Privacy Policy

Lawful bases and data protection rights

Under UK data protection law, we must have a “lawful basis” for collecting and using your personal information. There is a list of possible lawful bases in the UK GDPR. You can find out more about lawful bases on the ICO’s website.

Which lawful basis we rely on may affect your data protection rights which are set out in brief below. You can find out more about your data protection rights and the exemptions which may apply on the ICO’s website:

• Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. You can request other information such as details about where we get personal information from and who we share personal information with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for. Read more about the right of access.
  
  

• Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal information you think is inaccurate or incomplete. Read more about the right to rectification.
  
  

• Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information. Read more about the right to erasure.
  
  

• Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to limit how we can use your personal information. Read more about the right to restriction of processing.
  
  

• Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data. Read more about the right to object to processing.
  
  

• Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you. Read more about the right to data portability.
  
  

• Your right to withdraw consent – When we use consent as our lawful basis you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Read more about the right to withdraw consent.

If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month.

To make a data protection rights request, please contact us using the contact details at the top of this privacy notice.

Our lawful bases for the collection and use of your data

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information for service updates or marketing purposes are:

• Consent. We have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

• Legitimate interests. We are collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
  
  

  • We process contact details and basic engagement data about our supporters (for example, name, email address, country/constituency, which actions you’ve taken on our site) to send service updates (e.g., changes to our tools, platform availability, or policy resources) and campaign updates/marketing (e.g., new calls-to-action, events, petitions, newsletters, and progress of our advocacy). We consider this processing necessary to operate an effective public-interest advocacy campaign against superintelligent AI risks, to mobilise supporters, and to measure which activities are impactful (for example, routing messages to the correct lawmakers). These activities are core to how ControlAI pursues its aims. 
    
    

  • Benefits. Sending concise, relevant updates helps: 
    
    

    • inform supporters about time-sensitive opportunities to contact decision-makers; 
      
      

    • coordinate collective action efficiently; 
      
      

    • keep you informed about changes to our services and materials; 
      
      

    • ensure accountability by reporting impact back to supporters. 

      This communications loop is proportionate and aligned with your reasonable expectations when you sign up to get updates or use our advocacy tools. 
      
      

  • Why is this a legitimate interest? UK-GDPR recognises that direct marketing can be a legitimate interest when balanced against individuals’ rights, and the ICO notes legitimate interests are often appropriate where the impact is low and people would reasonably expect such use. 
    
    

  • Minimisation and safeguards to balance your rights. We collect the minimum data needed for updates (primarily contact details and coarse location/constituency where relevant to an action). We do not sell personal data, and we limit sharing to essential processors (e.g., email or advocacy delivery platforms) under contract. You can opt out of marketing at any time using unsubscribe links, and object to legitimate-interest processing; we maintain suppression lists to respect your choices. 
    
    

  • We apply appropriate security, retention limits, and impact assessments where appropriate. Given these safeguards, we believe our benefits outweigh the limited privacy risks and that our processing for service updates and campaign marketing does not unduly impact your rights and freedoms.

For more information on our use of legitimate interests as a lawful basis you can contact us using the contact details set out above.