Privacy & Cookies
Data Collection and use
The Labour Party collects, processes and retains data for use in political campaigning and associated activities. The Labour Party also retains and processes data that is necessary for the administration of its own internal governance and membership systems. The Labour Party takes its responsibilities in relation to data protection very seriously, and we are committed to placing the rights of individuals at the centre of how we collect, hold and process personal information.
As a UK registered political party, the Labour Party has a fundamental role in engaging with voters as part of the democratic process. Data protection law recognises that it is in the public interest for political parties to collect and process personal information, including about political opinions in order to fulfil this important role.
We collect data in a number of circumstances, such as when:
- You complete a form on this website, or if you fill out a form delivered by a Labour Party representative
- You have a conversation on the doorstep or over the phone with a Labour Party representative about your views
- You interact with us online, including on social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter
- You join the party as a member, affiliated or registered supporter, donate or sign up to volunteer for us.
The Labour Party also collects and analyses a range of other information about you and the area in which you live, including the electoral register, publicly available data such as census information and election results, estimates and segmentations of personal information, information about whether our efforts to contact you in person or over the telephone have been successful, and survey data which you may have directly provided to us or a third party.
We analyse and use the data we collect in a variety of ways, and also combine them (sometimes referred to as “profiling”), in order to:
- contact you to canvass your political support and ascertain your voting intentions
- manage the internal governance of the party and our membership database
- communicate with you about our policies, campaigns, events and opportunities to get involved with the party
- understand what issues are most likely to be relevant to each elector and each area,
- decide to whom we should send our campaign materials and messages,
- choose which messages and content we put on the materials we send to you, or show you on social media,
- ensure that donations you make to us are lawful,
- allow us to estimate which way you might vote in elections and referendums, and how likely you are to vote at all,
- help us understand in which areas, at which times of day, and with which people we should focus our campaigning efforts, and
- inform the development of our policy position for future elections and referendums at every level.
We have a statutory right to some of this information as a registered political party in Britain by virtue of regulations made under the Representation of the People Acts, the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act, and connected legislation. The data we hold to which we do not have a statutory entitlement is either data which is made available for use in a way that permits its use by political parties (for example census data, national land registry data, local election results, or data released through a Parliamentary Question or Freedom of Information [FOI] request where the data released in response to that question or request is not restricted from such reuse), or is provided through commercial agreements with suppliers who make such information available for resale to a range of customers.
Where we have obtained data commercially, our suppliers will either have obtained consent from individuals that their data may be made available for resale, including to political parties, or will have one or more other lawful bases for processing it, such as legitimate interest.
When you join the Labour Party or sign up as an affiliated or registered supporter, we will collect, hold and process personal information in order to service the contract that you enter into with the party in such circumstances.
On some occasions, such as when you sign up to receive emails from us or agree to volunteer for the party, we will collect, hold and process personal information on the basis of your explicit consent. You can withdraw this consent at any time. Please see section on “Your information rights” for more details.
In all cases we will be clear and transparent about how we use your personal information, only use it for the purposes for which it has been obtained and ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to maintain its security.
You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. Further detail is available in the “Your Information Rights” section of this policy.
Site registration and emails from the Labour Party
When you register onto the site or subscribe to our emails, we may ask you for contact information (such as your name and e-mail address), geographic information (such as your postcode and constituency), other details about you and your interests with your explicit consent. This is used to help us provide you with information from the Labour Party to match your interests. We may also use it to alert you to campaigns you may be interested in and events happening in your area.
Joining the Party and renewing your membership online
We collect the required information in order to check you meet the conditions of and to service the contract you enter into when you join the Labour Party. At your option, we ask for additional information such as gender, ethnicity, disability, date of birth and trade union membership to help us provide a better membership service to you. The Labour Party and its elected representatives nationally and locally, as well as candidates seeking selection in internal Labour Party contests, may contact you using this information. In order to check you maintain the conditions of Labour Party membership we may also use any information which you have made public, caused others to make public or which is already in the public domain.
To volunteer (pledge your support)
We ask for your contact details, postcode and information on the type of volunteer work you are interested in with your explicit consent. This information helps us identify suitable volunteer opportunities for you within the Party. Your details will be forwarded to the appropriate local or regional party officer who can then contact you.
Donating to the Party
The information we ask for is used to process your donation and, if you donate more than £500, to check that you are on the electoral register which is a legal requirement under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. If you donate more than £1,500 to a Labour Party accounting unit (eg. Constituency Labour Party or the Scottish Labour Party) or more than £7,500 to the Labour Party nationally in the course of a calendar year, your name and the amount of your donation will be reported to the Electoral Commission for publication on their public register of donations to the Labour Party. Donation information will be stored in our membership database and used to keep you informed of Labour news, campaign and other opportunities to support the Party.
Who we share your information with
We will never sell or share your personal information with other organisations for their direct marketing purposes without your explicit consent. We may share your data with third parties to perform services on your behalf and to help promote the Labour Party by serving you advertisements and content online about our politicians, campaigns and policies we think you might be interested in.
Occasionally, in order to complete your request as outlined above, we may need to transfer personal information you submit to us to countries or jurisdictions outside the EEA. In each case, we ensure that our suppliers provide adequate protection for the rights of data individuals in connection the transfer of their personal data. Currently, we expect all suppliers to use the standard contractual clause approved by the European Union or be subject to Privacy Shield scheme in the United States.
Personal information on children
The Labour Party does not knowingly process any personal details from individuals under the age of 14 without parent/guardian consent. Details of under 18s are processed as part of their inclusion in the electoral register in the year they attain voting age, for membership purposes, or for other purposes defined prior to the data being submitted.
How we protect your information
Our website has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. Our servers are located in a locked, secure environment, with a guard posted 24 hours a day. When you contribute online, we use a secure server to protect your credit card number and other personal information during transmission. The details are transmitted through Thawte to ensure absolute security.
IP addresses and log file data:
The Labour Party site does not automatically capture or store personal information, other than logging the user’s IP Address or the location of your computer or network on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. (If you are connected to the Internet you have an IP address, for example, an IP address might read “154.198.99.9”). We also use IP addresses in the aggregate to track which pages people visit in order to improve the quality of the site.
Cookies:
A cookie is a tiny text file that is stored on your computer. The Labour Party may use cookie data, on page website behaviour, and click through data from digital media to personalise your website experience across Labour platforms. We may use cookies – including analytics cookies provided by companies such as Google – in order to tailor your experience on our site according to the preferences you have specified. However, we will only access the information that we stored in your cookie file. We will not access any information stored in a cookie placed by other websites. Our cookies do not contain personally identifiable information, other than your IP address, which itself is only very rarely enough to identify you as an individual. You can find out more in our Cookie Policy.