Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
The London Youth Diplomacy Foundation (LYDF) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, number 1211016. We are the "controller" of the personal information described in this policy, which applies to our website at www.lydf.org.uk and the services we offer through it, including MUN Academy and MUNConnect.
For any question about this policy or how we handle personal information, contact:
Email: Alberto Matrino, Safeguarding Lead, alberto@lydf.org.uk
Post: London Youth Diplomacy Foundation, Flat 6 Vale Royal House, 36 Newport Court, London WC2H 7PS
We are entirely volunteer-run. Where this policy refers to "we" processing your information, that work is carried out by our trustees and volunteers, not paid staff.
2. The short version
We collect personal information when you visit our website, sign up to MUN Academy or MUNConnect, subscribe to updates from us, register for London YouthMUN or another LYDF programme, apply to volunteer, or get in touch with us. We use it to run our programmes, keep in touch with you, and meet our legal and safeguarding obligations. We don't sell your information, and we only share it with the small number of organisations that help us run our services. If you're a student aged 13–17, section 8 below explains specifically how this applies to you.
3. Information we collect, and what we use it for
Visiting our website
Our website is hosted on Squarespace. Squarespace collects some technical information whenever you visit, including your IP address, browser and device information, and the pages you view, in order to serve the website to you securely and reliably. We also use Squarespace's built-in analytics to understand how visitors use our site, which may include your approximate location, the pages you visit, and how you arrived at our site. See section 4 (Cookies) for more detail, including which of this requires your consent.
Signing up to MUN Academy or MUNConnect
When you create an account to access MUN Academy, we collect your name, email address, and password, so that we can give you access to our training materials and track your progress through them. If you subscribe to receive updates from us, or sign up for early access to MUNConnect, we collect your name and email address so we can send you the updates you've asked for.
Getting in touch with us
When you contact us through a form on our website, we collect whatever information you provide (typically your name, email address, and the content of your message) so we can respond to you.
Registering for London YouthMUN or another LYDF event
When a school or individual registers for one of our conferences or programmes, we collect information necessary to run the event and keep participants safe, which may include: the names, year groups, and school of participating students; a teacher or delegation leader's contact details; dietary and access requirements; emergency contact details; and payment information for individual delegate fees (processed by Squarespace Payments — see section 6).
Applying to volunteer
If you apply for a volunteer role with us, we collect the information you provide in your application — typically your CV, a covering note, and, where relevant to the role, references. Where a role requires it, we also carry out a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check; this is processed under the specific conditions in UK data protection law that allow criminal record information to be used for safeguarding purposes, and we keep this information only for as long as necessary.
Photos and videos
We use photos and videos from our events (for example, in our Year in Pictures galleries and on social media) to show the impact of our work. Anyone under 18 pictured or named is covered by our Imagery Use Policy, which sets out how we seek consent before publishing.
4. Cookies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Under recent changes to UK law (the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025), these fall into three groups:
Strictly necessary cookies. These let Squarespace serve our website to you securely, and don't require your consent.
Statistical/analytics cookies used only to understand and improve our own site. As of February 2026, UK law no longer requires consent for cookies used solely for this purpose, but we still have to tell you about them clearly and give you an easy way to opt out, which we do through our cookie banner.
All other cookies — including third-party tools like embedded videos, social sharing buttons, or advertising/tracking technologies, still require your consent, given through our cookie banner, before they're used.
You can change your cookie choices at any time through the cookie settings link at the bottom of our website.
5. Marketing emails
If you've supported our work, registered for one of our programmes, or otherwise expressed interest in LYDF, we may email you about similar activities in the future. As a charity, we're able to do this on the basis that you have a clear, free option to opt out at any time, every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also contact us directly to be removed from our mailing list. Where we rely on your specific consent to email you (for example, a newsletter sign-up), you can withdraw that consent in the same way.
6. Who we share information with
We share personal information only where necessary to run our services:
Squarespace, our website hosting provider, processes data to run our website and, where used, our online store and member areas. You can read Squarespace's own privacy policy at squarespace.com/privacy.
The London School of Economics and Political Science as our venue partner, may receive limited attendee information (such as names) for venue security and safeguarding purposes at events held on their premises.
Where we're legally required to: for example, a serious incident report to the Charity Commission, or a safeguarding referral, we share information with the relevant authority.
We don't sell personal information to anyone, for any purpose.
7. International transfers
Some of the organisations we use, including Squarespace, are based in the United States and may process your information outside the UK. Where this happens, we rely on legal safeguards recognised under UK data protection law (such as the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU's Standard Contractual Clauses) to make sure your information stays protected.
8. If you're a student, or otherwise under 18
Most of what LYDF does is for the benefit of students aged 13 to 18, and we've tried to write this policy so it makes sense to you too, not just to parents and teachers.
Most of the personal information we hold about student delegates is given to us by a school or teacher registering a delegation, not by the student directly. Where you sign up to something yourself, like a MUN Academy account or our mailing list, UK law lets anyone aged 13 or over consent to this kind of online sign-up on their own behalf, so you don't need a parent to do this for you. If you're under 13, please ask a parent, guardian or teacher to help you sign up instead.
Whatever your age, you have the same rights as anyone else described in section 10 below, including the right to ask us to delete your information, and if you gave us consent for something when you were younger, you can always ask us to stop and delete it later, even if you're now over 18.
9. How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it:
Event registration and safeguarding records: at least 2 years for safeguarding purposes.
Financial records (including delegate fee payments and donations): at least 6 years, in line with charity accounting requirements.
DBS check outcomes: not kept longer than necessary, in line with DBS Code of Practice guidance, though a record that a check was carried out is kept for longer.
Mailing list and MUN Academy accounts: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete your account.
Unsuccessful volunteer or role applications: 6 months.
10. Your rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:
ask us what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy of it;
ask us to correct information that's inaccurate or incomplete;
ask us to delete your information, in certain circumstances;
object to, or ask us to restrict, certain kinds of processing;
ask us to move your information to another organisation, where this is technically possible; and
withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent (this won't affect anything we did before you withdrew it).
To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 1. We'll respond within one month, and we only need to make reasonable, proportionate efforts to locate your information when we do.
11. Concerns or complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal information, please contact us first using the details above, so we can try to put it right. We handle these under our Complaints Policy. You also have the right to complain directly to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
12. Keeping information secure
We take appropriate technical and organisational steps to protect the personal information we hold, and we expect the same of the organisations we work with.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example as our programmes or the tools we use change. We'll update the date at the top of this page when we do.
Last updated on 10 July 2026.