Mind privacy policy

Here at Mind (National Association for Mental Health), we are committed to protecting your personal information and making every effort to ensure that your personal information is processed in a fair, open and transparent manner.

We are a "data controller" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("Data Protection Law"). This means that we are responsible for the processing of your personal information.

For further information about our privacy practices, please contact our Data Protection Officer by:

Writing to Mind, 2 Redman Place, London E20 1JQ

Calling us on 020 8215 2243

Emailing to [email protected]

Everything we do, we do to ensure that we can help people experiencing a mental health problem get both support and respect. We want to make sure you receive the communications that are most relevant to you, be it through visiting our website or receiving emails, post or phone calls. We want to make sure you receive the best attention when you book on an event, become a member or make a donation.

We collect information from you in the following ways:

When you interact with us directly: This could be if you ask us about our activities, register with us for training or an event, make a donation to us, ask a question about mental health, purchase something, complete a survey providing feedback on our services, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity or otherwise provide us with your personal information. This includes when you phone us, visit our website, make a purchase from our shops, or get in touch through the post, or in person.

When you interact with us through partners or suppliers working on our behalf: This could be if you access a service such as our Infoline which is delivered through a trusted organisation working on our behalf and always under our instruction.

When you interact with us through third parties: This could be if you provide a donation through a third party such as Just Giving or one of the other third parties that we work with.

When you visit our website: We gather general information which might include which pages you visit most often and which services, events or information is of most interest to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We also use "cookies" to help our site run effectively. There are more details below – see 'Cookies'.

We use this information to personalise the way our website is presented when you visit to make improvements and to ensure we provide the best service and experience for you. Wherever possible we use anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our website.

From other information that is available to the public: In order to tailor our communications with you to your background and interests we may collect information about you from publicly available sources or through third party subscription services or service providers (we have provided further details about this below – see 'Profiling: Making our work unique to you').

Personal information

Personal information we collect includes details such as your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number and credit/debit card details (if you are making a purchase or donation), as well as information you provide in any communications between us. You will have given us this information while making a donation, registering for an event, placing an order on our website or any of the other ways to interact with us.

We will mainly use this information:

To process your donations or other payments, to claim Gift Aid on your donations and verify any financial transactions.

To provide the services or goods that you have requested.

To update you with important administrative messages about your donation, an event or services or goods you have requested.

To comply with the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and follow the recommendations of the official regulator of charities, the Charity Commission, which require us to identify and verify the identity of supporters who make major gifts so we can assess any risks associated with accepting their donations.

To keep a record of your relationship with us.

Where you volunteer with us, to administer the volunteering arrangement.

If you do not provide this information, we will not be able to process your donation, sign you up for a particular event or provide goods and services you have requested.

We may also use your personal information:

To contact you about our work and how you can support Mind (see section 8 on 'Marketing' below for further information).

To invite you to participate in surveys or research.

Sensitive Personal Information

Under Data Protection Law, certain personal information is considered more ‘sensitive’ (e.g., information relating to race, religion, political affiliation and health). This Sensitive Personal Information is also known as ‘special category data’. We may collect Sensitive Personal Information in certain circumstances. 

For example, if you share details of your personal experience or the experiences of a friend or relative in relation to mental health, we may also collect this health information. If you provide us with any Sensitive Personal Information by telephone, email or by other means, we will treat that information with extra care and confidentiality and always in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

You can of course decide if you want to remain anonymous, if you are happy to share your personal details with staff members or if you would like us to share your story with the media or other parties as part of our work telling people's personal stories about mental health (for example, on our blog). 

A special note about the Sensitive Personal Information we hold

Data Protection Law recognises that some categories of personal information are more sensitive. Sensitive Personal Information can include information about a person's health, race, ethnic origin, political opinions, sex life, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.

If you contact us at national Mind through our Helplines (such as our Infoline, Legal Line, and our Blue Light Infoline), or Side by Side or in other more general communications with us such as blogs or emails, you may choose to provide details of a sensitive nature.

