Privacy Policy
Last modified: 25 September 2024
Who we are
Humankind Technologies, is a private limited company incorporated in England (Company Number: 11457770), with its registered office at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU (herein referred to as “Humankind Technologies”, “us” or “we”). We collect, use and share the personal and non-personal information you and our other users (who we refer to as “you” or “Users”) provide to Humankind Technologies across our Services, including but not limited to the website located at https://www.humankindtech.co.uk known as the Site, and any Humankind Technologies Service. Collectively all of these are referred to herein as the “Services”.
For users in the UK and EU, we are the data controller in respect of such personal information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (UK & EU) 2018 and The EU Artificial Intelligence Act 2024 (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689). The Privacy Policy applies only to the Services; it does not apply to any third-party websites, services or mobile applications to which we may link.
GDPR-K (previously Article 8)
Younger visitors should check with their parents or guardians before using the Services and read the simplified versions provided below. If you are a parent or legal guardian, by allowing your child to use the Services, you are confirming that you have read and understood the terms of this Privacy Policy on your child's behalf. The threshold for children providing their own consent under GDPR-K is 16 years (13 years in the UK) so it is important that you read and understand this Privacy Policy before allowing your child to use the Services.
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EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act):
Humankind Technologies use AI in a human-centric way, respectful of confidentiality, privacy and third party rights; People (our employees and our customers) always remain at the heart of everything we do and AI use will only ever support (rather than replace) work in order to help be more efficient, creative, rewarding and valuable;
We maintain a “human-in-the-loop” process when using any AI tool – with overall human oversight; This includes:
- Not sharing any confidential and commercially sensitive information without a careful assessment and/or specific guidance from the approver (or legal team);
- Not sharing any valuable and/or proprietary intellectual property (such as proprietary source code that is not open-source);
- Not sharing any third party owned intellectual property content (such as images or copyrighted text) if we do not have the right to use that content for that purpose – if in doubt, we will always seek guidance from the approver (or legal team);
- Not sharing any personal data/PII (of our customer or co-workers, for example);
- Not using AI tools in a way that could inadvertently perpetuate or reinforce bias, discrimination or prejudice
- Only using AI tools in compliance with our data security policies (so no sharing of login credentials or passwords, for example);
- Assessing any outputs and carefully edit any AI generated content against reliable sources before sharing or publishing it.
- Clearly identifying AI generated content, images etc, as such, even for internal use – some (not all) AI tools should automatically be applying a water-mark to identify AI generated content.
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We apply an evaluation criteria for the use of any AI tools within our business. This is to ensure they are legally compliant, transparent/ accountable, trustworthy, safe, secure and ethical.
We intend to assess tools for:
Intended use – this drives the level of risk and depth of our evaluation criteria (e.g. if the sales team uses the AI tool to create content for a pitch document versus a software engineer using an AI tool for code generation and optimisation);
Type of AI tool (e.g. generative, predictive, extractive; is it trained to perform a limited task on a limited body of data and knowledge; or is it a more open, tool with a wider level of access; does it have any autonomy or agency?);
Data security and confidentiality – is it capable of re-using/re-generating commercially sensitive information in a recognisable form;
Intellectual property – both inputs and outputs and is the AI tool/vendor asserting it owns IP rights;
Data protection and privacy – is it legally compliant with the conduct of a DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment) if any personal data/PII is (or could be) processed in the AI tool;
Human-centric – does it have built-in human safety factors and ethical guidelines (most major AI developers have committed to sign-up to AI-specific codes of practice and testing regimes);
Other legal & regulatory compliance factors – AI-specific regulatory rules or guidance that need to be reviewed and followed;
Vendor evaluation – how reputable is the vendor/tool and the original developer (if the vendor is a deployer or managed service provider)
Contract terms – relevant T&Cs/terms of service and privacy policy;
Risk-Benefit analysis – potential benefits and opportunities against potential risks and impacts of misuse, including malicious use, malfunctions, harmful bias and underrepresentation, loss of control, misinformation or deep fakes, security and privacy breaches;
Risk management – risk-rating the tool against legal changes and regulatory oversight
The information we collect and when
Your Email
We ask for your email address so that we can validate who you are and to be notified by email about information that you have indicated is of interest to you (we will always give you a clear opt out). Your email address is never made public on the website or anywhere else on the Services. We will not share your email with anyone else.
If you are under 13 then we request that your parent or guardian provide their email address instead as a means of giving consent for you to use the Services.
Feedback on a product survey, or reporting a problem
Product surveys may be used to improve our services and we only collect your contact information if you have indicated that you wish us to contact you with follow up information. If you have contacted us to report a problem, once you are satisfied the issue is resolved we will delete your contact information unless otherwise indicated.
