Privacy Policy

Last updated: 13 October 2026

At Bee Sober we care about the people in our community, and that includes looking after your personal information. This policy explains, in plain English, what information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with and the choices you have.

1. Who we are

Bee Sober is a private community group for people who have ditched the booze, or are thinking about it, and want to enjoy life to the full. Bee Sober was founded by Lisa and Alex, who run the group. In this policy, "Bee Sober", "we", "us" and "our" means the group and the people who run it.

We are responsible for deciding how your personal information is used. If you have any questions about this policy or your information, please email us at [email protected].

2. The information we collect

We only collect the information we need. Depending on how you use Bee Sober, this may include:

Contact details such as your name, email address, phone number and WhatsApp number, when you chat with us on our website, fill in a form, sign up for The Sober Experiment, make a donation or become a member.
Messages you send us through our website chat, by email, by text or on social media.
Payment details. Donations and memberships are processed securely by Stripe. We can see your name, email address, the amount and the date of your payment, but we never see or store your full card details.
Information about your health or drinking that you choose to share with us. Please see section 4.
Website information such as the pages you visit and how you use our site, collected using cookies if you allow them. Please see our Cookie Policy.

3. How we use your information

We use your information to:

reply to your questions and messages
sign you up for The Sober Experiment and send you what you signed up for
process donations and monthly memberships
give members access to the Members Only community, including our WhatsApp group, Zoom sessions and events
keep you up to date with Bee Sober news and events, if you have agreed to this
keep our website and community safe, and improve how they work

We will never sell your information.

Our legal reasons for using your information

Data protection law says we must have a lawful reason to use your information. We rely on:

Your consent, for example when you agree to hear from us or accept cookies. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
Contract, when we need your information to provide your membership or process your donation.
Legitimate interests, when we need your information to reply to you, run our community and keep it safe, as long as this does not override your rights.
Legal obligation, when the law requires us to keep certain records, such as payment records.

4. Information about your health or drinking

Some people choose to tell us about their drinking, their health or how they are feeling. The law treats this as special category information and it deserves extra care.

We only use it to reply to you and to support your place in our community.
We rely on your explicit consent, which you give by choosing to share it with us. You never have to share it.
You can ask us to delete it at any time.

Please remember that Bee Sober is a social community and not a medical, treatment or crisis service. We are not doctors. If you need help with your drinking or your health, please speak to your GP. If you are in danger or need urgent help, call 999, or call Samaritans free at any time on 116 123.

5. Our website chat

Messages sent through the chat on our website may first be answered by an AI assistant, and may also be read by the Bee Sober team so we can help you. The AI assistant can make mistakes and does not give medical advice. Chat messages are stored securely by our website provider (see section 6).

6. Who we share your information with

We only share your information with trusted services that help us run Bee Sober, and only as much as they need:

HighLevel (also known as LeadConnector), which runs our website, chat, forms, contact records, emails and text messages.
Stripe, which processes donations and membership payments.
Cloudflare, which helps keep our website secure.
Meta (Facebook and WhatsApp) and Zoom, which we use to run our online community, group chat and online sessions.

When you join our Facebook groups, WhatsApp group or Zoom sessions, other members may be able to see your name, profile picture, phone number (in WhatsApp) and anything you post. These platforms also have their own privacy policies.

We may also share information if the law requires it, or if we believe someone's life or safety is at serious risk.

Information sent outside the UK

Some of the services above are based outside the UK, including in the United States. Where this happens, we rely on the safeguards these providers put in place to protect your information to UK standards.

7. How long we keep your information

Enquiries and chat messages: up to 2 years after we last heard from you.
Member details: for as long as you are a member, and up to 2 years after your membership ends.
Payment records: up to 6 years, as we may need these for tax and accounting.

After this, we delete your information or make sure it can no longer identify you.

8. Your rights

You have the right to:

ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
ask us to correct anything that is wrong
ask us to delete your information
ask us to limit how we use your information, or object to us using it
ask us to send your information to you or someone else in a format they can use
withdraw your consent at any time

To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will reply within one month.

9. Hearing from us

If you have agreed to hear from us, we may send you emails or text messages about Bee Sober. You can stop these at any time by clicking "unsubscribe" in an email, replying STOP to a text, or emailing us.

10. Who Bee Sober is for

Bee Sober is for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

11. Making a complaint

If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please talk to us first at [email protected] and we will do our best to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated.