Privacy Policy

Last updated: 19 October 2026

1. Introduction

Welcome to North East LinkUp Portal (“we,” “our,” “us”). We are committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you visit linkupportal.northeast-ca.gov.uk.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following types of data:

Personal Information

  • Name

  • Email address

  • Phone number

  • Profile picture, if you upload one

  • The organisation you belong to

Your name and phone number are encrypted in our database, so they cannot be read by anyone with access to the raw data.

Your activity on the site

  • Events you have been matched to, said you would attend, or attended

  • Anything you have posted on the message board

  • Feedback you have submitted

  • A record of emails we have sent you, and of actions taken on your account

Technical data

  • Your IP address, recorded when you sign in or out, and if you submit feedback

  • Your browser’s identification string, if you submit feedback or set your cookie preferences

We do not track which pages you visit, how long you spend on them, or your device or time zone settings. If this site has been set up with third-party analytics, section 7 and the cookie banner explain what those collect.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience. See Section 7 for more details.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your data to:

  • Provide and maintain our website

  • Communicate with you about events, matches, your account and support requests

  • Improve our website and services

  • Comply with legal obligations

4. Legal Basis for Processing (UK/EU Users)

We process your personal data under the following legal bases:

  • Performance of a contract. Holding your account details and your activity on the site is what providing the service requires. Without them we cannot match you to events or tell you about them.

  • Legitimate interests. We keep an audit trail of actions taken on the site, and a record of emails sent, so that we can investigate problems and account for what happened. Section 6 explains how long those records last.

  • Legal obligations, where the law requires us to keep or disclose something.

We do not rely on consent for any of the processing described above, so there is no consent for you to withdraw. Emails about events you are taking part in are part of the service rather than marketing, although you can choose which of them you receive from your notification preferences. Cookies are the exception and are handled separately - see section 7.

5. Sharing Your Information

We may share your data with:

  • Service providers (e.g., hosting, payment processors)

  • Legal authorities when required

  • Business partners (only where necessary)

We do not sell your personal data.

6. Data Retention

We keep your personal data only as long as we need it.

Your account. If you do not sign in for a year, your account is closed automatically. We email you several times before that happens - eight weeks, four weeks and one week beforehand - and signing in at any point keeps your account open and starts the year again.

When an account closes, whether automatically or because you asked us to, we remove your name, email address, phone number and profile picture. These cannot be recovered, and you will not be able to sign in again. Records of what you did - which events you attended, what you posted, feedback you gave - are kept so that the organisations you worked with keep an accurate account of their own events, but they can no longer be linked to you and appear as “Deleted User”.

Our activity and email logs are different. They record actions taken on the site, and they keep your name for one year from the date of the action - including after your account has closed. We rely on legitimate interests for this: without it the record of a closure cannot say whose account was closed, and an audit trail that cannot answer that is no use. After a year those entries are deleted automatically.

Backups. Removing your details from our live systems happens immediately. Our backups cannot be edited, so a copy of your data may remain in them for up to two years, after which the backup itself is destroyed. Backups are only ever used to restore the service after a failure, and if one is ever restored we re-apply every closure that happened afterwards.

7. Cookies

We use cookies to:

  • Enable website functionality

  • Analyse traffic and usage

  • Personalise content

You can manage or disable cookies through the cookie consent widget.

For more information on cookies, see our Cookie Policy.

8. Your Data Protection Rights

If you are in the UK or EU you have the following rights, and some of them you can exercise yourself without asking us:

  • Access your personal data. Sign in and go to My Account › My Data, where you can download everything we hold about you as a single file, or have it emailed to you. Copies stay available for 30 days.

  • Have your data erased. The same page lets you close your account yourself. Section 6 explains exactly what that removes and what is kept.

  • Correct your data. You can change your details from your profile, or ask us.

  • Object to or restrict processing. Contact us using the details in section 13.

  • Lodge a complaint with a data protection authority, such as the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

Where your data is held on behalf of an organisation using this site, we will pass your request on to them if it is theirs to answer.

9. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data. Your name and phone number are encrypted in the database, access to the administration area is restricted and can require two-factor authentication, and actions taken on accounts are logged. However, no system is completely secure.

10. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for their privacy practices.

11. Children’s Privacy

Our website is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at:

14. Data Processor

North East LinkUp Portal uses Huddle, operated by Hush Digital Ltd, to process personal data. Hush acts as a data processor. For queries regarding data processing, contact: