Privacy notice · version 2026-11
What we hold, why, and for how long
A petition enquiry contains personal information, and some of it is sensitive. This notice explains exactly what happens to it. It is written to be read, not to protect us.
Who is responsible
The West Gate operates this directory and introduction service and is the controller of the personal data described here. Contact for any privacy matter: privacy@thewestgate.app.
What we collect
- Identity and contact — name, date of birth, home address, email, telephone.
- Professional — occupation, job title, employer and business address, because traditional constitutions ask for them.
- Declarations — whether you confirm the voluntary nature of your application, a belief in a Supreme Being where required, and that you understand character enquiries are made.
- Your own words — the short statement of why you wish to join, if you choose to give one.
- Consent evidence — the version of this notice you accepted, the time, and a salted hash of your IP address. The hash cannot be reversed into your address; it exists to evidence consent and to limit abuse.
- Correspondence record — the letters generated for the jurisdiction and for you, and their delivery status.
Why we hold it, and on what basis
We process your details to take the step you asked for: to introduce you to the jurisdiction you selected. The legal basis is your explicit consent, which you give by ticking the two consent boxes before submitting, and which you may withdraw at any time. We do not rely on legitimate interests for the content of a petition, and we do not use it for marketing.
Who receives it
Only the jurisdiction you select — its secretariat, or the lodge secretary if you chose a lodge. Nothing is shared with other jurisdictions, advertisers, data brokers or analytics providers. Our hosting and database providers process the data on our instructions under contract, within the European Union.
How long we keep it
Twenty-four months from the last recorded activity on your petition. If you are initiated, we keep only the reference and the outcome, not the content of your enquiry, because the lodge holds your membership record. On request we erase your personal data sooner, keeping only an anonymised counter so that aggregate statistics remain accurate.
Your rights
You may ask for a copy of what we hold, correction of anything inaccurate, erasure, restriction, or a machine-readable export. You may withdraw consent at any time, which stops any further processing and cancels the introduction. Write to the address above; we respond within thirty days. If you are unhappy with our response you may complain to your national data protection authority — in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner's Office.
Security
All traffic is served over TLS. The database is encrypted at rest by the platform provider, access is limited to the introduction desk and to officers of the jurisdiction concerned, and every administrative action is written to an audit trail that cannot be edited from the application. We do not claim end-to-end encryption: an introduction must be readable by the secretary who receives it. What we do guarantee is that it is readable by no one else.
Cookies and measurement
The public directory sets no tracking cookies and loads no advertising or analytics scripts. Signing in as an officer sets one session cookie, which is required for the workspace to function, and which expires when you sign out.
Children
The service is for adults. We do not knowingly accept an enquiry from anyone below the minimum age of the jurisdiction concerned, and enquiries are rejected automatically where the declared date of birth is below it.
Changes
When this notice changes materially the version number changes, and the version you accepted is recorded with your petition.