Connecting the Connected — Privacy Notice
Version: 1.13
Last updated: 12 October 2026
1. Who we are and how to contact us
1.1 Connecting the Connected (CTC) is operated by THE YARD (MANCHESTER) LTD, company number 02957706, registered office 11 Bent Street, Manchester, England, M8 8NF. The company is the controller of the personal information described in this notice. Contact us at contact@connectingtheconnected.com.
1.2 CTC is a private, invitation-only network for creative professionals, at connectingtheconnected.com.
1.3 You can write to contact@connectingtheconnected.com with a question about your information, to make a request about it, to ask to end your membership, or to complain about how we handle your information. You do not need to be a member or to sign in. That mailbox is read by the person who runs CTC. Replies currently come from a personal email address of that person, because CTC cannot yet send email from contact@connectingtheconnected.com.
1.4 If you have a CTC account but can no longer use the network, the page you see after signing in has a contact form that reaches us.
2. Not used in this version
3. What we use your information for, and why we are allowed to
3.0 The table sets out each purpose, the information used, the lawful basis we rely on under UK data protection law, and how long we keep the information. Where a period has been decided but nothing yet deletes the information when it ends, the table says so.
| Ref | Purpose | Information used | Lawful basis | How long we keep it today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3a | Deciding who is admitted to CTC | The email address you were invited at; the address you used to accept the invitation; which administrator invited you; which administrator accepted or declined your membership; and the dates of each | Legitimate interests: administering CTC's invitation and admission process | An invitation that was not accepted: 90 days after it expires or is cancelled. A spent invitation code and duplicate invitation details: 90 days after admission. The minimal record of your admission: during your membership and 12 months after it ends. A declined application: 6 months after the decision or any review of it. CTC has decided these periods. Nothing deletes these records automatically yet, and the route for deleting them by hand is not yet authorised |
| 3b | Sending you an invitation | Your email address and your invitation code | Legitimate interests (as 3a). CTC sends invitations only to people who have asked for one themselves (5.1) | As 3a |
| 3c | Remembering not to invite you again, if you ask us not to | Your email address, what you asked us to stop, how your request reached us, and the date. If we have recorded a request from you to be invited (3o), we also record in CTC's database when we entered your objection, against each request recorded for your address | Legal obligation, where your request is an objection to direct marketing. Otherwise, legitimate interests: not inviting people who have asked us not to | Kept with your message in the mailboxes in section 7 for as long as CTC could still send you an invitation, and reviewed at each monthly review. It is deleted if CTC stops sending invitations, or if you ask us in writing to delete it; CTC has decided this. It is deleted by hand at the monthly review; this is not automatic, and the first monthly review has not yet been held. When your objection is recorded in CTC's database, CTC has decided the same period for that record. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised. A record like this is needed for as long as CTC could still invite you, because deleting it would let an invitation reach you again. Where it records an objection to direct marketing, we may need to keep the minimum details needed to honour that objection. Asking us to delete the record is not a request for an invitation; we would invite you again only if you asked for one yourself (5.1). |
| 3d | Running your membership and your profile | Your first and last name; city and country; biography; availability; the disciplines, roles, specialisms, skills, services and tools you list; a record of the entries you have removed from that list; your membership status; and an older free-text location field from an earlier version of CTC | Legitimate interests: running a private professional network in which members can present themselves and find one another | Kept during your membership. After it ends, the contents of your profile are removed within 90 days, and a bare record with no contents is kept only while another record we keep depends on it. CTC has decided this period. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised. Older records: see 8.2 |
| 3e | Letting members find one another | The profile information in 3d, shown in the member directory and on your profile page | Legitimate interests (as 3d) | Shown only while your membership is current |
| 3f | Connections and private messages | Connection requests and the note sent with them; whether a connection was accepted, declined or removed, when, and which of you removed it; message content and when each message was sent; whether and when you deleted one of your own messages; when you last read each conversation | Legitimate interests (as 3d) | A connection that was removed: 90 days after it was removed. Messages while both of you are members: no fixed period; the rule is reviewed at each review of our retention schedule. Messages after either of you leaves CTC: 12 months after that, longer only where a documented case needs particular messages. When you last read each conversation, and our record of the unread-message emails sent to you: 90 days after your membership ends. CTC has decided these periods. Nothing deletes these records automatically yet, and the route for deleting them by hand is not yet authorised. A former member's connections that were never removed: 12 months after their membership ends. A message you delete yourself: while you are a member, you can delete one of your own messages, after a confirm step. Its text is removed from CTC's database at once, and this cannot be undone. The message stays in its place in the conversation, with its sender and the time it was sent: the other person sees "Message deleted" and you see "You deleted this message". The time you deleted it is kept with it; CTC sends that time to both of your devices, although the screen does not show it. Deleting a message cannot reach what the other person has already read, copied or kept. A screen they already have open can go on showing the words until it loads that part of the conversation again. The words stay in database backups until those backups expire (8.8). CTC has no control for you to delete the note you sent with a connection request |
