Introduction and Contents

Introduction and Contents. This is the privacy policy for Big Issue Group and our websites. Big Issue Group consists of the following registered companies: Big Issue Media Limited (company registration number 02612480), Big Issue Invest Limited (company registration number 04764982) and Big Issue Impact, (company registration number 14344294) (together, “Big Issue Group“, “us“, “our” or “we“).

This privacy policy applies to your use of the (i) websites owned or operated by Big Issue Group (“Websites“) and (ii) the consumer-facing products and services provided, and fundraising activities carried out, by Big Issue Group (“Services“). Some of our other websites and services have their own policies that will be relevant to you when you are using those sites and services.

This privacy policy covers the following topics:

• Information about your rights, the choices available to you and our obligations in the United Kingdom, in each case, in relation to your personal data

• Transparency about how we collect and use your personal data, including when and how it is shared

• Information on how we protect your personal data

• Information on how we support your rights and respond to your questions

NOTE: In addition to processing information about individuals who use our Websites and Services, Big Issue Group also processes personal data about individuals who engage with us in relation to support services (find out more about our support services here). To find out about how such personal information is processed by the Big Issue Group, please see the Big Issue Group Frontline Services Privacy Notice: www.bigissue.com/frontline/services-privacy

1. ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, share, and transfer your personal data when you use and interact with our Websites and Services. This includes subscriptions, contributions  and enquiries.

Personal data is any information about you which you can be identified or identifiable. This can include information such as:

• Your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, phone number, and financial details you use to purchase subscriptions or Services from us or to make financial contributions to our work.

• Information about your device (such as the IP address, a unique set of numbers that identifies each computer communicating over the internet).

• Information relating to how you use and interact with our Websites and Services.

Our Websites may contain links to sites and services that are not part of The Big Issue family of offerings which will have their own privacy policies. If you follow a link to these sites you should read the privacy policy on such sites.

2. WHO WE ARE AND HOW TO CONTACT US

For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation, each of the following companies within Big Issue Group is a separate controller of your personal data and is responsible for your personal data:

• Big Issue Media Limited (company registration number 02612480), 3rd Floor, 113-115 Fonthill Road, London N4 3HH

• Big Issue Invest Limited (company registration number 04764982), 3rd Floor, 113-115 Fonthill Road, London N4 3HH

• Big Issue Impact Limited, (company registration number 14344294), 3rd Floor, 113-115 Fonthill Road, London N4 3HH

If you would like to contact us in relation to your personal data, please email dataprotection@thebigissue.com or write to the Data Protection Manager at Big Issue Group, 3rd Floor, 113-115 Fonthill Road, London N4 3HH.

3. TYPE OF PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT

We collect the following personal data when you sign up for our Services:

• Your name

• Your contact details (including your telephone number, postal address, and email address

• Other details such your financial and debit/credit card information and billing address when you sign up for a subscription, purchase Services from us or make a financial contribution to our work.

We do not collect special category or sensitive personal data about you (e.g. your race, political opinions, religion, health or sexual orientation) unless you have chosen to provide such personal data to us.

3.1 Personal information we generate about you

When you visit our Websites, we may use cookies or similar technology to collect data including:

• Your IP address (a numerical code that can be used to identify your device together with the country and region or city where you are based)

• Your geolocation data – your IP address can be used to determine the geographical location of your device, its direction of travel, your GPS data and data connection with your local WiFi equipment

• Information on how you interact with our Services

• Your browsing history of the content you have visited on our Websites, including how you were referred to our Websites via other websites

• Details of your computer, mobile, TV, tablet or other devices, for example, the unique device ID, unique vendor or advertising ID and browsers used to access our content

3.2 Personal data when you post comments about the Big Issue on social media sites

If you mention the Big Issue in posts on social media sites, then we may collect your social media handles. For example when you mention the Big Issue in a tweet, we may collect your Twitter handle.

4. HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

4.1 Personal data that we receive directly from you

We collect personal information about you when you interact with us and/or use our Services, including when you:

• Subscribe to any of our newsletters

• Pay for a subscription or purchase any product or service

• Permit us to administer your financial contribution or to allow us to support your fundraising activities

• Apply for volunteering opportunities

• Enter our competitions and surveys

• Sign up for marketing communications

• Request information in relation to products or services we have to offer

• Contact us via email, social media or similar technologies or when you mention us on social media

4.2 Personal data that we collect automatically

When you access our Websites, there is certain information that we may automatically collect, whether or not you decide to use our Services. This includes your IP address, the date and the times and frequency with which you access the Websites and the way you browse their content.

We collect your data automatically via cookies in line with your cookie settings in your browser. If you would like to find out more about cookies, including how we use them and what choices are available to you, please see our cookie policy.

5. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Legal Basis

We process your personal data only if we have a legal basis to do so. These legal bases include the following:

Consent: which includes consent you provide to receive marketing communications from us. You can withdraw your consent at any time. With respect to marketing emails you can withdraw your consent by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email.