Information From Research and Workshops
User research and workshops are used to inform and improve the design of products and services created by Humankind Technologies. All of our projects are started by undertaking a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). This ensures we think about the level of information we need and consider things like consent carefully before starting work. User research is conducted after obtaining specific consent from participants. This consent will explain what data is being collected, how it will be stored and how it will be used. In general terms we keep the amount of personally identifiable information in our research to a minimum.
Other Non-personal information
We collect non-personal information about users whenever they interact with the Services. Non-personal information includes the number, and frequency of visitors to the Services and the length of their stays, browser name and the type of computer. We also collect your IP address solely for the internal support of the Services, such as system administration, and in case requested by law enforcement.
Cookies
Please read our Cookie Policy at the bottom of this page for more information, including information about how to delete cookies placed on your device and how to prevent them from being put there in the first place.
Be mindful that if you do enable a prevent cookies functionality on your device, some of our services and functionalities on the site will no longer work.
3. Why We Collect Information on the Services
We use the information you give us to provide you with the Services. This may involve using the information we collect on how you use the Services and the content you interact with to tailor your view of a service or personalise the content and features made available to you.
We will also use your information to provide you with any technical and other customer support you need. We will use your information for these purposes because it is in our legitimate interests to ensure that service is being offered to you at a high standard and to your satisfaction.
To Provide the Services
We collect non-personal information from your use of the Services to understand how our customers interact with the Services, so we can improve it and develop new services to meet our customers’ needs. We may also use this information to conduct statistical analysis and for business planning. We do this because it is in our legitimate interests to ensure that the Services offer customers the best experience.
To Improve our Services and Product Offerings
We collect non-personal information about users whenever they interact with the Services. Non-personal information includes the number and frequency of visitors to the Services and the length of their stays, browser name, the type of computer, and technical information about the means of connection, such as the operating system. We also collect your IP address solely for the internal support of the Services, such as system administration, and in case requested by law enforcement. We encrypt the IP address and adopt and implement appropriate and reasonable security practices for access to it.
To Defend our Legal Rights
We may also use your information to prevent potentially illegal activities, protect the safety of our users and others, enforce our terms of service and comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, requests from government bodies or courts, or respond to litigation. Typically, we will do this because it is necessary in order to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation to which we are subject (e.g. complying with subpoenas, search warrants and court orders).
We may combine all the information we collect from or receive about you for any of the foregoing purposes. Further, we may aggregate your information with other users’ information and use it for statistical analysis, research and reporting purposes. We may also share this information with our business partners and research institutions. This aggregated information cannot be used to identify you.
4. How Long We Keep Your Information
We will keep your information only for long as it is necessary for the purposes described above (to provide you with the Service, for our legitimate interests as described above and in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations). This period will vary depending on your interactions with the Services. For example, we may retain your account data for a reasonable period of time after your last activity. This is to enable you to easily come back and start using the service again. We may also keep a record of correspondence with you relating to the Services, for example, if you have made a complaint, for as long as is necessary to protect us from a legal claim. In all cases, where we no longer have a need to keep your information, we will delete it.
5. How We Protect User Information
Humankind Technologies takes reasonable steps to protect against loss, misuse or unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of the information you provide via the Services.
We adopt and implement appropriate and reasonable security practices regarding the collection, storage and processing of the information we collect, such as encryption.
We also put in place physical safeguards such as limited employee access and confidentiality agreements with employees and contractors.
Despite our best efforts, no security measure is ever perfect or impenetrable. In the event we experience a data breach involving unencrypted personal information, we will notify users by posting notice on the affected Services.
6. Sharing Users’ Personal Information
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others, and will not do so except as required by law or in connection with a merger, asset sale or similar business transaction (as described below). We may share aggregated demographic or non-personal information not linked to any personal information regarding visitors and users with our business partners, company affiliates and advertisers. We use third-party service providers (as set out below) to help us operate our business and the service or administer activities on our behalf.
Service providers
Humankind Technologies, like many other website operators, uses third parties to provide certain services. Below is a list of third party services we use to store and process your data, a description of how we use them and links to the privacy policies of these parties:
| Google Analytics | Is used to collect and analyse website data across all of our sites. You can opt out of being tracked by Google here (Privacy Policy) | |
| Zoho | Is used to host our website humankindtech.co.uk , manage our newsletter mailing list and send newsletters to those who have subscribed to receive it (Privacy Policy) | |
| Calendly | Is used to view & schedule appointments with our team. If you are under 18 you are unable to use the Calendly booking service (Privacy Policy) | |
| OpenAI's ChatGPT | Is used to generate some images using human prompts or reduce the size of content on this website with human oversight (Privacy Policy). |
Law enforcement requests
We may disclose your personal information: (a) in the good faith belief that we are required to do so by law; (b) if doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process; (c) to permit us to pursue available remedies, including commencing or responding to any claims; (d) to enforce the terms and conditions of the Services; (e) to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Humankind Technologies, its users or the public; or (f) or other illegal activity or for risk management purposes.
