ClientEarth Privacy Notice

ClientEarth and your personal data  

ClientEarth (hereafter ‘we’ or ‘us’) take your privacy very seriously and would advise you to read this Privacy Notice closely. This Privacy Notice may change from time to time, so please check it frequently. 

This Privacy Notice sets out how your personal data will be processed by us, the data controller,  ClientEarth, 34 Drayton Park. London, N5 1PB. It explains your statutory rights and how we collect and use your personal data. It describes the processing activities that are carried out by us, the purposes for which these activities are performed and the legal bases that we rely upon to justify these processing activities. 

ClientEarth has a number of offices around the world, some of which are separate legal entities. Their use of personal data is also subject to this policy, excepting ClientEarth US and ClientEarth Poland who have their own website Privacy Policies. 

We collect basic personal information from visitors to this website through the use of online forms and when you email us. We may also process your personal data you provide directly to us or which we receive from our trusted partners. 

This Privacy Policy sets out: 

  1. What we use your personal data for and why
  2. Data categories which we use
  3. The sources we collect your personal data from 
  4. Who we share your personal data with 
  5. How long we keep personal data for
  6. Where we transfer and store personal data
  7. Your rights 
  8. Complaints 

If you have any queries regarding this policy or the use of your personal information, please contact: dataprotection@clientearth.org 
 
There is also a separate notice on how we use Cookies, and a separate Recruitment Privacy Notice. 

What we use your personal data for and why 

Processing your personal data is crucial for us to be able to run our campaigns, keep you informed about our activities, hold events and effectively fundraise. We appreciate the trust you place in us when giving us your personal data. The table below describes what we use different types of data for, and  our legal basis for this.

Marketing and Communications

Personal Data Used

 

Reason or Purpose

 

Legal Basis 

 
  • Your contact details  
  • Your donation history 
  • Your indicated areas of interest
  • Campaigns that may be of interest to you. 
  • To send you direct marketing communications.  
  • To stay in touch with you and to invite you to give donations or otherwise contribute to our work. 
  • Your consent in signing up to our newsletters and updates on our campaigns.  
  • From June 2026, this may also be on the basis of the soft-opt in for new supporters. This means that where you engage with us to donate, or sign a petition, new supporters are given the chance to opt-out of marketing communications rather than having to opt-in under new ICO rules. You may opt-out of these communications at any time. 
  • Website usage data 
  • To improve the user experience of our website and provide a better service 
  • The legal basis for this processing is consent. 
  • Records of your discussions with us 
  • Video and audio recordings from meetings with us, as captured via conferencing software used by ClientEarth from time to time. 
  • To keep records when you share comments and opinions with us, ask us a question or make a complaint.  
  • Our legitimate interest in keeping records of communications.
  • Consent, where required by applicable laws.   
  • Hashed personal information 
  • Name, email address, telephone number and postal address 
  • To send targeted marketing through advertising on social media 
  • To exclude you from on-line advertising campaigns so you don’t receive information you’ve already seen  
  • To build “lookalike” and "custom" audiences  
  • Our legitimate interest in reaching new people who are likely to be interested in our work more efficiently. You can object to your data being used in this way at any time. 
Fundraising 

Personal Data Used 

 

Reason or Purpose

 

Legal Basis

 

Communicating with you regarding Grants and Fundraising

 
  • Your contact details 
  • Your interests as indicated, relating to our work areas 
  • Lifestyle and other demographic insight information 
  • Family members’ details (if provided by you) 
  • Your Donation history 
  • GiftAid information 

  • We may process your data in relation to grants and fundraising, where you donate to us or we think you may be interested in donating to us. 

  • This data may be used to contact you in relation to donations where we have an existing relationship with you.  

  • This processing may involve AI technologies for which we will apply stringent data protection standards and safeguards. 
  • We will process this data on the basis of your consent and/or our legitimate interest in receiving fundraising as a charity, which may include evaluating your suitability to donate to us.   
  • We may use this data to contact you in relation to donations on the basis of your consent or our legitimate interest where we have an existing relationship with you.
  • We may also use such data for our contractual and/or legal obligations in reporting on our donations. 
Prospect Research, Wealth Screening and Network Mapping 
  • Lifestyle and other demographic insight information  
  • Published biographic information and media coverage.  
  • Previous charitable contributions.  

