Privacy Policy

Preamble and Acceptance

This Privacy Policy explains how Philosophy Psychoanalysis ORG, available at https://philosophy-psychoanalysis.org.uk, processes personal information associated with access to, navigation of, communication with, and use of the website.

Philosophy Psychoanalysis ORG is a digital academic-editorial and educational project dedicated to the dialogue between philosophy and psychoanalysis, including questions concerning subjectivity, consciousness, desire, ethics, language, interpretation, phenomenology, epistemology, culture, human experience, psychoanalytic theory, mental health, and related disciplines.

The website may publish articles, essays, reference entries, theoretical analyses, historical studies, reviews, bibliographies, educational materials, and interdisciplinary discussions concerning philosophers, psychoanalytic authors, schools of thought, scientific literature, intellectual history, and contemporary debates.

Philosophy Psychoanalysis ORG is not a hospital, psychological clinic, psychotherapy practice, psychoanalytic treatment service, medical practice, telehealth service, university, or healthcare establishment.

The website does not provide psychotherapy, psychoanalytic treatment, medical or psychological diagnosis, psychological assessment, prescriptions, individualised clinical recommendations, treatment planning, or emergency mental health care.

The publication of philosophical or psychoanalytic material does not create a therapist-patient, analyst-analysand, doctor-patient, academic-supervision, or other professional relationship with the reader.

By accessing or using the website, visitors acknowledge this Privacy Policy. Where consent is legally required for a particular processing activity, an appropriate mechanism will be used.

The principal data-protection framework is the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, as applicable and as amended from time to time.

Where Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, applies territorially and materially to a particular processing activity, its corresponding requirements will also be observed.

Where another foreign privacy law, including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, Brazil's Law No. 13,709/2018, or Peru's Law No. 29733, has mandatory application to a particular operation, its applicable requirements will also be considered.

Data Controller and Data Protection Officer (DPO)

For transparency purposes, Philosophy Psychoanalysis ORG is the public editorial designation used for the digital project presented through https://philosophy-psychoanalysis.org.uk.

The use of this designation does not, by itself, establish the existence of a corporation, university, accredited educational institution, physical research centre, clinic, medical organisation, or professional regulatory body.

The person or organisation that actually determines the purposes and essential means of a particular personal information processing activity will be treated as the relevant controller under the UK GDPR.

Dr. Edward Collins is identified by the website as an editorial contact associated with the production, curation, review, or communication of its content. That presentation does not, by itself, constitute appointment as Data Protection Officer or independently establish any particular professional licence, regulated clinical status, academic post, or institutional affiliation.

The privacy contact channel is [email protected].

A formal Data Protection Officer will be appointed where Article 37 of the UK GDPR or another applicable legal requirement makes such appointment mandatory.

Where a formal DPO appointment is not legally required, the website will nevertheless maintain an accessible channel for privacy enquiries, rights requests, and data-protection complaints.

Legal Definitions

For purposes of this Policy, the following terms are used according to applicable data-protection law:

• Personal data: information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
• Special category data: personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, certain biometric data, health information, sex life, or sexual orientation.
• Processing: any operation performed on personal data, including collection, use, organisation, storage, analysis, disclosure, transmission, modification, restriction, or deletion.
• Data subject: the individual to whom personal data relates.
• Controller: the person or organisation determining the purposes and essential means of processing.
• Processor: a person or organisation processing personal data on behalf of a controller.
• Consent: a freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of a person's wishes satisfying applicable legal requirements.
• Clinical data: information collected or generated for medical diagnosis, psychological assessment, psychotherapy, psychoanalytic treatment, or other individualised healthcare purposes.
• Inference: a conclusion, classification, or prediction derived from observed personal information or behaviour.
• Profiling: automated processing used to evaluate or predict personal characteristics where recognised under applicable law.
• Cookies and storage technologies: cookies, pixels, web storage, device identifiers, fingerprinting techniques, scripts, tags, and other technologies capable of storing information on or accessing information from a user's device.

Information We Collect

Information Voluntarily Provided

When visitors contact the website, submit a question, suggest a correction, propose an article, provide scholarly feedback, or use another available communication channel, information such as name, email address, voluntarily stated affiliation, subject, and message content may be processed.

General website channels are not intended for medical records, psychological test results, psychotherapy notes, psychoanalytic session transcripts, diagnoses, prescriptions, treatment histories, or other clinical records.

Technical and Navigation Information

Technical information may be processed during access, including Internet Protocol address, date and time, browser, operating system, device type, requested pages, approximate referral source, technical identifiers, and security events.

Audience and Performance Information

Where analytics technologies are actually implemented, information concerning page views, approximate session duration, referral sources, clicks, interactions, and technical performance may be processed.

