Virgin Active Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 2024

Important information and who we are

Controller

Virgin Active Limited (company number 3448441) is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as "Virgin Active", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy notice). Virgin Active Limited is registered as a data controller with the ICO, the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights and data privacy. As a data controller, we must make sure we comply with UK data protection law in relation to our processing of personal data.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your rights in relation to your personal data, please contact the DPO using the details set out below.

Contact details

Full name of legal entity: Virgin Active Limited

Name or title: The Data Protection Officer

Email address: personaldata@virginactive.co.uk

Postal address: Virgin Active Limited, 26 Little Trinity Lane, Mansion House, London, EC4V 2AR.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance at personaldata@virginactive.co.uk or by calling our customer service centre on 020 7717 9000. For all requests not relating to personal data, please email info@virginactive.co.uk.

Virgin Active knows that you care how your personal information is used and we appreciate that you trust us to do that carefully, sensibly and legally. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice describes the types of personal information that we may collect and receive about you (including any data you provide when you join us as a member, use our services, or use our website), the purposes for which we use it, the steps we take to safeguard your personal data and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Changes to this privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

This privacy notice was last updated in 2021. Unless stated otherwise, this privacy notice applies to all personal data we collect or receive about you. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

COVID–19 Data Protection Statement

We are supporting the NHS in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and this will remain our focus for the foreseeable future. As a result of these unprecedented circumstances, Virgin Active may need to share personal data with the NHS and other regulatory and government bodies. This will be done in accordance with data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”), and any amendments to applicable legislation. We will also consider any guidance provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office. The basis on which Virgin Active will process your data is set out in the sections which follow.

Using your personal data and the legal basis for processing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Virgin Active will rely on GDPR Article 6 (1) (b) and Article 9 (2) (h) for the processing of your data. In addition, we may rely one or more of the following basis when sharing personal data as part of our support work with the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation Article 6 (1)(c)

Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life. Article 6 (1)(d)

Public interest: the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest. Article 6 (1)(e)

Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for an organisation’s legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party Article 6 (1)(f)

When processing special category data for the purposes of: employment, social security and social protection Article 9 (2)(b); vital interests of the Data Subject Article 9 (2)(c); and, substantial public interest Article 9 (2)(g). Regulations issued 1st April 2020 allowing healthcare providers to share personal data and any other such notice that may be issued to support efforts against COVID-19.

NHS Test & Trace in our Clubs

The use of your information in this manner is covered by the General Data Protection Regulations Article 6 (1) (c) – a legal obligation to which we are subject to. This legal obligation means that we’re mandated by law, by a set of new regulations from the government, to co-operate with the NHS Test and Trace service, in order to help maintain a safe operating environment and to help fight any local outbreak of coronavirus. By maintaining records of staff, members and visitors, and sharing these with NHS Test and Trace where requested, we can help to identify people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

Virgin Active as the data controller for the collection and processing of your personal data, will be responsible for compliance with data protection legislation. When that information is requested by the NHS Test and Trace service, the service would at this point be responsible for compliance with data protection legislation for that period of time. It is not necessary to seek consent from each person for this processing, for example, on the most part we already collect this information for ordinary business purposes.

If an individual has tested positive for COVID-19, NHS Test and Trace may ask them who they have been in contact with and where, so others who may have been exposed to COVID-19 can be tested; this will help identify who needs to be in self-isolation to help stop the spread of COVID-19. If that individual has been in one of our Clubs they will not know the details of everyone they have come into contact with so a contact tracer from NHS Test and Trace may get in touch with Virgin Active and ask us to provide details of anyone who has been in close contact with that person.

When you swipe into one of our Clubs, it creates an entry in your electronic membership file so we will be able to identify which of our members might have come into contact with the person who had tested positive for COVID-19. If that person attended an exercise class we will also have a record of anyone else who took part in that same class so we can identify those members who might have been in closest contact with that person. Remember that your data will be processed in line with this privacy notice and only where necessary to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

We will share with NHS Test and Trace: your name, contact details (email address, phone number and/or address), along with the time you entered the Club and whether you attended an exercise class or are otherwise known to have been in close proximity with the person who has tested positive for COVID-19 (e.g. if you were both booked in for lane swimming at the same time). As always we would remind you of your obligation to ensure your contact details are up-to-date and accurate.

Our Clubs will also display an official NHS QR code poster at their entrance so you can scan the official NHS QR code if you wish, to help remind you where you have been if asked by NHS Test and Trace. Further information on how the NHS QR codes work can be found on the NHS COVID-19 app website.

Changes to this privacy notice

We will regularly review this privacy notice and its applicability throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

Third-party links

Our website (www.virginactive.co.uk) may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share personal data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2) What personal datado we collect about you?

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, receive, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact Data includes home address, billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Profile Data includes your usernames and passwords, details of your membership, your purchases of our services, your class and other bookings, your interests, preferences, notes of your interactions with us, feedback and survey responses.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our health clubs, products, services, website and mobile app.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to understand usage patterns at our health clubs or to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data) unless it is volunteered by you, for example in connection with your use of our personal training services.

