Our previous policy can be viewed here.

 

Summary

• Respect other people’s privacy and personal data.
• Represent is for anyone 13 years old and above.
• When you use Represent we collect statistics about your visit. We do not store personal identifiable information associated with a vote made by anyone who is not signed-in.
• You can select to vote publicly or privately. By default on our embed widgets and chatbot your votes are private on unless you change your settings.
• Questions you ask, or comments you make will be public, unless made within a private group.
• You can control what other people see about you, and edit your details, in your profile settings.
• If you request to delete your account all your personal data, votes and collections are deleted. Any questions you have asked or comments you have made remain but are anonymised.
• We will not share your contact details with any third parties without your explicit permission. We will not seek such permission by hiding it in the small print.
• You may use Represent anonymously or under a pseudonym. To give strength to your vote (so that, for instance, an elected representative knows you are likely to be a real person living in their constituency and should be heard) we have a verification scale. We give verification points to a user account for items such as a validated email account and social media profiles.
• You can control emails you receive from us and service notifications in your profile settings.
• We use browser cookies and similar technologies for mobile apps to in order to make Represent work efficiently for you as well as to provide information on how the site is used. You can change what cookies are stored by us using your browser settings.
• Our servers are based in the EU. However, we use third party services which may mean that your data could be transferred outside the EEA.
• Third parties can access publicly available data on Represent using the API. Everyone who uses our API is subject to this privacy policy.
• Our registered business name is IAgree Limited (Company number 08794580). We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration reference: ZA097827.\

 

Important note on children’s information

Users of Represent must be 13 years old or over to sign up or submit any personal information through our services.  If you have reason to believe a person under 13 years old has provided us with their personal information, or have any concerns regarding this aspect of our policy, please get in touch.

What information do we collect?
We collect information about you in three ways: automatically, through information you provide or information provided by others.

Automatically
We automatically capture information about your IP Address, operating system, screen display settings, browser type.

We may approximate your location from your device using a combination of your IP address or through the GPS, Bluetooth or WiFi connection information used by your device. You may opt-in to provide us with specific location data (see below).

We collect statistics about your visit to our app or website (also see our cookie policy).

If you sign in or register via Facebook, Google or other login services, we only receive information you have permitted that service to give us.

Information you provide
We collect personal information you provide when you join Represent or contact us.

You may sign-up and use Represent anonymously or under a pseudonym.

We also collect information when you answer or ask any questions, join groups, or you provide feedback, comments or other information using our service (via the website or through our API partners).

By default your votes are public unless you change your privacy settings.

We collect information that you provide when you communicate with us by any means – such as Twitter and Facebook.

We only collect your specific location or address data if you opt-in to provide it.

You can opt-in on a case by case basis to share your contact information with group administrators, representatives, or to receive personalised marketing.

When you pay for anything via our site the payments are processed using trusted third parties: Stripe and Paypal. You can read Stripe’s UK privacy policy here and PayPal’s security policy here. We do not receive or hold any bank, debit or credit card details. Both services check the details you provide against the card details.

Information provided by others
We collect information about you from other people when they use our services, such as:

• when someone invites you to join Represent or a Represent group via our service
• when an organisation you have an existing relationship with provides information to verify your membership of a Represent group – such as a membership number or email address
• via the social media accounts of a user if your settings permit it. For example, if you are their friend on Facebook and haven’t limited that feature.

Information we do not collect
We do not store personal identifiable information associated with a vote made by anyone who is not signed-in.

How we use the information we collect
We use personal information we collect to provide Represent’s services, to improve and optimise Represent for you, and to protect Represent and its users.

We may use this information to:

• Provide you with information that you request from us
• Send you notifications about activity on Represent
• Show you questions which we think you’ll find interesting
• Find and recommend other users to you and enable other users to find you
• Help you discover new topics and information
• Deliver information that can be openly analysed to produce statistical results
• Provide in-depth, anonymised data analysis to paying clients
• Inform you of any changes to our website, services and products.
• If you opt-in, to provide your location and address, you will receive more personalised and local content.
• To provide and measure advertising services (also see our cookie policy below) based on your values.

Device information
We use device information we collect to:

• ensure that the user experience is delivered in a form suited to the software your device is using.
• assist in providing support to you should you have difficulty accessing or participating on the site.
• anonymise – for use in research purposes, for example to determine the percentage of our users in a specific country who use a certain type of browser.

Verification
To give strength to your vote (so that, for instance, an elected representative knows you are likely to be a real person living in their constituency whom they represent) we have a verification scale. We give verification points to a user’s account for items such as a validated email account and social media profiles. An anonymous account with little or no personal information will have a low verification score.

Represent API
Our API permits third parties and users of Represent to access and use data on Represent in line with this privacy policy and your privacy settings. The data we make available via our API is made available under an international Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 license.

How to manage your personal information on Represent
You can manage, edit, add and delete your personal information, and account through your account settings: [https://rep.roundbear.org/me/edit/main/]. This includes:

• view and edit your personal information, including your location
• view (and change) the questions you have answered
• change your privacy settings
• change your password
• manage how we contact you, information you receive from us, others and site notifications
• view how your profile has been verified and the level of verification

How to delete your Represent account
You can delete your account through your profile settings.

