Syrian Arab Association in the United Kingdom

Privacy Notice

1.  The personal information we use

1.1       Information we collect directly from you

1.2       When you provide the information to us

1.3.      When you make a membership

1.4       When you interact with us

2.         How we use your personal information and the basis on which we use it

3.         Your rights over your personal information

4.         Information Sharing

5.         International Data Transfer

6.         Contact Us

7.         Changes to the Policy

This privacy notice describes how the Syrian Arab Association in the United Kingdom ('we', 'us', ‘SAAUK’) collects and processes personal information about you, how we use and protect this information, and your rights in relation to this information.

This privacy notice applies to all personal information we collect or process about you through use of our website, www.syriauk.com, and/or through your membership of SAAUK. Personal information is information, or a combination of pieces of information that could reasonably allow you to be identified.

1. Personal information we use

We will collect personal information about you from a variety of sources, including information we collect from you directly (e.g. when you contact us or apply for membership), described below:

Note that we may be required by law to collect certain personal information about you, or as a consequence of any contractual relationship we have with you. Failure to provide this information may prevent or delay the fulfilment of these obligations.  We will inform you at the time your information is collected whether certain data is compulsory and the consequences of the failure to provide such data.

1.1          Information we collect directly from you

The categories of information that we collect directly from you are:

(a)            personal details (e.g. name, date of birth)

(b)            contact details (e.g. phone number, email address, postal address or mobile number)

(c)            membership details (e.g. qualifications, specialism, employment)

(d)            information we collect automatically from you e.g. data collected using cookies and other device identifying technologies ('Cookies and Tracking Technologies'). Our cookies policy can be access here.

(e)            billing information (e.g. bank details when you make payment for membership and/or purchase tickets for events)

(f)             mentorship programme details (e.g. education history, field of specialism, details of mentorship objectives).

1.2          When you provide the information to us

Through your use of or interaction of this website or membership with us, we collect personal information, which is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to you as an identifiable individual. While we do not require you to provide personal information in order to navigate our website, we will need to collect personal information if you choose to engage in certain activities on our website, participate in programmes organised by us, or become a member.

1.3          When you make a membership

In order to become a member, you need to provide information to us, which includes information that may identify you and billing information. We use Stripe, a third party provider, to process your credit card information. We need this information in order to provide you with the Services and to process your payment. We need this information in order to process your payment, and if you do not provide this information, we would not be able to provide the services to you or approve your application. We only retain the information, for as long as you are a member and do not indicate that you wish to terminate or cancel your membership.

1.4          When you interact with us

When you engage with us on our various social media platforms, or send us any feedback, questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, or interact with us in any way, you provide us with personal information including identifiers such as your name and email address, as well as any other personal information you choose to include in such communications.

2. How we use your personal information and the basis on which we use it

We use your personal information to:

(a)            provide and personalise our services

(b)            deal with your enquiries and requests

(c)            comply with legal obligations to which we are subject and cooperate with regulators and law enforcement bodies

(d)            contact you with marketing and offers relating to products and services offered by us (unless you have opted out of marketing, or we are otherwise prevented by law from doing so)

(e)            personalise the marketing messages we send you to make them more relevant and interesting

(f)             understand your interests and engagement preferences to inform our event and programme offerings.

(g)            where applicable, tailor any mentorship programme to suit your objectives and ambitions.

Our legal basis to process your personal information is to meet our legitimate interests in understanding how you use our services and to enable us to derive knowledge from that to enable us to develop new services, community engagement programmes, mentorship programmes, and to organise events and initiatives. When we process personal information to meet our legitimate interests, we put in place robust safeguards to ensure that your privacy is protected and to ensure that our legitimate interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.  

We may obtain your consent to collect and use certain types of personal information when we are required to do so by law (for example, in relation to our direct marketing activities, and Cookies and Tracking Technologies). If we ask for your consent to process your personal information, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this privacy notice.

3. Your rights over your personal information

You have certain rights regarding your personal information, subject to local law. These include the following rights to:

·       access your personal information

·       rectify the information we hold about you

·       erase your personal information

·       restrict our use of your personal information

·       object to our use of your personal information

·       receive your personal information in a usable electronic format and transmit it to a third party (right to data portability)

·       lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us at the details below.

We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate.

We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honour your requests.

4. Information Sharing

We may share your personal information with third parties under the following circumstances:

·       Service providers and business partners. We may share your personal information with our service providers and business partners that perform marketing services and other business operations for us. For example:

o   We use MemberSpace to manage member access to our content and services, including account creation, authentication, and subscription management. A link to MemberSpace’s privacy policy is here: MemberSpace Privacy Policy

o   We use Stripe to process payment card information. A link to Stripe’s privacy policy is here Stripe Privacy Policy

o   We use TicketTailor for event bookings. A link to TicketTailor’s privacy policy is here TicketTailor Privacy Policy

o   We use Google Analytics to conduct data analytics on usage of our Services. A link to the Google privacy notice is Google Analytics Privacy Policy.

We may partner with other companies to process secure payments, optimise our services, manage SAAUK’s memberships, send newsletters and marketing emails, issue tickets for events, support email and messaging services and analyse information.

·       Law enforcement agency, court, regulator, government authority or other third party. We may share your personal information with these parties where we believe this is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of any third party.

·       Asset purchasers. We may share your personal information with any third party that purchases, or to which we transfer, all or substantially all of our assets and business. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your personal information uses it in a manner that is consistent with this privacy notice.

We will keep your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you, and for as long as you are member of SAAUK and for a period of 2 years thereafter. We will only retain your personal information after this time if we are required to do so to comply with the law, or if there are outstanding claims or complaints that will reasonably require your personal information to be retained.

5. International Data Transfer

Your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in a country that is not regarded as ensuring an adequate level of protection for personal information.

We have put in place appropriate safeguards (such as contractual commitments) in accordance with applicable legal requirements to ensure that your data is adequately protected. For more information on the appropriate safeguards in place, please contact us at the details below.

6. Contact Us

Syrian Arab Association UK is the controller responsible for the personal information we collect and process.

If you have questions or concerns regarding the way in which your personal information has been used, please contact us on info@syriauk.com.

We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern, you have the right to make a complaint to the data protection authority of the United Kingdom using their website: Make a complaint | ICO

7. Changes to the Policy

We may modify or update this privacy notice from time to time.

If we change this privacy notice, we will notify you of the changes. Where changes to this privacy notice will have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, we will give you sufficient advance notice so that you have the opportunity to exercise your rights (e.g. to object to the processing).

06 May 2026