dressCode Privacy Policy

dressCode, are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, and how we keep it secure.

We will change this Policy in line with legislative changes, so please check this policy on an ongoing basis to keep abreast of any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices you can contact us

Who are we?

dressCode are a charity that is working to raise awareness of Computing Science in schools, with a particular focus on closing the gender gap. dressCode is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) regulated by the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), Scottish Charity number: SC048363.

We only obtain information about you when you contact us or sign up to join a dressCode club. When a pupil signs up for an account, we ask for the following information:

  • Email Address: Used for account creation, login, and password recovery.

  • Name: Our sign-up form asks for a name. We understand that using a service like Google Sign-Up will automatically provide this information. We strongly encourage all pupils to use a creative username or alias instead of their real name to protect their privacy. The username you provide will be used for all public-facing activities, such as submitting projects to our gallery.

  • School Name: This information helps us understand our user community and allows us to send prizes to your school if you win a competition.

  • Year Group, Country, and Postcode (optional): This helps us to gather statistics about our users and understand our geographical reach.

The information you provide is used solely for the purpose of creating and managing your account and for the purposes outlined in this policy.

Competition Entries and Prize Fulfilment

When a pupil submits an entry for a competition, we ask for their username and their school name, teacher email, and country to help us identify the entry and contact the school if they win.

We fully understand the security concerns around pupil’s data. If a pupil's entry has won a prize, we will only contact their teacher at their school to arrange for the prize to be sent to them. We will never ask a pupil for their home address or other personal information.

The information you provide on your competition entry form is used solely for the purpose of judging the competition and, if the pupil wins, for coordinating the prize delivery through the school. We will never share this data with any third parties for other purposes.

How is your information used?

We may use your information to:

  • Seek your views, comments, or feedback about dressCode.

  • Notify you of changes to our services.

  • Send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you.

  • To gather statistics of a number of teachers, schools, councils, pupils and male/female entries for each competition.

  • If a pupil's entry has won a prize, we will contact their teacher at their school to arrange for the prize to be sent to them.

Information Retention

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary to complete the purpose for which it was gathered.

Who has access to your information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Within dressCode, access to pupil data is limited to a small number of key staff who require it for administrative purposes, such as managing the competition and sending out prizes.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our staff and clients. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Consent

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. We will not continue to contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your explicit prior consent. We will not continue to contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: toni.scullion@dresscode.org.uk.

Our Commitment to Children's Privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of young people using our website. Our services are designed for students of all ages, but we take special precautions to protect the privacy of users under 13. Our sign-up form requires all users to acknowledge and confirm that they are either 13 years of age or older, or that they have a parent or guardian’s permission to create an account. By checking this box, a parent or guardian is giving us permission to collect the limited information outlined below for the sole purpose of providing our services.

International Data Transfers

Your personal data may be transferred to and stored in the United States by our service providers. This means that data collected from our UK-based users is moved to a country outside the United Kingdom.

We use the following US-based service providers:

  • MemberSpace: Your account information (email and username) is processed and stored on their servers in the United States to manage your membership.

  • Google: Any data you submit for competitions is processed and stored on Google’s servers in the United States (via Google Sheets) so we can review entries and contact winners.

The laws in the U.S. may differ from the laws in the UK. However, our service providers are certified under frameworks such as the UK-US Data Bridge to ensure your data is protected. By using our site and submitting information, you agree to this transfer of your data to the United States for the purpose of hosting and processing.

Accessing and Updating your Information

You have the right of access to your personal information held by dressCode. You also have the right to request that your personal information is permanently erased. Anyone wishing to access or erase their personal information should put their request in writing to the company.

Exemptions

Certain data is exempt from the provisions of the GDPR which includes the following: –

  • National security and the prevention or detection of crime

  • The assessment of any tax or duty

  • Where the processing is necessary to exercise a right or obligation conferred or imposed by law upon the company.

The above are examples only of some of the exemptions under the Act. Any further information on exemptions should be sought directly from the company.

Accuracy

The accuracy of your information is important to us. We’re always working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the personal information that the company holds. If you change your email address, or if any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: toni.scullion@dresscode.org.uk.

Breach

Security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information.

When you give us your personal information, we take steps to ensure that it is treated securely. Please be aware that whilst we take all reasonable precautions to protect any data in transit, we cannot 100% guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us via this medium, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.

Use of ‘cookies’

Analytics This website collects personal data to power our site analytics, including:

  • Information about your browser network and device

  • Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website

  • Your IP address

This information may also include details about your use of this website, including:

  • Clicks

  • Internal links

  • Pages visited

We share this information with Squarespace, our website analytics provider, to learn about site traffic and activity.

Cookies This website uses cookies and similar technologies, which are small files or pieces of text that download to a device when a visitor accesses a website or app. For information about viewing the cookies dropped on your device, visit The cookies Squarespace uses.

These functional and required cookies are always used, which allow Squarespace, our hosting platform, to securely serve this website to you.

These analytics and performance cookies are used on this site, as described below. We use analytics cookies to view site traffic, activity, and other data.

For website visitors

This website is hosted by Squarespace. Squarespace collects personal data when you visit this website, including:

  • Information about your browser, network and device

  • Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website

  • Your IP address

Squarespace needs the data to run this website, and to protect and improve its platform and services. Squarespace analyses the data in a de-personalised form.

Links to other websites

dressCode website contains links to other websites. Once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over other websites. We cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any personal information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this policy.