Privacy Policy

Last updated: 14 July 2026

Zen Community Hub respects your privacy and is committed to handling personal information fairly, securely and transparently.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we may collect, why we use it, where it is stored, how long we may retain it and the rights available to you.

1. Who we are

Zen Community Hub is a constituted, not-for-profit community group governed by a voluntary committee. It is not a registered charity or an incorporated company.

For the purposes of UK data-protection law, Zen Community Hub is the data controller for personal information collected through this website or provided directly to us.

Website: https://zencommunityhub.co.uk
Email: hello@zencommunityhub.co.uk

You can use this email address for privacy questions or to exercise your data-protection rights.

2. Information we may collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

  • your name;
  • your email address;
  • your telephone number, if you choose to provide it;
  • the organisation you represent;
  • information included in an enquiry or message;
  • information connected with a proposed activity, partnership or funding opportunity;
  • accessibility requirements or other information you voluntarily provide when enquiring about participation;
  • records of communications between you and Zen Community Hub;
  • technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type and basic server or security logs;
  • records of your consent or communication preferences, where relevant.

Please avoid including unnecessary confidential, medical or sensitive information in a general website enquiry.

If you contact us about a child or another person, please provide only the information genuinely needed for us to understand and respond to your enquiry.

3. How we collect information

We may collect personal information when you:

  • complete a contact form;
  • email or telephone us;
  • enquire about an activity, partnership or opportunity;
  • attend or express an interest in a project;
  • communicate with us through social media;
  • provide information to us in connection with our work;
  • browse the website, where limited technical information may be recorded for security and website operation.

We may occasionally receive professional contact information from a publicly available source or from a partner who reasonably believes that an introduction would be appropriate.

4. Why we use personal information

We may use your information to:

  • respond to questions and enquiries;
  • discuss possible activities, partnerships and funding opportunities;
  • administer expressions of interest;
  • plan and deliver community projects;
  • make reasonable adjustments and respond to accessibility needs;
  • maintain appropriate administrative and safeguarding records;
  • operate, protect and improve the website;
  • prevent spam, misuse and security incidents;
  • meet legal, regulatory, insurance or financial-record obligations;
  • send updates or promotional communications where you have actively agreed to receive them.

We will not sell your personal information.

5. Our lawful bases

Under UK data-protection law, we must have a lawful basis for using personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on the following lawful bases.

Legitimate interests

We may use information where it is reasonably necessary to respond to enquiries, develop appropriate partnerships, administer the organisation, protect the website or support our legitimate community purposes.

We consider the possible effect on your rights before relying on legitimate interests.

Steps before entering into an agreement or performance of an agreement

We may use information where you ask us to discuss or arrange a service, activity, partnership or other agreement.

Legal obligation

We may retain or use information where this is necessary to comply with legal, financial, safeguarding, insurance or regulatory obligations.

Consent

We may rely on your consent for optional communications or where you have chosen to provide information for a particular purpose.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at hello@zencommunityhub.co.uk.

Where information revealing health, disability or other special-category information is genuinely needed, we will identify an appropriate legal condition for using it and limit its use to what is necessary.

6. Contact forms, stored entries and email

When you submit our contact form, the information you enter is used to respond to your enquiry.

Contact-form submissions are:

  • stored within the website’s WordPress database through SureForms; and
  • sent by email to hello@zencommunityhub.co.uk, which is hosted through Microsoft 365.

SureForms provides authorised website administrators with access to stored entries through the WordPress dashboard. SureForms states that these entries are stored on our own WordPress website rather than on SureForms’ external servers.

We restrict access to contact-form entries and use them only for legitimate communication, administrative, safeguarding or project-related purposes.

Routine enquiries that do not lead to an ongoing relationship will normally be deleted from both SureForms and our email records within 12 months of the last meaningful contact.

Records may be retained for longer where an enquiry develops into an ongoing project, partnership, complaint, safeguarding matter, financial transaction or another relationship requiring a longer retention period.

Please do not include unnecessary confidential, medical or sensitive information in the general contact form.

Do not use the form for emergencies or urgent safeguarding concerns. Zen Community Hub is not an emergency or crisis service.

7. Spam protection and Google reCAPTCHA

Our forms may use Google reCAPTCHA to help distinguish genuine visitors from automated spam.

When reCAPTCHA operates, Google may receive technical information such as your IP address, device or browser information and information about how you interact with the page.

Google processes this information under its own privacy terms.

8. Website analytics

We do not currently use Google Analytics or another intentionally configured visitor-analytics service on this website.

We may introduce privacy-conscious visitor analytics in the future to understand how people find and use the website.

Before activating analytics, we will update this Privacy Policy and provide appropriate cookie information and controls where required.

Google Search Console may be used to understand how Google crawls, indexes and displays the website in search results. Search Console does not require a general visitor-tracking tag to be placed on every page for this purpose.

