Privacy Policy

First Friend Ireland (“we”, “us”) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect through firstfriendireland.ie, why, and what rights you have. We aim to collect the minimum data necessary to do what you've asked us to do — nothing more.

Who we are

First Friend Ireland is being established in Ireland as a company limited by guarantee. Until incorporation and any charity registration are complete, First Friend Ireland acts as the data controller for information collected through this site. Contact us at info@firstfriendireland.ie.

What we collect

We only collect data you give us directly, through the forms on this site:

• Contact form: name, email address, reason for contacting us, and your message.
• Volunteer interest form: name, email, optional phone number, county, areas of interest, availability, and any message you add.
• Membership application: name, email, county, membership type, optional organisation name, and confirmation that you are 16 or over.
• Partnership enquiry: organisation name and type, contact name, email, optional phone number, and your message.

We deliberately do not ask about disability, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, immigration status, or other special category data through these forms, even though our mission relates to these areas. If a future programme genuinely needs this information (for example, to arrange a reasonable accommodation you request), we will ask for your explicit, informed consent at that time and explain exactly why.

We also collect limited technical data automatically — see our Cookie Policy for detail. We do not currently run analytics or advertising trackers on this site.

Why we process your data, and our legal basis

• To respond to your enquiry, application or request — legal basis: your consent, given when you submit the form, and/or our legitimate interest in operating the organisation.
• To process membership and volunteer applications — legal basis: taking steps at your request before entering into a membership or volunteering arrangement.
• To keep records required for good governance — legal basis: legitimate interest and, where applicable, legal obligation.

Who we share it with

We use third-party service providers to run this site and deliver enquiries to us — for example, an email delivery provider (to send your enquiry to our inbox) and, where configured, a database hosting provider (to store enquiry records securely) and a website hosting provider. We only share what's necessary for them to provide that service, and we do not sell personal data to anyone.

How long we keep it

We keep enquiry, volunteer and membership data only as long as necessary to respond to you and, where relevant, to maintain accurate membership and volunteer records. First Friend Ireland's directors have not yet formally adopted a retention schedule — this policy will be updated with specific retention periods once one is approved.

Your rights

Under the GDPR, you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate data;
• ask us to erase your data, in certain circumstances;
• restrict or object to certain processing;
• request that we transfer your data (data portability), where technically feasible;
• withdraw consent at any time, where processing relies on consent; and
• complain to the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie), Ireland's supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email info@firstfriendireland.ie.

Children

Our membership forms are for people aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16 through this site.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page as our practices change, particularly once formal registration, a data protection review, and a retention schedule are complete.