Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Brinam is a professional association for British nationals living in the United States. Our website is accessible at brinam.com. You can contact us at hello@brinam.com with any questions about this policy or the personal information we hold.

For the purposes of applicable data protection law, Brinam is the data controller of the personal information described in this policy.

2. What information we collect

Information you provide directly

When you submit the membership application form on brinam.com, we collect the following information:

• Full name
• Email address
• US state of residence
• Length of time in the United States
• Reason for relocating to the United States
• Professional field
• Membership goal
• Referral source (optional)

We do not collect payment information through this website. We do not collect sensitive personal data such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, or health data.

Information collected automatically

When you visit brinam.com, we automatically collect certain technical information through Google Analytics, including:

• Pages visited and time spent on each page
• Approximate geographic location (country and region level)
• Browser type and version
• Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet)
• Referring website or search query
• Session duration and navigation path

Google Analytics uses cookies to collect this data. The data is aggregated and does not identify you as an individual. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Cookies

This website uses a limited number of cookies. Google Analytics sets first-party cookies (typically named _ga, _ga_*, and _gid) to distinguish unique visitors and sessions. These cookies do not contain personally identifiable information. They expire between 24 hours and 2 years from the date they are set, depending on the cookie type.

We do not use cookies for advertising, tracking across third-party websites, or any purpose beyond site analytics as described above.

3. How we use your information

We use the personal information you submit through the membership application form for the following purposes:

• Membership assessment: to evaluate your application and determine whether to offer membership.
• Communication: to contact you regarding the outcome of your application and, if accepted, to provide membership-related information.
• Improving our offering: to understand the composition of applicants and shape the services Brinam provides to its members.

We use analytics data to understand how visitors use brinam.com, to identify the most useful content, and to improve the site. This data is not used to profile individuals.

4. Legal basis for processing

Where the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) applies, we rely on the following legal bases for processing your personal data:

• Consent: by submitting the membership application form, you consent to us processing the information you provide for the purpose of assessing your application.
• Legitimate interests: we process analytics data on the basis of our legitimate interest in understanding and improving the performance of our website.
• Contract: if you are accepted as a member, we process your information as necessary to fulfil our obligations to you as a member.

5. How long we retain your information

We retain membership application data for a period of three years from the date of submission. If your application is accepted and you become a member, we retain your information for as long as your membership is active and for a period of three years thereafter.

You may request deletion of your information at any time by contacting us at hello@brinam.com. We will process deletion requests within 30 days.

Analytics data is retained according to the default Google Analytics data retention settings, which we have set to 14 months.

6. Who we share your information with

We do not sell your personal information to any third party.

We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers: we use Vercel to host this website. Vercel may process server log data including IP addresses as part of its infrastructure operations. We use Google Analytics as described above. Both providers act as data processors under our instructions.
• Legal requirements: we may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to a valid legal request from a government authority.

We do not transfer your personal data to any other third parties without your explicit consent.

7. International data transfers

Brinam operates from the United States. If you are located in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, please be aware that the information you submit will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using this website or submitting the membership form, you consent to this transfer.

Where your information is processed by Google Analytics, Google may transfer data to servers in the United States and other countries. Google's data processing is governed by the Google Ads Data Processing Terms and applicable Standard Contractual Clauses.

8. Your rights

If you are in the United Kingdom or the EEA

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• The right to access the personal information we hold about you
• The right to have inaccurate information corrected
• The right to request deletion of your personal information
• The right to restrict or object to our processing of your information
• The right to data portability
• The right to withdraw consent at any time (where processing is based on consent)

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@brinam.com. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

If you are in California

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California residents have the right to:

• Know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell
• Request deletion of personal information we hold about you
• Opt out of the sale of personal information (note: we do not sell personal information)
• Non-discrimination for exercising CCPA rights

To make a CCPA request, please contact us at hello@brinam.com. We do not discriminate against any person for exercising their privacy rights.

9. Children's privacy

This website is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16. If you believe a child has submitted personal information through this site, please contact us at hello@brinam.com and we will delete it promptly.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we hold from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Our website is served over HTTPS, and form data is transmitted using TLS encryption. However, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.

11. Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, including HMRC, the IRS, and other government or informational resources. This privacy policy applies only to brinam.com. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of external sites and encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal information.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of the site after any change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

13. Contact

If you have questions about this policy, wish to exercise your data rights, or have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us at:

Brinam
Email: hello@brinam.com