| 3g | Posts, comments, reactions, images and groups | What you write and upload; your reactions; the groups you own or belong to and your role in them; your requests to join groups; invitations to join a group; and a record of changes to a group's visibility and ownership | Legitimate interests (as 3d) | While you are a member: posts and comments until you delete them or an administrator removes them (8.6), and everything else for as long as the post, group or membership it belongs to exists. After your membership ends: your posts, comments, reactions and images, and your memberships of groups, 90 days after it ends; groups you own, see 8.4. Requests to join a group and invitations to join one: 90 days after they are answered or expire (today they do not expire). The record of changes to a group's setting and ownership: 12 months. CTC has decided these periods. Nothing deletes these records automatically yet, and the route for deleting them by hand is not yet authorised |
| 3h | A former member's content: hiding it from other members, and who can still see it | The posts, comments, reactions and images in 3g; the groups the former member owns; their memberships of groups; the records of changes to a group's setting and ownership that they made or that name them; their requests and invitations to join groups; and the notifications their activity created. Other members cannot newly load these records through CTC. An image link issued earlier can work for up to 15 minutes, and an open page keeps what it has loaded until it loads again. Administrators can still see the records other than notifications, within the access limits in 8.4. | None for showing this content to other members: since the change in 8.4 was made, it is no longer shown to them, and we no longer rely on legitimate interests to show it to them | None is shown today: no membership has ended after approval (8.4). Hiding deletes nothing: the content is kept as 3g says |
| 3i | Telling you, inside CTC, what has happened | Notifications about activity that concerns you, and whether and when you opened each one in CTC. This is a record kept inside CTC, not tracking of any email | Legitimate interests (as 3d) | 90 days after it is created. CTC has decided this period. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised |
| 3j | Emails about your account and activity | Your email address, and the content of each email. Sign-in codes, so that you can sign in. The acceptance email, telling you your membership has been accepted. The connection-request email, sent when a member asks to connect with you: it names that member and links to CTC, so that you can answer. The unread-message email: a count, a link to CTC and a link to stop these emails, and nothing else | Legitimate interests: for sign-in codes and the acceptance email, as 3d and 3k; for the connection-request and unread-message emails, telling members about activity on their own account, with no promotional content | Resend, which sends our email, keeps email and log data, including each email's content, for 30 days, and deletes remaining data within 90 days of an account being closed (https://resend.com/security/gdpr). Resend's backups are kept for 7 days (the same page) |
| 3k | Signing you in | Your email address; a one-time code sent to it; when you last signed in; and your sign-in session | Legitimate interests: keeping members' accounts secure and letting them sign in | Your session ends after 90 days without use, when you sign out, or when it is revoked; a session in active use has no fixed end. CTC has decided that a former member's sessions are to be revoked at departure. No route to do this exists yet; a build is being proposed, not authorised. Sign-in records stored inside our own database: 90 days, unless kept for a named security incident. Your sign-in account: 12 months after your membership ends, with the message period in 3f. CTC has decided these periods. Nothing deletes these records automatically yet, and the route for deleting them by hand is not yet authorised |
| 3l | Keeping CTC secure and preventing misuse | Request logs kept by our hosting providers, including IP addresses; our sign-in provider's authentication logs; CTC's own application logs, which carry fixed labels, a post identifier and counts; and a record used to limit how often the contact form can be sent | Legitimate interests: keeping CTC's systems and members' accounts secure, and preventing misuse. Not for any other monitoring | API and database logs are kept by Supabase for 7 days on our plan (https://supabase.com/pricing); sign-in records stored inside our own database are kept as 3k says. Vercel keeps runtime logs for 1 day on the standard Pro plan, which CTC uses (https://vercel.com/docs/logs/runtime); that figure is for runtime logs, and we have not yet checked how long Vercel keeps request logs. The contact-form limit is kept only in the server's memory and lapses after one minute |
| 3m | Moderation and conduct reports | Records of an administrator removing someone else's post, comment or group, or removing a member from a group: who removed what, whose it was, and when, but not the removed text; and conduct reports, our assessment, the outcome and any review. A conduct report sent by email reaches the person who runs CTC in his own mailbox, through a forwarding service (7d and 7e); CTC has no business mailbox. Two-step sign-in protects both that mailbox and the forwarding service account | Legitimate interests: handling conduct reports and reviews fairly, and preventing misuse. Legal obligation only where the processing is necessary for a specific legal duty that applies to CTC. Sensitive information in a report: see 3.7 | Records of an administrator removing content or a member: 12 months; CTC has decided this period, but nothing deletes these records automatically yet, and the route for deleting them by hand is not yet authorised. Conduct cases: up to 2 years after the case is finally closed, as a maximum reviewed when it closes; a case that does not need that long is deleted sooner. Conduct-case records are deleted by hand at the monthly review; this is not automatic, and the first monthly review has not yet been held |
