This is the compliance team's draft. It has not yet been approved for publication.
Last updated: 1 September 2026
Introduction
The International Centre for Advanced Islamic Research (ICAIR) is committed to protecting your privacy. We rely on the trust and generosity of our community in order to carry out our work, and we want to be transparent about the personal information we collect, why we collect it, and how we keep it secure.
This policy explains how we handle personal information collected through icair.ac and through our research, publishing, events and engagement activities. It applies to visitors to our website, donors, event participants, subscribers, contributors to our publications, and applicants for roles with us.
Who we are
ICAIR is a department of The World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities (KSIMC), a charity registered in England and Wales under number 282303 and an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.
For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, The World Federation of KSIMC is the data controller for personal information collected through this website. ICAIR does not exist as a separate legal entity.
You can contact us at:
ICAIR, WF House, Moorhall Road, Harefield, UB9 6NS, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8954 4581
Email: contact@icair.ac
How we collect information
Information you give us directly. For example, when you complete our enquiry form, make a donation, register for a conference, symposium or workshop, subscribe to our mailing list, submit an article or research proposal to one of our publications, apply for a role or volunteering opportunity, or engage with us on social media.
Information we collect from your use of our website. When you visit icair.ac we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns using Google Analytics 4. Wherever possible this information is aggregated or anonymised and does not identify individual visitors. We use it to understand things such as which pages are most read and how visitors find our publications. We do not attempt, and do not permit our analytics provider to attempt, to identify individual visitors to our website. Analytics cookies are only set where you have given your consent — see our Cookie Policy.
Information from third parties. We may receive information about you from organisations we work with, such as co-hosting partners for an event, or from our payment processor when you make a donation.
What information we collect
Depending on how you interact with us, this may include:
- Your name, title, email address, telephone number and postal address
- The content of any message, enquiry, research proposal or manuscript you send us
- Donation details, including amount, campaign, frequency and Gift Aid status
- Event registration details, including your professional background or institution where relevant to the event
- Application materials, including your CV and references, if you apply for a role
- Technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device and operating system
- Your communication preferences
We ask that you do not send us sensitive personal information through our enquiry form unless we have specifically requested it.
Information about religious belief
Some of what we do — publishing Islamic scholarship, running seminaries and symposia, and receiving religious contributions such as khums, sadaqah and zakat — may mean that your engagement with us reveals information about your religious beliefs. Under the UK GDPR this is "special category" data and receives additional protection.
Where we process this information, we do so on the basis that we are a not-for-profit body with a religious aim, processing information about people who are in regular contact with us in connection with our purposes (Article 9(2)(d) UK GDPR), or on the basis of your explicit consent. We do not disclose this information outside our organisation without your consent.
How we use your information
We use your information to:
- respond to your enquiry, research proposal or manuscript submission
- process and acknowledge a donation you have made, and claim Gift Aid where you have authorised it
- administer your registration for a conference, symposium, seminar or workshop, and share joining details
- send you communications you have asked to receive, such as publication announcements, event invitations and our newsletter
- process an application for employment or a volunteering role
- carry out our obligations under any agreement between you and us, including publishing agreements
- seek your views on our work, for example through post-event feedback
- notify you of changes to our services
- maintain the security and proper functioning of our website
- meet our legal, regulatory and accounting obligations
Where we need personal information to process a donation, register you for an event, assess an application or fulfil another request, failure to provide that information may mean we are unable to provide the relevant service or respond to your request.
Our lawful bases for processing
Under the UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for processing your information. In most cases we rely on:
- Consent — for example, when you subscribe to our mailing list or agree to non-essential cookies. You may withdraw your consent at any time. The withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of our processing of your personal data based on consent before its withdrawal.
- Contract — for example, when we process your event registration or a publishing agreement.
- Legal obligation — for example, when we provide donor details to HMRC in order to claim Gift Aid, or retain financial records for the period required by law.
