Summary of how we use your data
- The FA uses your personal data to (as applicable): verify your identity; for prize draws to incentivise survey respondents; to assemble focus groups and/or to conduct demographic analysis.
- Data may be shared with third party research agencies.
- Where we rely on your consent, such as for passing your data to third party research agencies to contact you regarding other research projects, you can withdraw this consent at any time.
- Our privacy policy sets out more details of your data protection rights, including your right to object to certain processing.
What does this privacy policy cover?
This policy describes how The Football Association Limited and other companies in The FA’s group (also referred to as "The FA", "we" or "us") will make use of your data when you respond to one of our surveys.
It also describes your data protection rights, including a right to object to some of the processing which The FA carries out. More information about your rights, and how to exercise them, is set out in the “What rights do I have?” section.
What information do we collect?
We collect and process personal data about you when you complete the survey accompanying the link which has been sent to you. This could include:
- your name;
- your gender;
- age/date of birth;
- email address and phone number;
- postcode (partial or full); and
- any other information as may be requested within the survey.
How do we use this information, and what is the legal basis for this use?
- As required by The FA to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests, in particular:
- verifying your identity;
- communicating with you;
- providing customer services and arranging the delivery or other provision of products, prizes or services;
- to assemble focus groups;
- conducting analysis, obtaining insights and segmenting our fans and participants based on their responses and interactions with us;
- to conduct socio-demographic analysis;
- to help us monitor, improve and protect our products, content, services and websites, both online and offline; and
- we use the data of some individuals to invite them to take part in further market research.
- Where you give us consent:
- we will send you direct marketing in relation to our relevant products and services, or other products and services provided by us, our affiliates and carefully selected partners; and
- on other occasions where we ask you for consent, we will use the data for the purpose which we explain at that time.
- For purposes which are required by law:
- in response to requests by government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.
Withdrawing consent or otherwise objecting to direct marketing
Wherever we rely on your consent, you will always be able to withdraw that consent, although we may have other legal grounds for processing your data for other purposes, such as those set out above. In some cases, we are able to send you direct marketing without your consent, where we rely on our legitimate interests. You have an absolute right to opt-out of direct marketing, or profiling we carry out for direct marketing, at any time. You can do this by following the instructions in the communication where this is an electronic message, or by contacting us using the details set out below.
Who will we share this data with, where and when?
We may share your personal data with Wembley National Stadium Limited for the purposes of improving the services which we offer.
Personal data may be shared with government authorities and/or law enforcement officials if required for the purposes above, if mandated by law or if required for the legal protection of our legitimate interests in compliance with applicable laws.
Personal data may also be shared with third party service providers, who will process it on behalf of The FA for the purposes identified above. Such third parties include providers of website hosting, market research agencies, maintenance, call centre operation and identity checking.
What rights do I have?
You have the right to ask us for a copy of your personal data; to correct, delete or restrict (stop any active) processing of your personal data; and to obtain the personal data you provide to us for a contract or with your consent in a structured, machine readable format.
In addition, you can object to the processing of your personal data in some circumstances (in particular, where we don’t have to process the data to meet a contractual or other legal requirement, or where we are using the data for direct marketing).
These rights may be limited, for example if fulfilling your request would reveal personal data about another person, where it would infringe the rights of a third party (including our rights) or if you ask us to delete information which we are required by law to keep or have compelling legitimate interests in keeping. Relevant exemptions are included in both the GDPR and in the Data Protection Act 2018. We will inform you of relevant exemptions we rely upon when responding to any request you make.
To exercise any of these rights, you can get in touch with us – or our data protection officer – using the details set out below. If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to complain to an EU data protection authority where you live, work or where you believe a breach may have occurred. This is likely to be the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK.
How do I get in touch with you, or your data protection officer?
If you wish to make a data privacy request, you can do so via our online form, which can be found here. We hope that we can satisfy queries you may have about the way we process your data. If you have any concerns about how we process your data, you can get in touch at dataprotection@thefa.com or by writing to: Data Protection Officer, Wembley Stadium, PO Box 1966, London, SW1P 9EQ.
How long will you retain my data?
Where we process personal data for research purposes or with your consent, we process the data until you ask us to stop and for a short period after this (to allow us to implement your requests). We also keep a record of the fact that you have asked us not to send you direct marketing or to process your data indefinitely so that we can respect your request in future.
Where we process personal data in connection with research and analysis, we keep the data for 3 years from the date we end the relevant survey.
Where your data is held on FA systems, then at the end of the retention periods set out above, we will not irrevocably delete your information for another 3 months – your data will be held in an inactive form for this time to ensure that any consequential links across our systems remain intact in the event that your data is removed in a particular location.
