Privacy notice

Our policies

The London Archives is funded and managed by the City of London Corporation and is committed to protecting and respecting your personal data. This Privacy Notice explains how we use information about you and how we protect your privacy in connection with use of our services as a free public archive For full details on how the City of London Corporation processes personal information more generally, please visit www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/privacy

If you have any concerns or questions about how we look after your personal information, please contact the City of London’s Data Protection Officer, also the Comptroller and City Solicitor, Michael Cogher, at information.officer@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

Please note - this Privacy Notice was updated on 23 February 2026

1. Your personal data

Personal data is anything that directly or indirectly identifies and relates to a living person, such as a name, address, telephone number, date of birth, your gender, age, how the application was made etc.

All personal data collected will be evaluated periodically and only kept as long as necessary or in line with legal requirements.

We collect information about you as provided to us this may include:

Personal contact details such as Name, address, phone number, email address.
Photographs
Date of Birth
Personal data as provided by you in relation enquiries raised, please note that subject to the content of the enquiry, which could also include the personal data of third-party family members.
Education details
History card reference number
If an individual has signed up to become a volunteer, we may hold details of their previous work experience
Financial details may also be collected for the purpose of facilitating payment made to the London Picture Archive.
IP addresses for the use of purpose of undertaking statistical analysis only. Please note that where this occurs your personal data will be anonymised.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special category data” which is of a more sensitive nature:

Health data – for the purpose of administering your enquiry or where necessary for the purpose of administering an event you are attending.
Data relating to your Religious or Philosophical opinions for the purpose of administering your enquiry or where necessary for the purpose of administering an event you are attending.
Ethnicity / race for the purpose of administering your enquiry
Sexual life or sexual orientation for the purpose of administering your enquiry

2. Why do we need your personal data?

We will collect and process the above data about you:

For the management of The London Archives History Card.
To aid the administration of researchers’ use of access to the archives
To administer the reproduction form process which allows you to gain copies of documents.
To communicate with you in relation to enquiries, or for the purpose of sending out newsletters and surveys.
For purposes of ensuring security via CCTV.
To undertake the management of personal data when an individual deposits a record or a series of records.
For the management of the process for loaning records.
For use in administering events that we provide.
For use in the management of volunteer opportunities.
For the management of the London Picture Archive

3. How the law allows us to use your personal data.

There are several legal reasons why we will need to collect and use your personal data in different circumstances.

Generally, we collect and use personal data where:

Where we have your consent.
Where it is necessary for the performance of a Contract
Where it is necessary in the public interest or for the exercise of statutory functions.
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 in respect of the City Corporation’s private and charitable functions.

The legal basis for collecting special category data, include the following circumstances:

In limited circumstances with your explicit consent.

4. Consent

If we have consent to use your and your guest(s) personal data for any particular reason, you both have the right to remove your consent at any time.

If you want to remove your consent, please contact ask@tla.libanswers.com and tell us about the personal data being used and where it is being used or the department using this data, so we can respond to your request.

5. Your rights regarding your personal data

The law gives you a number of rights in relation to what personal data is used by the City of London, and how it is used. These rights are listed below, and full details can be found in the City of London’s Data Subject Rights Policy.

Your Rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your personal data to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at information.officer@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Our sites may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites and any services that may be accessible through them have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies or for any personal data that may be collected through these websites or services, such as contact and location data. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites or use these services.

You can ask us to:

provide you with a copy of the personal data that we hold about you.
correct personal data about you which you think is inaccurate.
delete personal data about you if you think we no longer should be using it.
stop using your personal data if you think it is wrong, until it is corrected.
transfer your personal data to another provider in a commonly used format.
not use automated decision-making processes to make decisions about you.

6. Who do we share your personal data with?

In some circumstances, we use other organisations to either store personal data or use it to help deliver our services to you. Where we have these arrangements, there is always an agreement in place to make sure that the organisation complies with data protection law.

Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide personal data to other organisations.

We may also share your personal data when we consider/believe that there is a good reason to do so, which is more important than protecting your privacy. This doesn’t happen often, but in these circumstances, we may share your personal data:

to find and stop crime and fraud; or
if there are serious risks to the public, our staff or to other professionals; or
to protect a child; or
to protect adults who are thought to be at risk, for example if they are frail, confused or cannot understand what is happening to them.

For all these reasons, the risk must be serious before we can override your right to privacy.

If we are worried about your physical safety or feel we need to take action to protect you from being harmed in other ways, we will discuss this with you and, if possible, get your permission to tell others about your situation before doing so.

We may still share your personal data if we believe the risk to others is serious enough to do so.

If this is the case, we will make sure that we record what personal data we share and our reasons for doing so. We will let you know what we have done and why, if we think it is safe to do so.

Where events are being run by third parties we may share your names, and details of your enquiries for the purpose of facilitating the meeting.

7. How do we protect your personal data.

We have a legal duty to make sure we hold your personal data (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and to only make it available to those who have a right to see them. Examples of our security include:

Encryption, meaning that personal data is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password).
Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal data from getting access to it
Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle personal data, and how and when to report when something goes wrong

You can find more details of our Information Security expectations in our IT Security Policy.

8. Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you will be held within the UK unless we are required to process your data outside of the UK. For example, if your enquiry originates from outside of the UK.

All data held and processed within the UK will be processed by staff who work for us or for one of our providers.

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

Unfortunately, the transmission of personal data via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to Our Sites; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal data, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

We will collect and store personal data on your Device using application data caches and other technology.

9. How long do we keep your personal data?

All personal data collected will be evaluated periodically and only kept as long as necessary or in line with legal requirements

Where an individual has signed up to receive a history card the personal data will be kept for three years. However, should you renew the history card the personal data will be held for an additional three years. Alternatively, if you decide not to renew your history card, then this data will be held for one year before the details are deleted from the system.
Where a deposit has been made by an individual as part of an archive collection this personal data will be held permanently