If you delete your account all your personal data on Represent, votes and collections are deleted. Unless you specifically request otherwise, any questions you have asked or comments you have made remain but are anonymised. This is because votes will have been responded to by other users and comments help give context and information to vote questions, and are often part of a wider conversation.

Please note that content deleted from Represent may remain in back-up storage for a short period of time, but will not be publicly available.

How to request a copy of the personal data we hold on you
You have the right to request a copy of all the information we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information please contact: help@represent.me or by post to:

Represent
Reedham House
31 King Street West
Manchester
M3 2PJ

Please note that we may require you to verify your identity. We also reserve the right to charge a fee of £10 to cover costs incurred by us in providing you with the information.

How might my personal information be shared?

Other users
Other users of Represent may share information about you, but they will never know the details of your private votes. This information is accessed either through the site  or via the API. Treat any information you post or share as public and exercise caution in what you choose to make available. In cases where you are concerned about what has been shared or disclosed about you please get in touch.

Information shared by us
We may disclose collected information about users of Represent with agents or contractors who help us in providing support services including supporting Represent, with analysing data, managing and fulfilling requests or enquiries from our users, supporting content management systems, communicating with users and in performing other tasks from time to time.

Our agents and contractors will only use your information for us where necessary to perform their functions and subject to security measures and obligations in accordance with applicable law.

Organisations, group users, representatives and direct marketing
We do not provide access to your contact information to third parties, such as for a representative or Represent Group administrator to get in touch directly, or for direct marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

Other events
In the event that we discontinue Represent, sell any or all of our business to a third party buyer:

• where reasonably possible, we will give you advance notice and a chance to delete or download information
• we will ensure they abide by the same conditions of use of your data

Legal requests
We may retain and disclose your personal information if legally required to do so (for example, if required by law or by a Court order or if we believe that action is necessary to prevent fraud or cyber-crime or to protect Represent or the rights, property or personal safety of any person).

All such requests are assessed and we will challenge the basis of the request if it is not made by an officer with proper authority, the request lacks a proper statutory basis or appears too broad or vague as to its scope or purpose.

Advertising
We experiment with different business models which can allow us to keep Represent running as an independent platform which pays its employees fairly and can work effectively with others to effect change.

One of the models is advertising. We recognise that many people have reservations about this from a privacy point of view (ourselves included) but also recognise that there is a useful time and place for it. For example, if there is a business which shares your values and can help you be more of the person you want to be, then it seems both sensible and ethical to make you aware of their services – such as a renewable energy company if you’ve said you don’t like fracking.

Any advertising will be discreet and respectful of your data privacy.

We will also be experimenting with the ability to opt out of advertising.

Please also see our cookie policy.

How long do we keep personal information you provide?
We retain your personal information during the life of your account as long as is necessary for, and relevant, to providing Represent’s services to you.

If you delete your account all your personal data on Represent, votes and collections are deleted. Content deleted from Represent may remain in back-up storage for a short period of time, but will not be publicly available. Unless you specifically request otherwise, any vote questions you have asked or comments you have made remain but are anonymised.

If you have a paid-for account and have missed a payment your account will be downgraded to a free user account. Any personal data relating to your paid-for account will be retained until any payments resume or you decide to delete your account.

We may further retain personal information associated with an account for a period after closure where this is required in connection with the legitimate business purposes of Represent (such as for invoicing purposes if a purchase has taken place) or where we are requested or required to retain certain information in connection with legal or regulatory purposes.

In cases of terms of use breaches, user accounts may be deactivated (where-by all information is retained but the user cannot access Represent) or deleted (as described above) depending on the circumstances and nature of the breach.

How we store and transfer your data 
Our servers are based in the EU. However, we use third party services, such as for emailing, which may mean that your data could be transferred outside the EEA.

In operating our website it may become necessary to transfer data that we collect from you to locations outside of the European Union for processing and storing. By providing your personal data to us, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information in this way we will take steps to implement appropriate legal mechanisms relevant to the transfer.

Unfortunately the sending of information via the Internet is not totally secure and on occasion such information can be intercepted. We cannot guarantee the security of data that you choose to send us electronically, sending such information is entirely at your own risk.

Information security
We place great importance on the security of all personal identifiable information associated with our users. We have put controls in place to seek to safeguard the personal information that you provide, applying physical and technical measures against the loss, misuse, unauthorised access to and/or alteration of personal information.

You are responsible for keeping your password or passcode details secret at all times.

If you become aware that your account has been used or accessed by someone else without your permission:

• change your password
• let us know immediately

Third party links 
On occasion we and users of Represent include links to third parties on this website. Where we provide a link it does not mean that we endorse or approve that site’s policy towards visitor privacy. You should review their privacy policy before sending them any personal data.

How to contact us
Email: hello@represent.me
Twitter: @RepresentLive
Post:
Represent,
Reedham House,
31 King Street West
Manchester
M3 2PJ

Represent is owned by iAgree Ltd. (Company number 08794580). Our UK Data Protection Register number is: ZA097827.