Privacy Policy

Last updated: 29 July 2026

1. About this privacy policy

This privacy policy explains how Suné van der Merwe & Kezia Llewelyn, trading as Emerge Occupational Therapy, collects, uses, stores and shares personal information when you:

  • Visit emerge-ot.com;

  • create or use an account;

  • purchase a membership, course, resource or other service;

  • subscribe to communications;

  • contact us; or

  • otherwise interact with the website.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Suné van der Merwe & Kezia Llewelyn are the controllers of your personal information.

Contact details

Trading name: Emerge Occupational Therapy
Proprietor: Suné van der Merwe & Kezia Llewelyn
Email: info@emerge-ot.com

2. About the website

The website provides educational information, resources and professional-development materials for occupational therapy professionals and students who wish to learn about working in the field of human trafficking, exploitation and modern slavery.

The website is intended for education and professional development. It is not an emergency service, reporting service, clinical service, safeguarding authority or substitute for professional, legal, medical or regulatory advice.

3. Information we collect

Depending on how you use the website, we may collect the following information.

3.1 Account and membership information

This may include:

  • your name;

  • email address;

  • username and password or other login credentials;

  • occupation, professional role or student status;

  • organisation or educational institution;

  • membership type;

  • account preferences;

  • course enrolments, progress and completion information; and

  • communications relating to your account.

Passwords may be stored and managed by our website or account-service provider in encrypted or hashed form. We do not have access to your original password where it is managed by a third-party provider.

3.2 Purchase and payment information

When you purchase a membership, course, resource or service, we may collect:

  • your name;

  • billing address;

  • email address;

  • details of the product or service purchased;

  • payment status;

  • transaction reference;

  • invoice information; and

  • limited payment information supplied by our payment processor.

Payments are processed by STRIPE or PAYPAL. We do not normally receive or store your complete payment-card number, security code or online banking credentials.

The payment provider processes payment information under its own privacy policy.

3.3 Contact and correspondence information

When you contact us, we may collect:

  • your name;

  • email address;

  • telephone number, where provided;

  • organisation or professional role;

  • the content of your enquiry;

  • attachments that you choose to provide; and

  • records of our response.

3.4 Mailing-list information

Where you choose to receive newsletters or promotional communications, we may collect:

  • your name;

  • email address;

  • communication preferences;

  • consent records; and

  • information about whether communications were delivered, opened or selected.

3.5 Technical and analytics information

When you use the website, we or our service providers may collect:

  • Internet Protocol address;

  • browser type and version;

  • device type and operating system;

  • approximate location derived from your IP address;

  • pages visited;

  • time and date of visits;

  • referring website;

  • interactions with website functions;

  • cookie identifiers; and

  • diagnostic, security and performance information.

We use a privacy-focused analytics service for website analytics.

3.6 Information you should not submit

Because the website concerns human trafficking, exploitation and safeguarding, enquiries may potentially contain highly sensitive information.

Unless we expressly request it through a suitable secure process, please do not submit:

  • names or identifying details of trafficking survivors or potential victims;

  • case notes or clinical records;

  • health information;

  • details of criminal allegations or investigations;

  • safeguarding reports;

  • photographs or identity documents;

  • immigration information;

  • information about children; or

  • confidential information belonging to an employer, university, client or service user.

Where you contact us to discuss a professional situation, please anonymise the information and remove anything that could identify an individual.

If sensitive personal information is submitted without being requested, we may delete it where appropriate.

4. How we use your information

We may use personal information to:

  • create, administer and secure your account;

  • provide memberships, courses, resources and services;

  • process purchases and confirm payments;

  • issue receipts and invoices;

  • respond to questions and support requests;

  • maintain records of purchases and course activity;

  • communicate important account or service information;

  • send marketing communications where permitted;

  • understand how the website is used;

  • improve the website, services and educational content;

  • prevent fraud, misuse and security incidents;

  • diagnose technical problems;

  • establish, exercise or defend legal claims;

  • comply with tax, accounting and legal obligations; and

  • protect our rights and the rights and safety of others.

We do not use the website to provide individual trafficking case management or emergency safeguarding assistance.

5. Our lawful bases

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for using personal information.

We may rely on the following lawful bases.

Contract

We use personal information where it is necessary to:

  • create and administer your account;

  • provide a membership, course or purchased resource;

  • process and manage an order;

  • provide customer support; or

  • take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

Legal obligation

We may use personal information where necessary to comply with legal duties, including tax, accounting, fraud-prevention and regulatory requirements.

Legitimate interests

We may use personal information where necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights. These interests may include:

  • operating and improving the website;

  • securing accounts and systems;

  • answering enquiries;

  • maintaining appropriate business records;

  • understanding general website performance;

  • preventing misuse; and

  • establishing or defending legal claims.