9. Cookies and similar technologies

This website may use essential cookies or similar technologies required for security, administration, spam prevention and basic website operation.

Essential technologies may be used without optional consent where they are genuinely necessary to provide the website or a service requested by the visitor.

If we introduce analytics, advertising or other non-essential technologies, we will provide clear information and appropriate consent or objection controls where required.

You can also control or remove cookies through your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies may affect how some parts of the website work.

10. Social media and The Zen Rooms

Zen Community Hub currently uses The Zen Rooms’ established social-media accounts to help keep communication manageable while the Hub develops.

This website may link to The Zen Rooms’ accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube.

If you follow one of these links, the relevant platform may collect information about your visit according to its own privacy policy.

Information submitted directly to Zen Community Hub through this website will not automatically be used for unrelated marketing by The Zen Rooms.

Where the two organisations work together on a particular activity, we will be transparent about their respective roles and how relevant personal information will be handled.

11. External websites and services

This website may contain links to external websites and services.

External websites have their own privacy policies and practices. Zen Community Hub is not responsible for the content, security or privacy practices of websites operated by other organisations.

We encourage you to review the privacy information provided by an external service before submitting personal information to it.

12. Who we may share information with

Where necessary and lawful, information may be shared with:

  • authorised Zen Community Hub committee members, volunteers or project workers;
  • organisations helping us deliver an agreed activity or project;
  • professional advisers, insurers or funders where appropriate;
  • our website-hosting provider, where form entries and website information are stored;
  • Microsoft, which provides our Microsoft 365 email service;
  • website security, spam-prevention and technical-service providers where necessary to operate and protect the website;
  • payment or booking providers if you choose to use an externally hosted service;
  • public authorities, regulators or law-enforcement bodies where disclosure is legally required;
  • safeguarding authorities where disclosure is necessary and lawful to protect someone from serious harm.

We only share information where there is a legitimate reason and seek to limit it to what is necessary.

We do not allow service providers to use personal information for their own unrelated marketing purposes.

13. International processing

Some technology providers may process or store information outside the United Kingdom.

Where international processing occurs, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate legal safeguard is used. This may include UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual protections.

14. How long we retain information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary.

Our usual retention approach is:

  • routine enquiries that do not lead to an ongoing relationship: up to 12 months after the last meaningful contact;
  • SureForms entries: normally deleted within 12 months where an enquiry has closed and no longer needs to be retained;
  • active project, partnership or participant records: for the duration of the relationship and an appropriate period afterwards;
  • financial and transaction records: normally six years where required for accounting, tax or legal purposes;
  • consent and communication-preference records: while the preference remains relevant and for an appropriate period afterwards;
  • safeguarding or incident records: according to the nature of the record and applicable legal, insurance or safeguarding requirements;
  • technical and security logs: for a limited period appropriate to security, troubleshooting and hosting requirements.

We may retain information for longer where necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim, respond to a safeguarding matter or comply with a legal obligation.

Information that is no longer required will be securely deleted or anonymised.

15. How we protect information

We use reasonable organisational and technical measures to protect personal information. These may include:

  • access controls and password protection;
  • secure website hosting;
  • encrypted website connections;
  • restricted access to administrative accounts;
  • spam and security protection;
  • appropriate email and document-storage systems;
  • software and security updates;
  • limiting access to people who genuinely need the information.

No internet or email system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take proportionate steps to reduce the risks.

16. Marketing communications

We will not add you to a marketing list simply because you send us an enquiry.

If we introduce an email mailing list, joining it will be optional. We will explain what you are subscribing to and provide a straightforward way to unsubscribe.

You can ask us to stop sending promotional communications at any time by contacting hello@zencommunityhub.co.uk.

17. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis used, 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 uses of your information;
  • receive certain information in a portable format;
  • withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
  • complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Some rights are subject to legal conditions or exemptions. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.

To exercise a right, email:

hello@zencommunityhub.co.uk

18. Your right to object

You have the right to object where we process your personal information on the basis of legitimate interests.

You also have an absolute right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing.

You can object by emailing hello@zencommunityhub.co.uk.

19. Complaints

Please contact us first if you have a concern so that we can try to resolve it.

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

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

20. Children’s information

This website is intended primarily to provide information about Zen Community Hub and its developing activities.

We do not knowingly invite children to submit personal information through the general contact form. A parent, carer or appropriate professional should normally contact us on a child’s behalf.

If you contact us about a child, please share only the information necessary for us to understand and respond to the enquiry.

If we develop services that collect information directly from children, we will introduce appropriate privacy information, consent, safeguarding and age-appropriate processes before doing so.

21. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our website, activities, service providers or legal responsibilities change.

The latest version will be published on this page with its revision date.

If a significant change affects how we use information already collected, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to the attention of those affected.

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