Privacy Notice

Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) is a not-for-profit company registered in England & Wales with registered company number 5419428. We help to transform cities to benefit the millions who lack access to water and sanitation. We are based in the UK with offices in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information and upholding your individual rights. This privacy notice explains how we and our subsidiaries may collect and use the information you give us.

If you have any questions regarding our privacy notice, please write to:

Data Privacy Team
Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor
1 Giltspur Street,
London, EC1A 9DD, UK

Email: supportservices@wsup.com
Call: 020 7078 4175

How we collect information

WSUP may collect information about you whenever you interact with us, for example when you:

  • Visit our website or donate to us via The WSUP Charity
  • Enquire about our activities or download a publication
  • Sign up to receive our newsletter
  • Post content to our website/social media sites (including Twitter and LinkedIn)
  • Apply for a vacancy or volunteer or work for us
  • Attend a meeting/event with us and provide us with information about you
  • Take part in one of our events or fundraise on our behalf
  • Contact us through the following channels: online, email, phone, SMS, social media or post

Where we collect information from

WSUP may collect information in the following ways:

  • When you give us information directly You may provide your details to us when you work for us, make a donation, provide funding or collaborate with us on one of our projects, request specific information, participate in one of our events or apply for a vacancy. If you work for WSUP, please also refer to our Employee Privacy Notice.
  • When you give us information indirectly Your information may be shared with us when you use other fundraising sites and provide your consent to be contacted by WSUP. For example, if you are fundraising for us via Just Giving or Virgin Money. These organisations will have their own privacy notice and/or privacy statements, so please do ensure you understand this when providing your data.
  • When you have given other organisations permission to share it You may have provided your details to another organisation that works with WSUP. For example, in order to sign up to a third-party event. However, when working with other organisations, we work to ensure it’s completely clear to you that your information will be shared with WSUP. The information we get from these services depends on your settings or the response choices you give, so you should regularly check what you have agreed to with third party organisations.
  • Social media Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services like LinkedIn and Twitter, you might give us permission to access information from those accounts or services.
  • When we collect information when you are using our website Upon visiting our website, information about your visit is recorded and stored. See the section below on the use of cookies for more details.
  • When your information is available from other public sources We may collect personal details about you from the public domain, such as from social networks, company websites, political and property registers, Companies House and news archives.

What categories of personal information we collect

The type and quantity of information we collect and how we use it depends on why you are providing it. If you support us, for example by making a donation, volunteering, registering to fundraise, signing up for an event or campaigning for us, we may collect where relevant:

  • Your name
  • Your contact details (full address, email address and phone number)
  • Your bank or credit card details (only if you are making a donation)
  • Equal opportunity monitoring data (which is always anonymous)

How we will use your personal information

We will use your personal information in a number of ways, including for the following purposes:

  • To provide you with the services or information you have requested
  • To update you about any changes to our services
  • To administer your donation, including Gift Aid processing
  • To maintain our organisational records and ensure we have your most up-to-date marketing preferences
  • To help us improve our services, campaigns or information-offering
  • To invite you to participate in interactive features on our website
  • To invite you to participate in voluntary surveys or research
  • To analyse your website behaviour and improve the operation of our website
  • To process all employee related activity (payroll, right to work check, obtaining external references etc)

If you would like to contact us about your marketing preferences, please write to:

Partnerships & Communications Team
Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor
1 Giltspur Street,
London, EC1A 9DD, UK

Email: partnerships@wsup.com
Call: 020 7078 4175

Our P&C team will be happy to answer any queries you may have.

We always want you to get the most out of our website, so if you do experience any issues with our website we may follow up with you to find out how we can best support you with any problems experienced.

We may analyse your personal information to better understand the website audience and adjust our communications appropriately. In doing this, we use Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting which uses data from the Google Display Network. This provides aggregate data about our supporters (such as age, gender and interests) and helps us to tailor appropriate communications to them, as well as helping us to improve the quality of our supporters’ experience with us. If you would like to opt out of Google Demographics and Interest Reporting please change your Google settings here.

Children’s data

We do not actively collect information from children. Where we do, we will always ask for consent from a parent or guardian before collecting any such information.