 
  • As a charity, we rely on donations from individuals and organisations to enable us to continue our crucial work, using the power of the law to protect life on earth.
  • We collect data to conduct Prospect Research –which is proportionate research from time to time, engaging with trusted third party providers, to gather information about high profile individuals from publicly available sources. This can identify whether those individuals may potentially want to donate to or become involved with ClientEarth. 
  • We will process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest as a charity in fundraising, which may include evaluating your suitability to donate to us. 
  • You can object to your data being used in this way at any time 
  • We do not carry out solely automated decision-making producing legal or similarly significant effects. 
  • Lifestyle and other demographic insight information  
  • Your parliamentary constituency. 
  • Estimate of the size and composition of your household. 
  • Estimate of your wealth.  
  • We may use your data for Wealth Screening – this helps us better understand your giving capacity and whether you may be interested in providing ClientEarth additional support. We can then tailor any additional fundraising approaches to your circumstances and ways in which you can help support us.  
  • In order to do this, we use trusted third party providers who screen a selection of records against publicly available sources and/or socioeconomic data to identify those who may have an affinity to support our cause further. These providers typically use AI technologies to process your data and produce their reports.
  • We may also conduct research using publicly available information to identify individuals who may have an affinity to our cause but with whom we are not already in touch. This may include people connected to our current major supporters, trustees, or other lead volunteers. 
  • We also use publicly available sources to carry out due diligence on donors in line with the charity’s Gift Aid acceptance policy to meet money laundering regulations. 
  • We will process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest as a charity in fundraising, which may include evaluating your suitability to donate to us. 
  • You can object to your data being used in this way at any time.  
  • We do not carry out solely automated decision-making producing legal or similarly significant effects. 
  • Lifestyle and other demographic insight information  
  • Employment history and wealth information.
  • Published Biographic information and media coverage.    
  • Philanthropic interests and networks  
  • Previous charitable contributions and motivations  
  • We may use your data for Network Mapping – this is where we identify individuals who may be able to give at the level of our current high-level supporters, who may be willing to develop mutually beneficial relationships and could be approached through our networks.
  • We will process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest as a charity in fundraising, which may include evaluating your suitability to donate to us. 
  • You can object to your data being used in this way at any time. 
  • We do not carry out solely automated decision-making producing legal or similarly significant effects. 
Processing Online Donations
 
  • Your contact details 
  • Your charitable contributions 

 

 
  • We may also process certain personal data in relation to donations that you make through various forms on our website to setup a regular gift.  
  • We process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest (and contractual obligation as may be relevant) in administering donations we receive.   
Events
 
  • Your contact details 
  • Your dietary or accessibility requirements (for in-person events) 

 
  • If you register for an event (in person or online) which is hosted by ClientEarth, or where ClientEarth is acting as co-host and has the responsibility of processing event participant data, to administer the event and send you communications relating to the event/s.  
  • At the point of confirming your registration via email (when relevant), we may require further information to administer the event, such as dietary requirements and any accessibility requirements. 
  • We process this data on the basis of legitimate interest in administering the event. 
  • Receiving further information regarding dietary/accessibility requirements will be processed on the basis of your explicit consent.   

In addition to the specific purposes for which we may process your personal data set out in this table, we may also process your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

Please do not give us any other person’s personal data, unless you are prompted to do so. 

Data Categories 

  • Your contact details: information that allows us to contact you directly in relation to our newsletter and updates, such as your full name, email address, telephone number, country and address.  
  • Donation History: information on the transactions and donations made to ClientEarth.  
  • Video and audio recordings: video and audio recordings from meetings, as captured via the relevant conferencing software used by ClientEarth from time to time.   
  • Usage Data: information that allows us to see how you use the ClientEarth website or mobile applications. This includes your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your use.  
  • Lifestyle and other demographic insight information: information which allows us to understand the characteristics of our supporters, and target our campaigns and fundraising to people who are likely to want to be involved with ClientEarth. This could include information such as marital status, gender, education and career information, areas of interest and an estimate of your assets / earnings. 

