We-Speak Privacy Policy
The We-Speak platform is powered by Our Wave, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building meaningful technology to empower survivors of sexual violence. For more information about our technology, team, or partnership opportunities, please visit our website.
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) takes security and privacy seriously. This notice relates to our privacy practices in connection with this website, the platform on which we host your stories (Platform). While we may link to third party websites, we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices on those other sites.
What information do we collect?
When we say "personal data", we mean any information that can identify an individual, such as their name, address, date of birth, etc.
We collect your personal data in the following ways:
- Where you provide us with your personal data, for example, through our Platform, by submitting your story (Story).
- We collect certain information automatically when you visit our website (Platform user data).
How we use personal data we collect
On each of our online forms, there will be further details of why we are collecting the information asked for.
We store and process your personal data as follows:
| Data we Collect | Purpose(s) for Processing | Legal Basis |
|---|
Your email address | - To allow you to have control over your Story. When you attach an email address to your Story, you can log in and finish a draft Story, or you can delete a submitted Story. We also need your email so we can tell you when your story has been posted, and to provide resources and support.
- When you opt in to be notified about DRCC updates, events, and ways to help out.
- When you opt in to receive our partners' newsletters.
| - Where necessary for performance of contract concluded with you (when you use the services provided on the website, you agree to our terms and conditions).
- In our legitimate interests in providing an online Platform.
- Where you provide explicit consent.
|
The contents of your Story, which may include your gender, age, race, sexual orientation and any other personal or sensitive personal data which you wish to provide. Please note that we will remove any identifying information from your Story before publishing, such that any personal data will only be visible to our administrators, and not to other Platform visitors and users. | - To allow you to anonymously submit your Story.
- To share with our NGO partner, Our Wave Inc. for publishing on their platform for survivors' stories.
| - Where necessary for performance of contract concluded with you (when you use the services provided on the website, you agree to our terms and conditions).
- Where you provide explicit consent.
|
(Optional) Your ethnic / racial identity | - To allow us to categorise your Story. Categories can help survivors with similar experiences to find your Story.
| - Where you provide explicit consent
|
(Optional) Your sexual orientation | - To allow us to categorise your Story. Categories can help survivors with similar experiences to find your Story.
| - Where you provide explicit consent
|
(Optional) Your gender identity | - To allow us to categorise your Story. Categories can help survivors with similar experiences to find your Story.
| - Where you provide explicit consent.
|
(Optional) Your age | - To allow us to categorise your Story. Categories can help survivors with similar experiences to find your Story.
| - Where you provide explicit consent.
- In our legitimate interests in providing an online Platform.
|
Technical information (information about your usage of the website) | - To enable website functionality, enable features, implement security measures, and provide a reliable service.
- To analyse our website analytics.
| - Where necessary for performance of contract concluded with you (when you use the services provided on the website, you agree to our terms and conditions).
- In our legitimate interests in providing an online Platform.
- In the legitimate interests of visitors to, and users of, our online Platform.
|
Who do we share your information with?
We want you to understand when and with whom we may share your personal data:
- Third-party service providers: We will share your information with third-party service-providers who provide services on our behalf. Our Platform provider and our internet service provider will only process your data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
- Legal purposes: We may be required to share your information in order to comply with and respond to any requests from law enforcement or regulatory agencies.
- Security Purposes: We may share your information as we believe necessary, in order to secure and protect the rights, interests, safety, and security of our site, our users, and others against security incidents.
- Harm Prevention: We may share your information as we believe necessary, in order to protect the health and safety of our users or another natural person.
Cross-border data transfers
Certain limited categories of your personal data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Community ("EEA"). We will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the transfer of your personal data to these non-EEA countries, including Standard Contractual Clauses under Article 46(2) GDPR. To obtain more information concerning these safeguards, see Contact Us below.
How long do we store your data for?
We will store your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes of providing access to our Platform and related services to you; as required by law or regulatory guidance to which we are subject, and for the exercise or defence of legal claims that may be brought by or against us.
Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal data transmitted to our website. Any transmission of personal data is at your own risk. Once we receive your personal data, we use appropriate security measures to seek to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure.
What are your rights?
Under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have a number of rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law. The following is a summary of your rights:
- The right of access enables you to receive a copy of your personal data.
- The right to rectification enables you to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
- The right to erasure enables you to ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
- The right to restrict processing enables you to ask us to halt the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
- The right to object enables you to object to us processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), including processing for direct marketing purposes or where we are performing a task in the public interest. Your objection will be upheld, and we will cease processing your personal data, unless the processing is based on compelling legitimate grounds or is needed for the exercise or defence of legal claims that may be brought by or against us.
- The right to data portability enables you to request us to transmit personal data that you have provided to us, to a third party without hindrance, or to give you a copy of it so that you can transmit it to a third party, where technically feasible.
- When we process personal data you provide to us based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
To exercise any of the above mentioned rights, contact us as described in "Contact Us" section below.
In addition to this, you may make a complaint about our data processing activities to a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority for DRCC is the Data Protection Commissioner in Ireland (https://www.dataprotection.ie).
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Notice from time to time at our sole discretion. If we make any changes, we will post those changes here and update the “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this Privacy Notice. However, if we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will notify you thereof prior to the change becoming effective.
This Privacy Notice was last updated on 31 May 2025.
Contact us
If you have any queries relating to this Privacy Noice or our use of your personal data, please contact us via email at info@rcc.ie, or in writing to:
Data Protection Officer,
DRCC,
70 Lower Leeson Street,
Dublin 2,
D02 VW13, Ireland