Academic and Editorial Communications

Correspondence concerning philosophical debates, psychoanalytic theory, publications, corrections, research, translation, teaching, interviews, or scholarly collaboration may contain professional contact information and other information voluntarily supplied by the sender.

Such information should be used only for purposes reasonably compatible with the communication concerned.

User Contributions

If comments or scholarly submissions are enabled, the website may process the information necessary to review, moderate, publish, attribute, or respond to the relevant contribution.

Users must not submit confidential case material, identifiable patient histories, session transcripts, or sensitive information about third parties through general editorial channels.

Philosophy Psychoanalysis ORG does not intentionally collect clinical data for diagnosis, psychological assessment, psychotherapy, psychoanalytic treatment, clinical screening, or patient care.

Legal Bases for Processing

Where the UK GDPR applies, processing must have an appropriate lawful basis under Article 6.

Depending on the specific operation, potentially relevant lawful bases may include:

• Consent under Article 6(1)(a): where a visitor has made a valid choice concerning an optional activity.
• Contractual necessity under Article 6(1)(b): where processing is objectively necessary to take requested steps or perform a relevant agreement.
• Legal obligation under Article 6(1)(c): where processing is necessary to comply with an applicable legal duty.
• Vital interests under Article 6(1)(d): in exceptional circumstances where processing is necessary to protect someone's life.
• Legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f): where processing is necessary for a legitimate editorial, security, administrative, or operational interest and those interests are not overridden by the rights and freedoms of the individual.

Where a recognised legitimate interest introduced into the UK framework by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 is relied upon, the processing must fall within the legally specified circumstances for that basis.

Legitimate interests will not be used as a generic justification for creating health diagnoses, religious profiles, philosophical-belief profiles, political classifications, or other sensitive inferences from a reader's browsing history.

Where special category data is processed, the website must identify both an Article 6 lawful basis and an appropriate condition under Article 9 of the UK GDPR.

Where required by section 10 or Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018, an additional domestic-law condition and any required safeguards or appropriate policy document must also be maintained.

Where the EU GDPR separately applies, an appropriate basis under Article 6 and, where applicable, an Article 9 special-category condition will be identified.

Where California, Brazilian, Peruvian, or another foreign privacy regime has mandatory application, the processing will also be assessed against that regime's applicable requirements.

Purposes of Processing

Personal data may be processed, where appropriate, to:

• operate and secure the website;
• provide requested articles and educational pages;
• respond to correspondence and enquiries;
• review scholarly suggestions and corrections;
• administer editorial submissions where enabled;
• manage comments where enabled;
• record privacy and cookie preferences;
• prevent fraud, spam, malicious automation, and unauthorised access;
• investigate technical failures;
• produce website-performance and audience statistics where legally appropriate;
• understand aggregate interest in philosophical and psychoanalytic topics;
• improve accessibility, navigation, and editorial organisation;
• preserve source, citation, authorship, and publication records;
• comply with legal obligations;
• respond to valid judicial or regulatory requests;
• establish, exercise, or defend legal rights;
• investigate security incidents.

Interest in existentialism, religion, ethics, political philosophy, sexuality, psychoanalysis, trauma, depression, psychosis, or another subject will not, by itself, be used by the website to determine that the visitor personally holds a particular philosophical or religious belief, political opinion, sexual orientation, or mental health diagnosis.

Sensitive Data and Mental Health

PHILOSOPHY PSYCHOANALYSIS ORG DOES NOT REQUEST OR COLLECT CLINICAL DATA FOR DIAGNOSIS, PSYCHOTHERAPY, PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT, CLINICAL SCREENING, OR PATIENT CARE.

The website may publish academic material concerning psychological suffering, trauma, sexuality, religion, political philosophy, ethics, death, suicide, depression, anxiety, psychosis, desire, identity, or other subjects capable of revealing or relating to sensitive aspects of human life.

READING AN ARTICLE ABOUT A MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION DOES NOT CAUSE THE WEBSITE TO DIAGNOSE THE READER WITH THAT CONDITION.

READING AN ARTICLE ABOUT A RELIGION, PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOL, POLITICAL THEORY, OR ETHICAL POSITION DOES NOT, BY ITSELF, AUTHORISE THE WEBSITE TO CONCLUDE THAT THE READER HOLDS THAT RELIGIOUS, PHILOSOPHICAL, OR POLITICAL BELIEF.

Under Article 9 of the UK GDPR, information concerning health, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, sex life, or sexual orientation may constitute special category data.

Intentionally created inferences concerning those matters may themselves require treatment as special category data.

The website will not use browsing history alone to classify a visitor as depressed, psychotic, traumatised, suicidal, religious, atheist, Marxist, conservative, liberal, existentialist, or as belonging to any other sensitive health, political, religious, or philosophical category.

The website is not designed as a patient-record system or psychological assessment service.