Sources we collect your personal data from 

We will collect personal data from a number of sources. These include: 

  • Directly from you: when you sign up to our newsletters and updates, when you submit information through various forms on our website, when you sign up to our events or any other direct contact from you.  
  • Our website and apps: we collect usage data about how you use our website through ClientEarth’s analytics tracking system. We also process information from any forms you full out on our website.   
     
  • Third Parties:  
    • Trusted partners: we may receive your personal data through our trusted partners where they have your consent to share your data, including telemarketing and other professional fundraising providers. 
    • Publicly available third party sources: we may use data from publicly available and respected third-party sources to assess your charitable interests and as part of our fundraising activities. This includes social networks, subscription services, news archives and public databases. 

Who we share your personal data with 

We share personal data with the following categories of third parties: 

Who 

Examples 

Payment Processors in order to process your donations 

When you make a donation to ClientEarth, we use third party payment service providers to handle the donation.  They will collect your payment information over a secure link, protected by industry standard software.  ClientEarth itself does not collect any payment information (such as payment card details) and such payment information submitted by you when making a donation is not made available to ClientEarth. Our payment service providers will use the information you provide to process your donation and will handle the information in accordance with their own privacy policies.  The payment service providers we use are listed below.  Click on the individual names if you’d like to read their privacy policies. 

Marketing and Event administration when you are attending a ClientEarth event online or in person. 
  • Blackbaud
  • Zoom 
  • Engaging Networks 
  • Twilio

Survey providers 

We may use survey providers to communicate with you or collect feedback from you.  These include  

Blackbaud (Privacy Policy here) 

Typeform (Privacy Policy here) 

Engaging Networks (Privacy Policy here) 

Twilio (Privacy Policy here)

Social Media Platforms for Advertising 

 Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Instagram - we may share limited information (as described above) so they can match you to an account and help us show our adverts to relevant audiences or avoid showing them to existing supporters. These platforms use this information to help identify other users with similar characteristics who may be interested in our work.

Campaign partners and law firms 

If you have signed up to a campaign that we are running in partnership with another charity which is interested in the same issue, we may need to exchange supporter data to manage the campaign.   

If you sign up to participate in a campaign which involves a legal claim, we may share your information with the law firm handling the claim. We will tell you the name of the campaign partner or law firm if we are doing this. 

When we share data in this way, we will sign an agreement with the partner that clearly sets out their commitment to respecting your individual rights, protecting your personal data – including not using it for any purpose other than for the agreed purposes – and their commitments to assisting us to help you exercise your individual rights. 

Other service providers 

IT services, hosting and maintenance service providers.These service providers are contractually required to keep your data secure.

Dataro: We use Dataro as a data processsor to support our global fundraising efforts by providing analysis that help us better understand donor engagement and improve our fundraising campaigns. Using machine learning, Dataro analyses our existing supporter data to identify patterns and predict which supporters may be more likely to donate, renew their support, or engage with specific campaigns. This allows us to communicate more effectively and ensure our fundraising efforts are as efficient and impactful as possible. We ensure that appropriate contractual and practical safeguards are in place for this software. For more information on how Dataro manages data, please visit Dataro’s Privacy Policy. 

SwiftAid: We use SwiftAid to automate the Gift Aid process in the UK for donations missing a declaration or with an incorrect declaration, ensuring eligible donations are correctly claimed from HMRC without requiring multiple declarations. For more details on how SwiftAid manages data, see SwiftAid’s Privacy Policy. 

Microsoft Teams: We use Microsoft’s Recording and (Intelligent) Recap features to provide transcriptions and related review tools for meetings. These tools record and use AI to automatically provide a comprehensive overview of meetings, helping us save time catching up and coordinating next steps. For more details on how Microsoft manages data, see Microsoft’s Privacy Policy. 

 

Please note: We use analytical tools, such as Dataro, to help us better understand supporter engagement and identify individuals who may be interested in particular campaigns or fundraising activities. You may object to our processing of your data in this way. 

