Privacy Policy

Updated: 8 July 2026

The UK Column operates several websites, including www.ukcolumn.org, fcdospending.ukcolumn.org, yellowcard.ukcolumn.org and shop.ukcolumn.org. It is the UK Column’s policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our websites.

What this policy covers

This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you use any of the websites listed above.

Below we explain how we collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

Information we collect about you

We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so. For example, if you choose to become a UK Column member, make a donation, or if you purchase something from the shop.

We collect information in two ways: if and when you provide information to us and automatically through using our websites.

Information You Provide Us

Information you provide us is sometimes, but not always, stored on our systems. Here are some examples:

  • Basic Membership Information: We ask for basic information from you in order to set up your UK Column membership. For example, name/surname, email address, password. Only a first name is mandatory, and we recommend you use a masked email address if your email provider supports that.
  • Transaction and Billing Information: If you buy something from us – a UK Column membership, merchandise from the shop, etc., for example – you will provide additional personal and payment information that is required to process the transaction, such as your name, contact information and card details. We do not store debit/credit card information on any of our websites.
Information We Collect Automatically

We also collect some information automatically:

  • Log Information: Like most organisations that run websites, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, referring site, the date and time of access, and operating system.
  • Usage Information: We collect information about your usage of our websites. For example, we collect information about the pages you visit or site parts that you check the most. We use this information to, for example, get insights on how people use our websites, so we can make the information we provide more accessible. We use Plausible Analytics for this, and you can find out more how they manage your privacy here.
  • Tag Management: We use Google Tag Manager to manage and deploy scripts on our websites. When you visit our websites, your browser loads the Tag Manager container from Google’s servers, which means Google receives technical information such as your IP address and browser type as part of serving that request. Google Tag Manager does not itself collect or store personal information about you, but Google’s handling of this data is described in Google’s privacy policy. Scripts that set non-essential cookies are only loaded after you have given your consent via our cookie consent tool.

  • Information from Cookies: A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard drive by a web server so that each time you visit a website, you are shown information personalised to you. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. While the UK Column makes minimal use of cookies, and never for tracking, you should be aware that UK Column members are free to embed content from third party websites on the Community site, and this embedded content may include the use of tracking cookies. Examples of this would be a video embedded from Youtube, or a podcast embedded from Soundcloud.

    We use Klaro to manage cookie consent on our websites. When you make a choice about which services you consent to, Klaro stores that choice in a cookie on your device so that we can respect your preferences on future visits. This cookie contains only your consent settings and is not used for tracking. You can review or change your choices at any time using the cookie settings link on our websites.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting or other legal requirements).

Sharing InformationHow we share information

We do not sell your personal information.

We may share your information in the limited circumstances set out below:

  • Employees and Independent Contractors: We may disclose information about you to our employees and individuals who are our independent contractors, for example our web development team. We require our employees and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for personal information that we share with them.
  • Third Party Vendors: We may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us, or to provide their services to you. For example: payment providers that process your credit and debit card information, fraud prevention services that allow us to analyse fraudulent payment transactions and email delivery services that help us stay in touch with you. These vendors are listed in the “List of data sub-processors” section below.
  • Legal Requests: We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena or court order.
Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is disclosed publicly.

For example, if you join the UK Column as a member, information such as your comments and any other content that you make public on the website are available to others.

Please keep this in mind when deciding what you would like to share publicly.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorised access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so, such as monitoring our websites for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

To enhance the security of your account, we encourage you to use a suitable password manager and set a strong password.

Your Rights

You may, at any time:

  • Request access to your personal data
  • Request correction or deletion of your personal data

You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that we offer, but if you aren’t able to do that you can always contact us for assistance.

Additional InformationList of Sub-processors

The UK Column uses the following products and services:

  • Clustered.net: for hosting the UK Column websites and shop
  • Now4Real: for hosting the live chat
  • Cloudflare: for speeding up the websites
  • Stripe: for credit card payments
  • Paypal: for Paypal payments
  • Plausible Analytics: for website analytics
  • Google Tag Manager: for managing and deploying website scripts
  • Sendgrid: for delivering automated emails and email newsletters
  • Boxcast: for live-streamed video
  • Bunny CDN: for on-demand video
Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, the UK Column may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify UK Column members of any changes that have been made. Any changes will also be listed here.

This Privacy Policy is based on the policy by Wordpress, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence.