles for data management legal compliance:

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency;
• Purpose limitation;
• Data minimisation;
• Accuracy;
• Storage limitation;
• Integrity and confidentiality (security); and
• Accountability.

This Policy sets out how Emocien complies with these seven data management principles.

Lawfulness, Fairness, Transparency

Lawfulness

Emocien acts lawfully, at all times, in respect of all data, privacy and related laws and regulations, including The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPAct) and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

Emocien has identified appropriate lawful grounds under UK DPAct and GDPR (known as a ‘lawful basis’) for collecting and using personal data.

These grounds include collecting and processing Member data to:

• Help Members manage their own mental health; and
• Help other Members manage their mental health;

Emocien recognises it is processing ‘special category data’ (SCD). It has identified appropriate conditions for processing this type of data, these conditions including, but not limited to:

• Utilising world-class technology (eg. Microsoft, Strapi, Stripe);
• Utilising world-class technology platform hosting (eg. Microsoft Azure Cloud hosting);
• Adopting renowned business management standards (eg. ISO 27001);
• Pseudonymisation (Members have the option of using a false name);
• Use of an external, expert Data Protection Officer (DPO); and
• Operating to a stringent governance framework (eg. external, expert audit).

Emocien does not do anything generally unlawful with personal data.

Fairness

Emocien uses personal data in a way that is fair. This means it will not process the data in a way that is unduly detrimental, unexpected or misleading to its Members;

• Emocien is clear, open and honest with its Members from the start of Membership commencement about how it will use their personal data;
• Emocien has considered how the processing of Member data may affect the individuals concerned, will minimise any adverse impacts and can justify any adverse impact;
• Emocien only handles people’s data in ways they would reasonably expect, or in a manner that it can be explained and justified where any unexpected processing occurs; and
• Emocien does not deceive or mislead people when it collects and processes their personal data.

For example, Emocien does not use personal data to:

• Create sales lists;
• Sell Members additional services (eg. upgrades, add-ons, bolt-ons, extensions); and
• Sell or provide to third parties;
• Gain commercial advantages in a manner customers would not expect.

Transparency

Emocien is open and honest, and complies with the transparency obligations of the right for its Members’ to be informed; Emocien is transparent with all stakeholders about how it intends and does use their data; Emocien is transparent in that it documents and publishes information to help Members understand what they can expect from Emocien, these documents, including, but not being limited to:

• Terms of Service:
• Privacy policy;
• Data Protection policy;
• Frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Purpose limitation

Emocien shall only collect, hold, process and retain Member information for the purposes it told Members it would do so, and for no other purposes unless justifiable; These legitimate purposes for collecting, holding, processing and retaining data shall be limited as far as reasonably possible to:

• Helping Members manager their own mental health;
• Enabling Members to share personal information with care-givers, to help care-givers provide their service;
• Enabling the anonymisation and aggregation of data to help others (eg. employers) manage the mental health of people in their care.

Data minimisation

Emocien ensures the personal data it processes is:

• adequate – sufficient to properly fulfil Emocien’s stated purpose;
• relevant – has a rational link to that purpose;
• limited to what is necessary – Emocien holds no more data than it requires for that purpose.

Emocien shall collect the minimum data required to enable Members to take advantage of all features of the Emocien platform;

Platform use requires Members to provide:

• An e-mail address as an authorised user identifier (eg. when logging into an account); and
• A mobile telephone number, required for two-factor authentication;

Members need not provide their real name if they do not wish to; a pseudonym and related e-mail address is sufficient as an identifier (eg. bradfromtexas@gmail.com);

No address details are collected. The Emocien platform does not have the facility to hold postal address details;

Members have the option of entering certain personal data (eg. demographic data; country/state or county/city or town), however the use of the data fields is entirely optional;

Payment details are not held within the Emocien platform. Payment details are only held in Emocien’s payment platform, Stripe, which has its own data protection obligations (here);

Accuracy

Only data required for Emocien’s stated purpose shall be held;

Emocien’s Terms of Service (TOS) require Members to provide accurate data and to keep their personal data accurate;

Emocien takes reasonable steps to ensure any Member personal data held by Emocien is correct and not misleading in respect of any matter of fact;

Emocien keeps Member personal data updated, by asking Members, at least annually, to check the accuracy of their details and to update any erroneous data;

If Emocien discovers that Member personal data is incorrect or misleading, Emocien will take reasonable steps to correct or erase errant data as soon as possible;

Emocien records, carefully considers and processes any challenges to the accuracy of personal data. Emocien Members will have the right to change their data or where Emocien alone can change their data, to request Emocien does so, with Emocien being expected to do so as requested and within a reasonable period of time;

Emocien addresses data mistakes promptly. Emocien records and reports on mistakes as part of its continuous improvement process, which shall be overseen by Emocien’s Chief Executive Officer.

Storage limitation

Emocien does not keep Member personal data for longer than its needs to;

Emocien may be justified in holding Member data for years, even decades. Should Emocien Members use the Emocien platform to manage life-long mental health issues, it is feasible and justifiable for Emocien to hold Member personal data for as long as Members require. This may be for many years and even several decades. However, Emocien will only hold personal data for as long as Emocien Members require and no longer;

Emocien’s Data Protection Policy provides an arrangement for Members to store their personal data within the Emocien platform for as long as they require.

Emocien’s data retention policy requires personal data to be held for no longer than 12 months without Member permission.