Visitors should not transmit medical records, psychotherapy notes, psychoanalytic session transcripts, identifiable patient case material, psychological assessments, prescriptions, or confidential clinical information through ordinary website channels.

If sensitive information is voluntarily and incidentally included in correspondence, receiving that information does not create a treatment relationship or clinical record.

Incidental sensitive information should be minimised, restricted, or deleted where appropriate and legally permissible.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

The website may use cookies and other storage and access technologies for technical functionality, security, privacy preferences, analytics, and other properly disclosed purposes.

Relevant technologies may include cookies, tracking pixels, web storage, scripts, tags, link decoration, and similar mechanisms capable of storing information on or accessing information from a user's terminal equipment.

• Strictly necessary technologies: technologies required for an essential service or security function.
• Functional technologies: technologies used to remember requested preferences or provide requested functionality.
• Analytics technologies: technologies used to measure aggregate audience behaviour and website performance.
• Advertising technologies: technologies used for advertising, behavioural profiling, or similar purposes only where actually implemented and lawfully configured.

Under PECR, storage or access technologies may be used without consent only where an applicable statutory exception or exemption is satisfied.

Where no applicable exception is available, valid consent will be obtained before the relevant storage or access activity occurs.

Where information processed through those technologies constitutes personal data, the UK GDPR also applies.

Optional technologies will not be described as strictly necessary merely to avoid an otherwise applicable consent requirement.

Where consent is relied upon, visitors should be given an accessible mechanism to accept, reject, and subsequently change relevant choices.

The website should not use tracking data to create sensitive profiles based solely on a person's interest in mental health, political philosophy, religion, sexuality, or other protected topics.

Sharing with Third Parties

The website does not have, as its stated editorial purpose, the commercial sale of readers' personal data.

Personal information may be disclosed on a limited basis to providers necessary for website operations, including hosting, cybersecurity, email, forms, content delivery, backups, analytics, and technical infrastructure.

Each provider may act as a processor, independent controller, or other responsible party depending on the actual arrangement and applicable law.

Only information reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose should be disclosed.

Embedded videos, academic databases, external media, or other third-party resources may involve separate processing by the respective provider.

The presence of a philosophical, academic, psychoanalytic, university, journal, or institutional link does not establish sponsorship, partnership, endorsement, common ownership, or approval by the referenced third party.

Personal data may also be disclosed where necessary to comply with valid law, judicial process, regulatory obligations, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal rights.

International Data Transfers

Because the website is internationally accessible, personal data may be processed in the United Kingdom and, where necessary, in other countries.

Where UK GDPR rules on restricted international transfers apply, the website will consider the mechanisms permitted by Chapter V of the UK GDPR.

Transfers may rely, where legally available, on UK adequacy regulations or appropriate safeguards under Article 46.

Appropriate safeguards may include the United Kingdom International Data Transfer Agreement, the United Kingdom Addendum to approved European Union Standard Contractual Clauses, binding corporate rules, or another legally recognised safeguard.

Where required, an appropriate transfer risk assessment will be undertaken and supplementary technical, contractual, or organisational measures will be considered.

Where the EU GDPR separately applies, European international-transfer requirements under Articles 44 through 49 will be addressed independently.

Where Brazilian LGPD applies, Articles 33 through 36 and applicable Brazilian rules will be considered.

Where Peru's Law No. 29733 applies, relevant international-transfer and security requirements will be observed.

Retention and Deletion

Personal data will be retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was processed, subject to applicable legal, security, editorial, evidentiary, and rights-protection requirements.

General correspondence may be retained for a reasonable period necessary to respond, document editorial interactions, prevent abuse, or protect legal rights.

Records concerning authorship, copyright permission, editorial corrections, source verification, or publication history may be retained where reasonably necessary.

Sensitive information unnecessarily included in ordinary correspondence should be minimised or deleted where technically and legally appropriate.

Where the UK GDPR applies, the storage-limitation principle under Article 5 will be observed.

Data subject requests for erasure will be addressed subject to applicable exceptions, including circumstances where continued processing is necessary for legal claims, legal obligations, freedom of expression and information, or other legally recognised grounds.

Rights of Data Subjects

Where the UK GDPR applies, individuals may have rights including:

• the right to be informed about processing;
• the right of access to personal data;
• the right to request rectification of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• the right to request erasure where the applicable legal requirements are satisfied;
• the right to request restriction of processing in applicable circumstances;
• the right to data portability where its statutory conditions are satisfied;
• the right to object to certain processing;
• the right to withdraw consent where consent is relied upon;
• rights and safeguards concerning certain solely automated significant decisions;
• the right to raise a data-protection complaint;
• the right to complain to the competent supervisory authority.

Automated Decision-Making

Where a significant decision is made solely by automated means and applicable UK law requires safeguards, the individual should receive appropriate information concerning the decision and be able to make representations, seek meaningful human intervention, and contest the decision.

