Last updated: September 2025
At Doctors of the World UK (together with our affiliates, “our”, “we”, or “Doctors of the World”), your privacy is very important to us. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes and governs our use and disclosure of the information we collect on or through the Doctors of the World UK website at “doctorsoftheworld.org.uk” (“Site”), when you opt to receive communications from Doctors of the World UK, as well as information that we collect through other means about people who contact us, vendors, employees and other staff members, volunteers, and service users. This Privacy Policy also describes the types of personal information collected by us, how we use, share, and protect it, the choices available to you regarding how we use the personal information.
“Personal Information” or “personal data” is any information that directly or indirectly identifies you personally or otherwise relates to a living individual, such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, job applications, photographs, employment records, customer files, bank details and correspondence to and from an individual. It also includes web browsing information (e.g., cookie data) and IP addresses.
CONTROLLER
For the purposes of applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation, Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, Doctors of the World UK is the controller and responsible for your personal information. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 03483008. Our registered office is at The People’s Place, 80-92 High Street, London E15 2NE. Our data protection officer (“DPO”) is the Executive Director.
HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US?
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy or our processing of your personal information, please contact:
Doctors of the World UK
The People’s Place
80-92 High St
London
E15 2NE
Email: fundraising@doctorsoftheworld.org.uk
Telephone Number: 02071675789
NOTIFICATION OF CHANGE OF PRIVACY & COOKIE POLICY
Doctors of the World UK may update this Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy from time to time. These changes will be posted on this Site where appropriate and possible. Please be sure to check this Site periodically in order to keep up to date with the changes in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. We will indicate at the top of this Privacy Policy when last updates were made.
HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Doctors of the World UK may collect your personal information in the following circumstances:
- When you give it to us directly:
You may give us your personal information directly when you decide to interact with us and contact Doctors of the World UK regarding our activities, volunteering enquires, signing up to newsletters, register for an event, attend one of our clinics, send or receive information, engage with our social media or make a donation to us. You can also provide us with personal information via email, post and telephone. - When you give it to us indirectly:
You may give us your information indirectly when you interact with third parties with whom we work. For example, where you’ve made a donation to Just Giving or Enthuse. These independent third parties will pass your data to Doctors of the World UK where you have indicated that you wish to support Doctors of the World UK and have given your consent, or it is a necessary part of completing a contract with you. - When the information is publicly available:
We might also obtain personal information about individuals who may be interested in giving major gifts to charities or organisations like Doctors of the World UK. In this scenario, Doctors of the World UK may seek to find out more about these individuals, their interests and motivations for giving through publicly available information. This information may include newspaper or other media coverage, open postings on social media sites such as LinkedIn, and data from Companies House. Doctors of the World UK will not retain publicly available data relating to major donors without their consent, which will be sought at the earliest practical opportunity. - When we use automated technologies or interactions (Cookies):
As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal information by using cookies and other similar technologies. Cookies are a useful way for us to understand how supporters use our website. We may collect information about services you use and how you use them, like when you watch a video on YouTube, or visit our website. Please see our Cookie Policy for more information.
WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
The information we collect from you directly or from third parties with whom we work, may include:
- Identity Data: first name, last name, any previous names, title, marital status, date of birth, age, gender, immigration status, passport, visa, driver licence;
- Contact Data: address, email address, telephone number, contact preferences;
- Financial Data: bank account details for setting up a regular direct debit, credit card details for processing credit card payments, taxpayer status for claiming Gift Aid;
- Employment Data: employer details for processing a payroll gift;
- Health Data: Patient information and health data disclosed to us during consultations;
- Technical Data: device information and data about your interactions with our Site, IP address, cookies;
- Marketing and Communications Data: your preferences in receiving marketing from us and third parties and your communication preferences; and
- Usage Data: information about your interactions with us, including details about our contacts with you through email, SMS, post, on the phone or in person (i.e., the date, time, and method of contact), details about donations you make to us, events or activities that you register for or attend and any other support you provide to us.
Sensitive Personal Information
We do not usually collect “sensitive personal information” about you (e.g. information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious of philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health data, or sexual orientation) unless there is a clear reason for doing so, such as participation in an event (for example a marathon) where we need such information to ensure we provide appropriate facilities for you. We may also collect health information if you tell us about your experiences (for example, if you act as a case study for us) or seek services from one of our health clinics and attend a health consultation; however, we will seek your explicit consent prior to collecting such sensitive personal information.
HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?
Legal Basis
The law requires us to have a legal basis for collecting and using your personal information. We rely on one or more of the following legal bases:
- Performance of a contract with you: Where we need to perform the contract, we are about to enter or have entered into with you.
- Legitimate interests: We may use your personal information where it is necessary to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests, for example to prevent fraud and enable us to give you the best and most secure customer experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights (both positive and negative) before we process your personal information for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal information for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
- Legal obligation: We may use your personal information where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to. We will identify the relevant legal obligation when we rely on this legal basis.
- Consent: We rely on consent only where we have obtained your active agreement to use your personal information for a specified purpose, for example if you subscribe to an email newsletter.
Purposes for which we will use your personal information
We have set out below a description of all the ways we plan to use the various categories of your personal information, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
| Purpose / Use | Type of data | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| To process any donations, we may receive from you | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data (c) Financial Data (d) Employment Data | Performance of a contract with you; and/ or our legitimate interest in operating our organisation and receiving charitable donations |
| To provide you with services, information or products you have requested | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data | Performance of a contract with you; and/ or our legitimate interest in operating our organisation |
| To provide you with information about our work or activities, that you have asked to receive | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data (c) Marketing Data (d) Usage Data | Performance of a contract with you; and / or our legitimate interest in operating our organisation and carrying out marketing |
| To send you items you have purchased through our shop | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data | Performance of a contract |
| To invite you to participate in voluntary surveys, campaigns or research | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data (c) Marketing Data (d) Usage Data | Legitimate interest in operating our organisation and developing our services through surveys, campaigns and conducting research |
| For administrative purposes e.g. we may contact you about a donation you have made to us or an event you have registered or expressed interest for | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data | Performance of a contract |
| For internal record keeping, such as the management of donations, feedback or complaints | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data | Performance of a contract; and / or our legitimate interest in operating our organisation |
| To analyse and improve content and operation of our online platforms | (a) Technical Data | Legitimate interest in operating our organisation and developing our services |
| To analyse the personal information we collect about you, to give a greater understanding of your interests, preferences and scale of potential donations. This is to ensure that we contact you in the most appropriate way and to ensure we do not send you unwanted communications | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data (c) Technical Data (d) Usage Data | Necessary for our legitimate interests (to carry out direct marketing, develop our products/services and grow our business); and / or Consent, having obtained your prior consent to receiving direct |
| For the purpose of, or in connection with, any legal proceedings | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data | Legal obligation |
| To obtain legal advice or to establish, exercise or defend legal rights | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data | Legal obligation |
| We will use the personal information to protect against potential fraud. We may verify with third parties the information collected in the course of processing a gift, event registration or other donation. If you use a credit or debit card on the website, we may use card authorisation and fraud screening services to verify that your card information and address match the information that you supplied to us and that the card being used has not been reported lost or stolen. | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data (c) Financial Data | Legal obligation and legitimate interest |
| To provide you direct care during consultations | (a) Identity Data (b) Contact Data (c) Health Data | Performance of a contract and / or consent in respect of processing your health data |
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
We may contact you for fundraising or marketing purposes (e.g. marketing newsletters, updates, and alerts) by email or SMS if you have given us your consent for us to contact you in this manner. Where we have an existing relationship with you and we wish to contact you about similar products or services in which you may be interested, we will rely on our legitimate business interests for sending such fundraising or marketing information. If you have provided us with your postal address or telephone number, we may send you information about our work, activities or other communications outlined above by direct mail or by telephone unless you have told us that you would prefer not to hear from us in this way. You can change your communications preferences at any time by contacting us via email: info@doctorsoftheworld.org.uk or by telephone: 02071675789
If you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, we will maintain your details on a suppression list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you for marketing purposes. However, we may still need to contact you for certain administrative purposes, including (but not limited to):
- Processing a donation you have made and any related Gift Aid;
- Providing you with the information you need in order to participate in an activity or event for which you have registered;
- Explaining and apologising where we have made a mistake.
Credit and debit card payment information
If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us, purchase a shop item, donate online or over the phone, we will ensure that this is done securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. We do not store your credit or debit card details, following the completion of your transaction. All card details and validation codes are destroyed once the donation has been processed.
DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES
Doctors of the World UK will not sell, share or distribute customer details with any 3rd parties.