| 3n | Handling your data-protection rights requests and complaints | Your request or complaint, our correspondence with you, and what we did | Legal obligation: UK data protection law | The record of your request: 12 months after the request is closed. It is deleted by hand at the monthly review; this is not automatic, and the first monthly review has not yet been held. The working copy of the information prepared for you, any evidence of your identity, and the copy in our sent mail of the email that sent it to you: CTC has decided these are deleted by hand when our response is sent; this is not automatic. Our email providers keep their own copies, which are separate (8.8) |
| 3o | Answering other messages you send us, including requests to join | Your email address, your name, and what you wrote. Through the contact form, also the category you chose, the page you were on and your screen size. If you ask to be invited, an administrator records your request in CTC's database, and CTC cannot issue an invitation to an address until a request for it is recorded. The record holds your email address, the date you asked, how you asked (by email, through the contact form, by the "Ask to be admitted" email, or in person), your own words or where your message is kept, which administrator recorded it and when, the time of the most recent objection entered against that request (3c). Any invitation issued on your request is linked to it | Legitimate interests: responding to enquiries and administering CTC | Other messages: 12 months after the enquiry closes. A request to join that was refused: 6 months after the refusal. A request to join that led to an invitation: CTC has decided to delete the email once your request is recorded in CTC's database. These messages are kept in the mailboxes in section 7 and are deleted by hand at the monthly review; this is not automatic, and the first monthly review has not yet been held. The record of your request in CTC's database: if it led to an invitation you accepted, kept with the record of your admission (3a), during your membership and 12 months after it ends; if it led to an invitation that was not accepted, 90 days after that invitation expires or is cancelled; if it was never used for an invitation, 6 months after it was recorded; if it was closed by your objection, as 3c. For a request that led to an invitation and was later closed by an objection, the objection's rule in 3c takes precedence. CTC has decided the periods above, including this overlap. Nothing deletes these records automatically yet, and the route for deleting them by hand is not yet authorised |
| 3p | Recording that you accepted CTC's membership terms | Which version of the terms you accepted, and when. CTC records the time itself. Administrators can see these records. CTC asks you to accept the current version of the membership terms in CTC, and asks again when the current version changes | Contract: the record is necessary for your membership contract with CTC (the membership terms) | During your membership and 12 months after it ends. CTC has decided this period. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised |
| 3q | Recording your choice about sensitive information you share about yourself (3.7) | Each choice you make: that you give, decline or withdraw your consent; which published wording version is linked to the record; where you made the choice (the first-use screen, your profile page, or an email to us); who recorded it; and when. A choice is never changed: a later choice is added as a new record. Administrators can see these records, and record a withdrawal you send us by email. The screens that ask for and record your choice are switched on (3.7). You may withdraw your consent at any time by emailing contact@connectingtheconnected.com. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal. | Legal obligation: we need the record to be able to show that consent was given | While your account exists and any content your consent covers is still held, then deleted with your account. CTC has decided this period. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised |
| 3r | Records of the administrator removal tool (3.7) | The member concerned; the kind of content; the post, comment or group where applicable; the action and whether the record was made before image-file deletion or when the change was applied; the number of post images involved; a fixed reason code and case reference; which administrator acted; and when. A post with images can have a preliminary record that does not prove deletion completed. An action covering all messages or all connection-request notes has one record even if there was nothing to remove; it names no individual message or note and gives no count. No removed text or free-text reason is stored. Administrators can see these records. CTC has created the database table, and the tool is switched on. | Legitimate interests: showing what was removed, when and why | 12 months after the action, including after the content it describes is gone. If the action is part of a conduct case or a request to delete information, the record is kept as that case or request is (3m, 3n). CTC has decided this period. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised |
3.1 Where the table identifies legitimate interests as our lawful basis, our interests are administering CTC's invitation and admission process; running a private professional network in which members can present themselves, find one another and work together; keeping CTC's systems and members' accounts secure and preventing misuse; handling conduct reports and reviews fairly; showing what was removed with the administrator removal tool, when and why (3r); telling members about activity on their own account; and responding to enquiries. We use personal information for those purposes only where necessary and where our interests are not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms.