 

These tools generate insights and recommendations, but they do not make decisions about individuals independently. Decisions about communications and engagement are subject to human review and oversight. We do not carry out any solely automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.  

Communications, Fundraising and Online Donations 

We will keep your personal data received when you sign up to our updates and information on your donations and interactions with us for the duration of your relationship with us or as long as you are in contact with us, and for up to either seven or ten years (based on jurisdiction) after that time, as is required under law (e.g. financial record keeping, for example) or our legitimate interest for retention of financial and donation information. We will consider you to be in contact with us when you open our emails or take further actions through our web resources. 

Where we transfer and store it 

Some of the service providers described or identified in section 4 above, including some of our IT service providers, are based outside the UK and European Economic Area in countries which have different data protection laws to the UK. Your information may also be accessed by campaign partners, ClientEarth offices or sister entities in other countries.  Where we store or share data outside the UK and EEA, we put in place appropriate measures, including the SCCs / IDTA and practical safeguards to ensure security, to ensure that your information and rights in respect of your information are protected.  If you would like more detail about these measures, please contact us at dataprotection@clientearth.org. 

Your Rights

You have several individual rights in relation to your personal data that we collect, which we are committed to respecting. In particular, you have the right to: 

  • Request a copy of your personal information 
  • Request any inaccuracies in your personal information be corrected 
  • You may also object or ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data and have your personal information erased, where appropriate. 

Additionally, where we process your personal data based on your consent, you have the right  to withdraw consent at any time.  

Complaints

If you have any concerns about how we process your personal data, you have the right to make a complaint to us in the first instance. The best way to contact us is by emailing dataprotection@clientearth.org or via our TellUs reporting portal. 
 
We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receipt, and: 

  • Take appropriate steps to investigate your complaint without undue delay; 

  • Make reasonable enquiries into the circumstances; 

  • Keep you informed of progress where appropriate; and 

  • Provide you with a clear outcome once our investigation is complete. 

We aim to resolve complaints as quickly as possible. In most cases, we will provide a response within a reasonable timeframe and generally within three months, unless the matter is particularly complex. 

Following investigation, we will: 

  • Explain our findings; 

  • Outline any action taken; and 

  • Inform you of any steps we will take to address the issue 

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at any time, including if you remain dissatisfied with our response or do not wish to raise your complaint with us first. Information about how to contact the ICO is available at www.ico.org.uk.  We aim to make our complaints process accessible and easy to use. If you need this information in an alternative format or require assistance in making a complaint, please contact us. 

Modifications and changes to this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice was last updated on 12 June 2026. Any changes made to this Privacy Notice will be updated on our website and you will be notified by email if necessary and appropriate. 

 

Our use of Cookies 

At ClientEarth, we use cookies and similar technologies: 

  • That are strictly necessary to enable you to move around our websites or to provide certain basic features 
  • To enhance the functionality of the website by storing your preferences 
  • To help improve the performance of our website on your device  
  • To understand how you interact with our website 
  • To provide customised content and advertising ]
  • To show you relevant content elsewhere on the internet e.g. Facebook. This content may also include ways you can support us. 
What is a cookie? 

A cookie is a small text file that is downloaded onto your computer when you visit our website and allows us to recognise you as a user. Typically, these contain two pieces of information: a site name and unique user ID. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and anonymous. Cookies are essential to the effective operation of our website. Cookies make the interaction between you and the website faster and easier. Cookies may also be set by the website you are visiting (first party cookies) or they may be set by other websites who run content on the page you are viewing (third party cookies). 

How can I manage cookies 

We use cookies on our website.  Some of these are essential to the operation of our website.  You can accept or reject the non-essential cookies which we use via our Cookie Control Panel when first accessing our website.  If you want to modify your choices subsequently, you can do so by accessing our Cookie Consent Notice. 

Additionally, you may delete and block all cookies from any website, within your web browser settings if necessary. Please be aware that restricting or deleting cookies will impact on the functionality of the site. 