- Legitimate interests — for example, when we respond to an enquiry you have sent us, keep a record of a donation, update you on the progress of research your donation supports, or analyse website usage to improve our publications and services. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether our interests are overridden by your rights and freedoms.
- Article 9(2)(d) or explicit consent — where special category data is involved, as described above.
Donations
Donations made through icair.ac are made to The World Federation of KSIMC in support of ICAIR's work. Payments are processed by Stripe, a third-party payment provider that specialises in the secure capture and processing of card transactions. We do not store your full card details on our systems.
If you make a Gift Aid declaration, we are required to provide your name, address and donation details to HM Revenue & Customs in order to reclaim the tax.
The World Federation of KSIMC is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and is committed to fundraising responsibly, honestly and in a way that respects your wishes.
Marketing and communications
We will only send you marketing communications where you have asked to receive them, or where we are otherwise permitted to do so by law.
Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link, and you can ask us to stop contacting you at any time by emailing contact@icair.ac. If you ask us not to contact you, we will keep a minimal record of your request on a suppression list so that we do not contact you again in error.
Who we share your information with
We do not sell or rent your personal information to anyone, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.
We may share your information with:
- other departments and member organisations of The World Federation of KSIMC, where this is necessary to deliver a service you have asked for
- service providers who act on our instructions, such as our website host, email and newsletter platform, event platform and payment processor
- partner organisations co-hosting an event you have registered for, where we tell you this at the point of registration
- HM Revenue & Customs, for Gift Aid purposes
- professional advisers, auditors and regulators, where required
We may also disclose your information where we are required to do so by law, or where it is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of our community, our staff or others.
Where your information is held
We take the security of your information seriously. As far as possible your data is stored within the UK, the European Economic Area, or in countries the UK Government has recognised as providing an adequate level of protection.
Where information is unavoidably transferred elsewhere — for example, because a service provider or an event co-host is based outside these regions — we put appropriate safeguards in place, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum to the Standard Contractual Clauses.
How long we keep your information
We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it. We review our retention periods regularly. In general:
- Enquiries — 24 months from your last contact with us
- Donation and Gift Aid records — a minimum of 6 complete tax years, as required by HMRC
- Event registrations — 24 months after the event
- Mailing list subscriptions — until you unsubscribe, and thereafter a minimal suppression record
- Unsuccessful job applications — 12 months, unless you ask us to keep your details on file
- Published contributions to our journals and magazines — indefinitely where necessary, as part of the permanent scholarly record
Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or alteration. Access to personal information is limited to those staff and volunteers who need it in order to carry out their work.
Your rights
Under data protection law you have the right to:
- be informed about how we use your information — which is the purpose of this policy
- access the personal information we hold about you
- rectify information that is inaccurate or incomplete
- erase your information in certain circumstances
- restrict how we process your information
- portability — to receive the information you have provided to us in a common machine-readable format, and to have it transferred to another organisation where technically feasible
- object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to object to direct marketing at any time
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent
To exercise any of these rights, please email contact@icair.ac or write to us at the address above. We will respond within one month. There is normally no charge. Some rights only apply in certain circumstances and may be subject to exemptions under data protection law. If your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act.
Automated decision-making
We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significant effects.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first so that we have the opportunity to put things right.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk
Cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies on icair.ac. We do not use cookies to identify you personally. Full details, including how to manage your preferences, are set out in our Cookie Policy.
External websites and embedded content
Our website contains links to other websites, including those of The World Federation of KSIMC and its departments, our partner organisations, and platforms hosting our publications and media. It also contains embedded content such as videos and podcast players.
These websites and services have their own privacy policies, and embedded content may collect information about you as though you had visited that website directly. We do not accept responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of third-party websites. Please read their policies before submitting any personal information to them.
Children
Our website and services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Please check back periodically, particularly before sharing personal information with us. If we make material changes, we will place a prominent notice on our website.
Contact us
For any question about this policy or about how we handle your personal information:
Email: contact@icair.ac
Post: ICAIR, WF House, Moorhall Road, Harefield, UB9 6NS, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8954 4581