3.2 CTC's membership terms take effect on 12 October 2026. We rely on them, as a contract with you, for one record: the record that you accepted them (3p). For running your membership, we still rely on legitimate interests, not on a contract with you, as the table says. We have not yet reassessed the lawful basis for running memberships now that the terms are in place; we will do so, and update this notice if it changes.
3.3 Where the table says legal obligation, we need the information to meet a duty in law: handling your data-protection rights and complaints under UK data protection law, being able to show that you gave your consent to sensitive information about yourself (3q), respecting an objection to direct marketing, and any specific duty under the Online Safety Act 2023 that applies to CTC.
3.4 Consent: see 3.7.
3.5 You may object to processing based on legitimate interests by emailing contact@connectingtheconnected.com. We will consider your objection and reply within one month. If we have no applicable legal justification to continue, we must stop. You have an absolute right to object to direct marketing, including further invitations (5.3). Connection-request emails cannot yet be switched off individually.
3.6 Where the information comes from. Most of it comes from you. If you asked for an invitation, the email address you were invited at comes from your request. Members cannot invite anyone to join CTC. Other members supply some information about you when they send you a connection request or a message, or invite you to a group. CTC records dates and times itself.
3.7 Sensitive information. CTC does not ask for information about health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, trade union membership, sex life or sexual orientation, genetic or biometric data, or criminal allegations or offences, and has no field for any of them. Anything you write in free text can still contain it, about you or about someone else, and whoever can see that content can see it (section 4). CTC asks for your explicit consent for sensitive information you choose to share about yourself, and your explicit consent is the legal condition we rely on for it. CTC asks the first time you start to write a post, comment, message or connection-request note, or to create a group. While you can access your profile, you can withdraw consent there. After declining or withdrawing, you can choose again there. You may also withdraw by emailing us at any time. You do not have to agree, and either answer lets you use CTC as normal; if you do not agree, we ask you not to share such information. You can agree only for information about yourself, never for anyone else. If you ask us to remove it, or it is reported to us, the person who runs CTC removes it where a way to do so exists: he can remove a whole post or comment, and edit a group's name or description, but cannot yet remove or edit a profile field or part of a post or comment, or remove a group, and he can remove private messages and connection-request notes only with the removal tool, as described below. A removal tool has been built and switched on, and its records are in CTC's database (3r). The tool can act for one named member at a time. An administrator can remove a post or comment that member wrote, or replace its text with "Removed by an administrator." A post with another member's comment or reaction can only be replaced, and replacing a post removes its images. An action involving post images can be refused if the files cannot be safely deleted. An administrator can replace the name, or remove or replace the description, of a group the member currently owns, whether or not that member wrote the text. For a request to delete that member's information or a withdrawal of consent, the tool can remove all messages they sent or all notes on connection requests they made, but not one selected message or note. A completed change requires a fixed reason and a case reference and is recorded (3r). The tool cannot remove or edit a profile field, part of a post or comment, or an entire group; it cannot target another person's posts, comments, messages or notes. You can edit your own profile and posts, and delete your own posts and comments. For such information in a report or complaint, the conditions we propose to rely on are those for legal claims, and for preventing or detecting unlawful acts and safeguarding, where they apply. For information about criminal allegations or offences in a conduct report, we propose to rely on paragraph 10 of Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 only where processing is necessary to prevent or detect an unlawful act, must take place without the person's consent so that purpose is not prejudiced, and is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. These conditions are proposed, not yet settled (section 13). For sensitive information that members share about other people, see section 13.
3.8 CTC makes no decision about you based solely on automated processing that has legal or similarly significant effects on you. An administrator decides on each membership.
3.9 CTC is for people aged 18 or over. CTC does not ask for identity documents or your date of birth. Where our website shows an "Ask to be admitted" button, the email it prepares in your own email app includes a line asking you to confirm that you are 18 or over. The membership terms also say that members must be 18 or over, and every member is asked to accept them (3p).
3.10 To be a member you must give an email address, which you use to sign in, and your first and last name, which other members see. Everything else in your profile is optional. Whether you post, comment, react, connect, message or join groups is up to you.
4. Who can see what
4.1 Three kinds of access exist, and this notice keeps them apart:
- Other members: people whose CTC membership is current.