Corporate Transaction
In addition, your personal data may be disclosed as part of any proposed or actual merger, sale, and transfer of Humankind Technologies’ assets, acquisition, bankruptcy, or similar event.
7. International Data Transfers
We work with external Service providers, some of which are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA). We do so in order to provide you with our services and for the other purposes outlined above. Please be aware that the data protection laws in some of these countries may not offer the same level of protection as those in your country of residence. Before transferring your information in this way, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that suitable safeguards are put in place aimed at ensuring that an appropriate level of protection applies to the privacy of your personal information and we will comply with all applicable laws.
8. Advertisements and Rewards
We may serve advertising on the Services. Advertising enables us to keep the Services free to use. Any ads we serve will be vetted and assessed for appropriateness by our internal monitoring and compliance team. Such advertisements will only be targeted based on the context or content you are viewing and the interests you have selected on the Services, and not on your browsing behaviour.
9. Access, Modify, Delete and Other User Rights
Notwithstanding the limited nature of the personal information we collect from or about the users of our Services, users have the right to request access to review, modify and correct personal information about a user. We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity, such as requiring an email.
Users may also contact us to request certain information regarding our disclosures to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. However, we do not share information with third parties for this purpose. Depending on the country from which you are using the Services, you may have the right to have the information you have provided to us and which we use to provide the Services to you in a machine-readable format. This right enables you to move your information from one provider to another, for example, so that the other provider can continue to service your needs effectively.
If you would like to delete the information that we have collected from your use of the Services, please contact us at privacy@humankindtech.co.uk
We may be required to retain some or all of this information in order to enable you to use the Services, and to ensure that these function properly. We may also retain such information where required by law, to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, enforce our terms and conditions of use and enable us to defend our legal rights. We may only be able to provide the Services if we have your information, so deletion of your information will require deletion of your account and termination of your ability to use the Services.
If a parent wishes to exercise any of the above rights on behalf of their child, please contact us at privacy@humankindtech.co.uk
10. Change of Mind or Objection
Where you have given us consent to use your information for any of the above purposes, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. You may also have a right to object to our use of your information where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation that makes you want to object to our processing on this ground. Please contact us at privacy@humankindtech.co.uk about exercising these rights.
11. Contact us
If you have any questions, need information or require assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to us by sending us an email at privacy@humankindtech.co.uk
12. Changes to this privacy policy
Humankind Technologies has the discretion to update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will update the “last modified” date at the top of the Privacy Policy. If the change is material, we will place a notice on the Site and the App by revising the link to read substantially as "Updated Privacy Policy" for a reasonable amount of time, and if necessary, will obtain your prior consent or the prior consent of a parent or legal guardian. The most current version of this Privacy Policy will be available on the Site and will supersede all previous versions of this Privacy Policy.
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For more information
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is in charge of data protection and privacy matters in the UK. You can find our more information on their website here.
How long we keep your information for
We don’t want to keep your data for longer than we need it. We will normally keep it for 3 years after the last time we spoke to you, unless the law says we should keep it longer than that.
Sharing your thoughts
On the website, there are buttons to let you share information on social media. If you do decide to do this, your personal information might be shared there too.
Security
We want to keep your data safe, and we have security to protect it both online and at our offices.
How to contact us
If you have any questions, or if you would like to do any of the rights above, you can contact our Data Protection Officer:
By email: privacy [@] humankindtech.co.uk
By post: HumanKind Technologies, 20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU. ,
Changes to our privacy notice
In the future we might make some changes to the things we have said here. Please do make sure you come back and check it regularly.
Cookie Policy
How we use cookies
Like most Sites, this one uses cookies. In order to comply with new rules, we use a system of classifying the different types of cookies which we use on the Site, or which may be dropped by third parties through our Site. The classification was developed by the International Chamber of Commerce UK and explains more about which cookies we use, why we use them, and the functionality you will lose if you decide you don't want to have them on your device.
What is a Cookie?
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or helps the web application to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.
Cookies used by Humankind Technologies
A list of all the cookies used on the Site by category is set out below:
| Disclosing your information | We will never disclose your information to anyone outside Humankind Technologies except where we have your consent; where we are required or permitted to do so by law; to other companies who provide a service to us; or any successors in title to our business. Whenever we transfer personal information to countries outside the UK or European Economic Area we will ensure that appropriate security measures are taken. |
| Third party cookies | |
| Other Websites | The Services may contain links to other sites which are outside our control and not covered by this policy. The operators of these sites may collect information from you that will be used by them in accordance with their policy, which may differ from ours. |
| Our Website | Zoho cookies: Our website is hosted by Zoho (Cookie Policy) |
| Analytics Cookies | Google Analytics: These cookies allow us to count page visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. Two of the cookies also help us to track the effectiveness of our email marketing campaigns. We use Google Analytics to provide these services |
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better Site, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
For more information about deleting and controlling cookies, please visit www.aboutcookies.org.