Our use of cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enable the server to collect information from the browser. Essentially, a cookie takes the form of a small text file deposited on your computer’s hard drive. Read more

How we keep your data safe and who has access to it

We place great importance on the security of your personal information and will always try to take appropriate precautions to protect it.

We always ensure only authorised personnel (for example WSUP staff, volunteers or consultants) have access to your information, and that they are appropriately trained to manage your data.

Despite all of our precautions, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. So, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose to us online, and you must understand that you do so at your own risk. However, any payment card details (such as credit or debit cards) we receive through our website are passed securely to our payment processing providers (Stripe) who meet the required Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards.

Who we share your personal data with

We do use external organisations that collect and/or process personal data on our behalf. Before working with these companies we perform rigorous checks to ensure they meet all relevant regulations and legislation. We always implement a contract with our suppliers, which imposes robust data protection requirements, including the provisions of this notice, and seeks to provide maximum protection of your personal details.

Financial or technical considerations may occasionally lead us to use the services of a supplier based outside the European Economic Area (EEA), which in turn might lead to your personal information being transferred, processed and stored outside the EEA. If these suppliers are based in countries that European Union authorities do not consider provide adequate levels of protection for personal data, we take steps to provide suitable safeguards to protect your personal information, such as entering into the European Commission approved standard contractual clauses.

We may legally be required to disclose your details if required to by the police or for regulatory reasons. We will only ever share your data in other circumstances if we have your consent to do so.

How we keep your information up to date

Where possible, we try to keep your records up to date. However, we really appreciate it if you let us know if your contact details change or no longer wish to be on our distribution list.

How long we keep your information for

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, for example we will keep a record of any donations you have made for at least six years.

If you ask us to stop sending you marketing materials, we will keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us.

Where you contribute material to us, for example through user generated content or in response to a particular campaign, we will generally only keep your content for as long as is reasonably required for the purpose(s) for which it was submitted, unless otherwise stated at the point of generation.

Our legal basis for processing your information

WSUP will only process your personal data when we are legally allowed to do. These lawful bases can include our contractual obligations, your consent or our legitimate interests. We will only rely on our legitimate interests where we are confident that such processing is not likely to prejudice your own interests, rights or freedoms.

Where we are processing your personal data on the basis of your consent, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time. The only time we rely on consent for data processing is to maintain our distribution list for our newsletter. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link in the email.

WSUP subsidiaries

We may need to disclose your information in some circumstances with one or more of our subsidiaries in order to provide you with any necessary support. Any such data will be transferred in accordance with data protection legislation. At the date of publication of this privacy notice, this could include:

  • The WSUP Charity
  • WSUP Advisory
  • Any other global WSUP office, entity or subsidiaries

WSUP may legally be obliged to share data in accordance with relevant legislation and potential law enforcement requirements in all our countries of operation.

Your right to your information

You retain control of how we use your data and you have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal information, which we will do. In some circumstances, we may legally be required to retain your personal information for audit purposes. However, this will be discussed with you depending on your requirements. Please contact supportservices@wsup.com or call us on 020 7078 4175 if you have any concerns.

You also have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you. If you want to access your information, please contact:

Data Privacy Team (SAR)
Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor
1 Giltspur Street,
London, EC1A 9DD, UK

or email supportservices@wsup.com with Subject Access Request in the subject line.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you are also granted a number of additional rights. These include:

  • The right to rectification
  • The right to erasure
  • The right to data portability
  • The right to object
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

For more information on these rights please read the relevant guidance issued by the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/individuals-rights/

If you would like to make a complaint about how we process your personal data, please contact our Data Privacy Team. By email on supportservices@wsup.com or by post:

Data Privacy Team
Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor
1 Giltspur Street,
London, EC1A 9DD, UK

If you are not happy with how your complaint is dealt with, you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.  Alternatively, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office without first referring your complaint to us.

For further information please see the Information Commissioner’s guidance.

Changes to this privacy notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time by posting the updated version of the Privacy Notice on our website. The amended information will apply from the date it is posted on the site and will govern the way in which we collect and use your personal information from then on.

We encourage you to visit this page frequently to stay informed about how we use your personal information and before you consider giving your personal information to WSUP.