Privacy policy

Last updated: September 2026

This privacy notice explains how A Digital Friends collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit our website, contact us, make a referral, receive support from us or apply to volunteer. We have tried to keep it clear and straightforward. If anything is unclear, please ask us.

Who we are

A Digital Friends helps people, especially older people who feel lonely or isolated, to stay connected through regular companionship calls, video calls, practical help with devices, wellbeing check-ins, community connection and a welfare response when a concern arises.

A Digital Friends is the controller of your personal information. This means we decide how and why it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Our address is A Digital Friends, 8D Clifton Road, Kenton, Harrow, HA3 9NS. For questions about this notice or your information, call us on 07443 375387 or use our contact form.

The information we collect

Information you give us

When you use our enquiry, referral or volunteer forms, or contact us by telephone, we may collect:

• your name, email address and telephone number
• your relationship to the person you are referring
• the details you give us about a person you are referring, such as their name, contact details, interests, the best times to call and any concerns about their wellbeing
• the content of any messages, enquiries or volunteer applications you send us
• a record of the consent you give on our forms, including when you gave it

Information about people we support

If you receive support from us, we keep the information we need to arrange and provide it, such as your contact details, when you prefer to be called and notes that help us support you well. This may include information about your health or wellbeing that you, or the person who referred you, choose to share.

Information collected when you visit our website

Like most websites, the servers that host our site record basic technical information, such as IP addresses, browser type and the date and time of visits, to keep the site working and secure.

If you choose to allow analytics cookies, we also collect information about how the site is used, such as the pages visited and the type of device and browser used. We do not use analytics to collect what you type into our forms, referral details or information about anyone’s wellbeing. Our cookie policy explains this in more detail.

Why we use your information and our lawful bases

Data protection law says we must have a valid reason, called a lawful basis, for using personal information. These are the reasons we use it and the lawful bases we rely on.

• Responding to enquiries. When you contact us, we use your details to reply. We rely on our legitimate interests in responding to people who get in touch with us.
• Handling referrals and arranging support. We use referral information to contact the person, understand what they would like, match them with a Digital Friend and provide ongoing support. We rely on our legitimate interests in providing our service to people who want it. Where information about someone’s health or wellbeing is shared, we rely on explicit consent.
• Assessing volunteers. We use volunteer applications to assess suitability and availability, carry out safeguarding checks and match volunteers with the people they will support. We rely on our legitimate interests in recruiting suitable volunteers, and on our legal obligations where they apply.
• Running our service. We keep records, manage our systems, improve our service and keep our website secure. We rely on our legitimate interests in running a safe and effective service.
• Meeting legal obligations. We use and keep information where the law requires us to.
• Safeguarding. If we believe someone is at risk of harm, we may need to use or share information to protect them. Where the law allows, we may do this without consent, for example to protect someone’s vital interests or to safeguard an individual at risk.
• Analytics cookies. We only use optional analytics cookies if you consent to them.

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us. This does not affect anything we did with your information before you withdrew it.

Referrals about someone else

If you refer someone else to us, you must have their agreement before you share their details. Please tell them about the referral and share only what is relevant.

When we first contact the person, we will explain who we are, how we received their details and what happens next. They can choose not to go ahead.

Volunteers

If you apply to volunteer, we use the information in your application to consider your suitability, availability and experience, and to match you with people you could support. Submitting an application does not guarantee a volunteering role.

Enhanced DBS checks are carried out for all staff and volunteers as part of our safeguarding approach. Information from these checks is handled with particular care, used only for safeguarding and recruitment, and seen only by the people who need it.

Who we share information with

We do not sell personal information. We share it only where we need to, with:

• HubSpot, which we use as our customer relationship management system to store and manage enquiries, referrals and volunteer applications. Form submissions are stored in HubSpot’s EU data centre. If you allow analytics cookies, HubSpot also provides our website analytics.
• Our website hosting provider, which runs the servers our website is stored on.

These providers act on our instructions and may only use your information to provide their services to us. Where a provider processes information outside the UK, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, as UK data protection law requires.

With the agreement of the person receiving support, and where appropriate, we may keep the family member or professional who referred them informed. Otherwise, we share information with other organisations or authorities only where it is needed to protect someone from harm or where the law requires it.

Cookies

Our website uses one strictly necessary cookie to remember your cookie choice. Optional analytics cookies are only used if you choose to allow them, and you can change your mind at any time. Our cookie policy explains which cookies we use and how to manage them.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this notice, including meeting any legal obligations. We review the information we hold regularly. When it is no longer needed, we delete it securely or anonymise it so that it no longer identifies anyone.

How we keep information secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration and disclosure. Information is stored using secure systems and reputable service providers, and access is limited to authorised people who need it to do their work.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• access your personal information and receive a copy of it
• rectification, which means asking us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• erasure, which means asking us to delete your information in certain circumstances
• restriction, which means asking us to limit how we use your information in certain circumstances
• objection, which means objecting to us using your information where we rely on our legitimate interests
• portability, which means asking us to give you information you provided in a commonly used format, or to send it to another organisation, in certain circumstances
• withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on your consent

To use any of these rights, call us on 07443 375387 or use our contact form. You do not usually need to pay a fee. We may need to confirm your identity before we act on your request, and we will respond within the time allowed by data protection law, which is usually one month.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first so we can try to put things right.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator. You can contact the ICO at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Links to other websites

Our website includes links to other organisations’ websites. We are not responsible for how those websites handle personal information, so please read their own privacy notices.

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time, for example if we change how we work or the law changes. We will publish any changes on this page and update the date at the top.

Contact us

If you have a question about this notice or how we use your information, call us on 07443 375387, use our contact form or write to us at A Digital Friends, 8D Clifton Road, Kenton, Harrow, HA3 9NS.