Your personal information will be shared with and processed by us, our affiliates and certain service providers as necessary to fulfil the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We use a number of third-party service providers to process personal information on our behalf including legal, tax and financial professional advisers, IT and data security providers, recruitment firms, consultants, mailing house, and other service providers. We will ensure that anyone who provides a service to, or for us, enters into a contract that protects your personal information in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy laws.
We may aggregate or de-identify the information so that a third party would not be likely to link data to you, your computer, or your device. Aggregation means that we combine the non-personal information of numerous people together so that the data does not relate to any individual. “De-identify” means that we attempt to remove or change certain identifiers that may be used to link data to a particular person.
TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
To the extent your personal information is transferred to countries outside of the UK or the European Economic Area, such transfers will only be made in accordance with applicable UK and EU privacy laws. For further information about the safeguards used, please contact DotW Safeguarding Lead, the Head of Services.
HOW WE SAFEGUARD YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We have implemented commercially reasonable controls and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, as well as to maintain the security of our information and information systems in respect of personal information. Appropriate controls (such as restricted access) are placed on our computer systems and used where appropriate. Reasonable measures are taken to ensure physical access to personal information is limited to authorised employees.
When you contact us about your personal information, you may be asked to provide evidence of your identity (e.g., driver’s licence or passport). These types of safeguards are designed to ensure that only you, or someone authorised by you, has access to your file.
Your personal information is kept for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. Therefore, after this period data is destroyed, erased or anonymised. All personal information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
The period for which we will hold your personal information will vary and will be determined by the following criteria:
(a) The purpose for which we are using it. We are required to retain the personal information for as long as is necessary to satisfy or meet the purposes for which it was obtained including applicable legal or regulatory requirements; and
(b) Legal Obligations. Laws or regulations may set a minimum period for which we must retain your personal information.
We take reasonable steps using appropriate technical methods in the circumstances to delete or destroy your personal information when we no longer have a legal basis to retain it or to ensure that the personal information is anonymised or irrecoverable.
WHAT DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE?
In certain circumstances, data privacy laws may give rights to individuals in respect of personal information that Doctors of the World UK hold about them, for example:
(c) the right to refuse to provide any personal information and the right to object at any time to the processing of their personal information;
(d) the right to confirm whether we process their personal information and to obtain information regarding the processing of their personal information and access to the personal information about them that Doctors of the World UK holds;
(e) where consent was provided for certain processing activities, the right to withdraw their consent to the collection, processing, use and/or disclosure of their personal information at any time. Please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of any collection, processing, use or disclosure undertaken before such withdrawal and that Doctors of the World UK may still be entitled to process the personal information if it has another legitimate reason (other than consent) or a consent exception for doing so;
(f) the right to receive a copy of some personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or request that Doctors of the World UK transmit that data to a third party where this is technically feasible;
(g) the right to request that Doctors of the World UK rectify or correct their personal information if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
(h) the right to request that Doctors of the World UK erase their personal information;
(i) the right to request that Doctors of the World UK restrict, anonymise or block its processing of their personal information; and
(j) where applicable, the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) if they think that any of their rights have been infringed by Doctors of the World UK.
You can exercise your rights at any time by contacting us at:
Doctors of the World UK
The People’s Place
80-92 High Street London E15 2NE
Tel: 02071675789
Email: info@doctorsofworld.org.uk
We are typically able to resolve privacy questions or concerns promptly and effectively. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from us, you may have the option to escalate concerns to the ICO.
LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES
Please note that this Website may contain links to other websites. These third-party sites are not subject to this Privacy Policy, and we recommend that you check the privacy and security policies of each website that you visit. We are only responsible for the privacy and security of the personal information that we process as a data controller and have no responsibility for the actions of other third-party data controllers in relation to your personal information.
Doctors of the World UK’s Refund Policy
At Doctors of the World UK, our supporters are really important to us, and we work hard to ensure you are happy when making a donation. However, we realise that sometimes errors can happen.
Charity law and regulation guide us and all registered charities as to when we are and are not permitted to refund donations. We abide strictly by those laws and regulations. We are only able to refund a donation in certain prescribed circumstances. The Charities Act 2011 can be found here.
If you believe that a donation you have made should be refunded or you wish to speak to our donations team, please do not hesitate to contact us. Email us at fundraising@doctorsoftheworld.org.uk or give us a call on 020 7167 5789.
If you become aware that your card has been used fraudulently, please contact your card provider.
