Privacy Policy

Bridge The Gap (familycourtbridge.org) is a support and information resource for UK litigants in person navigating family court proceedings. For the purposes of UK GDPR, we are the Data Controller for personal data collected through this website.

Contact us regarding data protection matters at: info@familycourtbridge.org

We collect data in the following limited circumstances:

• Contact & Enquiry Forms: If you submit a message, story, or enquiry via a form, we collect the information you provide (e.g. name, email address, and the content of your message).
• McKenzie Friend Registration — Email Addresses: If you register as a McKenzie Friend or professional, we collect your business email address as part of your profile. As a professional listing, your email address is displayed publicly on your profile page so that potential clients can contact you directly. It is also used internally to keep you informed of important site developments and to follow up on any issues relating to your profile. We do not use your email address for unsolicited marketing, and it will never be sold to third parties.
• Story Submissions: If you submit a personal experience or case study, we collect the raw story you provide. These are fully anonymised before publication and the original is kept securely for reference only.
• Sign-in and Saved Items: If you sign in, your email address is processed by our authentication provider (Base44) to manage your account and session. If you save items for later, we store the title and link of each saved item against your account so you can find it again. Only you can see your saved items, and you can remove them at any time.

We currently do not use analytics services (e.g. Google Analytics), advertising networks, or any third-party tracking technologies. If this changes, we will update this policy and seek your consent before deploying any non-essential cookies.

We use essential cookies only. These are strictly necessary for the website to function (e.g. to remember your cookie consent preference and keep you signed in if you choose to create an account or sign in). We do not currently use tracking, profiling, or advertising cookies. If we add analytics cookies in the future, we will seek your consent first.

You will be shown a cookie consent notice on your first visit. Dismissing or accepting the notice records your preference in your browser's local storage.

Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following lawful bases:

• Legitimate Interests (Article 6(1)(f)): For processing enquiries, managing McKenzie Friend profiles (with the individual's awareness and cooperation), and operating the website.
• Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): For publishing anonymised story submissions — contributors are informed their story will be rewritten and published before submission.
• Contract (Article 6(1)(b)): For managing user and administrator accounts, including saved items, necessary to provide the sign-in service you have chosen to use.

• To respond to enquiries and provide support.
• To display verified McKenzie Friend profiles on the website.
• To contact McKenzie Friends and professionals by email about important site developments (e.g. new features, policy changes) and to follow up on any issues relating to their profile.
• To publish anonymised case study content to help other litigants in person.
• To operate and improve the website and its administrative functions.

We will never sell, rent, or share your personal data — including email addresses — with third parties for any purpose. Requests for deletion of your data will be actioned immediately upon receipt.

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected:

• Enquiry and contact form submissions: up to 12 months.
• McKenzie Friend profiles: for as long as the profile is active. We will remove it upon request.
• Raw story submissions: retained securely until the published anonymised version is confirmed, then deleted or kept for up to 24 months for audit purposes.

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectify inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure ("right to be forgotten") — request deletion of your data.
• Restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@familycourtbridge.org. We will respond within 30 days.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data. The website is hosted on the Base44 platform, which implements industry-standard security practices. Story submissions containing potentially sensitive personal details are stored in a restricted-access database and are only accessible to authorised administrators.

We use the following third-party services that may process limited data:

• Base44 (base44.com): Our hosting and backend platform, which processes data in accordance with their own privacy policy.
• Google Fonts: Used for typography. Google may process your IP address when fonts are loaded. We use this under legitimate interests for design consistency.

As we use third-party services such as Base44 (our hosting platform) and Google Fonts, your personal data may be processed outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, we rely on the following safeguards to ensure your data is protected to UK GDPR standards:

• Adequacy Regulations: Where a country has been recognised by the UK Government as providing an adequate level of data protection, personal data may be transferred to that country without further safeguards.
• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): For transfers to countries without an adequacy decision, we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU SCCs, as adopted under UK GDPR, to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.
• Service Provider Obligations: Our third-party service providers are contractually required to protect your data in line with UK GDPR requirements.

If you would like a copy of the relevant safeguards we rely on for international transfers, please contact us at info@familycourtbridge.org.

We do not carry out any automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you. All decisions about your personal data are made by authorised human administrators.

You do not receive any decisions based solely on automated processing, and you are therefore not entitled to human intervention under Article 22 of UK GDPR in relation to this website.

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns directly first — please contact us at info@familycourtbridge.org.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page will always reflect the most recent revision. Continued use of the website after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.