Emocien will comply with its own strict data retention regime, which will operate as follows:

• Members will be asked to confirm annually that their data is accurate and that Emocien may continue to retain it;
• Members will be provided with a an easy-to-find and easy-to-understand facility to delete their Emocien account, with account deletion being condition-free;
• Emocien will auto-delete dormant accounts, doing so after three ‘warnings’ issued at 25-day intervals (eg. days, 25, 50 and 75 from the initial point of inactivity), with account deletion occurring at day 90, this feature providing Members with the ‘right to be forgotten’.

The above regime clearly provides for periodic review of the data Emocien holds, along with deletion when no longer needed;

Ultimately, Emocien Members will have full rights to enter, amend and delete their personal data held within the Emocien platform;

Should an Emocien Member delete their Emocien account, all Member personal data, to which Emocien has no justifiable claim, will be irrecoverably deleted;

Some anonymised data will be held by Emocien, even after account and personal data deletion. This anonymised data will be held for public interest, scientific, research and statistical purposes. However no individual will be identifiable from such data and such data will not be attributable to any individual;

Members who deleted their Emocien account will not be able to ask for their account and all previously related data to be restored as no such feature or capability exists. Once an account is deleted, it is deleted for good.

Integrity and confidentiality (security)

Emocien operates numerous appropriate data security measures, put in place to protect allpersonal data Emocien holds, satisfying the ‘integrity and confidentiality’ principle of the GDPR – also known as the security principle.

Security measures operated by Emocien are numerous.

• World-class technology – Emocien’s technology platform is built in a world-class technology stack, mainly in Microsoft tools (eg. .net, Azure), with Microsoft being renowned for its data security;
• World-class hosting – Emocien’s technology platform is hosted by a world-class hosting service, Microsoft’s Azure hosting service, renowned for its data security;
• World-class website platform – The Emocien website is built in world-class web’ development tool, Strapi, renowned for its data security;
• World-class payment platform – Emocien utilises a world-class payment platform, Stripe, renowned for its data security;
• Business management standards – Emocien will become ISO 27001 accredited by December 2024; this management standard being the world’s most recognised and renowned information management standard;
• Pseudonymisation – Members can choose to hide their identity by using a pseudonym (eg. bradfromtexas@gmail.com). The use of a real name is optional. No real name is required. If a real name is not used, no data breach of a real name can occur;
• Two-factor authentication – Emocien utilises two-factor authentication (2FA) as a means of ensuring only authorised people can access a Member’s Emocien account, 2FA being a recognised and trusted data security measure;
• Data minimisation – Emocien collects only the minimum of personal identity (ID) data required to operate an Emocien account. No address or payment details are held in the Emocien’s platform. As a result, a breach of address and payment data by Emocien is not possible. Address data is not held at all. And payment data is not held by Emocien, it is only held by Stripe, a third party, renowned for its own data security measures;

Emocien has adopted a world-class approach to all aspects of data security, meeting and in many instances exceeding its data security legal compliance obligations.

Accountability

Emocien is accountable for what it does with Member personal data and how it complies with this and the other ‘data’ principles;

Emocien has appropriate measures and records in place to be able to demonstrate ‘data’ legal compliance;

Emocien will create data legal compliance roles and responsibilities and will appoint suitable people and parties into these roles (see the Organisation section of this policy);

Emocien’s Board will oversee ‘data’ legal compliance and governance;

Ultimately, it shall be the duty of the Emocien Chief Executive Office (CEO) to ensure the Emocien business is ‘data’ compliant.

Review

This policy shall be reviewed by the Board of Directors at least annually, every time a breach of this policy occurs or as required based upon other relevant events;

Version control methods shall be applied, to ensure the policy review process is effectively managed

4. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

• Your interactions with us. You may give us your personal data by subscribing to the app, filling in online forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise.
• Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our app, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns.
• Interactions with third party suppliers. Such as Google Analytics.

5. 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:

• Performance of a contract with you: Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.

• Legitimate interests: We may use your personal data where it is necessary to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests, for example to prevent fraud and enable us to give you the best and most secure customer experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential.

• 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, or to use your special category data.

Direct marketing

During the registration process on our website when your personal data is collected, you will be asked to indicate your preferences for receiving direct marketing communications from us.

Third-party marketing

We will get 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 to stop sending you marketing communications at any time by adjusting your marketing preferences If you opt out of receiving marketing communications, you will still receive service-related communications that are essential for administrative or customer service purposes.

Cookies

For more information about the cookies we use and how to change your cookie preferences, please see COOKIE POLICY

6. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA**

We do not share your personal data with third parties.

7. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS**

We do not transfer your personal data outside the UK.

8. 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.

9. DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

10. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have a number of rights under data protection laws 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 that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) as the legal basis for that particular use of your data (including carrying out profiling based on our legitimate interests). In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your right to object.
• You also have the absolute right to object any time to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that 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 are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, 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 products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in one of the following scenarios:
  • If you want us to establish the data's accuracy;
  • 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 even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
  • You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

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 you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

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

11. CONTACT DETAILS

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or about the us e of your personal data or you want to exercise your privacy rights, please contact our DPO:

• Postal address: C/O Ashtons Legal, 4 Trafalgar House Meridian Way, Meridian Business Park, Norwich, Norfolk, England, NR7 0TA

12. COMPLAINTS

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

13. CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES

We keep our privacy policy under regular review.

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.

14. 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.