We will only use this information:

• For the purposes of dealing with your enquiry, training, and quality monitoring or evaluating the services we provide.
• We will not pass on your details to anyone else without your explicit consent except in exceptional circumstances. Examples of this might include anyone reporting serious self-harm or posing a threat to others or children contacting us and sharing serious issues such as physical abuse or exploitation.
• Where you have given us your explicit consent or otherwise clearly indicated to us (for example, if you submit your story through our 'Your Stories' website page) that you are happy for us to share your story, then we may publish it on our blog or in other media. 

Information about Children and Young People

We sometimes receive limited data about children if they decide to fundraise for us, and we will collect data about children for events we organise specifically for young people or where they agree to volunteer for us. Wherever possible, we will ask for consent from parents to collect information about children and young people under the age of 16. If you are under 18, you can find out more information about how we collect and use your personal information in our Young Person’s Privacy Policy here.

We want to improve how we talk to you and the information we provide through our website, services, products and information. To do this we sometimes use profiling and screening methods so that we can better understand our supporters, your preferences and needs to provide a better experience for you. As part of this process, we may create a profile of your interests, preferences and ability to donate. At Mind, our work is only made possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters, so it’s vital that our fundraising efforts are as effective as they can be. By developing a better understanding of our supporters through researching them, including using publicly available sources, we can tailor and target our fundraising events and communications (including volunteering opportunities) to those most likely to be interested in them. This enables us to make appropriate requests to those who may be willing and able to donate more than they already do, or leave a gift in their will, and allows us to be more efficient and cost-effective with our resources and in the way that we raise funds. It also helps to ensure communications are relevant and timely, and reduces the risk of someone receiving information that they might find irrelevant, intrusive, or even distressing, so that we can provide an improved experience for our supporters.  

We may carry out research to identify existing supporters who may be able to donate more to us and/or become ‘major donors’, and undertake targeted fundraising activities using profiling techniques based on the information that we hold about you. We may also work with third party organisations who provide additional insight, this may include providing wealth screening information or general information about you that is publicly available. This information can be appended to the information that you have provided which allows us to use our resources more effectively by better understanding the background of our supporters and making appropriate requests based on what may interest them and their capacity to give. 

We may also use  information that is already in the public domain (information that has been published in print or online) to identify high net worth individuals who may be interested in supporting our work with a major gift. This might also include estimating their gift capacity, based on their visible assets, history of charitable giving and how connected they are to Mind.  

The publicly available sources of information we use include Companies House, the electoral register, the phone book, the Charity Commission’s Register of Charities, Who’s Who, LinkedIn, company annual reports, Land Registry and articles in newspapers and magazines.  

Social media advertising 

You may receive targeted advertisements through our use of social media tools. This will depend on your settings or the privacy policies for the social media platforms. For example, we use Facebook/Meta’s ‘Custom’ and ‘Lookalike Audiences’ programmes, which enable us to display adverts to our existing supporters or other people who have similar interests in organisations like us.  

In order to use these tools, we may provide your data (including your name and email address) to Meta or the relevant social media platforms. This is to check if you have an account and to create a ‘lookalike’ audience so that we can advertise to potential new supporters. Our adverts may then appear when you use the social media platform.  

We work only with social media platforms that provide a facility for secure and encrypted upload of data and immediately delete any records that do not match their own user base. For more information on the social media platforms we use, and to manage your social media ad preferences, please see: 

• Meta Custom Audiences Guides 
• Meta (including Facebook and Instagram) Data Policy 

When we engage with Meta to identify you on their platform and provide you with our adverts, we are joint controllers of your personal information with Meta. Our agreement with Meta sets out our responsibilities to you – for example, we are responsible for informing you about this activity. CP and Meta are both responsible for keeping your information secure. You can exercise your privacy rights with either of us individually.  

We do not collect remarketing data for users who have visited our advice and information pages.  

If you do not want us to use your data for social media advertising you can opt-out by contacting us using the details set out at the top of this Policy. 

You may still see adverts related to us even if you have asked us not to use your information for targeted advertising because the social media platform or advertising network may hold information about you (such as your age, location or websites you have visited) that was not provided by us.  

Data collected by us (such as the fact that you visited a Mind page) may also be shared with Meta via our use of Meta Pixels (though, again, please note that we do not provide Meta with information about visits to pages which may reveal health information). Meta uses this information to display our ads on your social media page and to create ‘lookalike’ audiences as detailed above. For more information about Meta Pixels and how you can opt in or out please see our Cookie Policy. 

