Localink Uni

Privacy Notice

Effective date: 14 October 2026
Last updated: 22 October 2026

1. Who We Are

This Privacy Notice explains how your personal information is collected, used, stored and shared when you use Localink Uni, including our website, mobile application, student membership services, university society tools and local business benefits platform.

Localink Uni is operated by:

Legal entity: Localink
Trading name: Localink Uni
Registered office or business address: 82 Kingston Road, New Malden, KT3 3NB
Privacy contact: hansoo.kim@localink.app
General support: info@localink.app

In this Notice, “Localink Uni”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the organisation operating the service.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, we will identify when we act as a data controller, meaning the organisation that determines why and how personal information is processed.

2. Who This Notice Applies To

This Notice applies to:

Students who register for a Localink Uni account.
Students who apply to join university societies.
Students who purchase or use a Student Benefit Card.
Society committee members and authorised society representatives.
Local business owners, employees and authorised business representatives.
Individuals who contact us for support or other enquiries.

This Notice does not replace any separate privacy information that a participating university, society, business or third-party service provider may be required to provide.

3. Personal Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you use Localink Uni.

3.1 Account and Profile Information

We may collect:

Full name.
Email address.
Account identifier.
Profile photograph, if you choose to upload one.
University name and relevant student information.
Account preferences and settings.
Age or eligibility confirmation, where required.

We will not routinely require a full copy of your university student identification card unless a separate, documented need has been established.

3.2 Society Membership Information

If you apply to join a university society, we may process:

The society you apply to join.
Your membership application.
Application date and status.
Approval or rejection records.
Society membership status and relevant membership dates.
Information necessary to administer your membership.

The relevant society's authorised committee members may receive information needed to assess your application and manage your membership.

3.3 Student Benefit Card Information

If you purchase a Student Benefit Card, we may process:

Your selected subscription plan.
The businesses selected under that plan.
Your subscription status and renewal dates.
Payment and transaction references.
Benefit eligibility and verification records.
Redemption records, where recorded.
Information required to resolve payment, access or benefit disputes.

The available plans are:

3 in One — £4.99 per month.
5 in One — £5.99 per month.
10 in One — £8.99 per month.

The prices and plans available to you will be displayed at the point of purchase.

Payment card details will be handled by our payment service provider. We do not intend to store full payment card details on our own systems.

3.4 QR Verification Information

When you present a digital membership or benefit card, we may process:

A temporary QR verification token.
Token validity and expiry information.
Account and subscription status.
The business for which verification is requested.
Verification time and result.
Limited security and fraud-prevention records.

QR codes are intended to contain a temporary verification token rather than directly displaying personal information such as your email address or student identification number.

A participating business should receive only the information necessary to verify your eligibility and apply the relevant offer.

3.5 Society and Business Account Information

For society and business representatives, we may collect:

Name and professional contact details.
Organisation name and address.
University or business affiliation.
Account permissions and administrative actions.
Business offers, society profiles and partnership information.
Information supplied during account verification.

3.6 Technical and Security Information

Depending on the technologies deployed, we may collect:

IP address.
Device, browser and operating system information.
Login and authentication records.
Security and error logs.
Application performance and crash information.
Cookie, SDK or similar technology identifiers.

Non-essential cookies and similar technologies will be used only in accordance with applicable consent requirements.

3.7 Support and Communications

We may process information you provide when you contact us, report a problem, submit a complaint or request assistance.

Please avoid sending passwords, full payment card details or unnecessary sensitive personal information through support channels.

4. How and Why We Use Personal Information

We use personal information only for specified purposes and where an appropriate legal basis applies.

The relevant legal basis depends on the purpose and the circumstances. We do not rely on consent for every processing activity.

