Privacy Notice

This notice explains how London BSL Interpreters (“we”, “us”) collects and uses personal information, and your rights under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). We are a directory of British Sign Language interpreters — we are not an agency and do not take bookings or payments on your behalf.

Who we are

London BSL Interpreters is an online directory of independent interpreters — not a company. The “data controller” (the person responsible for how your personal information is used) is London BSL Interpreters.

Postal address: [postal address — to be confirmed]

For any privacy question, to exercise your rights, or to reach the controller, contact us at admin@london-bsl-interpreters.info.

Depending on how the directory operates, the controller may be required to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and pay the data protection fee. Where that applies, the registration reference will be shown here: [ICO registration ref — to be confirmed].

The information we collect, and why

Interpreter directory profiles

For members listed in the directory we publish: name, photograph, biography, year qualified, fee guidance, areas of specialism, a contact phone number, and any LinkedIn/website/YouTube links the member chooses to add. This information is shown publicly so that people can find and contact an interpreter directly. Members control their own listing and can hide it at any time from their account.

Booking enquiries

When you send a booking enquiry we collect your name, email address and the job details you enter (date, time, location and a free-text description). We use this to pass your enquiry to the interpreter(s) you select and to send you a confirmation. Once those emails have been sent we immediately delete your name, email address and description from our database, keeping only a non-identifying record for statistics (the dates, location, and which interpreters were contacted). After that, the interpreter’s own inbox is the only place your enquiry is held — and because every interpreter listed here is independently self-employed, from that point they, not this directory, are responsible for the information you sent. If you want it deleted after that, ask the interpreter you contacted. Please do not include sensitive details (for example anyone’s health, legal, religious or other private information) in the description — share only what an interpreter needs to decide if they can help.

Membership applications and referees

If you apply to join, we collect your name, email, NRCPD number and a short introduction, plus the names and email addresses of the referees you provide. We use these to assess your application and to contact your referees. Please only give referee details with their agreement — we may contact them about your application, and they have the same rights over their information as everyone else in this notice.

Contact form

Messages you send through the contact form (your name, email, subject and message) go to our administrators so we can reply.

Account and sign-in

Members sign in by password or a one-time email link. We store the account email and a securely hashed password (never the password itself), and keep an internal audit log of changes to a member’s own record for security and accountability.

Technical information and cookies

We use a small number of strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to keep the site secure. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies — see Cookies below.

To protect accounts, we briefly record the internet (IP) address a request comes from so we can block repeated failed sign-in attempts and stop automated abuse of our forms. These records are short-lived and are deleted automatically once the period they cover has passed. We do not use them to track you or to build any profile.

Our lawful bases

Data protection law requires us to have a specific reason — a “lawful basis” — for each way we use personal information. Ours are set out below.

Publishing member listings

We publish a member’s professional details because being listed is the whole purpose of joining the directory — it is necessary for the arrangement between us. Members choose what their listing includes, can edit it themselves, and can hide it at any time from their account.

Passing on booking enquiries

When you send an enquiry we pass it to the interpreters you chose. We do this because you asked us to — it is necessary to take the step you requested — and because it is in our legitimate interests to run a directory that works. We delete your name, email address and description as soon as those emails have been sent.

Applications and referees

We handle membership applications, and hold the details of the referees an applicant names, so we can check that applicants meet the directory’s standards. This is necessary to take steps towards membership and is in our legitimate interests in keeping the directory trustworthy. If you have been named as a referee and would like to know more, please contact us.

Replying to messages

We use what you send through the contact form to answer you. This is in our legitimate interests in responding to people who get in touch.

Accounts and keeping the site secure

Signing members in, keeping an internal log of changes to member records, and briefly recording visitors’ IP addresses to block repeated password-guessing attempts are all in our legitimate interests in protecting members’ information and being able to account for changes.

Where the law requires it

Occasionally we may have a legal obligation to use or keep information — for example, responding to a valid request from a public authority.

Consent

We do not currently rely on consent for anything on this site, and we send no marketing. If that ever changes we will ask you first, and you would be free to withdraw at any time.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our reasons against your privacy and your rights. You can object at any time — see Your rights below.

Special category information

We do not ask for special category data (such as health or religious information). Because enquiry descriptions are free text, please avoid including it — share only what an interpreter needs in order to decide whether they can help. Anything you do include is deleted from our database as soon as your enquiry has been sent, along with the rest of your personal details; after that it exists only in the inbox of the interpreter you contacted.

Who we share information with

Booking enquiries are shared with the interpreter(s) you select. We also use trusted service providers who process data on our behalf: an email provider (Resend), image hosting (Cloudinary), error monitoring (Sentry, when enabled) and our hosting/database provider (Railway). Some of these are based outside the UK; where that is the case, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards (such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or equivalent clauses). We do not sell your information.

How long we keep it

We keep information only as long as needed. Booking-enquiry personal details (your name, email and description) are removed as soon as your enquiry has been sent — we keep only anonymous statistics after that. Our other retention periods are: contact-form messages, up to 6 months; membership applications, up to 24 months after a decision (so we can answer queries and handle any re-application); and our internal audit log, up to 24 months. Member profiles are kept while the membership is active and removed on request. Where we no longer need information, we delete it or anonymise it. These periods are enforced by an automatic clear-out that runs daily — they are not a target we review by hand.

One thing to be aware of if you ask us to delete your account: our internal log of administrative changes keeps a limited record — which account made a change, and what changed — for up to 24 months, and that record outlives the account itself. We keep it so we can investigate a security problem or account for a change that is questioned later, and it is then deleted on the same 24-month schedule as everything else.

Your rights

You have the right to access your information; to have it corrected or erased; to restrict or object to processing; and to data portability. To exercise any of these, email admin@london-bsl-interpreters.info. Members can also edit much of their own information, and hide or update their listing, from their account.

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time — this won’t affect anything we did before you withdrew. We do not make decisions about you by solely automated means, and we do not use your information for profiling.

Cookies

We use only strictly necessary cookies (to keep you signed in and the site secure), which do not require a consent banner under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. We do not currently use analytics or advertising cookies. If that changes, we will update this notice and seek consent where the law requires it.

Complaints

If you have a concern, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last reviewed.