Last updated 19 October 2026
This notice explains what personal information Social Capital Ireland collects, why we collect it, and what you can ask us to do with it. We've tried to write it in plain English rather than legal language.
Social Capital Ireland connects students in DEIS schools with volunteer professional mentors. We are the data controller for the information described below, which means we are responsible for looking after it.
Registered name and address to be added once the Company Limited by Guarantee is incorporated. Until then, enquiries go to the contact address at the end of this notice.
We only collect what people type into our forms. We don't buy data, and we don't track you around the internet.
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| School name and county | To confirm the school is eligible and to know where you are |
| Your name and role | So we know who we're speaking to |
| Your email address | To reply to you, and to sign you in if approved |
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your name | Shown on your profile to registered schools |
| Your industry, experience level and job title | Shown on your profile so students can find relevant people |
| Whether you will give school talks | So we only ask you about things you've agreed to |
| How you got into the work: your route in, what you studied, the course name and your highest qualification | Shown on your profile. All of it is optional, and plenty of people have none of it |
| Whether you went to a DEIS school yourself, and which one | Shown on your profile, and mentors who went to the viewer's own school are listed first. Optional |
| A photo of you | Shown on your profile to registered schools and members over 18, once you're approved. Before it's uploaded we shrink it, which also removes the hidden details a camera stores, such as location. Optional |
| Anything you write about yourself | Shown on your profile, in your own words. Optional |
| A LinkedIn profile and an email address you choose to share | Shown only to members aged 18 or over who ask for them, and only if you agreed to be contacted. Either, both or neither. Optional |
| Your email address, and your employer if you gave one | So we can contact you. Not shown on your profile. |
Mentor contact details are kept separate on purpose. Your personal email address and phone number are stored in a different place from your public profile, and the website can't read them, not even for a signed-in school. Only we can see them. This is why schools arrange things through us, and why school students are never given your personal details.
If you choose to be contactable by members over 18 (students and past pupils), we only show what you chose to share: a LinkedIn profile, an email address, or both. These are separate, optional fields. The private email we hold for you is never shown unless you also put it in the box to share, and you can remove either at any time.
Members are people aged 18 or over who are connected to a registered school. That includes current students who have turned 18 as well as people who have left. A school invites you, and you register yourself.
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| The email address your school entered when inviting you | So the invitation only works for you, and so your school can see who has joined and remove anyone who should no longer have access |
| Which school invited you, who sent the invitation, and when | So access can be traced back to the school that approved it |
| Your date of birth | To check you are 18 or over. The database refuses anyone younger |
| Your email address when you register | To sign you in |
Your school holds the list, not us. A guidance counsellor creates an invitation for one address at a time and sends you the link themselves. We are not sent a list of student addresses, and we don't email anyone who hasn't been invited.
Your school can remove your access at any time without asking us.
If you ask to see how to reach a mentor, we record that you asked, which mentor, and when. You are not browsing anonymously, and we want to be clear about that.
| Why we keep it | |
|---|---|
| So a concern can be looked into | If something ever goes wrong, we can establish what happened and when. Mentors are volunteers putting their name on a list, and keeping a record is part of what makes that a fair thing to ask of them |
| So no volunteer is overwhelmed | It lets us see when one mentor is being contacted far more than others |
We also count how often each mentor's profile is shown. That count doesn't record who looked. It's a daily number per mentor and nothing else, because to spread interest evenly we only need to know how often, not by whom.
We don't sell any of this, and we don't use it to build a picture of individual members.
Under the GDPR we need a lawful reason to hold your information. Ours are:
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Registrations we approve | For as long as the school or mentor is active with us, and for two years afterwards in case they return |
| Registrations we don't approve | Deleted within twelve months. Any photo is deleted as soon as we turn the registration down |
| Sign-in records | Kept while the account is active |
| Invitations | Kept while the member is active, so access can be traced to the school that approved it |
| Contact requests | Two years, then deleted |
| How often a profile was shown | Just over a year, then deleted. It holds no personal information anyway |
You can ask us to delete your information sooner, and we will, unless we are legally required to keep it.
We use a small number of established service providers to run the site. They process information on our behalf and are not allowed to use it for anything else.
| Provider | What they do |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Stores the database and mentor photos, and manages sign-ins |
| Cloudflare | Hosts the website |
| Resend | Sends our emails, including sign-in links |
| Zoho | Provides our email inbox |
| GitHub | Stores the website's code and text |
Data storage regions to be confirmed and stated here. Our email is hosted in the European Union.
We don't sell your information, and we don't share it with anyone else unless the law requires us to.
We don't use advertising or tracking cookies, and we have no analytics.
If you sign in, we store a sign-in token in your browser so you stay logged in. The site needs it to work, and it's removed when you sign out.
Our fonts are served from our own domain, so nothing about your visit is shared with a font provider. Some pages load code libraries from a public code network in order to work, which means that network can see your IP address when it delivers the file. We use no advertising, analytics or tracking of any kind.
You can ask us to:
Email us and we'll respond within one month. There is no charge.
Nobody under 18 has an account, and we hold no information about students under 18. Schools browse the directory on their behalf.
If that ever changes, we will put proper safeguards in place first. That includes our child safeguarding statement, and guardian consent where a student is under 16, which is the age of digital consent in Ireland. We will update this notice before any such change, not after.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first and we'll try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie.
For anything in this notice, including requests about your own information, email [email protected].
If we change how we handle information, we'll update this page and change the date at the top.