Privacy Policy

YLAL PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: 1 DEC 2020 

CONTENTS OF PRIVACY POLICY

1.    INTRODUCTION
2.    LEGAL BASES RELIED UPON
3.    WHEN DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
4.    WHAT SORT OF PERSONAL DATA DO WE COLLECT?
5.    WHY DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
6.    HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
7.    HOW DO WE PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
8.    WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH?
9.    WHERE IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA PROCESSED?
10.  WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS OVER YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
11.  HOW CAN YOU STOP THE USE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA BY YLAL?

12. REMOTE MEETINGS PRIVACY STATEMENT DURING COVID-19

 

1. INTRODUCTION

Young Legal Aid Lawyers (‘YLAL’) is a group of lawyers who are committed to practising in those areas of law, both criminal and civil, that have been traditionally publicly funded. YLAL is a membership organisation run by a committee of volunteers. YLAL membership includes students, paralegals, trainee solicitors, pupil barristers and qualified junior lawyers up to 10 years PQE based throughout England and Wales. 

This YLAL Privacy Policy is designed to explain the types of personal data we may collect about you as our members, how we will store it, handle it and keep it safe. If you have any queries about this policy, please contact ylalinfo@gmail.com.

 

2. LEGAL BASIS FOR HOLDING INFORMATION

As a membership organisation, YLAL has a legitimate interest in collecting, storing and processing the personal data of members in order to keep them informed of issues relating to the legal aid sector. YLAL will use your personal data to pursue this legitimate interest in a way that does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests.

In specific situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent. We consider that you give your consent for YLAL to collect and process your personal data when you sign up to become a member of YLAL and when members request a mentor in the YLAL mentoring scheme.

 

3. WHEN DO WE COLLECT YOUR DATA?

YLAL collects your personal data when you sign up to become a member of YLAL either through the YLAL website, or via sign up sheets circulated at regional YLAL meetings. YLAL also collects your data if you request a mentor via the YLAL mentoring scheme.

 

4. WHAT SORT OF PERSONAL DATA DO WE COLLECT?

YLAL collects the following data from members when they sign up via the YLAL website or hard copy sign up sheets: 

a)    Name;
b)    Email address;
c)    Your stage of study / work;*
d)    Postcode;*
e)    Your place of work/study;*
f)     Areas of legal aid work interested in;* and
g)    What interests you about YLAL and its subgroups*

*denote optional fields.

It is therefore possible to sign up to YLAL membership by providing only your name and email address, however this will mean that we are unable to tailor our communications with you to your specific interests.

 

5. WHY DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

YLAL uses your personal data in order to provide you with information relating to legal aid, campaigning and social mobility. YLAL also uses your data to tailor our communications to your individual interests. Specifically, your email address is used so that you can receive updates about the work YLAL is doing and broader news relating to legal aid. If you express interest in particular subgroups, you will also receive emails in relation to those specific subgroups in order to facilitate discussion and organise work. Your postcode is used so that we can link you with your local YLAL group. This means you receive relevant information about upcoming meetings in your area. If you request a mentor or you offer to be a mentor, data about your interests, role, place of work and location will be used to help us to match you with a mentor/ee who suits you.

 

6. HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

When you enter your data on the YLAL website, it is stored on the YLAL Website Server. It is then downloaded and added to a spreadsheet of New Members. Your data is then uploaded to Mailchimp, to ensure that you receive national and local email updates about YLAL’s work. 

If you have expressed an interest in mentoring (by emailing ylalmentoring@gmail.com) with a request to act as a mentor, or to be assigned a mentor, your details are added to a Googlesheet and stored on the YLAL googledrive to records matches between mentors and mentees. 

