With the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) in May 2018, we have taken the opportunity to review what sort of data we hold about people, how we store this data and our reasons for data processing.
We take our responsibilities as a data controller very seriously. We will never use your information in a way that is unlawful or unethical. Access to the data we process is restricted and treated confidentially. We do not process data more than is necessary to achieve our legitimate interests and to provide a public service.
Ultimately, any information we store about you is so that we can offer you the best service possible and to share with you information and opportunities that we think you might like to hear about or get involved in. The only other reasons are where there is a legal obligation e.g. financial data and for the accurate preservation of the archival records themselves.
- Administration – e.g. to answer enquiries, record archival collection donors.
- Fundraising – e.g. when we contact particular individuals to promote an appeal, to ask an individual to renew their Friend subscription.
- Promoting our free services – e.g. promoting to someone interested in built heritage that we have a freely available online catalogue.
- Promoting our aims and ideals – e.g. a flier emphasising the important role that archives play in saving and providing access to the public’s heritage record.
- Archive – some of the archival material we hold contains information about people who may be living.
If we contact you, we will always strive to do so in a sensitive and relevant way and will never bombard you with communications. We act with the best of intentions and will always stop contacting you if that is your wish. We don’t buy data and we won’t share your data with third parties other than when necessary for administrative purposes.
If you do not wish to hear from us, you may contact us at any time to make your wishes known and we will ensure that you are no longer contacted. Under the GDPR regulations, you also have a right to erasure in some circumstances.
Where we collect personal information from
We may collect personal information about you from the following sources:
- Data you give us;
- Data we collect when you use our services or make a donation;
- Data from third parties we work with e.g. related heritage organisations we may run joint educational events with, public information sources and social networks.
Who we may share your personal data with
We will only do this if it is absolutely necessary. We may share relevant information about you with the following organisations in the event that it is a legal requirement, for administrative purposes or to help provide you with a product or service that you have used:
- HM Revenue & Customs;
- Individuals or companies you ask us to share your data with;
- Organisations we have a joint venture with e.g. if we were working with a related heritage organisation to deliver a joint event for the benefit of the public;
- Payment portals that process donations and payments on our website (Stripe and PayPal);
- Our website provider;
- Google Analytics – like many modern websites, our website and online catalogue (AtoM) collects cookies in order to enable browsing and loading of certain types of content. A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Visitors to our website or AtoM who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies. However, certain features may not function properly without the aid of cookies. The website and catalogue support integration with Google Analytics (https://www.google.com/analytics/) for the purposes of gathering statistics on page views, site usage, user location, and other data on site visits. All data collected by Google Analytics are stored and processed by Google, according to the Google Ads Data Processing Terms. (https://privacy.google.com/businesses/processorterms/).
Marketing
As a charity that delivers a public service, it is necessary for the survival of the Archive and its public dissemination that we embark on marketing activities. By “marketing”, we mean engaging in activities in which we may contact individuals and organisations directly or indirectly to raise vital funds, promote our free services or promote our aims and ideals.
Media we use are primarily digital in nature and include enewsletters, social media and blogs. We do not conduct cold calling.
Any paper-based marketing material is limited to educational publications, informational fliers and hard-copy newsletters, which we may send to individuals or organisations with whom we have or have had some sort of interaction e.g. a bookshop customer, a previous donor, and an existing Friend.
In any and all marketing activities we are committed to behaving responsibly, reasonably and ethically. We endeavour to only contact you about something that we think will be of interest or relevance to you, and if you disagree with our assessment you may always opt out at any time.
As a voluntary member of the Fundraising Regulator, we ensure that we conduct any marketing activities sensibly and transparently. A requirement of being registered with the Fundraising Regulator is that we abide by a fundraising promise. To read our fundraising promise in full, click here.
How long we may keep your personal information
Administration, marketing and communications
e.g. you sent an enquiry, or volunteered, or signed up to a newsletter, or attended an event, or you have a related interest and we think you would like to find out about us.
We will keep data for as long as we consider reasonably necessary to effectively meet administrative, marketing and communications needs.
Financial data
e.g. you made a donation, or you made a purchase on our bookshop.
We will keep information relating to financial history indefinitely. This is so that we can maintain an informed view of the growth and fluctuations in the organisation’s financial position, and to better understand our relationship with donors. In some cases it is also a legal obligation e.g. Gift Aid and other financial records must be kept for a minimum of 7 years. We will only keep basic information necessary to preserve the financial history of the Archive.
Archiving
Where records relate to the Archive content and to the deposit of collections, we will keep your data indefinitely for administrative and legal purposes and for the purpose of maintaining an accurate Archive resource.
How to opt out of hearing from us
If you do not wish to be contacted by us, you can opt out of communications at any time. In the case of our enewsletters, every enewsletter has an unsubscribe button that will remove you from that particular mailing list.
To opt out of all communications, or if you no longer wish to hear from us about a specific activity or in via a particular medium, please contact us and we will respect your wishes.
If you want us to stop using your personal information
If you wish us to delete any personal information we currently store about you, in most cases we will be able to respect your wishes and delete all records from all of our data repositories. This is called your right to erasure. However, there may be instances in which there is a reason for keeping some or all of your personal data, which overrides your right to erasure. For example, where there is a legal requirement that we keep your data.
How to get in touch
If you wish to find out what information we may store about you, or if you have any questions or wish to make a complaint, please get in touch using the contact form or call us on 0118 950 2052.
As a member of the Fundraising Regulator, we have a formal complaint process – to find out more, click here.
