The information about you that we collect and process will evolve over time. You will always be aware of what that information is because it will be actively contributed, either by you or someone on your behalf. There is no obligation on you to contribute any information - it is all entirely voluntary. If there is some information you are not comfortable contributing, you can choose to omit it. We are grateful for whatever you choose to contribute.

We will make sure that any information we request is relevant. If you are only interested in assisting our COVID work, we will not ask you for information that will not be used as part of it.

Why we process information about your health

We process your information about your health so that:

If you have opted into the ZOE Health Study, we also process your data in order to better understand general public health, individual health and their relationship with lifestyle, behaviours, diet and other factors. 

Specifically, with this data:

Our legal basis for processing this type of data is that we have your consent to do so.

Our servers automatically collect some information (see below for more details), but none of that will be used in our health research without your explicit consent.

We do all the above because ZOE strives to produce good science. We believe that making the results of our research widely available maximises its positive scientific impact. ZOE is committed to helping people live to their fullest through understanding individual health responses in the real world and using that to personalise lifestyle recommendations. The science that we generate using the data collected via this app will better empower ZOE to fulfil this mission.

Our legal basis

Our legal basis for processing your health data is that you consented to it. You are welcome to withdraw your consent at any time, though this means we will then delete the data that you have given us. You are also welcome to contribute some information to us, but not all. Everything is potentially useful.

If you wish us to stop processing your sensitive personal data, you may withdraw your consent at any time by emailing us at leavecovidtracking@joinzoe.com. When you withdraw your consent, we will delete all sensitive personal data we hold about you.

How long do we store health data?

Because of the nature of the research we carry out, we are unable to set any particular time limit on the storage of your sensitive personal data, but we will keep it under regular review and ensure that it is kept no longer than necessary.

One way in which we hope to support the app financially, is to help other organisations, such as external academic institutions, research organisations and commercial organisations to design and recruit for specific research studies for which we might then charge a fee. Supporting such research studies is a means by which we can further our aim of improving the world’s general understanding of disease.

Since your privacy is important to us, and we will not be in the business of selling data, research studies would always be “opt in” whereby the choice to participate is entirely within your control. If we think you are suitable for one of these studies, we may send you an invite giving you the option to participate. In some cases, it will be up to you to contact the organisation running the study, in other cases we will contact them on your behalf, but whatever happens, we would first obtain explicit consent from you before taking any action - and there is absolutely no obligation to accept.

We may use information about you to identify if a study would be suitable for you (for example, a study might be designed for people with diabetes). We will not give any information about you, including your contact details, to any collaborator unless you ask us to do so.

Each study is different. Most will have their own additional privacy notice, which will explain what is involved in the study (what information is collected, what it is for and who is conducting it). Sometimes the study will use data you have contributed through the app, but it will not necessarily do so. If we invite you to participate in a research study, we will explain all this to you at the appropriate time.

We also collect some information about you that is not itself of a sensitive nature:

We use this information for the following purposes:

Every such email will include a link you can click to opt-out from receiving them. We will not sell your contact information to third-parties.

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Automatically collected data

If you use our app or visit our website, then we will also collect other information about you. Some of this information is direct: such as your IP address, the type of browser you are using, the make of your mobile phone and the contents of cookies we set (see our Cookie Policy). We also use tracking pixels in email (see under “tracking pixels” for more details).

On our website, we also use third party analytics providers such as Google Analytics, who collect similar information and then supply us with further analysis derived from it.

We process this data in order to:

This information is, by default, automatically sent by web browsers and apps. There are technical ways you can obscure this information (for example by changing the information your browser supplies to us) but our systems cannot avoid processing information that is sent to them.

We routinely delete our server logs after 30 days, unless we are aware of any serious problem that requires investigation (for example fraud or a hostile attack to our systems), in which case we may preserve any information necessary for that investigation for as long as it is needed. Once the investigation is concluded, we will delete the data.

We also use information about how you were referred to our website (if available) and how you move within our website (collected in various ways, including from information sent by your browser and cookies) for the same reasons, but this data may be kept for longer periods, for example in order to help us understand whether our marketing is properly directed.

Our use of cookies is a little more complicated, so we have written a detailed Cookie Policy, explaining what cookies are; our additional reasons for processing them and explaining in detail how we process different kinds of cookies.

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Tracking pixels

Modern mailing list systems, such as our supplier Mailchimp, place a pixel (a small image the size of a dot) in each email they send. When displaying the email, most mail systems will collect the image from Mailchimp’s servers. Each pixel is unique, so Mailchimp can detect that the email has been opened. 

Most mail software will let you switch off this behaviour, but it is very useful for us because it allows us to know whether there is a problem with emails we send out. It also allows us to work out what proportion of our emails are actually read. We do not want to send you emails you do not want. This way, we can detect any systematic problems with the mail we send out.

Our legal basis for processing this information is our legitimate interest in developing, marketing and running the app.

We keep your contact information for 6 years after the last communication with us, or the last use of the app (whichever is longer), in order for us to be able to pursue or defend any legal claim against us, then we delete it.

The app also allows you to input information about other people in addition to your own by making a separate profile for them. If the other person is able to understand the concept of consent, for example if they are a mentally competent adult or mature child, then you must only do this if they have given their consent.

Younger children may not be mature enough to give consent, but they may be able to understand what you are doing. If so, you should explain to them what you are doing and what may happen to information about them to the extent they are capable of understanding. You should also try to take into account their views, even if you make the ultimate decision. We trust you to know your child and to do what is appropriate given their level of maturity.

We use third parties to process all of the above information on our behalf for various tasks. When we allow them access to your data, we do not permit them to use it for their own purposes. We have in place with each processor, a contract that requires them only to process the data on our instructions and to take proper care in using it. They are not permitted to keep the data after our relationship with them has ended.

We use some processors for running our website, app and maintaining their security as well as for maintaining our databases and database security.

We use a second group of processors for managing our relationship with users, including emails and mailing lists as well as for conducting research about our users and their use of the app.

For user interaction, such as giving webinars, carrying out polls during webinars or to field questions from users), we also use a number of external services which may process information about you for their own purposes. For example, if you access a webinar on YouTube and have an account with YouTube, the operators of YouTube will be aware that you have done so.

In these cases, we process the information about you in order to give the presentation to you or answer your questions. We do not otherwise use any information we obtain in this way, but sites like YouTube will make their own use of it and you should consult their privacy notices to understand any privacy implications of their use.

Because the work we do takes place in the UK, the UK’s “General Data Protection Regulation” (GDPR) applies to our processing of information about you (otherwise known as  “personal data”), even if you do not live in the UK. The GDPR regulates the export of data outside the UK.

Some of our processors (see above) are based outside the UK. This means that we will sometimes send your personal data to them to be processed on our behalf outside the UK.

The GDPR permits us to send data to somewhere that has been held to have a comparable level of personal data protection, but if it does not, we require each processor to sign standard contractual clauses (contractual terms approved by the Information Commissioner) requiring them to protect your personal data in accordance with the GDPR. Some of those clauses are enforceable by you directly against the processor. In addition, we may impose additional provisions of our own if we believe it is necessary to do so in order to ensure that your personal data is at least as well protected after it leaves the UK as it was in the UK.

Under the GDPR you have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals rights under the GDPR.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please email, call or write to our data protection officer using the contact details given below.

The GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns or telephone: +44 0303 123 1113.