In the course of providing personal training (or similar) services to you, we may collect information that is considered “special” e.g. completion of a health questionnaire. We only collect this information where you have given your explicit consent, it is necessary to protect your vital interests, or you have deliberately made it public. If you do not allow us to process any special category personal data, this may mean we are unable to provide all or parts of the services you have requested from us.

If you use the Boditrax body scanning machines in our health clubs, the personal data generated by them is transmitted to the personal account you create directly with Boditrax (if you create one) and we do not retain a copy of that personal data. You may share the personal data retained in your Boditrax account with others at your own discretion. If you access your Boditrax personal account through our mobile app, we do not have access to the personal data in your Boditrax account.

3) How do we collect and receive your personal data?

We collect and receive personal data from you through your interactions with us, including through:

• Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
• join us as a member;
• purchase or make bookings for our products or services;
• access and use your membership account on our website;
• download and use our mobile app;
• enter a competition, promotion or survey; or
• contact us (whether by post, phone, email or otherwise) or provide us with feedback.
• Your usage of our health clubs and services. As you use our health clubs and services, we collect Usage Data.
• Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website and mobile app, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy at virginactive.co.uk/legals/our-cookie-settings for further details.
• Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties as set out below:
• Identity and Contact Data from your employer (if you are a corporate member) or other membership intermediary (if you join us as a member through such an intermediary, including Vitality).
• Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment, debt recovery and fraud protection services based inside the EU such as BACS and Accountis (in relation to direct debit services), PCI-PAL (in relation to payment card services), ARC Europe (in relation to debt recovery services) and 2Checkout (in relation to fraud protection services).
• Profile Data from providers of research and data analysis (such as Verve).

4) How do we use your personal data?

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform a contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

You can read more below about the types of lawful basis that we rely on to process your personal data. Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below a description of all the ways we use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us at personaldata@virginactive.co.uk if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below. For all requests not relating to personal data, please email info@virginactive.co.uk.

The following explains some of the terms used above in connection with the lawful basis for our processing:

Legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, including helping us improve our services and products and provide a better customer experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).

Performance of a contract means processing your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

Automated decision making - We do not process your personal data for automated decision making where that decision making has any legal or similarly significant effect on you.

Marketing - We provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

Marketing from us - We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need from us, or what may be of interest to you, and to decide which products, services, promotions and offers may be relevant for you.

You will receive marketing communications from us in relation to our products and services if you are a member of ours and you did not opt out of receiving marketing communications from us when you joined us as a member, and have not opted out of receiving marketing from us since.

Opting out

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at personaldata@virginactive.co.uk.

If you opt out of receiving marketing messages from us but remain a customer, you will continue to receive non-marketing communications (for example, information communications about your class bookings or other appointments with us, communications relating to the management of your membership, and service communications about your club or the services we provide you with).

Third-party marketing

We will not share your personal data with any external companies for marketing purposes unless you have given us your express opt-in consent to receive marketing from such third parties before we do so.

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see www.virginactive.co.uk/legals/our-cookie-settings.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5) Sharingyour personal data

We do not sell or share your personal data with other organisations for their marketing purposes. We only share your personal data as explained in this privacy notice.

We may share your personal data (for the purposes set out in the table above explaining our use of your personal data) with external third parties who perform certain functions on our behalf or provide us with services to enable us to deliver our products and services and manage our business. The services these third parties provide include our membership management system, our IT support and service providers, payment processing and debt collection services, communication distribution services and marketing and data analysis services.

If you are a corporate member and your membership is paid for in part or in full by your employer, or you join through another membership intermediary (such as Vitality), we may share your Usage Data and Identity Data in connection with the management of our membership scheme with your employer or membership intermediary.

We may also share your personal data with third parties to whom we may sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If such a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law, including putting in place appropriate contractual obligations and protections. We do not allow our third party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes for which we engage them and in accordance with our instructions.

6) International transfers

Some of our external third party service providers have parts of their business based outside the European Economic Area (EEA), for example some of our IT support and service providers, including the provider of our membership management system. Where we engage the services of a third party based outside the EEA, or engage with a part of the business of a third party outside the EEA, their processing of your personal data as part of their provision of services to us will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it as is the case within the EEA by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• Transferring your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission. For further details, see European Commission: Adequacy of the protection of personal data in non-EU countries: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-transfers-outside-eu/adequacy-protection-personal-data-non-eu-countries_en.
• Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe. For further details, see European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-transfers-outside-eu/model-contracts-transfer-personal-data-third-countries_en.

7) Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8) Data retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Request erasure below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9) Your legal rights

You have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. If you want to exercise any of the rights set out below, please speak to your club team or contact us at personaldata@virginactive.co.uk. Due to the current circumstances, if you submit a SAR or other Data Subjects Rights request, please be aware that you may experience a delay in us responding to your request. That’s because we will be diverting resources to help with other challenges and ensuring the safe operation of our Clubs.

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where we no longer need to it for the purposes for which it was collected. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with a legal obligation. Note, however, that we may not always be able or required to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party where this is technically feasible. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where our processing of the information is necessary for the performance of a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent. This right only applies where we process the personal data in question based on your consent.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights).

What we may need from you

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.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated. Due to the current circumstances, if you submit a SAR or other Data Subjects Rights request, please be aware that you may experience a delay in us responding to your request. That’s because we will be diverting resources to help with other challenges and ensuring the safe operation of our Clubs.