Privacy and cookie notice

The Film and Television Charity ("we", "us") is the controller of your personal information. We decide why and how it is used. 

The Film and Television Charity, 22 Golden Square, London W1F 9AD. Registered charity no. 1099660. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales, no. 04816786. 

Our Data Protection Officer is [CONFIRM]. Contact them at [email protected] or by post at the address above.

This notice covers anyone we hold information about, including: 

• people who use our services, apply for grants or call our Support Line
• donors, fundraisers and people who leave us a gift in their Will
• event attendees
• newsletter subscribers
• people who take part in our research and surveys
• industry partners and business contacts
• website visitors

We may give you a shorter notice when we collect information for a specific service.

Information you give us. This usually includes your name, address, email address, phone number, and your contact and marketing preferences. Depending on why you contact us, it may also include:

• donation and payment records (card details are handled by our payment providers, not stored by us)
• details you give on forms, surveys or when you contact us
• event bookings

If you apply for support or a grant, we may also ask about your personal finances, household, health, disabilities, other financial support you receive, your employment history, your bank details (so we can pay you) and identity documents (so we can check it's you).

Information from others. We may receive information about you from:

• CiC, who run our Support Line, to check eligibility, investigate complaints or make referrals
• our payment and donation platforms, when you give to us

Information collected automatically when you use our website. See our cookie notice below.

Some information is especially sensitive. The law calls it "special category data". For us this is mainly information about your physical or mental health, and sometimes other protected characteristics you choose to tell us. Information about financial hardship is not a special category in law, but we treat it with the same care.

We only ask for sensitive information when we need it to assess and deliver support. Access is limited to the staff who support you.

The legal condition we rely on for each service is:

• Grants and financial support
  • Reason: To assess your application and circumstances
  • Legal condition: Support for individuals with a disability or medical condition (Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, paragraph 16)
• Support Line (with CiC)
  • Reason: To check eligibility, handle complaints and make referrals
  • Legal condition: Support for individuals with a disability or medical condition (Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, paragraph 16)
• Wellbeing and advice services
  • Reason: To provide the support you ask for
  • Legal condition: Support for individuals with a disability or medical condition (Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, paragraph 16) 
• Wellbeing check-ins with Action for Freelancers
  • Reason: To make sure your support needs are met
  • Legal condition: Your explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a))
• The Looking Glass Survey and other research
  • Reason: To understand wellbeing across the industry
  • Legal condition: Your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)), processed in anonymised form

We can only use your information when the law allows. The table shows our main uses.

• What we do: Assess and pay grants, and deliver our services
  • Legal basis: Contract
• What we do: Process donations and send receipts
  • Legal basis: Contract
• What we do: Claim Gift Aid
  • Legal basis: Legal obligations (HMRC Gift Aid record keeping)
• What we do: Keep financial and accounting records
  • Legal basis: Legal obligations
• What we do: Send email newsletters and updates you signed up for
  • Legal basis: Consent, or the charitable purposes soft opt-in (see section 6)
• What we do: Email business contracts at work addresses
  • Legal basis: Legitimate interests: telling industry organisations about our work and fundraising
• What we do: Understand how people use our website
  • Legal basis: Consent, or legitimate interests where the cookie is exempt (see cookie notice)
• What we do: Show you our adverts on social media
  • Legal basis: Consent via cookies
• What we do: Share an encrypted supporter list with Meta or LinkedIn for advertising
  • Legal basis: Consent, or legitimate interest
• What we do: Run research and surveys, including The Looking Glass Survey
  • Legal basis: Consent (explicit consent where you share health or other sensitive information)
• What we do: Manage our database, keep it accurate and secure
  • Legal basis: Legitimate interests: running the charity efficiently and securely
• What we do: Handle complaints and legal claims
  • Legal basis: Legitimate interests, or legal obligations

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have checked that our interests are not outweighed by yours. You can ask us for details of that assessment, and you can object (see section 11).

Email and text: We will only send you marketing by email or text if you've agreed, or if the charitable purposes soft opt-in applies. 

The charitable purposes soft opt-in lets charities send emails or texts about their charitable work to people who have given their details directly to us while showing an interest in or supporting our work, on or after 5 February 2026. We will always give you a simple way to say no when we collect your details, and in every message after that. It does not apply to people whose details we collected before 5 February 2026 unless they get in touch again and are offered the choice. 

Business contacts: If we have your work email address as a contact at an organisation, we may email you about our work and fundraising. Every message includes an unsubscribe link. 

Stopping marketing: Click "unsubscribe" in any email, or contact us. We keep a minimal suppression record so we don't contact you again. 

Research into supporters: We do not carry out wealth screening, prospect research or profiling of our supporters. 

Leaving a gift in your Will: If you're thinking about leaving us a gift in your Will, we ask you to fill in a short form first so we can check your eligibility.  

Social media advertising: We upload supporter lists in an encrypted file to Meta or LinkedIn, so we can show our adverts to people who already support us. You can ask us to leave you out at any time.  

We never sell or rent your information, and we never share it with other organisations for their marketing. 

We do not make decisions about you that have a legal or similarly significant effect using solely automated means. A person always reviews grant applications and support requests.  

Our database provider, Beacon, offers AI tools that help our staff write emails and build database filters. Beacon says these tools keep data in the UK and don't use it to train public AI models. They don't make decisions about individuals.

We use trusted suppliers ("processors") to run our systems. They can only use your information on our instructions and under a written contract. 

Our supporter and beneficiary database. We use Beacon CRM, provided by Beacon Apps Ltd, to store and manage information about the people we work with. Beacon acts as our processor. Your information is stored on servers in the UK (London), run by Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Beacon is ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certified. Trading address: 4-6 New Inn Broadway, London EC2A 3PR. ICO registration ZA555583. Beacon's security page. 

Other suppliers:

• Mailchimp: sends our email newsletters, campaign emails and updates
• Fundraise Up: Processes online donations 
• Stripe: Processes card payments 
• Salesforce: Customer relationship management software 
• Typeform: Feedback and research surveys 
• Microsoft: Email and office systems 
• Google Analytics: Website analytics 
• Craft CMS: Website host provider  
• Formie: Operates our Mentally Health Production Tool  
• CiC: Live chat

Organisations that make their own decisions (independent controllers)

• We share information with Health Assured, who run our 24-hour Support Line, for eligibility, complaints and referrals. See Health Assured's privacy policy. 
• We may also share information with professional advisers, auditors, HMRC, regulators, and the police where the law requires or allows. 

Most of our information stays in the UK. Some suppliers process information in other countries, including the United States.  

When this happens, we protect your information using safeguards recognised in UK law, such as a UK adequacy decision or the UK's approved international data transfer contracts. Contact us for more detail or a copy of these safeguards.

We keep information only as long as we need it, then delete or anonymise it. 

We may keep information longer if there is a complaint or legal claim.

You have the right to: 

• see the information we hold about you (a subject access request). We will carry out a reasonable and proportionate search. 
• correct information that is wrong or incomplete 
• delete your information where we no longer have a good reason to keep it. We'll keep a minimal record so we don't contact you again. 
• restrict how we use it in some situations 
• object to us using it for legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time 
• move information you gave us to another organisation, where we use it under consent or contract 
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting what we did before 

To use any right, contact our DPO (section 1). It's free. We may ask you to confirm your identity. We'll reply within one month. If your request is complex we can extend this by up to two further months, and we'll tell you why.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us. You can contact our DPO by email, post, phone or through any of our channels. 

We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it properly, keep you updated, and tell you the outcome without undue delay.  

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at any time. We'd appreciate the chance to put things right first. ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113. 

The Looking Glass Survey is our research into the mental health and wellbeing of people working in UK film, TV and cinema. It is anonymous. We don't collect your name, email or IP address with your answers. If you include something identifying in a free-text answer, we treat it as confidential. We publish only anonymised, combined findings, use them to design our services and share insights with industry partners. Form Assembly processes the survey for us. 

The wellbeing check-in on our website is anonymous. If you ask for your action plan by email, we link your email address to your check-in so we can send it. We don't use this for reporting.

Our services are for people working in the industry. You must be 18 or over to sign up to our newsletter. 

We use technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including access controls and encryption. Only people who need it can see it, and they have a duty of confidentiality. 

If a personal data breach happens we will report it to the ICO within 72 hours where required. If it is likely to put you at high risk, we will tell you without undue delay.

We review this notice regularly. If we make a significant change, we'll tell you by email or on our website. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. 

Links to Articles, Sources etc.  

• Current privacy and cookie notice 
• Beacon terms and data processing schedule 
• Beacon sub-processors 
• Beacon trust and security 
• Beacon privacy policy (controller notice) 
• Working with Beacon AI 
• ICO: the DUAA, what it means for organisations 
• SI 2026/82 reg 7: complaints from 19 June 2026 
• Lewis Silkin: ICO charitable soft opt-in guidance, 28 April 2026 
• Mills & Reeve: soft opt-in cannot be applied retrospectively 
• Policy Pros: DUAA cookie exemptions and PECR fines 
• Costello Advisory: ICO storage and access guidance, 29 April 2026 
• Squire Patton Boggs: complaints to controllers 
• Bratby Law: recognised legitimate interests