Terms and privacy

The rules for using this website, and how we look after your personal information.

Last updated 17 October 2026

Terms and conditions

By using this website you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use it.

Who we are

This website is run by The Gathering the Voices Association, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registered Scottish charity number SC047809). It is run by volunteers. You can contact us about anything on this page.

Using this website

You can use this website for free. You must use it lawfully and respectfully. You must not:

  • try to damage, disable or overload the website, or get into parts of it you are not meant to reach
  • use it to harass, mislead or cause distress to anyone, especially the people in the testimonies and their families
  • use automated tools to copy large parts of it without asking us first

We may change, add to or remove anything on the website at any time, without telling you.

The testimonies

The recordings, transcripts, photographs and documents here were shared with us by survivors, refugees and their families, often in difficult circumstances. We ask you to treat them with respect. Please do not alter or take them out of context in a way that distorts what the person said.

Using our content

Unless it says otherwise, the testimonies, photographs, documents, text and design on this website belong to Gathering the Voices or to the people who gave them to us, and are protected by copyright.

You can read, listen to and share links to pages. You can use small extracts for private study, research, teaching and news reporting, if you say clearly where they came from (for example "Gathering the Voices, gatheringthevoices.com") and name the person. For anything else, including publishing, broadcasting, using a testimony in a film, book or exhibition, or using pictures, please ask us for permission first.

Lesson plans and teaching materials on our Education pages can be used in schools and for education without asking, unless the page says otherwise.

Linking to this website

You are welcome to link to any page of this website. Please do not suggest that we support or endorse you, your product or your organisation unless we have agreed that with you.

We link to other websites that we think are useful. We do not control them and are not responsible for what they contain or for how they use your information.

Services provided by others

Some content comes from other services, such as the map (Google Maps), videos (YouTube) and the podcast players (Spotify and Apple Podcasts). They have their own terms and privacy policies. See our cookies page.

Disclaimer

We work hard to make sure the information here is accurate, but the testimonies are people's own memories and the website is run by volunteers. We do not promise that everything is complete, accurate or up to date, or that the website will always be available or free from errors.

Nothing on this website is professional, legal or medical advice. We are not responsible for loss or damage that comes from using it or from relying on anything on it, except where the law does not allow us to exclude responsibility, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Asking us to remove or correct something

If you think something on this website is wrong, upsetting, or should not be published (for example, you are in a recording, or are a family member), please contact us and tell us which page it is. We will look at it quickly and may remove or change it.

Your information

How we use your personal information is explained in our privacy notice. We use cookies as described on our cookies page.

Viruses and security

We take care to keep this website free from viruses and malicious code, but we cannot guarantee it. Please use your own up-to-date protection. You must not knowingly introduce viruses or other harmful material, or attack the website or the server it runs on. We may report this to the police and may share your details with them.

Governing law

These terms, and any dispute about this website, are governed by the law of Scotland. The Scottish courts have exclusive jurisdiction.

General

If we do not enforce a right under these terms straight away, we can still do so later. If any part of these terms is found not to be valid, the rest still applies.

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms at any time by updating this page. The date at the top shows when they were last changed. If you carry on using the website, you accept the changed terms.

Privacy notice

This notice explains what personal information we collect through this website, why, and what your rights are. It is written in plain English. We will update it if what we do changes.

Who we are

Gathering the Voices is run by The Gathering the Voices Association, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registered Scottish charity number SC047809). We decide how and why personal information is used, which makes us the "data controller". You can contact us using the contact page.

What we collect and why

If you send us a message through the contact form, we collect your name, email address and message. We use them to reply to you. The message is sent to us by email through an email delivery service (SMTP2GO). We keep it only as long as we need to deal with your enquiry.

If you donate, you are taken to our donation platform, Wonderful, to make the gift. They handle your payment details; we do not see or store your card number. We keep a record of your gift and, if you ask us to claim Gift Aid, the details needed to do that, because the law requires us to.

When you visit the website, our web server keeps standard technical logs (such as your IP address, the page you asked for, and your browser type) for security and to keep the site running. We do not use these to identify you.

Cookies. We set a small essential cookie to remember your cookie choice. If you accept additional cookies, Google may set cookies when you use the map or play a YouTube video. See our cookies page.

The testimonies

The recorded testimonies, photographs and documents on this website were shared with Gathering the Voices by the people involved or their families, with their permission. If you are in a recording or a family member and have a concern about anything published here, please contact us and we will look at it promptly.

Why we are allowed to use your information

We use your information to answer your enquiries and to run a charity website that people can use. This is within our legitimate interests, or, for donations and Gift Aid, to meet legal obligations. If we ever need your consent, we will ask for it clearly and you can withdraw it.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your information. We share it only with the services that help us run the website: our website host, the email delivery service, and, if you accept additional cookies, Google (Maps and YouTube). We may share information if the law requires it.

Your rights

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation you can ask us to: tell you what information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, or stop using it. To ask, contact us. If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (telephone 0303 123 1113).