Performance of a contract with you (to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you): In certain circumstances we may use and process your personal data where it is necessary to perform a contract that you have with us. For example, where you have purchased a subscription from us and we need to use your contact details and payment data to process your request and deliver your subscription.

Compliance with law: In some cases we have a legal obligation to use or keep your data.

Our legitimate interest: We may process your personal data where it is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by your interests or fundamental rights or freedoms. Examples include where we want to understand our Website users, promote services and operate our Websites and Services.

Where we rely on cookies to collect any personal data please see our cookie policy.

Purpose for collecting your personal data

Your personal data is collected and used for the following purposes:

Why and how we process your information	Types of personal data used	Legal basis relied upon
To provide our Services to you, including administering, maintaining, managing and operating such Services and including administrative purposes…	Your name Your email address Other details such as your financial and debit/credit card information and billing address	Legitimate interests, namely it is in our interests and your interests: to provide our Services to you or answer any queries; to facilitate transactions made with you and fulfil any requests; to ensure our business runs smoothly. We may also need to process your data to comply with our legal obligations and the terms and conditions in place between us and you.
To show you personalised advertisements…	[ ]	[Consent]
To monitor usage on our Websites…	Your IP address Your geolocation data Your browsing history on our Websites Details of your computer, mobile, TV, tablet or other devices	to understand how content on our Websites are used; to help us improve our Websites and your experience; to remember your Website settings.
To administer our Websites and for internal operations…	Your name Your email address Information that you have chosen to tell us (e.g. during a call)	to respond to your queries, requests and complaints; to ensure we have an accurate record of Website users and visitors; to consider your feedback and feed it into our processes.
To allow us to provide marketing communications you have signed up for	Your name Your email address	Consent
To establish, exercise or defend legal claims…	The actual information used depends on the factual circumstances but could include: Your name Your email address Other financial or billing details Your IP address Your geolocation data Your browsing history Device details	To comply with legal obligations. Legitimate interests, namely to establish and defend our legal rights and seek legal advice.
For other purposes that we may notify you about at the time of collection.	As notified from time to time.	As notified from time to time.

6. WHEN WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

6.1 Within the Big Issue Group

We may share your data to understand how you interact across our group products or to tailor and offer relevant advertising to you.

6.2 With external organisations

We may share your personal data with organisations not directly linked to us when the following applies:

Service providers – We may also share your data with third party service providers that provide service to us or on our behalf. We may do this to perform a contract we have entered into, where it is in our legitimate interests or with your consent. Examples of when we may share your data with service providers include sharing with:

• Companies that administer products and services on our behalf, e.g. subscriptions, financial contributions, membership, vendor support kits.

• Online payments processors who process credit and debit card transactions on our behalf

• Fraud management providers that help us to identify and prevent online fraud

• Internet and cloud hosting services providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Software service providers such as Salesforce that assist us with our customer relationship management

• Error tracking software providers, to help us diagnose and fix errors and optimise the performance of our website and apps

• Service providers that help us carry out analytics, facilitate audience creation and segmentation and to measure our audience engagement.

• Service providers that help provide us with insights and analytics that help us to improve our products and services. For example, we use Google Analytics to understand how visitors engage with our sites or apps. If you don’t want Google Analytics to be used in your browser, you can install the ‘Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On’, provided by Google

• Data management companies, such as SalesForce, Zoho, Hubspot, InForm and Typeform, that help us collect data via online forms and surveysSoftware service providers such as Salesforce that assist us with our customer relationship management

Advertising partners – We may also share your data collected through our Websites and apps with our advertising partners, as set out in our cookie policy. These partners help us deliver relevant advertising across our Websites and apps. For example, we use Google Ad Manager to assist us with the delivery of relevant ads. If you would like more information about online behavioural targeting and how to opt out of it, please visit http://www.youronlinechoices.com or you can also visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/

Agencies and authorities– We may reveal your personal data to any law enforcement agency, court, regulator, government authority, or in connection with any legal action if we are required to do so to meet a legal or regulatory obligation, where the request is proportionate, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of anyone else (for example, in response to valid and properly served legal process such as a warrant). We will attempt to notify you prior to disclosing your data unless (i) prohibited by applicable law from doing so, or (ii) there are clear indications of unlawful conduct in connection with your use of our Services.

Event sponsors and partners – we may share your personal data with sponsors of Big Issue Group events and partners who we hold events with for marketing purposes when you have given your permission for us to do so.

Social media organisations – We may share your personal data with other organisations when our web pages use social plug-ins from these organisations (such as the “Facebook Recommend” function, Twitter’s retweet function, Google+ function). These other organisations may receive and use personal data about your visit to our Websites or apps. If you browse our Website or view content on our apps, personal data they collect may be connected to your account on their site. For more information on how these organisations use personal data, please read their privacy policies.

Organisation/s that buy any of the Big Issue companies – We may share your personal data with any other organisation that buys, or to which we transfer all, or substantially all, of our assets and business (or which we are in meaningful discussions about such a possibility).