The purposes for which we use personal information, and the legal basis for each, are:

Creating and maintaining your account: performance of a contract, where necessary.
Processing society applications and memberships: performance of a contract or another appropriate documented basis.
Providing paid subscription features: performance of a contract.
Processing payments, refunds and required accounting records: contract and/or legal obligation, as applicable.
Verifying benefit eligibility: contract and/or documented legitimate interests, depending on the processing.
Preventing fraud and protecting platform security: legitimate interests, where justified and appropriately balanced.
Responding to enquiries and complaints: contract, legitimate interests or legal obligation, as applicable.
Sending essential account and service notifications: contract and/or another appropriate lawful basis.
Sending optional direct marketing: consent or another legally available basis, where applicable, together with compliance with electronic marketing rules.
Using non-essential analytics or tracking technologies: consent where required and an appropriate UK GDPR basis for any personal data processed.
Producing anonymous usage reports and insights for participating businesses, societies and Localink Uni (for example, which offers and categories of business are used most): legitimate interests, using counts that do not identify individual students.
Complying with legal requirements: legal obligation, where applicable.

We keep a record of the legal basis we rely on for each processing activity.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we will assess the purpose, necessity and impact on the rights and interests of the individuals concerned.

Where consent is required, it will be requested separately and can be withdrawn without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

5. How We Share Personal Information

We may share personal information with the following categories of recipients where necessary and lawful.

5.1 Participating University Societies

When you apply to join a society, its authorised representatives may receive the information needed to review your application and manage your membership.

Societies should not use information obtained through Localink Uni for unrelated marketing or other purposes without establishing their own appropriate legal basis and meeting their legal obligations.

5.2 Participating Local Businesses

When a business verifies your Student Benefit Card, it may receive limited information necessary to determine whether your card is valid and whether you qualify for the relevant offer.

Businesses should not receive your complete society membership history or unrelated profile information through the verification process.

5.3 Service Providers

We may use third-party providers for services such as:

Website hosting and deployment.
Database management and authentication.
Payment processing.
Transactional email delivery.
Customer support.
Security monitoring.
Analytics and application performance monitoring, where implemented.

The actual providers used by Localink Uni will be identified in our internal supplier register. Their access to personal information will be limited to what is necessary for their contracted services.

5.4 Professional Advisers and Authorities

We may disclose information to professional advisers, regulators, law enforcement agencies or courts where required or permitted by law.

5.5 Business Transfers

If our business is reorganised, sold or transferred, personal information may be disclosed to relevant parties where lawful and subject to appropriate safeguards.

We do not sell personal information to third parties for their own independent marketing purposes.

Usage reports and insights

Each time a benefit is verified, we record which business, offer and society (or Student Benefit Card) it relates to, and when. We use these records to produce usage reports and insights:

Participating businesses can see, and download as a CSV file, how many times members of each partner society used their offers.
Societies can see how many times their members used each partner business's offers.
We analyse activity across the Platform and share monthly and yearly insights with businesses and societies, for example which offers or categories of business are used most.

These reports and insights show numbers only. They never show which student used a benefit. Business staff see a member's name and university only at the moment of verification, so that they can check it against the student's university ID.

6. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers may process or store personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will ensure that the transfer complies with applicable UK data protection law. Depending on the destination and circumstances, this may involve a UK adequacy regulation, an appropriate safeguard such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or another lawful transfer mechanism.

We will provide further information about relevant international transfers and the safeguards used where required by law.

Transfer information: Information about the countries involved, relevant service providers and applicable transfer safeguards will be provided here once verified.

7. How Long We Keep Personal Information

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, taking into account applicable legal obligations, accounting requirements, security, fraud prevention and the establishment or defence of legal claims.

Different categories of personal information may be retained for different periods, depending on the purpose for which the information is used and any applicable legal requirements. Our retention practices take into account the following criteria:

Account and profile information: retained while your account remains active and deleted or anonymised when it is no longer needed, subject to any applicable legal retention requirements.
Society applications and membership records: retained for as long as necessary to administer memberships, maintain relevant records and resolve disputes.
Profile photographs: retained while needed to operate your profile and provide the service, and deleted when no longer required.
Subscription and payment records: retained for as long as necessary to administer subscriptions and comply with applicable tax, accounting and other legal obligations.
QR verification and benefit redemption logs: retained for as long as reasonably necessary to verify benefit usage, prevent fraud, investigate misuse and resolve disputes.
Customer support records: retained for as long as necessary to respond to enquiries, manage complaints and resolve related issues.
Security and technical logs: retained for a period appropriate to maintaining service security, investigating suspicious activity and troubleshooting technical issues.
Marketing consent and opt-out records: retained for as long as necessary to respect your marketing preferences and demonstrate compliance with applicable legal requirements.

