AICSA WhatsApp Community Privacy Notice
About This Notice
This notice explains how the AI and Cyber Security Association handles your personal information in connection with our Discord server. It sits alongside our main website privacy notice at https://aisec.org.uk/privacy-policy/, which covers your membership more generally.
It applies to you if you join the AICSA Discord server. It does not replace Discord’s own privacy policy, which covers everything Discord does with your information as a user of their platform. You can read that at discord.com/privacy.
Who We Are
The AI and Cyber Security Association Limited is a not for profit company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales, company number 17337961, with its registered office at The Oakley, Kidderminster Road, Droitwich, WR9 0JA, United Kingdom.
We are the data controller for the information described in this notice.
You can contact us about anything in this notice at hello@aisec.org.uk.
An Important Point About Discord
Discord is not working for us. It is not our supplier and it does not process your information on our instructions.
When you use Discord you have your own relationship with Discord as a company, and Discord decides for itself what it collects about you and what it does with it. In data protection terms, Discord is a separate and independent controller of your information, not our processor.
What that means in practice is that this notice covers what the AICSA does. It cannot and does not cover everything Discord does. For that, read Discord’s privacy policy at discord.com/privacy.
Discord’s own policy states that for people outside the European Economic Area, including the United Kingdom, Discord Inc. is the data controller. Discord Inc. is based at 444 De Haro Street #200, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. For people in the EEA, the controller is Discord Netherlands BV.
What We Process, And Why
We process a limited amount of information about you in connection with the server.
What | Why We Process It | Lawful Basis |
Your Discord username, display name, user ID and profile picture | To identify you in the server and match you to our membership records | Legitimate interests |
Your membership status and tier | To confirm you are entitled to be in the server and to assign the right role | Legitimate interests |
The roles we assign to you | To control which channels you can see, including private working group channels | Legitimate interests |
Messages and files you post in the server | We do not collect these, but as server administrators we can read them, and we may review them if a moderation issue arises | Legitimate interests |
Notes we make when moderating | To handle a complaint or a breach of the code of conduct fairly and consistently | Legitimate interests |
Working group participation | To run the working groups and to invite you to the right ones | Legitimate interests |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, our interest is in running a members’ community that members have asked for, and in making sure access is limited to people entitled to it. We consider this proportionate because participation is voluntary, the information involved is limited, you can leave at any time and nothing you do in the server affects your membership unless you breach the code of conduct.
We do not use anything you post in the server for marketing, and we do not sell or share your information with anyone for their own purposes.
Where The Information Comes From
- From you, when you join the server and when you post in it.
- From Discord, in the sense that your username and profile are visible to us because that is how Discord works.
- From our own membership records, which is where your membership status and tier come from.
Who Can See What
Who | What They Can See |
Other members | Your Discord username, display name and profile picture, anything you post in a channel they have access to, and which roles you hold. They cannot see your email address, telephone number or membership record unless you choose to share them. |
AICSA administrators | Everything above, plus your membership record and any moderation notes. Administrators can read any channel in the server, including private working group channels. |
Discord | Everything you do on their platform, as set out in their own privacy policy. This is outside our control. |
Anyone else | Nobody. We do not pass member information to third parties for their own purposes. |
Please assume that anything you post in a channel can be read by every member with access to that channel, and that it can be screenshotted. Our code of conduct applies the Chatham House Rule by default, but a rule is not a technical control.
Bots And Third Party Apps
Discord allows server administrators to add third party bots and apps. If we add any, they may be able to read messages in the channels they operate in, and they are run by companies we do not control.
We will not add a bot that reads message content without telling members first and updating this notice. If we do add one, we will name it here and link to its privacy policy.
At the date of this notice, the AICSA server uses the following bots: NONE.
Where Your Information Is Held
Our own records, meaning your membership details and any moderation notes, are held in the United Kingdom.
Discord is based in the United States and processes and stores information on servers located there, and potentially in other countries. Discord’s privacy policy states that it complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and that it uses standard contractual clauses when transferring data outside the European Economic Area.
By joining the server you are using a United States based service, and your information will be processed there. If you would rather not have your information processed outside the United Kingdom, please do not join the server. Every other membership benefit remains available to you, and nothing about your membership changes.
How Long We Keep It
- Your membership record is kept for as long as you are a member, and then for 6 years after your membership ends, so that we can meet our accounting and legal obligations.
- Moderation notes are kept for 2 years from the date of the incident, and then deleted.
- Messages you post in the server stay there until you delete them, we delete them, or the server itself is deleted. Discord may retain them for longer in accordance with its own retention policy, which is outside our control.
Discord’s data retention policy is published in its help centre and linked from its privacy policy.
Security
Access to the server is limited to current members. New arrivals are held with restricted access until we have confirmed their membership, and roles are used to control which channels each member can see.
Discord encrypts information in transit and at rest, and requires administrators to be able to use two factor authentication for moderator actions. We enable two factor authentication on administrator accounts.
No online service is completely secure. Please do not post anything in the server that you would not be comfortable being read more widely, including anything commercially confidential or covered by an obligation you owe to your employer or a client.
Your Rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have it corrected if it is wrong, to have it erased, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to receive it in a portable format. You can also object to processing we carry out on the basis of legitimate interests.
To exercise any of these rights over information the AICSA holds, contact us at hello@aisec.org.uk. We will respond within 1 month.
For information Discord holds about you, you need to go to Discord rather than to us. Discord’s privacy team can be reached at privacy@discord.com, and its Data Protection Officer at dpo@discord.com. Discord has appointed VeraSafe United Kingdom Ltd, 37 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TL, as its UK representative for data protection matters.
Leaving The Server
You can leave at any time by exiting the server in Discord, or by asking us to remove you. Leaving does not affect your AICSA membership in any way.
If your membership lapses, your access to the server will end, as set out in the code of conduct. You are welcome back whenever you rejoin.
If you want your posts removed when you leave, tell us and we will delete what we reasonably can. We cannot always remove everything, because other members may have quoted or replied to you.
Age
Discord requires users to be at least 13 years old, and older in some countries. AICSA student membership is open to verified full time students, some of whom may be under 18. If you are under 18, please make sure you are old enough to use Discord where you live before joining the server.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first at hello@aisec.org.uk so that we can try to put it right.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes To This Notice
We will update this notice if our practices change, and we will tell members in the server when we do.
Last updated – 9 August 2026.