You can of course opt out of this profiling and/or social media advertising activity at any time. To do this, email s[email protected] with the subject line 'Please stop analysis of my data' or by contacting our Supporter Services team at Mind, 2 Redman Place, London E20 1JQ, or by phone on 020 8215 2243. 

We will only use personal information when the law allows us to (i.e., where we have a ‘lawful basis’). The lawful bases that we rely on are set out below:  

• In some cases, we will only use your personal information because we need to use it in order to fulfil a contract with you (for example, because you have placed an order on our website).  
• There are other lawful reasons that allow us to process your personal information and one of those is called 'legitimate interests'. This means that the reason that we are processing information is because there is a legitimate interest for Mind (or a third party) to process your information to help us to achieve our vision of ensuring that everyone experiencing a Mental Health problem gets both support and respect. 

Whenever we process your Personal Information under the 'legitimate interest' lawful basis we make sure that we take into account your rights and interests and will not process your personal information if we feel that  our interests are outweighed by your rights and interests. 

Some examples of where we have a legitimate interest to process your Personal information are where we contact you about our work via post (and in some cases via email or text, see the ‘Marketing’ section below), use your personal information for data analytics, conducting research to better understand who our supporters are, improving our services, for our legal purposes (for example, dealing with complaints and claims), or for complying with guidance from the Charity Commission. 

• In some circumstances, we may ask for your consent to use your personal information for a specific purpose. In particular, we may obtain your consent in order to process some of your Sensitive Personal Information. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time by emailing us at [email protected].  

Where we collect and/or otherwise process your Sensitive Personal Information, we will rely on the condition that:  

• We have your consent;   
• We need to process your Sensitive Personal Information because of a substantial public interest (for example for counselling or safeguarding purposes);  
• In very limited circumstances, we need to process your personal data to protect your vital interests.  

Cookies 

When you first visit our website, we will ask for consent to set certain cookies (and to process any personal data collected by these cookies) which are not strictly necessary to make our pages work: you will be able to set your preferences at this stage. Where cookies are strictly necessary, we consider that we have a legitimate interest in processing the personal data they collect and you will not be able to reject the placement of those cookies because they are necessary for our website to run. 

You can always withdraw your consent by ‘managing cookies’ on our website, or by clearing cookies from the cache in your computer and rejecting them next time you visit our site. 

We may also use similar technologies to identify when our emails are opened. This allows us to identify whether our marketing campaigns are effective, and we consider that we have a legitimate interest in doing so. 

For more information about our use of cookies and tags, different types of cookies, the information they collect and further information about how you can control the types of cookies that are placed on your browser, please refer to our Cookies Policy. 

We may contact you about our work and how you can support Mind by phone, email or text message if you have agreed for us to contact you in this manner. 

We might also send you e-mail marketing, newsletters or other communications about topics and events which we think will be of interest to you in other circumstances, including where you have expressed an interest in one or more of our charitable purposes or have offered or are offering support to further one of our charitable purposes (for example where you make a donation to us). In these cases, we will always give you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving these communications at the time that we collect your information. 

If you have provided us with your postal address we may also send you information about our work and how you can support Mind by mail, unless you have told us that you would prefer not to hear from us in that way. 

As part of our marketing, we will send you information about our work and how you can help us to make sure that everyone experiencing a mental health problem receives both support and respect. As well as sharing our latest news, we will contact you about events and fundraising for Mind, our campaigns and the many ways you can shape our work. 

You can update your choices or stop us sending you these communications at any time by contacting [email protected] or clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the relevant communication. Please note that when you update your communication preferences it can take up to 28 days to take effect across all of our systems. 

The personal information we collect about you will mainly be used by our staff (and volunteers) at Mind so that they can support you.

We will never sell or share your personal information with organisations so that they can contact you for any marketing activities. Nor do we sell any information about your web browsing activity.

Mind may however share your information with our trusted partners and suppliers who work with us or on our behalf to deliver our services, but processing of this information is always carried out under our instruction. We make sure that they store the data securely, delete it when they no longer need it and never use it for any other purposes. Some examples of where we may share your information are with our fulfilment partners who help to create and send information to you to reduce our costs, with our partners who help us to process donations and claim Gift Aid and our partners who help us to manage our social media accounts.