Additional restrictions apply where special category data is used for significant solely automated decision-making.

Philosophy Psychoanalysis ORG is not intended to make automated clinical diagnoses, psychological classifications, employment decisions, educational admissions decisions, or other similarly significant decisions about its readers.

EU and International Rights

Where the EU GDPR applies, rights under Articles 12 through 22 will be observed according to their statutory conditions.

Where the California Consumer Privacy Act, Brazilian LGPD, Peruvian Law No. 29733, or another mandatory foreign regime applies, corresponding legally applicable rights will also be addressed.

How to Exercise Your Rights

Requests relating to privacy or data-protection rights may be submitted to [email protected].

Reasonable verification may be required to prevent unauthorised disclosure, alteration, access, or deletion of personal data.

The website should not request excessive verification information where a less intrusive method is sufficient.

Requests will be assessed according to the applicable legal framework, the nature of the request, and the personal data actually held.

Data Protection Complaints

Individuals may also use the privacy contact channel to complain about the way their personal data has been handled.

Where the complaint provisions introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 apply, the controller will take reasonable steps to facilitate complaints, acknowledge an applicable complaint within the legally required period, and respond without undue delay.

As of the current UK framework, applicable data-subject complaint obligations include acknowledgement within 30 days where the statutory provision applies.

An individual may also raise concerns with the competent UK data-protection authority.

Information Security

The website seeks to maintain technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the nature and risks of the personal data processed, consistently with Article 32 of the UK GDPR.

Measures may include HTTPS, software updates, authentication controls, restricted administrative access, least-privilege practices, backups, malicious-traffic protection, technical logging, and service-provider review.

Identifiable patient records, psychotherapy notes, psychoanalytic session transcripts, or other clinical records should not be used as ordinary editorial, development, demonstration, analytics, or artificial-intelligence test data.

No Internet-connected system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Security is therefore treated as an ongoing process involving prevention, detection, response, recovery, and improvement.

Where a personal-data breach creates notification obligations under Articles 33 or 34 of the UK GDPR, applicable reporting and communication requirements will be followed.

Children and Minors

The website is designed primarily for an academic and general readership and is not intentionally structured as a service directed primarily to young children.

Children's personal data requires particular protection and must be processed fairly, transparently, and in a manner that takes account of the child's interests and reasonable expectations.

The age of 13 is not a universal minimum age for every form of personal-data processing in the United Kingdom.

Under Article 8 of the UK GDPR and section 9 of the Data Protection Act 2018, where an information society service is offered directly to a child and the controller relies on consent as its lawful basis, a child aged 13 or over may generally provide their own consent.

Where such a child is under 13, consent must generally be given or authorised by a person holding parental responsibility, unless a legally applicable exception applies.

Where parental consent is required, reasonable efforts should be made to verify that consent.

Other lawful bases may be more appropriate than consent in some circumstances.

If the website becomes likely to be accessed by children in a manner bringing the UK Children's Code into scope, the service design and data practices should be reviewed against the applicable age-appropriate design requirements.

Children and teenagers should not be encouraged to publicly disclose diagnoses, sexual information, abuse, self-harm, religious beliefs, political opinions, family conflict, or other sensitive personal information through general comments or contact forms.

Changes to this Policy

This Policy may be revised in response to changes in law, technology, website functionality, editorial activities, or data-protection guidance.

The Policy should be reassessed before implementing newsletters, user accounts, memberships, behavioural advertising, personalised recommendations, artificial-intelligence assistants, interactive psychological assessments, formal research involving participants, or other functionality that materially changes personal-data processing.

If the website begins providing clinical services, psychological assessment, formal research involving identifiable participants, or a child-directed interactive service, a separate legal and privacy review must occur before launch.

The current version will be made available through the website.

Supervisory Authorities

In the United Kingdom, data-protection and privacy matters fall within the regulatory framework administered through the Information Commissioner's Office and the current statutory information-rights regulatory structure.

Individuals may use the regulator's available procedures where they believe their data-protection rights have not been respected.

Where the EU GDPR applies, the competent supervisory authority in the European Economic Area may also have jurisdiction.

Where another mandatory foreign privacy regime applies, the corresponding competent authority may also have jurisdiction according to that regime.

Contact

Questions concerning this Privacy Policy or personal-data rights may be submitted to:

Philosophy Psychoanalysis ORG

Website: https://philosophy-psychoanalysis.org.uk

Editorial contact: Dr. Edward Collins.

Email: [email protected]

Nature of the website: digital academic-editorial project connecting philosophy, psychoanalysis, intellectual history, and related educational subjects.

Primary jurisdiction: United Kingdom.

Last Updated

Original effective date: 11 April 2020.

Legal consolidation of this version: 2 September 2026.