Where personal information is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it unless we have a lawful reason to retain it.

Closing your account does not necessarily result in the immediate deletion of every record. We may retain certain information where necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud or establish or defend legal claims. Any retained information will be kept only for as long as necessary for the relevant purpose and will be securely deleted or anonymised when no longer required.

8. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you may have the right to:

Request access to your personal information.
Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
Request erasure of personal information.
Request restriction of processing.
Object to certain processing activities.
Request data portability where applicable.
Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
Object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing.

These rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions.

To exercise a right, contact:

Email: info@localink.app

We may need to verify your identity before processing a request. We will respond within the period required by applicable law.

9. Marketing Communications

We may send essential service communications relating to your account, security, membership applications, subscriptions, payments or other requested services.

These communications are distinct from promotional marketing.

Where required, we will ask for your permission before sending marketing emails, text messages or other electronic marketing communications.

Marketing consent will not be a condition of creating a standard Localink Uni account or purchasing a Student Benefit Card.

You may withdraw marketing consent or unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link provided in the message or the relevant account settings.

We may retain a minimal suppression record where necessary to ensure that we respect your decision not to receive further marketing.

10. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Localink Uni currently uses only strictly necessary cookies and similar technologies, for example to keep you signed in, keep your account secure and remember this device for notifications. We do not currently use analytics or advertising cookies.

If we introduce non-essential cookies or similar technologies in future, we will ask for your consent before activating them and provide settings to change your choices at any time.

For further information, see our Cookie Policy.

11. Profile Photographs and Identity Verification

If you upload a profile photograph, it may be displayed on your digital membership card to help authorised staff visually compare the card with the person presenting it.

We do not intend to use automated facial recognition as part of the initial service.

If we introduce automated biometric identification or another materially different identity-verification method in the future, we will assess the applicable legal requirements before implementation and provide any additional information and safeguards required by law.

12. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, alteration or disclosure.

These measures may include:

Role-based access controls.
Secure authentication.
Appropriate encryption.
Server-side eligibility and QR verification.
Security logging and monitoring.
Supplier security reviews.
Backup and recovery procedures.
Procedures for responding to suspected data breaches.

No online service can guarantee absolute security. If a personal data breach occurs, we will assess it and notify the relevant authorities and affected individuals where required by law.

13. Automated Decisions

We may use automated technical checks to determine whether a QR token is valid, whether a subscription is active or whether an account meets stated eligibility conditions.

These checks are intended to verify access to the relevant service rather than to make decisions about individuals unrelated to their use of Localink Uni.

If we introduce solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects, we will assess and implement the safeguards required by applicable data protection law.

14. Children and Age Restrictions

Localink Uni is available to users aged 16 and over.

Users aged 16 and 17 may create free accounts to explore societies, view activities and discover available student benefits. The paid Student Benefit Card subscription is available only to users aged 18 or over.

By creating an account, you confirm that you are at least 16 years old and eligible to use the service.

We will assess whether the UK Children's Code and any additional child-protection requirements apply to Localink Uni. Where applicable, we will implement appropriate safeguards to protect younger users' privacy and personal information.

15. Third-Party Websites and Services

Localink Uni may contain links to university websites, society social media accounts, business websites and third-party services.

Those services operate under their own privacy policies and terms. We are not responsible for their independent privacy practices.

You should review the relevant privacy information before providing personal information directly to a third party.

16. Changes to This Privacy Notice

We may update this Notice when our service, data processing practices or legal obligations change.

We will publish the updated version with a revised effective date and provide additional notice where required or appropriate.

Where a change introduces a new purpose for processing personal information, we will assess the applicable legal basis and provide the information required before commencing that processing.

17. Contact and Complaints

For questions about this Notice or to exercise your data protection rights, contact:

Localink
82 Kingston Road, New Malden, KT3 3NB
Privacy: hansoo.kim@localink.app
General support: info@localink.app

You may also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

We encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve your concern, but you are not required to do so before contacting the ICO.

End of Privacy Notice