Privacy policy

Reviewed September 2023

The Economist Educational Foundation takes privacy very seriously. This Policy explains what personal data we collect, what we do with it, and how you can control the data that we hold about you.

The Economist Educational Foundation is a data controller, registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. It operates as part of the Economist Group.

We collect, store and process your data, and that of your children and students where relevant, in order to carry out charitable activities that are consistent with our mission, including delivering our educational programmes, measuring our impact and raising funds.

1.1. Information that we collect and process about children under the age of 18

We collect and process information about the young people that we work with, for example their names, which of our projects they are involved with, which school they attend, whether their school has a large number of children socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and how much progress they make in news literacy knowledge and skills.

We collect this information from the young people themselves and from their teachers. It helps us to ensure we are delivering our work to the young people who are most in need of it, and to measure our impact.

Teachers collect parental consent (or that of a legal guardian), for young people to take part in our programmes, including parental consent for us to use their children’s data in the ways described in this Policy. We never collect data about young people that we work with without confirmation from the teachers that this consent has been obtained. If parental consent is not provided, this might mean that the young person is not able to participate in our programmes.

As a matter of good practice, we review the information we have stored about young people annually and delete the personal data of any young people who have not taken part in our programmes for 12 months or more on the review date.

Lawful basis

We rely on parental consent as the lawful basis to process the personal data of children and young people under the age of 18. Where we process the data of teachers, parents and other adults described in this Policy, we do so on the basis of our legitimate interests as an educational charity to interact with young people and their teachers/parents and to fulfil the aims of our mission. We balance these interests against the protection of the privacy rights of those whose data we process. We ensure all data sent to us about young people is pseudonymised, and any information that we make public is presented in an aggregated, anonymised way.

Publishing and sharing young people’s work

We publish work and comments made by young people taking part in our programmes, on public online platforms and social media. We might also share their work in print, on television, on radio or other channels, to support or promote our charitable work.

Students’ work can be in written, audio or video format. It might include photos or videos featuring them.

We check that teachers have sought parental permission before we share young people’s work and any of their personal data, such as their name or photographs of them.

Young people participating in our Topical Talk programme may have access to the Student Hub area of an online platform, (talk.economistfoundation.org), which is a public website. Students’ work on our online platform is displayed under a pseudonymised username, e.g. strong_sheep, alongside their school name.

We may also collect information about young people when they enter our competitions through participating schools.

All content posted by students on the site is moderated to check for any personal information before it is published. We collect and process information about how many pieces of work and comments young people submit for publication on the platform, and how many times their work has been awarded a star for high quality. Young people’s teachers are able to see this information about their students.

For more information about how we moderate content to protect the privacy and interests of young people, please see our safeguarding policy.

Photos and videos featuring children

We will only take or share photos or videos featuring young people in our programmes if their parents have specifically given permission for this. We will never take or share pictures of videos of young people without parental consent.

Photos or videos might be taken of children taking part in our programmes or activities. These might be taken by the children themselves, their teacher, The Economist Educational Foundation, or occasionally by other people with The Economist Educational Foundation’s permission. These photos or videos might be published or shared publicly online, on social media, in print, on television, on radio or other channels to support or promote our charitable work.

We advise teachers to inform young people participating in Topical Talk about the risks (including privacy cost) of sharing personal information online, including photos or videos featuring themselves, or their views about the news.

1.2 Information we collect and process about Topical Talk account holders

We collect and process information about anyone who creates a Topical Talk account which allows us to measure our impact and to provide them with our products and services. For example, when people create a Topical Talk account we ask for their contact details. We might also collect information about their participation in our programmes, and the impact of these on their students.

As a matter of good practice, we review our account holder’s activity annually and delete the personal data of any accounts that have been inactive for 12 months or more on the review date.

Any information that we make public is presented in an aggregated, anonymised way.

1.3 Information that we collect and process about other teachers and education professionals

We collect and process information about teachers and education professionals which allows us to measure our impact, tell people about relevant products or services and to provide them with our products or services. For example, we collect their contact details, and we might collect information about their participation in our programmes, and the impact of these on their students.

We collect the information from the individuals themselves, their colleagues or publicly available information.

As a matter of good practice, we will refresh our contact lists periodically. If we have not heard from a teacher or education professional for three years, we will ask for their consent to continue contacting them, and delete the data of anyone who does not say yes.

Any information that we make public is presented in an aggregated, anonymised way.

1.4 Information that we collect and process about supporters and potential supporters

We collect and process information about supporters, and people who we think might wish to support us in some way, to tell them about opportunities to work with us and to report on our progress and the impact of donations that they make. We collect and process their contact details and information about their relationship with us, for example whether they have made a donation to us in the past.

We collect the information from the individuals themselves, their colleagues or publicly available sources.

We obtain consent from supporters to be added to our e-newsletter.

If we have not heard from a supporter or person who we think might wish to support us for over three years, we will ask for their consent to continue contacting them, and delete the data of anyone who does not say yes.

1.5 Information that we collect online

We collect data through our websites, www.economistfoundation.org, talk.economistfoundation.org, and Google Forms and Typeform, Eventbrite, Zoom, Gist, email, Mailchimp for WordPress. This uses cookie technology.

You can find more information about the types of cookies that we use and how to manage them in our cookie policy here.

We keep your information safe and secure.

We maintain strict policies to ensure all information that is transferred is done safely and securely with adequate protections. The data retention period for teachers, educational professionals and supporters and potential supporters is three years and for Topical Talk account holders it is one year. At the end of a data retention period we review contact lists to check for anyone we have not heard from for longer than the specified retention period and ask for consent to continue contacting them. We will delete the data of anyone that doesn’t say yes.

We will never sell your information.

We share information about young people’s educational progress with their school.

We will share information that keeps young people safe as part of our safeguarding duties. For more information about how we safeguard young people, please see our separate Safeguarding Policy.

Where parental consent is collected by the young people’s teachers, we might share pictures, videos or work of the children (which may include the children appearing in them), or the anonymised impact information that we collect in various media. We might share these things publicly online, in print, on television, on radio or other channels to support or promote our charitable work.

You can exercise your data subject rights, or that of your child, by emailing The Economist Group’s Data Privacy Team: [email protected]. Please include The Economist Educational Foundation in the subject. We will ask you for ID or proof you have legal guardianship over a child if you are exercising rights on their behalf.

The Economist Educational Foundation is an independent charity that was set up from inside The Economist newspaper. The Foundation is registered with the Information Commissioner at:

Registered Office: The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT, UK

ICO Registered Number: ZA577879

Company Registration Number: 236383

In addition to processing data on its own, The Economist Educational Foundation may from time to time process information on behalf of The Economist Newspaper Limited.

You can see The Economist Group’s privacy policy here.

This Policy may change from time to time and where there are material changes, we will update relevant data subjects, generally via email.