Noise Pollution UK

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 August 2026

1. Who we are

Noise Pollution UK is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation constituted as an unincorporated association. It was established to support people and communities affected by environmental noise pollution. It is not a registered charity.

Our website is noisepollution.co.uk.

Noise Pollution UK is the data controller for personal information collected through this website, its campaign forms and its associated activities.

Noise Pollution UK determines:

  • what personal information is collected;
  • why it is collected;
  • how it is used;
  • who may access or receive it;
  • how long it is retained; and
  • when it is deleted or anonymised.

Darren Field is the organisation’s Data Protection Lead and administers personal information on behalf of Noise Pollution UK under its constitution and recorded decisions.

Data-protection contact:
contact@noisepollution.co.uk

This wording reflects the signed governance arrangement under which Noise Pollution UK controls its campaign information and Darren Field administers it in his Association capacity.

2. Scope of this policy

This policy explains how Noise Pollution UK handles personal information when you:

  • visit this website;
  • sign a campaign petition;
  • submit a noise-event report;
  • join or support a campaign;
  • request a campaign letter;
  • contact the campaign team;
  • provide recordings, correspondence or other campaign evidence; or
  • otherwise participate in a Noise Pollution UK activity.

Individual forms may also display a shorter privacy notice explaining the particular information collected through that form.

3. Information we may collect

The information collected depends on how you interact with us.

Petition information

This may include:

  • your name;
  • email address;
  • postcode or general area;
  • your connection to the affected area;
  • your petition declaration;
  • whether you have chosen to remain involved;
  • the relevant campaign reference; and
  • controlled information identifying how you reached the petition.

Noise-report information

This may include:

  • the date and time of the noise event;
  • whether the noise is continuing or has stopped;
  • its approximate duration;
  • the type or character of the noise;
  • its effect on your home life or normal activities;
  • an approximate location or postcode area;
  • information needed to distinguish repeated events; and
  • your name and contact details where you choose to provide them.

Anonymous reports will not intentionally require your name or contact details.

Campaign participation and letter requests

This may include:

  • your name;
  • email address;
  • delivery details where required;
  • your local campaign;
  • your communication preferences; and
  • records of campaign participation or correspondence.

Contact enquiries

When you contact us, we may collect:

  • your name;
  • email address;
  • the contents of your enquiry;
  • relevant correspondence; and
  • any information you voluntarily provide.

Please do not include unnecessary sensitive personal information in an email or free-text field.

Recordings and supporting evidence

Where evidence is accepted, it may include:

  • audio or video recordings;
  • the date and time of recording;
  • an approximate recording location;
  • file and integrity information;
  • relevant correspondence; and
  • information needed to establish the origin and reliability of the evidence.

Public versions should remove or reduce unnecessary personal identifiers, precise residential locations and other information that could create avoidable risks. The constitution requires wider publication and analysis to use anonymised or aggregated information wherever reasonably possible.

Technical information

Our website and service providers may process limited technical information such as:

  • IP address;
  • browser and device information;
  • date and time of access;
  • security and error logs;
  • cookie preferences; and
  • interactions with embedded forms or videos.

More information is provided in our Cookie Policy.

4. Why we use personal information

Noise Pollution UK may use personal information to:

  • record and verify genuine petition support;
  • administer campaign membership and participation;
  • receive, organise and analyse noise-event reports;
  • identify recurring noise patterns;
  • communicate with residents and campaign participants;
  • fulfil requests for campaign information or letters;
  • respond to enquiries;
  • prepare evidence-led representations to operators and authorities;
  • protect forms and systems against spam, misuse or fraudulent submissions;
  • manage data-protection requests and complaints;
  • maintain appropriate campaign and governance records; and
  • comply with legal obligations.

Personal information will not be sold, traded or used for unrelated commercial purposes.

5. Our lawful bases

The lawful basis depends on the particular activity.

Legitimate interests

We propose to rely principally on legitimate interests where processing is necessary to:

  • administer lawful, evidence-led environmental-noise campaigns;
  • record and verify genuine support;
  • organise reports from campaign participants;
  • communicate about a report or requested activity;
  • compile proportionate evidence;
  • prevent misuse or fraudulent submissions; and
  • protect the security and integrity of our systems.

Those interests must be balanced against the rights and interests of the people concerned. Noise Pollution UK will maintain an appropriate legitimate-interests assessment and will not collect information where the same purpose can reasonably be achieved using less personal information. The ICO requires organisations relying on legitimate interests to identify the interest, demonstrate necessity and consider the person’s rights and freedoms.

Consent

We rely on consent where you voluntarily choose to:

  • receive campaign updates;
  • remain involved after signing a petition;
  • allow a particular item of identifiable evidence to be used or disclosed where consent is required; or
  • provide optional information for a clearly explained purpose that requires consent.

You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us. Withdrawal does not make any earlier lawful use invalid.

Legal obligation

We may process information where necessary to:

  • comply with data-protection law;
  • respond to a valid legal requirement;
  • maintain necessary governance or financial records;
  • handle a legal claim; or
  • protect and exercise legal rights.

The ICO requires a privacy notice to identify the applicable lawful bases, retention arrangements, recipients and individual rights.

6. Health and wellbeing information

Noise Pollution UK does not require medical records, diagnoses, medication details or a detailed medical history.

A noise-report form may ask about practical effects such as sleep disturbance or interference with ordinary home life. Please provide only the minimum information necessary to describe the effect of the reported noise.

Where optional information would reveal information about a person’s physical or mental health, it may constitute special-category information. We will only intentionally collect or use such information where an appropriate Article 6 lawful basis and an additional special-category condition apply. Where explicit consent is the selected condition, the relevant form must clearly request that consent at the point of collection.

