Privacy notice

Who we are

MyCommunity provides a secure online platform that each participating UK parish, town or community council uses to engage its residents. For the personal data held within a community's site, the community council is the data controller and MyCommunity acts as its data processor. For platform-level account and operational data, MyCommunity is the controller.

What we collect

• Account details — your name, email, and (optionally) phone, set when you register or are invited.
• Address & verification — to confirm you live in a community, we verify against a property (UPRN) using a one-time code posted to your address. We store that your address is verified, not your code (codes are stored hashed and shown once).
• Participation — issues you report, ideas, poll votes, event RSVPs, consultation responses and submissions you make.
• Technical — standard logs (IP, device, timestamps) for security and reliability.

How we use it

• To run your community account and let you take part securely.
• To confirm residency so participation stays trusted and local.
• To send service and (where you opt in) community notifications.
• To keep the platform secure, prevent abuse and meet legal obligations.

What stays private

We are privacy-first by design:

• Public pages and the public issue map show no reporter personal data and no exact sensitive addresses — aggregate/approximate only.
• Complaints and evidence are confidential and visible only to authorised council staff.
• Poll results are anonymised; individual votes are not exposed.
• Access is role-based and scoped to your community; one community cannot see another community's data.

Sharing

We do not sell personal data. We share it only with: your community council (as controller); service providers who help us run the platform (e.g. hosting, email/SMS, mapping) under contract; and authorities where legally required. International transfers, if any, use appropriate safeguards.

Retention

We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purposes above or as your council's retention policy and the law require, then delete or anonymise it.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, and object to certain processing. Contact your community council (controller) or MyCommunity, and you may complain to the ICO (ico.org.uk).

Cookies

We use only essential cookies needed to sign you in and keep the site secure. We do not use advertising cookies.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Contact us and we'll point you to the right data controller.