Consent

We may rely on your consent for:

  • optional analytics cookies or similar technologies;

  • certain marketing communications; and

  • other optional processing clearly explained when consent is requested.

You may withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.

6. Special-category and criminal-offence information

Information concerning health, racial or ethnic origin, religion, sexual life, sexual orientation, trade-union membership or certain biometric and genetic information may be classed as special-category information.

Information about criminal allegations, proceedings or convictions is subject to additional legal protection.

We do not invite users to provide this information through ordinary contact forms, account profiles or comments. Where we intentionally need to process such information, we will identify an appropriate legal condition and provide any additional information required by law.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

The website may use cookies and similar technologies.

Essential technologies

These may be used where necessary to:

  • operate the website;

  • maintain security;

  • keep users signed in;

  • remember privacy choices;

  • provide shopping-basket or checkout functions; and

  • process payments.

Optional analytics technologies

With your consent, we may use analytics technologies to understand how visitors use the website and to improve its operation and content.

Optional analytics technologies should not be activated until you have made a valid choice through the cookie banner or preference tool.

You can change or withdraw your cookie choices through the cookie settings.

For further details, including the names, providers, purposes and duration of cookies, see our Cookie Policy or cookie-preference tool.

8. Marketing communications

We may send you marketing emails where:

  • you have consented to receive them; or

  • applicable law otherwise permits us to do so.

You may unsubscribe at any time by:

We may still send essential messages relating to your account, purchases, membership or service.

9. Sharing personal information

We may share information with service providers that help us operate the website and business, including:

  • website-hosting providers;

  • account and membership platforms;

  • payment processors;

  • email and newsletter providers;

  • analytics providers;

  • cloud-storage and information-technology providers;

  • customer-support providers;

  • accountants, insurers and professional advisers; and

  • fraud-prevention and cybersecurity providers.

Our current principal providers include:

  • Website platform and hosting: Squarespace

  • Account or membership platform: Squarespace

  • Payment processing: Squarespace

  • Email delivery or newsletter service: Squarespace

  • Analytics: Squarespace

  • Cloud storage or business systems: Squarespace

We may also disclose information:

  • where required by law, court order or regulatory authority;

  • to establish, exercise or defend legal rights;

  • where necessary and proportionate to prevent or investigate fraud or crime;

  • to protect someone’s vital interests in exceptional circumstances; or

  • as part of the sale, transfer or restructuring of the business.

We do not sell personal information.

10. International transfers

Some service providers may process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will take appropriate steps required by UK data protection law. Depending on the destination and provider, these may include:

  • transferring information to a country covered by UK adequacy regulations;

  • using the UK International Data Transfer Agreement;

  • using the UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses; or

  • relying on another lawful transfer mechanism.

Further information about safeguards used by a particular provider may be requested using the contact details above.

11. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, tax, security and dispute-resolution requirements.

Our usual retention periods are:

  • Account information: while the account remains active and for 1 month after closure.

  • Membership and course records: for 12 months after membership or course completion.

  • Purchase, invoice and transaction records: normally six years after the end of the relevant accounting period, where required for tax and accounting purposes.

  • General enquiries: normally 12 months after the enquiry is resolved.

  • Marketing records: until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent, with limited suppression information retained to respect your preference.

  • Analytics information: 7 days

  • Security logs: normally 7 days.

We may retain information for longer where necessary to resolve a complaint, respond to a legal claim, meet a legal obligation or investigate suspected misconduct.

12. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, misuse or disclosure.

These measures may include:

  • access controls;

  • secure passwords and authentication;

  • encryption in transit;

  • secure third-party payment processing;

  • software updates and backups;

  • restricted administrative access; and

  • procedures for responding to suspected incidents.

No internet-based service can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and informing us if you believe your account has been compromised.

13. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

  • be informed about how your information is used;

  • request access to your personal information;

  • request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;

  • request deletion of your information;

  • request restriction of processing;

  • object to certain processing;

  • receive certain information in a portable format;

  • withdraw consent;

  • object to direct marketing; and

  • complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal conditions or exemptions.

To exercise a right, contact info@emerge-ot.com. We may need to request information to confirm your identity.

14. Complaints

Please contact us first if you have concerns about how your information has been handled.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
United Kingdom

Website: ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

15. Children

The website is intended primarily for occupational therapy professionals, university-level students and other adult users.

It is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly invite children under 13 to create accounts, make purchases or submit personal information.

If educational content is made available to users under 18, we will consider whether additional age-appropriate information, consent mechanisms or safeguards are required.

16. Third-party websites

The website may contain links to professional organisations, universities, charities, government services, journals or other third-party websites.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of third-party websites. You should review the privacy information provided by those organisations.

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy when our services, providers or legal obligations change.

The current version will be published on this page, with the date of the latest revision shown at the top. Where changes are significant, we may also notify account holders by email or through the website.