We enter into contracts with these service providers that require them to comply with Data Protection Laws and ensure that they have appropriate controls in place to secure your information.

Each local Mind is an independent Charity and affiliated to National Mind through a membership agreement. On occasions we will share your personal information with local Minds to ensure that they are able to provide their services effectively.

Further instances of data sharing  

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law (for example, to comply with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, subpoenas, codes of practice or in response to a valid request from a competent authority); or, in order to enforce our conditions of sale and other agreements. 

We may also share your personal information with the following third parties: 

• with contractors, suppliers, or other third parties that provide services on our behalf (such as website host providers); 
• as part of a sale, merger or acquisition, or other transfer of all or part of our assets; 
• with our professional advisors, lawyers, accountants and auditors; or 
• with your consent or as otherwise disclosed at the time of data collection or sharing. 

International data sharing  

We do not currently transfer personal information we hold to a country outside the UK. If we do so, we will take steps to ensure that your personal information is protected in accordance with appropriate safeguards, especially where the recipient country is not considered to be adequate under UK law. In particular, we will rely on the appropriate safeguards under data protection legislation, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the UK Government to protect your personal information.  

We take looking after your information very seriously. We've implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both on and off-line, from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information using the internet cannot be guaranteed to be completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information sent to us this way, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our site. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Who We Are” section above. 

Our websites may contain links to other sites. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content, or the privacy practices employed by other sites, and we encourage you to read the privacy notices or policies on all such websites. Please be aware that advertisers or Websites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. This privacy statement does not cover the information practices of those websites or advertisers. 

Any debit or credit card details which we receive on our website are passed securely to SagePay our payment processing partner, according to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards. 

We only keep it as long as is reasonable and necessary for the relevant activity, which may be to fulfil statutory obligations (for example, the collection of Gift Aid). The criteria we use to determine the retention period of personal information are: (i) the respective statutory retention period; (ii) our contractual and/or business relationships with you; (iii) (potential) disputes; and (iv) any guidelines issued by relevant regulators. After expiration of the retention period, the relevant information is routinely deleted, as long as it is no longer necessary for the fulfillment of a contract, the initiation of a contract or to protect or defend our position or that of a third party. If you have any questions about our retention periods, please contact us using the details in the “Who We Are” section above.  

You have various rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you – these are set out in more detail below. If you wish to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, you can do so by contacting our Supporter Services team at Mind, 2 Redman Place, London E20 1JQ, by email at [email protected] and by phone on 020 8215 2243. You can also make a complaint to the UK’s data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner's Office, https://ico.org.uk/

• Access to your personal information: You have the right to request access to a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, along with information on what personal information we use, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it for and whether it has been used for any automated decision making. You can make a request for access free of charge. Please make all requests for access in writing and provide us with evidence of your identity.
• Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Please contact us as noted above, providing details of your objection.
• Consent: If you have given us your consent to use personal information (for example, for marketing), you can withdraw your consent at any time.
• Rectification: You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you.
• Erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, or you have withdrawn consent, or where we have no lawful basis for keeping it.
• Portability: You can ask us to provide you or a third party with some of the personal information that we hold about you in a structured, commonly used, electronic form, so it can be easily transferred.
• Restriction: You can ask us to restrict the personal information we use about you where you have asked for it to be erased or where you have objected to our use of it.
• No automated decision making: Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. You have the right not to be subject to automated decisions that will create legal effects or have a similar significant impact on you, unless you have given us your consent, it is necessary for a contract between you and us or is otherwise permitted by law. You also have certain rights to challenge decisions made about you. While we may use artificial intelligence technology internally (or use service providers that use such technology), we do not currently use artificial intelligence in any way which involves carrying out any automated decision-making.

Please note, some of these rights only apply in certain circumstances, where one of your rights does not apply (for example because of exemptions under the Data Protection Law), we will communicate the reason to you.

Your communications with our teams (including by telephone or email) may be monitored and/or recorded for training, quality control and compliance purposes to ensure that we continuously improve our customer service standards.

To find out more about this policy and how we look after your personal information, contact our Supporter Services team at [email protected] or on 020 8215 2243.