7. Who we may share information with

We may share information with service providers that help us operate the website and campaign systems, including providers of:

  • website and domain hosting;
  • online forms;
  • email and email forwarding;
  • data storage and backup;
  • video hosting and embedded media; and
  • security and technical support.

Current services may include Zoho Forms, Porkbun hosting and email services, Microsoft email services and Google/YouTube video services.

These providers may process information on our behalf under their contractual terms and data-protection arrangements. Zoho describes customer form-response data as information entrusted to it for processing and makes data-processing terms available to customers.

Where necessary and proportionate, we may also share relevant information with:

  • the operator associated with a reported noise source;
  • local authorities and environmental-health services;
  • environmental regulators;
  • elected representatives;
  • professional or technical advisers;
  • legal advisers, courts or tribunals; and
  • another appropriate body involved in investigating or resolving a campaign issue.

We will normally use anonymised, redacted or aggregated information where identification is unnecessary.

We will not routinely disclose petition signatories’ email addresses, full postcodes or identifiable report details publicly.

8. Process Bridge and the forms platform

The Zoho Forms subscription currently used by Noise Pollution UK is purchased and held by Darren Field trading as Process Bridge.

Darren Field trading as Process Bridge voluntarily makes access to the platform available to Noise Pollution UK without charge as donated technical support.

The account, invoice and payment arrangement does not give Process Bridge ownership of, or independent control over, Noise Pollution UK personal information.

Neither Darren Field trading as Process Bridge nor Process Bridge Ltd may use Noise Pollution UK personal information for its own commercial, customer, marketing, product-development, profiling, research or other independent purposes.

9. International processing

Some technology providers may store or access information outside the United Kingdom.

Where this occurs, Noise Pollution UK will review the provider’s data-processing terms and the safeguards used for international transfers. These may include UK adequacy regulations, approved contractual clauses or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

The ICO requires organisations to explain international transfers and the relevant safeguards where applicable.

10. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the stated campaign or administrative purpose.

Our proposed retention approach is:

Petition records

Confirmed petition records will normally be retained while the petition and associated campaign remain active and for up to 12 months after the relevant petition or campaign activity closes.

After that, identifying details should be deleted or anonymised unless they remain necessary for an active complaint, investigation or legal process.

Anonymised petition totals and area-level statistics may be retained longer.

Campaign-update preferences

Contact information used for campaign updates will be retained until:

  • you unsubscribe;
  • you ask us to delete it; or
  • the relevant campaign communication activity ends.

A minimal suppression record may be retained where necessary to ensure that an unsubscribe request continues to be respected.

Noise reports and evidence

Noise reports and identifiable supporting evidence will be reviewed while the relevant campaign, complaint, investigation or legal route remains active.

When identifiable information is no longer necessary, it should be:

  • deleted;
  • reduced;
  • redacted; or
  • converted into anonymised or aggregated evidence.

Retention should be reviewed at least annually.

Campaign-letter requests

Delivery and contact information used only to fulfil a campaign-letter request will normally be deleted within 90 days after fulfilment, unless the person separately chooses to remain involved.

Contact enquiries

General enquiry correspondence will normally be retained for up to 12 months after the enquiry is resolved, unless a longer period is needed because it forms part of an ongoing campaign, complaint or legal record.

Invalid and test records

Spam, invalid, duplicate and test submissions should normally be deleted within 30 days.

Technical and security records

Technical and security logs will be kept only for the period reasonably required for security, fault investigation and abuse prevention.

The ICO permits organisations to state either a specific period or clear criteria for deciding retention, but requires unnecessary personal information to be periodically reviewed and deleted.

11. Embedded forms and videos

Our website may include Zoho Forms and videos hosted through YouTube and displayed using the FV Player plugin.

When an embedded form or video loads, the external provider may receive technical information from your browser and may use cookies or similar technologies.

Google states that websites embedding YouTube content can cause the browser to send information to Google, and YouTube may use cookies depending on the visitor’s settings and consent choices.

Please read our Cookie Policy for further information and available controls.

12. Security and access

Noise Pollution UK will take proportionate technical and organisational steps to protect personal information.

These include:

  • restricting access to authorised people who need it;
  • using secure account credentials;
  • reviewing platform permissions;
  • protecting exports and evidence records;
  • separating campaign information from unrelated commercial records;
  • avoiding unnecessary personal information in email notifications;
  • maintaining backups where appropriate; and
  • reviewing and deleting information that is no longer needed.

No internet-based system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we will act proportionately to the nature and sensitivity of the information involved.

13. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and lawful basis, you may have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of your personal information;
  • correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
  • ask for information to be erased;
  • ask us to restrict its use;
  • object to particular processing;
  • receive certain information in a portable format;
  • withdraw consent where processing relies on consent; and
  • complain about how your information has been handled.

Some rights are subject to legal limitations and may not apply in every circumstance. The rights available can depend on the lawful basis being used.

Your right to object

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests.

To object or exercise another data-protection right, email:

contact@noisepollution.co.uk

Please provide enough information for us to understand and respond to your request. We may need to take proportionate steps to confirm your identity before disclosing personal information.

14. Complaints

Please contact Noise Pollution UK first so that we have an opportunity to review and resolve your concern.

Email: contact@noisepollution.co.uk

You also have the right to complain to the UK data-protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office.

15. Automated decision-making

Noise Pollution UK does not use personal information to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when:

  • our forms or campaign activities change;
  • a new service provider is introduced;
  • our retention arrangements change;
  • data-protection law or guidance changes; or
  • the organisation expands into additional campaigns.

The latest version will be published on this page with its revision date.