- Administrators: CTC members who hold an administrative role, acting through CTC itself.
- Operational access: the people who run the service and the companies that host it.
4.2 Who can see each kind of information:
| Ref | Information | Other members | Administrators | Operational |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4a | Your name, city, country, biography, availability and creative identity, and the "All CTC members" groups you belong to or own. If you have set no city or country, the older free-text location field from an earlier version of CTC is shown in their place | Every current member, while your membership is current. You cannot currently hide your profile from other members | Yes | Yes |
| 4b | Your account email address | No | Yes | Yes |
| 4c | Your membership status | No | Yes | Yes |
| 4d | A post that is not in a group | Every current member | Yes | Yes |
| 4e | A post in a group | The rule is fixed when the post is made. If the group was set to "All CTC members" at that moment: every current member. If it was set to "Members only": that group's owner and members. A later change to the group's setting does not change the rule for posts already made. Who the rule covers still changes: people gain or lose access as they join or leave the group, or as their CTC membership begins or ends | Yes | Yes |
| 4f | Comments, reactions and images on a post | The same people who can see the post | Yes | Yes |
| 4g | A group's name, description, setting, owner and number of members | Every current member, including for "Members only" groups | Yes | Yes |
| 4h | Who belongs to a group and their role, and the record of changes to the group's setting and ownership | That group's owner and members. For groups set to "All CTC members", every current member can also see on your profile page which of those groups you belong to or own | Yes | Yes |
| 4i | Your requests to join a group, and invitations for you to join one | You, and that group's owner and group administrators | Only if they own or administer that group | Yes |
| 4j | Private messages | You and the other person in the conversation | No | Yes: see 4.3 |
| 4k | When you last read a conversation | You alone | No | Yes |
| 4l | The entries you have removed from your creative identity | No | No | Yes |
| 4m | A connection request, its note, and which of you removed a connection | You and the other person | No | Yes |
| 4n | Invitations, and the record of who accepted or declined each membership | No | Invitations: yes. The record of decisions: not through CTC | Yes |
| 4o | Records of an administrator removing someone else's post, comment or group, or removing a member from a group | No | Yes | Yes |
4.3 About private messages. Apart from the other participant, no member can read your messages, and administrators have no route to them through CTC. This is enforced by the database rather than by the website. Your messages are not end-to-end encrypted: the people who operate the service can read message content directly, and it is present in database backups.
4.4 Your account email address is not shown to other members. What you write is shown to the audience of the place you write it, as the table in 4.2 sets out. When someone asks to connect with you, CTC emails you, and your address is not shown to them.
4.5 Photographs. The server rebuilds each image you upload from its pixels, which removes any location, camera and date information embedded in it, and only the rebuilt image is stored. Stored images are shown through links that are valid for 15 minutes. A link already issued to a member keeps working until it expires, even if that member's access changes.
5. Invitations, and if you were invited but have not joined
5.1 An administrator decides whom to invite, and CTC sends invitations only to people who have asked for one themselves: a nomination by another member is not a request. The invitation email tells you that you have been invited, describes CTC in one sentence, and gives your invitation code, how to use it and when it expires.
5.2 If you were invited and have not accepted, we hold the email address you were invited at, which administrator invited you, and when. It is kept for 90 days after the invitation expires or is cancelled. CTC has decided this period. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised.
5.3 You can ask us not to invite you again by emailing contact@connectingtheconnected.com. You do not need an account or to give a reason. We will reply within one month. If we have recorded a request from you to be invited (3o), we record your objection in CTC's database, and CTC cannot then issue you an invitation until a new request from you, made on or after the day of your objection, is recorded. If no request from you is recorded, CTC cannot issue you an invitation in any case, and we keep your objection by hand (3c). Recording an objection does not cancel an invitation already sent to you: an administrator has to cancel that separately.
6. Where your information is held
6.1
| Ref | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 6a | The database, sign-in, and all stored images | United Kingdom (London) |
| 6b | CTC's server-side code | United Kingdom (London). Static files, such as the website's styling and scripts, are delivered through our hosting provider's worldwide network |
| 6c | Database backups | United Kingdom, in the same region as the database |
| 6d | Email we send you | Resend sends it from its Tokyo region, and stores all customer data, including message content, in the United States, whatever the sending region (https://resend.com/security/gdpr) |
| 6e | Email you send us | Forwarded by ImprovMX to a personal Microsoft (Hotmail/Outlook) consumer mailbox. ImprovMX stores inbound email briefly in France and delivers it onward through France and the United States (https://improvmx.com/transparency/gdpr-compliance). Microsoft does not guarantee that a consumer mailbox is stored in the United Kingdom |
| 6f | Our replies to you | Sent from a personal Google (Gmail) consumer mailbox. Google does not guarantee that a consumer mailbox is stored in the United Kingdom |
Storing CTC's database in London does not mean your information stays in the United Kingdom: the companies in section 7 can process it elsewhere, as 6.2 sets out.
