Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Emily Politics is operated by Sinatra AI Ltd, registered in England and Wales.

We take your privacy seriously. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and your rights under UK data protection law.

Contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Data Protection Officer: Stephen Canning, [email protected]

2. What Data We Collect

2.1 Data You Provide

When you create an account, we collect:

• Email address (required for login and service delivery)
• Name (optional, used for personalisation)
• Password (hashed and encrypted, never stored in plain text)

When you subscribe, Stripe (our payment processor) collects:

• Payment details (card information, billing address)
• Transaction history

We do not see or store your full card details. Stripe handles all payment data in compliance with PCI-DSS standards.

2.2 Data We Generate

During your use of Emily Politics, we automatically collect:

• Usage data: searches performed, features used, session duration
• Technical data: IP address, browser type, device type
• Log data: error reports, performance metrics

All analytics are pseudonymised and stored in aggregate.

2.3 Parliamentary Data

Emily Politics analyses publicly available UK parliamentary data, including:

• Hansard debates, committee transcripts, written questions, voting records
• MPs' names, constituencies, and public statements

This data is already in the public domain. We do not collect or process private information about MPs or other parliamentarians.

3. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your data under the following legal bases:

You can object to legitimate interest processing at any time by contacting us.

4. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data to:

• Provide access to Emily Politics and deliver search results
• Process your subscription payments and send receipts
• Send transactional emails (password resets, service updates, billing notifications)
• Improve the service through aggregated analytics
• Respond to support requests
• Comply with legal obligations (e.g., tax reporting, fraud prevention)

We do not:

• Sell your data to third parties
• Use your data for behavioural advertising
• Profile you for automated decision-making
• Share your data with anyone except our trusted processors (see Section 5)

5. Who We Share Your Data With

5.1 Service Providers (Data Processors)

We share your data only with vetted providers who help us run Emily Politics:

All processors are bound by data processing agreements (DPAs) and cannot use your data for their own purposes. See our full sub-processor list for details.

5.2 Legal Disclosures

We may disclose your data if required by law (e.g., court order, tax authority request) or to protect our legal rights.

6. Data Retention

We keep your data only as long as necessary:

After these periods, data is permanently deleted from our systems.

7. Data Security

We protect your data with:

• Encryption in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256)
• Secure authentication (bcrypt password hashing, optional MFA)
• EU-only hosting (no data stored outside UK/EU)
• Access controls (role-based permissions, audit logging)
• Regular security reviews including penetration testing

No system is 100% secure. If a breach occurs, we will notify you and the ICO within 72 hours as required by law.

8. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

1. Access your data – Request a copy of everything we hold about you
2. Rectify your data – Correct inaccurate information via your account settings
3. Erase your data – Delete your account and all associated data (except where we have a legal obligation to retain it)
4. Restrict processing – Pause processing in certain circumstances
5. Data portability – Receive your data in a machine-readable format
6. Object to processing – Stop processing based on legitimate interest
7. Withdraw consent – For any consent-based processing (e.g., marketing emails)

To exercise these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Cookies

Emily Politics uses essential cookies only:

• Authentication cookies (to keep you logged in)
• Session cookies (to maintain your search context)

We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party analytics cookies beyond PostHog (which is privacy-respecting and EU-hosted).

You can disable cookies in your browser, but this will prevent you from using Emily Politics.

10. International Transfers

All your data stays in the UK and EU. We do not transfer data to countries without UK adequacy decisions, except:

• Stripe (US parent company, but covered by UK adequacy decision for US companies under EU-US Data Privacy Framework)

11. Children's Privacy

Emily Politics is a professional service for political professionals, journalists, and researchers. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us immediately.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will:

• Update the "Last Updated" date at the top
• Email you at your registered address
• Post a notice on the website

Continued use of Emily Politics after changes means you accept the updated policy.

13. Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can:

1. Contact us: [email protected]
2. Complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):
   • Website: ico.org.uk
   • Phone: 0303 123 1113
   • Address: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

14. ICO Registration

Sinatra AI Ltd is registered with the ICO. Our registration covers:

• Processing staff and customer data
• Providing subscription-based intelligence services