Privacy Policy

The Node Foundation is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. We process it in line with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you have questions, email info@thenodefoundation.com.

We collect personal data when you:

• Enquire about or apply to a Projects, Preparation, or Pathways programme (name, email, school or education details, and any information you choose to share about your interest in technology and AI).
• Contact us directly, for example by email - we’ll keep a record of that correspondence.
• Are a school, corporate partner, or volunteer contact - in which case we hold your professional contact details.

For applicants under 18, we also collect a parent or guardian’s contact details and their consent before a place is confirmed.

We use your data to run our programmes, respond to enquiries, match students with mentors, and let schools and corporate partners know how a collaboration is going. We rely on:

• Consent - for applicants and parents/guardians, and for any marketing updates you opt in to.
• Legitimate interests - for responding to general enquiries and maintaining relationships with schools and partners.
• Legal obligation - where we need to keep records for safeguarding or funding compliance purposes.

As our programmes may reach pre-university students, some of the personal data we hold belongs to under-18s. We collect the minimum needed to run a safe programme, always seek parent/guardian consent before confirming a place for an applicant under 16, and apply extra care to how this data is stored and shared - see our Safeguarding Policy.

We share data only where needed to run a programme - for example, with a partner school or employer hosting a workshop, or a mentor assigned to a cohort - and with service providers who help us run the site or manage applications, under agreements that require them to protect your data. We don’t sell personal data.

We keep application and programme records for as long as needed to support fellows and alumni (references, pathway tracking) and to meet funding and safeguarding record-keeping requirements, then delete or anonymise it. General enquiries not followed up are deleted after a reasonable period.

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site. Google Analytics sets cookies and shares data with Google, who processes it on our behalf. We only load Google Analytics after you accept this on the cookie banner shown on your first visit — if you reject or dismiss it, no analytics cookies are set. You can change your choice at any time by clearing your browser’s site data for thenodefoundation.com.

Under UK GDPR you can ask to access, correct, delete, or restrict the personal data we hold about you, ask for a copy in a portable format, or object to certain processing. Email info@thenodefoundation.com to exercise any of these. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you think we’ve mishandled your data.

We’ll update this page if how we handle data changes, and update the date at the top when we do.