Privacy Policy

Last updated: 14 August 2026

1. Who is responsible for your information?

Quirky Crew is the data controller for the personal information covered by this policy.

For privacy questions, requests or complaints, contact:

Please use the subject line Data protection request or Data protection complaint where appropriate.

Quirky Crew respects your privacy and handles personal information carefully. This policy explains what we collect, why we use it, who may receive it, how long we keep it and the rights available to you.

Quirky Crew is a peer-led LGBTQIA+ mental health and wellbeing community. We provide non-clinical community activities for adults aged 18 and over. We are not a therapy, medical or crisis service.

2. What personal information do we collect?

Information you provide through our joining and enquiry form

We may collect:

Your email address
Your preferred name
Your pronouns, if you choose to provide them
Confirmation that you are aged 18 or over
The Quirky Crew activities or services that interest you
The online-social date you are interested in
Accessibility requirements or adjustments you choose to tell us about
Other information included in your message
How you heard about Quirky Crew
Your choice about receiving email updates
Your consent choice concerning optional sensitive information

We ask only for confirmation that you are aged 18 or over. We do not ask for your date of birth, telephone number, emergency contact details, medical records or formal diagnosis through the joining form.

Information from emails and other communications

If you contact us, we may keep your email address, the content of your message and information needed to respond or follow up.

Information from online activities

When you use Zoom or Discord, Quirky Crew organisers, moderators and other participants may see information such as your display name, username, profile image, messages and anything you voluntarily share through audio, video or text.

Your camera and microphone are optional during Quirky Crew Zoom socials, and you may participate through text chat where available.

Website information

When you visit quirkycrew.org, limited technical information may be processed, including:

The page or file requested
The website that referred you
Browser type and version
Operating system and device type
Time of access
An IP address that IONOS says is anonymised directly after transmission
Your website privacy and consent choices

3. Required and optional information

Some joining-form fields are required so that we can confirm eligibility, respond to you and understand what you are contacting us about.

Pronouns, event dates, accessibility information, referral information and additional messages are optional.

There is no legal or contractual requirement to join Quirky Crew or provide optional information. If you do not provide the required contact and eligibility information, we may be unable to process the form, but you can contact us by email instead.

4. Why we use personal information and our lawful bases

We use personal information only where we have a lawful reason.

Legitimate interests

We may rely on our legitimate interests to:

Respond to enquiries
Organise free Quirky Crew activities
Manage participation and community administration
Moderate online spaces
Maintain safety and respond to concerns
Protect our website and accounts
Understand and improve our website and activities

Our legitimate interests are operating a safe, accessible and effective peer-led community. We consider people’s privacy rights and collect only information relevant to these purposes.

Consent

We rely on consent when:

You choose to receive optional email updates
You explicitly consent to our use of optional information about your health, disability, access needs, sexual orientation or gender identity
You activate optional website features such as embedded YouTube videos or website translation

You may withdraw consent at any time by emailing info@quirkycrew.org. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that was lawful before it was withdrawn.

Legal obligations and vital interests

We may use or disclose information where reasonably necessary to:

Comply with data-protection law or another legal obligation
Respond to a valid request from a regulator, court or law-enforcement body
Protect someone’s life or immediate safety in an emergency
Address a serious safeguarding concern where the law permits or requires action

5. Sensitive and special-category information

Joining or contacting an LGBTQIA+ community may reveal information about sexual orientation or gender identity. Accessibility information may reveal information about health or disability. These can be special-category information under UK data-protection law.

We:

Ask you not to provide more sensitive information than is needed
Make relevant questions optional
Obtain explicit consent through the joining form when you choose to provide this information
Use it only to respond to you, arrange appropriate adjustments, support participation or manage safety
Restrict access and do not disclose it outside Quirky Crew without consent unless another lawful condition applies

For members, former members and people in regular contact with us, Quirky Crew may also rely, where applicable, on the special-category condition covering legitimate activities of certain not-for-profit associations, with appropriate safeguards.

We do not use this information to provide a medical diagnosis, clinical assessment or treatment.

6. Who can access or receive your information?

Access is limited according to need.

Only one authorised person—the Quirky Crew Chair—currently has access to Google Form responses and the linked response Sheet.

Event hosts and moderators may see limited information needed to run activities, such as display names, usernames, messages or adjustments communicated for an event. They do not have general access to complete joining-form responses.

We use the following service providers:

Google: Google Forms and Sheets for joining and enquiry responses, and YouTube for embedded video content. See Google’s Privacy Policy.
IONOS: Website hosting, email and webmail, consent controls, SiteAnalytics and website features. See IONOS’s Privacy Policy.
Zoom: Online social meetings. Zoom may process participant, device, usage and content information. See Zoom’s Privacy Statement.
Discord: The Quirky Crew community server. Discord processes account, device, usage and message information under its own terms. See Discord’s Privacy Policy.

