Privacy Policy

**Privacy Policy

UK National Clean Maritime Research Hub**

Last updated: January 2026

The UK National Clean Maritime Research Hub (UK‑MaRes Hub) is committed to protecting your personal information and complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, process, store, and share personal data when you use our website:

https://www.clean-maritime-research-hub.org/

1.Who We Are

The UK National Clean Maritime Research Hub (“the Hub”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is a UK-funded academic and research consortium. Contact details for the Hub administration team are available on our website.

Contact email: admin.clean-maritime-research-hub@durham.ac.uk

2. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal information when you visit or interact with our website.

2.1 Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Akismet Anti‑Spam

We use Akismet to check for spam submissions. Akismet may process:

IP address
User agent
Referrer
Comment content

More information: https://automattic.com/privacy/

Gravatar

If you use Gravatar, an anonymised hash of your email address may be provided to check if you have a linked profile.
Gravatar privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/

Once your comment is approved, your profile picture becomes publicly visible.

2.2 Media uploads

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

2.3 Contact Forms

We use Contact Form 7 to collect enquiries and messages. Data submitted through forms may include:

Your name
Your email address
Organisation/affiliation
Message content

We also use Contact Form CFDB7, which stores a copy of your submission in the website database for administrative use.

2.4 Cookies and Website Functionality

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Cookies may be used for:

Saving your details when leaving comments
Managing login sessions and user preferences
Password-protection (via the Password Protected plugin)
Managing cookie consent preferences (via Complianz GDPR/CCPA)

Complianz Cookie Consent

This website uses the Privacy Suite for WordPress by Complianz to collect and record Browser and Device-based Consent. For this functionality, your IP address is anonymized and stored in our database. This service does not process any personally identifiable information and does not share any data with the service provider. For more information, see the Complianz Privacy Statement.

This plugin records:

Consent categories selected
Region-based consent preferences
IP address (anonymized)

This ensures only the necessary cookies load depending on your choices.

2.5 Analytics (Burst Statistics)

We use Burst Statistics, a privacy‑friendly analytics tool.
Burst Statistics collects:

Page views
Device type (e.g., mobile/desktop)
Referrer data
Non-identifying behavioural statistics

Burst does NOT:

Use tracking cookies
Store personally identifiable information

This ensures visitor analytics remain privacy‑compliant and anonymised.

2.6 Embedded Content

Our website may include embedded content from external platforms (e.g., YouTube videos, images, social media posts).

These third‑party services may collect data such as:

Your IP address
Browser details
Interaction information (e.g., video views)

YouTube content is embedded via YouTube Embed Plus. The plugin itself does not track personal data, but YouTube/Google may process information according to their own privacy policy.

2.7 Newsletter Subscriptions (EmailOctopus)

When you sign up for our newsletter, your email address (and any optional details you provide) are processed by EmailOctopus, our third‑party email campaign provider.

EmailOctopus:

Stores data securely on EU servers
Utilises click/open tracking to generate metrics
Complies with UK and EU GDPR
Provides unsubscribe links in each email

The process of adding subscribers to EmailOctopus is manual. When you request to join the newsletter, only your email address is entered into EmailOctopus. Any additional personal details you provide remain with the Hub and are not shared with EmailOctopus.

2.7.1 Internal Hub Mailing List

The Hub also maintains a separate internal email list, stored securely and used by the Hub team to communicate:

Project updates
Events and workshops
Operational information

You may request removal from this internal list, unless inclusion is operationally required (e.g., participation in a funded project).

3. How Long We Retain Your Data

Comments: Stored indefinitely to support automated approval of future comments.
Form submissions (CFDB7): Retained until no longer required or removed.
User accounts (if applicable): Retained until the account is deleted or amended by the user.
Newsletter data: Retained by EmailOctopus until you unsubscribe.
Internal mailing list: Retained as long as operationally necessary.

4. Who We Share Your Data With

We only share data when necessary and appropriate:

Purpose	Processor	Data Shared
Newsletter subscriptions	EmailOctopus	Email
Internal Hub mailing list	Hub Administration Team	Email address and name, role/affiliation, referrer type (i.e., website subscription Jan 2026)
Spam filtering	Akismet	IP, user agent, comment data
Form storage	CFDB7	Form submission content
Gravatar profile check	Automattic	Hashed email
Cookie consent management	Complianz	Consent preferences
Analytics	Burst Statistics	Anonymised usage data
Embedded content	YouTube/Google	Interaction + device data

We never sell personal data to third parties.

5.Your Rights Under UK GDPR

You have the right to:

Access your personal data
Request correction
Request deletion
Withdraw consent
Restrict or object to processing
Request data portability

To exercise these rights, please contact the Hub administration team.

6. International Transfers

EmailOctopus stores data within the EU.
Some embedded third‑party services (e.g., YouTube) may transfer data outside the UK/EU under their own safeguards.

7. Automated Decision‑Making

We do not use automated decision‑making or profiling.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy occasionally. The most current version will always appear on our website.