Nova Network – Privacy & Cookies Policy

1. Introduction

Nova Network ("Network", "we", "us" or "our") is a community for legal professionals operated by Nova Legal Limited. This policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect your personal data when you visit network.nova-law.com, join the Network, claim an event pass, use the member community, join our WhatsApp group or receive our emails.

Nova Legal Limited is the data controller of your personal data for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Who We Are

Nova Legal Limited
Registered in England and Wales under company number: 16800383
Registered office: 13/196 Wornington Rd London W10 5SN
Email: network@nova-law.com

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information you give us

• Joining the Network: your name, work email address, WhatsApp number, company or organisation, role, location, industry, professional interests, what you hope to get from the Network, and your email preferences (the monthly digest, and offers and updates).
• Claiming an event pass: your name, work email address, job title, organisation, and which professional category best describes you (so we can confirm you are eligible for the pass).
• Member community: your email address (used to sign you in), and the profile you choose to complete — such as your name, headline, company, location, biography, LinkedIn profile, photo, interests and what you are open to (for example mentoring or speaking). We also hold the posts, questions, comments, reactions, tool reviews, event RSVPs and other content you add.
• Communications: anything you tell us when you email us, message us or give us feedback.

3.2 Information we collect automatically

• Technical data: IP address, browser and device type, and operating system, which our hosting provider processes to deliver the website securely.
• Usage data: if you accept analytics cookies, the pages you visit, how long you spend on them, and your approximate location derived from your IP address.
• Campaign data: if you arrive through a tracked link (for example from LinkedIn or a newsletter), the campaign it came from, which is recorded with your sign-up.

We do not ask for special category data, such as information about your health or religious beliefs. If you have dietary or access needs for an event, please arrange them directly with the event organiser.

4. How We Use Your Information and Our Lawful Bases

• Running the Network and your membership — reviewing your application, inviting you to our WhatsApp group, giving you access to the member community, and sending you essential service messages such as sign-in links. Lawful basis: performance of a contract (our Terms of Membership).
• Event passes — checking you are eligible for the pass, and sharing your name and email address with the event organiser so they can register you. Lawful basis: consent, which you give on the claim form.
• Monthly events digest — sending members the monthly Legal Events Directory digest, which is part of what Network membership offers. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in keeping members informed about legal events. You can opt out when you join or at any time.
• Offers and updates — sending member ticket offers and occasional news from Nova Network and its partners. Lawful basis: consent. We only send these if you tick the box to receive them.
• Improving the Network — understanding who our members are (for example by industry or seniority, in aggregate), how the website is used, and which campaigns bring people to us. Lawful basis: legitimate interests, and consent for analytics cookies.
• Keeping the community safe — moderating content, enforcing our Community Guidelines and Terms of Membership, and preventing misuse. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
• Legal and regulatory requirements — keeping records we are required to keep and responding to lawful requests. Lawful basis: legal obligation.

We do not use your personal data for automated decision-making that has a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

5. Who We Share Your Data With

We never sell your personal data. We share it only as described below.

5.1 Other members

• Member community: your profile and the content you post are visible to other approved members. If you post anonymously, other members will not see your name, but Network administrators can, so that we can moderate the community.
• WhatsApp group: when you join our WhatsApp group, your name, number and profile are visible to the other group members, as with any WhatsApp group. WhatsApp is operated by Meta, which processes your data under its own privacy policy.

5.2 Event organisers

When you claim an event pass, we share only your name and email address with that event's organiser so they can register you. We only do this with your consent, and we keep the other details from your claim to ourselves. The organiser is responsible for how it uses your data under its own privacy policy.

5.3 Service providers

We use trusted providers to run the Network. They process your data only on our instructions and are contractually bound to protect it.

5.4 Within Nova

Nova Legal Limited also operates Nova Connect. We do not use your Network data to market Nova Connect to you unless you have agreed to receive offers and updates from us.

5.5 Legal requirements

We may disclose your information where required by law, to respond to court orders or regulatory requests, to prevent fraud or illegal activity, or to protect our rights, property or members.

6. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers store or process data outside the UK, including in the USA and the European Economic Area. Where we transfer your data outside the UK, we make sure it is protected by appropriate safeguards — UK adequacy regulations (which cover the EEA, and US organisations certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the Information Commissioner.

7. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encryption in transit, passwordless email sign-in for the member community, access controls that limit each member to the data they are allowed to see, and restricting administrative access to those who need it.

8. How Long We Keep Your Data

• Membership and community data: for as long as you are a member, and deleted or anonymised within 12 months of your membership ending or 3 years of inactivity, unless we need to keep it longer for a legal reason.
• Applications that do not proceed: up to 12 months.
• Email preferences: for as long as you are a member or until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent. We keep a minimal record of your unsubscribe so that we do not email you again.
• Event pass claims: up to 12 months after the event.
• Analytics data: up to 14 months.

9. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification — have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected. Members can also update their community profile at any time.
• Erasure — ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances, including closing your membership.
• Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data.
• Portability — receive your data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
• Withdraw consent — where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect processing we carried out before you withdrew it.

To exercise any of these rights, email network@nova-law.com. We will respond within one month.

10. Marketing Communications

• Monthly events digest: included with membership. The box on the sign-up form is ticked for you; untick it if you would rather not receive the digest.
• Offers and updates: member ticket offers and news from Nova Network and its partners. We only send these if you tick the box to receive them. We never share your email address with partners for their own marketing.

Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing stops all of our newsletter and marketing emails, and we update our records to reflect it within a day. You can also unsubscribe by emailing network@nova-law.com. We will still send essential service messages, such as community sign-in links, while you are a member.

11. Children

Nova Network is for legal professionals and is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page with a new "Last updated" date and, if the changes are significant, let members know by email.

13. Contact Us and Complaints

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, email network@nova-law.com with "Privacy" in the subject line.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.