You can manage the cookies stored on your device as well as stop cookies from being installed on your browser. For more information on how to manage cookies usage on your device, please let us refer you to information found on these topics on allaboutcookies.org, more specifically by clicking on the links below: 

Please note that if you prefer to block some or all of the cookies ClientEarth uses, you might lose some of our website’s functionality. 

You can choose to accept or opt out of cookies via our Cookie Consent Notice by clicking ‘Manage settings’. 

Non-Essential Cookies 

Google Analytics: analytics.js (__ga, _gat), used by Google to generate web analytics and for tracking how you use the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. The information generated by the cookie will be forwarded to Google servers in the U.S. for statistical analysis purposes only. 

Google Adwords: Using Google Adwords code we are able to see which pages helped to lead to contact form submissions. This allows us to make better use of our paid search budget. 

Youtube/Vimeo: We embed videos from our official YouTube and Vimeo channel using a privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally – identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode. 

Hotjar: We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices (in particular device’s IP address (captured and stored only in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar’s privacy policy by clicking on this link. 

You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link. 

Facebook: Facebook uses cookies and other technologies to collect information on how you interact with our site. We are able to use this information to show ads and make recommendations to you if we believe you may be interested in our work or supporting our work. For more information, please see Facebook’s cookies policy by clicking here. 

Pixel tags 

A pixel tag is an invisible tag placed on certain pages of a website, which enables cookies to be downloaded to your browser. Pixel tags register when a particular computer and/or mobile device visits a particular page, allowing a particular user to be identified across various sites, and for targeted adverts to be served to that user across the various websites he/she visits. 

Controlling pixel tags: Pixel tags are not stored on your computer or mobile device. If you disable cookies, the pixel tag will only detect an anonymous website visit. 

Facebook pixel code: Facebook pixel code is a tracking pixel which matches users anonymously with their Facebook ID, enabling re-marketing, analysis, and reporting of our advertising campaigns. 

For details on these cookies, please view the Facebook Cookie Policy provided at: https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/  

Hashed lists, social media and web advertising 

We may share your personal data for the purpose of targeted marketing for our campaigning and fundraising activities through Facebook advertising so that they can determine whether you are a registered account holder with them. Our adverts may then appear when you access Facebook. We may also share your personal data as part of an exclusion list for our ad campaigns, which helps us target new people for ClientEarth, rather than targeting people who have already engaged with us. 

When sharing information with Facebook we will upload “hashed” personal information to Facebook Ads Manager.  Facebook then matches the hashed personal data with Facebook profiles on in their database, which will create a Lookalike audience. The process of “hashing” is commonly used in digital advertising to convert directly identifiable personal data to pseudonymous personal data for the purposes of security and privacy during data transfer. The hashed data that we share with social media platforms is deleted after between 15 mins and a few hours (subject to database size) and not used for any other purpose. 

We may also use social media platform advertising tools to build audiences matching particular characteristics to serve our advertising campaigns. For example, we might target people who have shown an interest in climate change or deforestation. This targeting is based on pages and/or posts people have previously engaged with on the platform. These tools allow us to inspire new people to engage with our work, and help us spread awareness about the issues facing our planet. 

If you wish to prevent this use of your data then you can adjust your settings via the social media site ( https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217) 

The data we send could include your name, email address, telephone number and postal address. 

Please note that we may share your personal data in a similar way with other social media platforms without further notification provided we assess any new online platform as having similar functioning to Facebook as well as having the required privacy standards and protocols in place to handle this data. Where the functioning of the new social media platforms or the privacy standards and protocols in place are not sufficiently similar we will notify you of any changes to our privacy policy in this respect. 

Using online platforms in this way is the most efficient way for us to reach more people who are likely to take an interest in our work, meaning we use our funds most effectively. 

Other Third Party Cookies 

We have also included a number of features, which allow our users to share some of our content via Facebook. This does not set a cookie by itself, but if one is present it will read it. ClientEarth doesn’t have direct access to those cookies and the use of those third-party cookies is governed solely by the respective service provider’s Privacy statement. 

The cookies are stored for a period of two years unless you clear their cache and the cookies themselves.