​​Last updated: 21 August 2026 

Version: 1.0

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This policy explains how Successif collects, uses, stores, and shares personal data. It applies to:

• visitors to successif.org

• people who apply to or take part in our career advising programme, our AI Policy Strategy Fellowship, or our Women in AI Safety Program.

If you would like to exercise any of the rights set out below, or have questions about how we handle your data, contact us at contact@successif.org.

 

1. Who we are

Successif is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales (company name SUCCESSIF, company number 16752157, incorporated 30 September 2025). Our registered office is 25 Holywell Row, London, England, EC2A 4XE.

 

For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR") and the Data Protection Act 2018, Successif is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

 

Note on prior structure. Until August 21 2026, Successif operated as a fiscally sponsored project of Players Philanthropy Fund (PPF) in the United States. Personal data collected before that date was held under PPF's privacy practices. From August 21 2026 onwards, Successif's UK CLG is the controller for all personal data we hold, including data carried over from the prior structure.

 

Juliette Martichoux, our Privacy Lead, is responsible for data protection at Successif and can be reached at contact@successif.org.

 

2. What data we collect, and why

2.1 Website visitors

When you visit successif.org, we may collect:

 

• Contact details you submit — name, email address, organisation, and any message content when you fill in a contact form or apply to one of our programmes.

• Technical and usage data — IP address, browser type, device type, pages viewed, referring URL, and similar information collected via cookies and analytics tools.

 

We use this data to respond to enquiries, send you content you've asked for, and understand how the site is used so we can improve it.

 

Cookies and similar technologies are described in our separate Cookie Notice. You can manage cookie preferences from the banner on our website.

2.2 Programme participants

If you apply to or take part in our career advising programme, our AI Policy Strategy Fellowship, or our Women in AI Safety Program, we collect:

 

• Identification and contact information — name, email address, location (country/region), LinkedIn profile, organisation, role.

• Career and educational background — CV or résumé content, prior roles, education, areas of expertise.

• Career goals and constraints — your aspirations, target roles, professional blockers, availability.

• Application responses — information you provide in our application forms and intake questionnaires.

• Session content — notes taken by your advisor and, by default, AI-generated transcripts of your advising sessions (see Section 3), together with any information you share with us by email or other correspondence.

2.3 Sensitive (special category) information

Career advising for senior transitions can naturally touch on personal topics that, under UK GDPR Article 9, are classified as special category data — for example:

 

• Health and mental-health context — energy, bandwidth, burnout, anxiety, imposter syndrome, or other factors affecting your career decisions;

• Political opinions, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, sex life or sexual orientation — where these affect your fit with particular organisations or roles, or surface in conversations about your experiences in the workplace, organisational culture, resilience, and identity (for example, security-clearance considerations, values-aligned employer choice, or culture-fit reflections).

 

You are always in control of what you share. If you decide not to share special category data with us, you will still be able to receive career advice from us. If you voluntarily disclose special category data to us (whether verbally or in writing), you consent to us using that information to provide our advice.

 

We handle it as part of the conversation:

 

• We explain, in our intake materials and again at the start of your advising relationship, that advising may surface sensitive topics and that we record and use such context only with your explicit consent.

• At the start of your advising relationship, your advisor will explain what special category data is and explain that if you share any such data with us voluntarily (whether verbally or in writing), you are giving us consent for the purposes of Article 9(2)(a) of the UK GDPR to record and use this kind of sensitive context for our work. The advisor will ask you directly whether you understand this, and provide clarification, if needed.

• If you decide not to share special category data with us, you will be able to take part fully either way; your advisor will simply keep notes of what you choose to share (e.g. career goals, applications, action items).

 

You may withdraw or change this decision at any time by telling your advisor or writing to contact@successif.org, in which case we will delete or irreversibly anonymise the affected notes within 30 days (unless there is a lawful reason for us to retain them), without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

 

We do not collect genetic data or biometric data used for identification.

 

3. Recording and transcription of sessions

To support high-quality advising, advising sessions are transcribed by default using AI tools under appropriate data-protection terms (Section 5). Transcripts let your advisor stay present in the conversation, keep an accurate record, and pick up where you left off.