 

7. HOW DO WE PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

YLAL protects your data by ensuring that only people with a legitimate interest in processing your data has access to it. All YLAL email accounts and documents are password protected. Committee members have access to the passwords and all of the YLAL generic email addresses are protected with two-step authentication. If someone tries to access the accounts using a new device, the person who manages the YLAL info account receives an alert. An email is then sent to all committee members, to check who has tried to access the account. Committee members will only ever access your personal data in order to process it in line with this policy. 

Committee members are aware, and will be reminded periodically, that any device used to access YLAL personal data must be password protected. 

YLAL will not hold any personal data longer than necessary. Currently, members are deleted from our Mailchimp mailing list – and therefore removed from YLAL membership – when they have not opened more than 50 of our emails. We do not implement a time frame for the deletion of members (for example by members’ level of Post Qualification Experience), as in our experience our members like to continue receiving news of YLAL even once they have moved on to more advanced stages in their careers. Of course, members can request to be deleted at any point by unsubscribing from our Mailchimp mailing list. You can also email ylalinfo@gmail.com to request being removed from the mailing list and to have your data deleted. 

In the event of the loss of a personal device on which YLAL email accounts are stored, unauthorised access of YLAL accounts or the circulation/distribution of member data, the committee member responsible for data protection will be notified. In the unlikely event of such a breach, YLAL would inform the ICO within 72 hours of discovery of the breach and will notify the members concerned directly. 

Your data will not be shared with other organisations without your consent unless specified in our privacy policy. 

 

8. WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR  DATA WITH?

When you request a mentor, or to become a mentor, we consider that you have consented to sharing your personal data with another person. When we circulate prospective mentee details, we ensure that they are anon
ymised. However, once mentors ha
ve been assigned a mentee, the mentee’s name and email address will be shared with the mentor. 

We only provide the data needed for third parties (such as Mailchimp and Google – see below) to perform their services and they may only use your data for the purposes we specify. 

 

9. WHERE IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA PROCESSED?

Your personal data is processed by:

a)     Mailchimp; and
b)     Google (if you have signed up for mentoring).

Mailchimp is based in the United States and therefore some of your data will be held in the United States. As such, Mailchimp is not required to comply with the GDPR although we understand that it has amended some of its data processing and retention policies and practices to be GDPR compliant. Google operates within the EU and we are therefore confident that Google will be complying with GDPR and relevant data processing legislation. 

 

10. WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS OVER YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

You have a right to request:

a)     Access to the personal data that we hold about you;
b)     Correction of your personal data when incorrect, out of date or incomplete;
c)     That your data be deleted.

 YLAL will process any request as soon as reasonably practicable. Please bear in mind when making requests that the YLAL committee is formed entirely of volunteers who carry out their work for YLAL in addition to their full time jobs. YLAL will, however, endeavour to process any requests within 30 days.  

If you wish to make any of the requests above, please contact ylalinfo@gmail.com.

 

11. HOW CAN YOU STOP THE USE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA BY YLAL?

You can unsubscribe from hearing from us at any time, by following the instructions found at the bottom of every email sent by YLAL, simply by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link. If you no longer wish to be a member, you can also request that YLAL delete your personal data by emailing ylalinfo@gmail.com. This will be done as soon as practicable. 

 

12.  REMOTE MEETINGS PRIVACY STATEMENT 

YLAL will be hosting events on Zoom in conjunction with One Pump Court Chambers. You can read their privacy notice here.

We understand there have been some published concerns about Zoom, privacy and data, however, Zoom is a really effective environment to host meetings and seminars and we need to be practical and accessible. 

You can read Zoom’s privacy statement here and their official statement on EU GDPR compliance here.

If you are still concerned about privacy, you can take the following steps to protect yourself even further:

  • Do not install the application (nor any addons / plugins to web browser). 
  • Avoid using the service on professional devices (as far as possible).
  • Join the meeting via the web browser version: https://www.zoom.us/join.
  • Try to use a privacy protecting browser, such as Brave or Mozilla’s firefox.
  • Avoid turning on the camera if possible (and turn the camera off if you are not talking).