6.2 For each company, whether it has a processing agreement with CTC, and the safeguard for transfers of your information outside the United Kingdom, are separate questions:
| Who | Processing agreement | Transfer safeguard |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (Supabase Pte. Ltd., Singapore) | Yes: its data processing agreement applies automatically (https://supabase.com/legal/dpa) | EU standard contractual clauses with the UK Addendum, in that agreement |
| Vercel (Vercel Inc., United States) | Yes: its data processing agreement applies automatically (https://vercel.com/legal/dpa) | The UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, and the 2021 standard contractual clauses, in that agreement |
| Resend (United States) | Yes: its data processing agreement applies automatically (https://resend.com/legal/dpa) | The standard contractual clauses as amended by the UK Addendum, and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, in that agreement |
| ImprovMX (United States) | No. It offers one only on its paid plans, and CTC uses its free plan | Not yet assessed |
| Microsoft (the consumer mailbox in 7e) | No: a personal consumer account | Not yet assessed |
| Google (the consumer mailbox in 7f) | No: a personal consumer account | Not yet assessed |
7. Who else is involved
7.1 These companies handle information for CTC.
| Ref | Who | What they do | What reaches them |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7a | Supabase | Database, sign-in and file storage | Everything in this notice that is stored in CTC, and request information, including IP addresses |
| 7b | Vercel | Hosting | All traffic to CTC, each uploaded image while it is rebuilt, CTC's application logs, and request logs that include IP addresses |
| 7c | Resend | Sending email | Your email address and the content of each email CTC sends you, and anything you send us through the contact form, with your name. Open and click tracking is not switched on |
| 7d | ImprovMX | Forwarding email sent to CTC's addresses to the mailbox in 7e | Anything you write to us |
| 7e | Microsoft | The consumer mailbox that receives CTC's email, a personal mailbox of the person who runs CTC | Anything you write to us |
| 7f | The consumer mailbox from which the person who runs CTC sends replies | Our replies to you, and anything quoted in them |
8. How long we keep things, and what happens when a membership ends
8.1 Section 3 says how long each record is kept. CTC has decided a period for each, but most are not yet applied. Apart from the records in 8.2, nothing deletes records from CTC's database automatically, and the route for deleting them by hand is not yet authorised. Records in our mailboxes are deleted by hand at the monthly review; this is not automatic, and the first monthly review has not yet been held.
8.2 Two older kinds of record are still held: a free-text location field from an earlier version of CTC, which is still shown on a profile with no city or country, and the record of creative-identity entries members have removed. A removed entry is deleted by a monthly job at the first run more than 24 months after it was removed. We have decided to delete both kinds of record, and that has not yet been done. No date has yet been set for doing it; until then, the monthly job goes on deleting removed entries 24 months after their removal.
8.3 There is no button to close your own account. To ask to end your membership, email contact@connectingtheconnected.com. What happens when a membership ends is set out in 8.4. Ending your membership is not the same as deleting your information: see 8.5.
8.4 No membership has ended after approval, so no former member's content is shown today. The change that hides a former member's content from other members is in place. This is what happens when a membership ends:
- Straight away, the former member's profile, directory entry and creative identity stop being shown to other members. Someone who is signed out cannot load the former member's information afresh through CTC. An image link already issued can keep working for up to 15 minutes, and an open page keeps information it has loaded until it loads again (4.5).
- Hidden from other members, straight away: the former member's posts, with their images and with every comment and reaction on them, including other members'; their comments and reactions on other members' posts; their memberships of groups; the records of changes to a group's setting and ownership that they made or that name them; their requests to join groups; invitations to join a group that they sent or received; and the notifications their activity created. A group's member count still counts them.
- Groups the former member owns are hidden from every other member, including the group's own members. CTC intends that, within 90 days, ownership of such a group passes to a current member or the group is deleted. Neither can be done yet: the ways to do them have not been built, so this is an intention, not something we can promise. Hiding does not transfer or delete the group. A separate deletion of the former member's account can also delete a group they own. Hiding the group does not itself hide posts by current members in it or their membership records.
- Administrators can still see the other hidden records through CTC. Notifications caused by the former member are hidden from their recipients, including administrators; administrators cannot read another person's notifications through CTC. As with any group, an administrator sees requests and invitations to join a group only as 4i says.
