Privacy Notice

1. Introduction

This notice describes how we collect, store, transfer, and use personal data. "Personal data" is information that clearly identifies you as an individual or which could be used to identify you if combined with other information. Acting in any way on personal data is referred to as "processing."

2. Data Protection Officer

We are a pro bono team of two and have no official Data Protection Officer. We do however take your data privacy very seriously and welcome your contact at: privacy@yourvoice.ie.

3. Personal Data We Process

The information we process about you includes:

  • Information you have directly provided to us.

Types of Personal Data Collected Directly

For each email sent to a representative, we record:

Anonymised Identifiers:

(1) that an email was sent, contributing to an overall count;

(2) the representative to whom the email was sent, contributing to a count of emails per representative; and

(3) the county you selected as your county of residence to contribute to a by-county count of messages sent.

Your Consent:

(1) that you gave your consent to Your Voice for processing your name, contact details and the content of your message for the purpose of delivering it to the selected representative(s);

(2) that your message could constitute or include 'Special Category Data' revealing political opinions or other sensitive information and that you explicitly consent to the sharing of this information with each selected recipient; and

(3) when you gave consent as well as your name and email address, which allows us to identify you in the event you choose to withdraw your consent.

Note that MailPace saves your email, including technical data and email body content, on their servers according to their retention policy for a maximum of 35 days.

4. Legal Bases for Processing

We process your information under the following defined bases required by law:

Legitimate Interests

For improving services, record-keeping, and preventing fraud. Specifically, we facilitate the exercise of the fundamental right to petition (Article 44 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights) by providing a technical conduit for democratic engagement.

Explicit Consent

For the processing of Special Category Data (political opinions) as defined under Article 9 of the GDPR, required to transmit your specific message to your representative.

Legal Obligation

When required to comply with statutory obligations or legal authorities.

5. Our Commitment to Privacy & Democratic Integrity

In accordance with the principles of privacy by design, we have implemented the following technical safeguards to protect both our users and political representatives:

  • Zero-Tracking Architecture: To protect professional privacy and democratic neutrality, our infrastructure (via MailPace) does not use any tracking pixels and link-monitoring software.

  • No Behavioral Monitoring: We do not track, log, or store information regarding if or when a representative opens an email.

  • EU Sovereignty: All message processing occurs on servers located in France (EU). We operate under a binding Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with our SMTP service, MailPace, that meets all requirements of Article 28 of the GDPR.

6. Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer's hard drive by your web browser. We use them to:

  • Verify that you are a human and prevent bots from spamming representatives.

7. Your Rights

The law requires us to tell you about your rights regarding the processing and control of your personal data. You can review these rights at Know Your Privacy Rights.

  • We do not access or store any personally identifiable information beyond what is necessary for the operation of our service. This includes all the information you input in the form.
  • We do not use this information for any purpose other than to transmit your message to your selected representative(s) and to maintain a record of your consent.
  • We only store your information for the retention periods outlined in Section 8 below.

8. Retention Period

We adhere to the principle of Data Minimisation. We keep your personal data only for as long as required by us to provide requested services, comply with laws, or support a legal claim or defense.

Retention of Email Content:

General Principles

Once the purpose for which the data was collected has been fulfilled (i.e., your message has been sent to your representative), we begin the process of data deletion or anonymisation.

Retention Periods

We apply the following retention schedule to data processed through our form(s):

  • Transmission Logs: A message ID and the recipient email address is saved for a maximum of 35 days by our SMTP service, MailPace.
  • Message Content: The content of your email is stored by our SMTP service, MailPace, for a maximum of 35 days. Note that we do not review this content or further use it in any way.
  • Consent Records: We retain a record of your consent, including your name and email address, solely to honor future requests to withdraw consent or exercise your data rights.

We do not collect any further information, sell or otherwise use your personal information.

Transition of Responsibility

Once your message is successfully delivered to your Representative (TD, Senator, or MEP), they become an Independent Data Controller of the copy they receive.

  • Their use and retention of your data will be governed by their own Privacy Policy and the Data Protection Act 2018 (Section 40), which allows representatives to process constituent data to perform their functions.

  • We recommend contacting the representative directly if you wish to request the erasure of the data held in their constituency office.

9. Compliance and Complaints

This policy is built upon the standards of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Through regular system reviews and the application of modern security measures, we ensure that, to the best of our knowledge and technical abilities, your personal data is processed securely and transparently.

If you are dissatisfied with how we process your personal data, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission (DPC) at https://www.dataprotection.ie.

Last Updated: 10th April 2026