We may also disclose information:

With your permission
To emergency services or an appropriate safeguarding body where lawfully necessary
To professional advisers, regulators, courts or law-enforcement bodies where legally required

We do not sell or rent personal information and do not provide joining-form information to advertisers.

7. Online spaces and confidentiality

Information posted in a Zoom meeting or Discord channel may be visible to other participants. Please share only what you are comfortable sharing.

Quirky Crew asks participants not to record, screenshot or share another person’s contribution without permission. However, we cannot guarantee the actions of every participant.

If Quirky Crew ever proposes recording an activity, we will explain this separately beforehand and obtain any consent required.

Safeguarding or serious safety concerns may need to be acted upon and therefore cannot always remain confidential.

8. Cookies, analytics and optional website services

The website uses necessary technology to operate and remember privacy choices.

IONOS SiteAnalytics is used for statistical analysis and technical optimisation. IONOS states that SiteAnalytics:

Uses a pixel or log files rather than analytics cookies
Records information such as requested pages, browser, device and time of access
Anonymises IP addresses directly after transmission
Does not use the information to identify individual visitors

More information is available from IONOS SiteAnalytics guidance.

Optional services shown in the website’s privacy settings include:

Website Translator
YouTube videos
IONOS SiteAnalytics

Where consent is required, optional content or tracking is not activated until you accept it. You can reject optional services and change your choices using the website’s privacy-settings or cookie icon.

You can also control cookies through your browser, although blocking necessary technology may affect website functionality.

9. International data transfers

Google, Zoom, Discord and other technology providers may process information outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States.

Where international transfers occur, we expect providers to use recognised legal safeguards, such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or approved contractual protections. Their privacy notices provide further information about their international-transfer arrangements.

10. How long do we keep information?

We use the following retention schedule:

Closed enquiries where the person does not join: six months after the last meaningful contact
Participant records: while the person is actively involved and for twelve months after leaving or the last meaningful participation or contact
Event-specific accessibility information: thirty days after the event, unless it is needed for ongoing participation
Ongoing accessibility information: while relevant, reviewed at least annually and deleted when no longer required or consent is withdrawn
Email-update details: until consent is withdrawn, the address stops working or the information is no longer needed; the list is reviewed at least every two years
Consent and withdrawal records: for as long as reasonably necessary to demonstrate that we followed data-protection requirements
Safeguarding, complaints or legal records: for longer only where required by law or reasonably necessary because of the nature of the matter

Records due for deletion are reviewed at least every three months.

When information is deleted from active systems, limited copies may remain temporarily in service-provider backups until those backups are overwritten under the provider’s normal schedule.

Anonymous statistical information that can no longer identify anyone may be retained for longer.

11. How do we protect information?

We take proportionate security measures, including:

Limiting access to people who need it
Using password-protected accounts and provider security controls
Keeping form responses within the controlled Quirky Crew Google account
Avoiding unnecessary collection of personal or sensitive information
Reviewing and deleting records that are no longer required
Using established service providers

No internet service is completely risk-free. Please avoid sending highly sensitive medical, financial or identification information that Quirky Crew has not requested.

12. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and lawful basis, you may have the right to:

Ask for a copy of your personal information
Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
Ask us to delete information
Ask us to restrict how information is used
Object to certain processing
Receive information in a portable format where applicable
Withdraw consent at any time
Complain about how we handle your information

Email requests to info@quirkycrew.org. We may need to confirm your identity before disclosing or changing information.

We normally respond within one month. Some rights are not absolute, and we will explain if a lawful exception applies.

13. Your right to object

You have the right to object at any time to the use of your personal information for direct marketing. If you object, we will stop using it for that purpose.

You may also object to processing based on legitimate interests. We will stop unless we can demonstrate compelling lawful grounds for continuing or the information is needed for legal claims.

To object, email info@quirkycrew.org.

14. Data-protection complaints

To make a data-protection complaint, email info@quirkycrew.org with the subject line Data protection complaint.

We will:

Provide a clear way for you to raise the complaint
Acknowledge it within thirty days
Investigate it appropriately
Tell you the outcome and any action taken

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Make a complaint to the ICO

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Address:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

15. Automated decisions

Quirky Crew does not use personal information for solely automated decisions or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our activities, service providers or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on this page with a revised “last updated” date.

If a change materially affects how we use information already provided to us, we will take reasonable steps to explain the change.