- Two limits. An image link already issued to a member keeps working for up to 15 minutes (4.5). A page a member already has open keeps showing what it had loaded until it loads again.
- Messages and connections are not hidden. The former member can no longer read their conversations. The other person keeps the full message history and the record of the connection. Both still carry the former member's internal account identifier, which CTC sends to that person's device.
- Nothing is deleted by hiding. If the membership is restored, everything hidden is shown again. CTC has decided how long a former member's information is kept after the membership ends (section 3): for example, 90 days for their profile contents, posts, comments, reactions, images and memberships of groups, and 12 months for their messages and sign-in account. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised. To ask for deletion, see 8.5.
8.5 Requests to delete your information. Email contact@connectingtheconnected.com, or use the contact form described in 1.4. Each request is handled individually by the person who runs CTC. Each deletion is prepared and checked before anything is deleted. The request is completed within one month of receiving it; if the law allows more time because a request is complex or you have made several, we will tell you within that month and explain why. When it is complete, we tell you what was deleted and what, if anything, is kept and why. If we refuse any part of your request, we will tell you why, that you can complain to the Information Commission, and that you can also ask a court to enforce your rights (a judicial remedy).
8.6 What you can delete yourself. If you delete one of your own posts, the post, its images, its comments and its reactions are deleted, and the image files are removed from storage. Deleting one of your comments removes it. While you are a member, you can also delete one of your own messages: its text is removed. The other person sees "Message deleted" in its place, and you see "You deleted this message" (3f).
8.7 Removing a connection does not erase it at once. The record, including the note sent with the original request, is kept for 90 days after the connection is removed. CTC has decided this period. Nothing deletes it automatically yet, and the route for deleting it by hand is not yet authorised. Both of you can still read your message history.
8.8 Backups and copies. The database is backed up daily, and Supabase keeps daily backups that can be restored from for the last 7 days (https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/backups), so information that has been deleted can remain in a backup for that time. Image files are not in these backups. CTC keeps no copy of stored images outside CTC's storage, apart from a temporary copy of your own images made to answer a request for a copy of your information, deleted once it has been sent to you. Anyone who could see an image on CTC could have saved their own copy; such copies are not controlled by CTC. Emails we have sent stay in our sent mail, and our email providers keep their own copies (sections 6 and 7); these are separate, and deleting information from CTC or deleting a working copy does not delete them.
9. Your rights
9.1 Under UK data protection law you can ask us for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, ask us to restrict how we use it, object to how we use it, and ask for a copy of the information you gave us in a portable format. Section 3.5 explains your right to object. Each right applies only when its legal conditions are met. For example, the right to a portable copy applies only to some information, depending on the lawful basis we rely on, and the right to deletion does not apply where the law allows or requires us to keep something. If a right does not apply, we will tell you and explain why.
9.2 In practice, at CTC:
- A copy: email us. Section 9.5 describes how it is prepared.
- A copy in a common machine-readable format: we provide one on request. We offer this as a service.
- Correction and restriction: see 9.6.
- Deletion: CTC has no account-deletion button. You can delete your own posts and comments yourself, and, while you are a member, your own messages (8.6). For anything else, email us, as section 8.5 explains.
- Your rights do not depend on your membership. You can use them whether or not your membership is current, and whether or not you can still sign in.
9.3 We respond to rights requests without undue delay and normally within one month of receiving them. If the law allows us more time because a request is complex or you have made several, we will tell you within that month and explain why.
9.4 Emails you can stop, and emails you cannot:
- The unread-message email: you can stop it at any time using the link in it, and turn it back on from the same page.
- The connection-request email: it cannot yet be switched off individually.
- Sign-in codes and the email telling you your membership has been accepted cannot be switched off, because you need them to use CTC.
9.5 How a request for a copy of your information is handled. The person who runs CTC handles each request himself:
- He records the date your request arrived. The month in 9.3 runs from that date.
- He checks that the request comes from you, asking for no more than that needs. The address a request appears to come from is not treated as conclusive in every case. If it comes from an address other than the one on your account, he writes to the address on your account to ask you to confirm it.
- If you can no longer use the email address on your account, he agrees with you, case by case, proportionate checks of who you are. If someone asks on your behalf, they need your written authority.
- He searches CTC's database, its image storage, and our mailboxes for information about you. Information that also concerns someone else is assessed individually, not automatically removed.