 

• You can ask us to turn this off at any time. Tell your advisor or email contact@successif.org and we will not transcribe your sessions using AI tools — for a single session or for all of them. Instead, your advisor will make written notes of the discussion after the meeting for our records.

• We will tell you that transcription is on at the start of your advising relationship.

• Transcripts are deleted on the retention schedule in Section 7.

 

4. Legal bases for processing

We rely on the following lawful bases.

 

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We maintain an internal record of processing under Article 30 that itemises our special-category processing.

 

5. AI and third-party tools

We use third-party software to run our operations. Where a tool processes personal data on our behalf, we have a data processing agreement (DPA) in place and we select tools that offer appropriate security and data protection standards. Current categories include:

 

• productivity and collaboration (e.g. Google Workspace, Slack);

• programme operations (e.g. Airtable, Asana);

• communications and email;

• analytics and website hosting;

• AI-assisted tools (large language models and similar), including session transcription and tools used to support drafting, summarisation, research, and operations.

 

A current list of processors is available on request from contact@successif.org.

 

On AI tooling specifically: we may use AI tools, including large language models, to support our work — for example, to transcribe sessions, help draft communications, summarise notes, analyse anonymised programme data, or assist with administrative tasks. We use providers under enterprise terms that prevent your data from being used to train their underlying models.

 

Sensitive information is held to a higher bar. We process special category data through AI tools only where the tool's contractual terms specifically permit such processing and provide adequate safeguards. If you voluntarily share any special category data with us in writing, you consent to us using such AI tools to respond to you. We do not use general-purpose or consumer-grade AI tools on advising content that contains special category data.

 

6. Sharing your data

We do not sell personal data. We share it only in the following circumstances:

 

• Within Successif — with advisors and operations staff who need access to do their work, on a need-to-know basis and subject to internal access controls.

• With our processors — the third-party vendors described in Section 5, acting on our instructions, under terms that match the sensitivity of the data they process.

• With funders — where we are required to report on our work, we share aggregated and anonymised outcome data wherever possible. Where a funder requires individual-level information (e.g. a small set of named programme participants for a case study), we will obtain your specific consent before sharing. We do not share special category data with funders.

• For legal reasons — where we are required by law, court order, or to protect our rights or the safety of others.

 

We do not share advising session content with funders, donors, or external parties.

 

7. How long we keep your data

We keep personal data only as long as we need it.

 

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We may retain some personal data for a longer period than set out in this Section 7 if necessary, in the event of a serious incident or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of a legal claim connected to our relationship with you.

 

We run a quarterly review to identify and delete personal data that has reached the end of its retention period.

 

8. International transfers

Some of our processors (Section 5) are based outside the UK, including in the United States and the European Economic Area. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards under UK GDPR — typically the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or an adequacy decision. Special category data is only transferred where the receiving processor's terms specifically cover such data.

 

9. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

 

• request access to the personal data we hold about you;

• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;

• ask us to delete your data ("right to erasure"), in certain circumstances where there is no good reason for us continuing to hold it;

• object to our processing of your data to further our legitimate interests (or those of a third party);

• ask us to restrict or suspend the use of your personal data;

• withdraw consent, at any time, where we rely on consent — including consent to our recording of sensitive information — without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal;

• portability — receive certain data in a structured, machine-readable format and ask us to transfer your personal data to another person or organisation.

 

To exercise any of these rights, email contact@successif.org. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

 

You also have rights in relation to automated decision making which has a legal effect or otherwise significantly affects you. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces significant legal effects concerning you.

 

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including need-to-know access controls, multi-factor authentication on internal systems, encryption in transit, and processor agreements with all third-party tools that handle personal data.

 

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make a material change, we will:

 

• update the "Last updated" date at the top of the policy;

• post the new version on successif.org;

• email everyone in our programme database at the address we hold for them, with a short summary of what changed.

 

Routine, non-material edits (typos, formatting) will not trigger an email.

 

12. Contact

Privacy Lead: Juliette Martichoux 

Email: contact@successif.org 

Postal: Successif, 25 Holywell Row, London, England, EC2A 4XE

 

If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, you have the right to raise a complaint with us. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and investigate it without undue delay.

 

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.