Any organisations which access your data in the course of providing services on our behalf will be governed by contractual restrictions to make sure that they protect your data and keep to all data privacy laws that apply. We may also independently audit these service providers to make sure that they meet our standards.

7. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS

Data we collect may be transferred to, stored and processed in outside of the United Kingdom. While other countries or territories may not have the same standards of data protection as those in your home country, we will continue to protect personal data that we transfer in line with this privacy notice.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the United Kingdom, we will only do so where it is compliant with the Data Protection laws and the means of transfer provides adequate safeguards in relation to your data, for example:

• by transferring your personal data to countries that have been found to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data;

• by implementing a specific approved data transfer agreement;

• where it is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract between us and a third party and the transfer is in your interests for the purposes of that contract; or

• where you have consented to the transfer.

8. HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We keep your personal data for only as long as we need to. How long we need your personal data depends on what we are using it for, as set out in this privacy policy. For example, we may need to use it to answer your queries about a product or service and as a result may keep personal data while you are still using our product or services. We may also need to keep your personal data for accounting purposes, for example, where you have bought a magazine. If we no longer need your data, we will delete it or make it anonymous by removing all details that identify you. If we have asked for your consent to process your personal data and we have no other lawful grounds to continue with that processing, and you withdraw your consent, we will delete your personal data. However, when you unsubscribe from marketing communications, we will keep your email address to ensure that we do not send you any marketing in the future. 

9. HOW WE MAY CONTACT YOU

9.1 Service communications

From time to time we may send you service emails, for example, telling you your subscription is coming to an end or thanking you when you contribute or place an order with us.

9.2 Marketing communications and editorial newsletters

If we have your consent, we may send you materials we think may interest you, such as the Big Issue Group offers and updates. Depending on your marketing preferences, this may be by email, phone, SMS or post.

We offer a range of editorial newsletters. You can decide not to receive these emails at any time and will be able to “unsubscribe” directly by clicking a link in the email.

9.3 Market research

Sometimes we may contact you for market research purposes, for example about a survey. You can opt out from being contacted by using our contact us page.

9.4 Responding to your queries or complaints

If you have raised a query or a complaint with us, we may contact you to answer your query or to resolve your complaint.

10. USE OF CHILDREN’S PERSONAL DATA

We do not aim any of our products or services directly at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal data about children under 13. Some of our services may have a higher age restriction and this will be shown at the point of registration.

11. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational controls to protect your personal data against unauthorised processing and against accidental loss, damage or destruction. The internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data once with us, we cannot guarantee the security of any personal data sent to our Websites.

12. COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES

When you visit our Websites or when you use our apps, we may collect personal data from you automatically using cookies or similar technologies. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your device that allows us to recognise and remember you.

This privacy policy includes our cookie policy, where you can find details of our key advertising partners.

13. YOUR PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS WITH REGARD TO THE PERSONAL DATA THAT WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

You have a number of rights with regard to the personal data that we hold about you and you can contact us with regard to the following rights in relation to your personal data, although we may be entitled to refuse to comply with your request in certain circumstances and where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision:

• You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data and a right to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you

• You have the right to correct the personal data we hold about you

• Where applicable, you may also have a right to receive a machine-readable copy of your personal data

• You also have the right to ask us to delete your personal data or restrict how it is used, consistent with the UK GDPR. There may be exceptions to the right to erasure for specific legal reasons which, if applicable, we will set out for you in response to your request

• Where applicable, you have the right to object to processing of your personal data for certain purposes

• Where you have provided us with consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw this at any time

Further information about these rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website here.

If you do not want us to use your personal data for marketing analysis or you would like to exercise any of the other rights specified above, please email dataprotection@thebigissue.com or write to the Data Protection Manager at 3rd Floor, 113-115 Fonthill Road, London N4 3HH. We will deal with requests within one month.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity. If your request is complicated or if you have made a large number of requests, it may take us longer. We will let you know if we need longer than one month to respond. You will not have to pay a fee to obtain a copy of your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

14. CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION ABOUT HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

If you have any questions about how we use your personal data or if you have a concern about how your personal data is used, please contact the Data Protection Manager, The Big Issue Group, 3rd Floor, 113-115 Fonthill Road, London N4 3HH. Or, email dataprotection@thebigissue.com.

Complaints will be dealt with by the Data Protection Team, and will be responded to within 30 days.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (the UK data protection regulator) at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (T: 0303 123 1113 E: icocasework@ico.org.uk).

15. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may amend this privacy policy from time to time. If we decide to amend this privacy policy we will post the changes here. You should always check that you are referring to the latest version if you have previously downloaded hard copies of this privacy policy If required by law, we will get your permission or give you the opportunity to opt out of any new uses of your data.

15.1 Changes to this privacy policy to date

The most recent changes to this privacy policy were made on:

• August 2025
• 20 April 2023

A list of all previous changes is available upon request.