- He sends the copy by a secure method agreed with you, and deletes his working copy once it has been sent. CTC has decided that the copy in our sent mail of the email that sent it is deleted by hand when our response is sent (3n); this is not automatic. Our email providers keep their own copies (8.8).
9.6 Correction and restriction. You can correct your own profile yourself: your name, biography, city, country, availability and creative identity. For any other correction, or to ask us to restrict how we use your information, email us. The person who runs CTC considers each request case by case and tells you what was done. If we refuse any part of your request, we will tell you why, that you can complain to the Information Commission, and that you can also ask a court to enforce your rights (a judicial remedy).
10. Cookies, browser storage and technical information
10.1 CTC contains no analytics, advertising, error-reporting or session-recording service, and sets no cookies of its own.
10.2 Your browser stores three things for CTC, used only to provide the sign-in you ask for:
| What | Where in your browser | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your sign-in session | Local storage | So that you stay signed in | Until you sign out, the session is revoked, or 90 days pass without use |
| The email address you typed while signing in | That browser tab's session storage | So that refreshing the page does not restart the sign-in | Cleared when you finish signing in or close the tab. The one-time code is never stored |
| A random sign-in verification value, created each time you ask for a sign-in code | Local storage | Part of the sign-in method CTC's sign-in library uses | Removed when you sign out, and replaced each time you ask for a new code |
10.3 The companies that host CTC keep their own logs of requests, including IP addresses. See 3l and section 7.
10.4 CTC serves its own fonts. Loading CTC does not send your information to a font provider.
11. Keeping your information safe
11.1 Access rules are enforced in the database itself rather than only in the website, so a fault in the website is less likely to show someone information they are not entitled to see. This is not a guarantee: a person with operational access is not bound by these rules.
11.2 You sign in with a one-time code sent to your email address. There is no separate CTC password to be stolen or reused. Stored images are held in private storage that members cannot write to directly, and are shown only through links that expire.
12. Complaints
12.1 If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, email contact@connectingtheconnected.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it properly, keep you informed, and give you our response without undue delay. This is separate from the deadline for rights requests in 9.3.
12.2 You can also complain to the Information Commission, the UK data protection regulator: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.
13. What we are still putting in place
- For sensitive information you choose to share about yourself, the legal condition we rely on is your explicit consent (3.7). We have not yet identified the legal condition for sensitive information that members share about other people, or settled how we handle such information when it appears, or how we handle sensitive information about yourself that you shared before the consent screen was switched on, or after saying no.
- The conditions in 3.7 for reports and complaints containing sensitive information, including criminal allegations or offences, are proposed and not yet settled. The draft appropriate policy document for the proposed Schedule 1 condition has not been adopted.
- We have not yet reassessed the lawful basis for running memberships now that membership terms are in place (3.2).
- We have not yet completed our written assessments of our legitimate interests.
- We have decided retention periods for our records, but nothing deletes most records automatically, the route for deleting records from CTC's database by hand is not yet authorised, and the first monthly review, at which records in our mailboxes are deleted by hand, has not yet been held.
- We cannot yet revoke a former member's sign-in sessions at departure, as we have decided to (3k).
- We cannot yet pass a former member's group to a current member, or delete it, as we intend to within 90 days (8.4).
- We do not yet have a tested procedure for deleting a member's account and information.
- Our procedure for preparing a copy of your information is a draft that has not yet been adopted.
- Some records cannot yet be corrected or restricted with CTC's own controls.
- Connection-request emails cannot yet be switched off individually.
- An objection to being invited from someone who never asked for an invitation is still kept by hand, not in CTC's database. An objection from someone whose request to be invited we have recorded is recorded in CTC's database and checked before each invitation (5.3).
- The invitation email does not yet offer a way to ask not to be invited again.
- There is no processing agreement with ImprovMX, or for the Microsoft and Google consumer mailboxes that hold CTC's email, and we have not yet assessed the transfer position for any of the three.
- CTC's mailbox has no cover when the person who runs CTC is away, and no routine for checking messages filtered as spam.
- We have not yet checked how long Vercel keeps request logs, where Supabase and Vercel keep their logs, or whether sending from Resend's Tokyo region means processing in Japan.
- If a database backup is restored, there is not yet a record of the deletions that would need to be made again.
- CTC shows a reminder about sensitive information beside the boxes for writing a post or a message, but not yet beside the places where you write comments, connection-request notes, group names and descriptions, or your profile.
- We have not yet completed our assessment of whether children are likely to reach CTC.
- We have not yet assessed which duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 apply to CTC.
- We have not yet checked whether the sign-in verification value in 10.2 is still needed, or assessed whether all three stored items are strictly necessary.