Data Privacy Notice

1. YOUR PERSONAL DATA – WHAT IS IT?

Personal data is any information relating to a living individual who can be identified from that data. The processing of personal data is governed by the Data Protection Act 2018, The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) and rights such as the Human Rights Act 1998.

2. WHO ARE WE?

3. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

4. WHAT IS THE LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

• Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for the legitimate interests and legitimate activities among those who regularly attend or consider themselves part of the church family and individuals we have regular contact with. Examples of this would be sharing general administration of church groups and rotas and appropriate postal mailings. We will always take into account your interests, rights and freedoms.
• Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example, the administering of Gift Aid applications.
• Religious organisations are permitted to process information about your religious beliefs to administer membership or contact details.
• Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these legal bases, we will obtain your consent to that use unless there is another substantial public interest that we can rely on to use your personal data.

5. SHARING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared among those who regularly attend or consider themselves part of the church family for purposes connected with the church. It may also be shared with our agents or contractors who are also required to comply with GDPR regulations. For example, we may ask a commercial provider to maintain our database software e.g. ChurchSuite. We will only share your data with other third parties with your consent or where there is a necessary legal requirement.

6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

We will retain some records according to certain regulatory and statutory responsibilities. We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 7 years after the date of the transaction to support HMRC audits. In general, we will endeavour to keep your personal data only for as long as we need it.

7. YOUR RIGHTS AND YOUR PERSONAL DATA

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

1. The right to access the data we hold on you

• At any point you can contact us to request the personal data we hold on you as well as why we have that personal data, who has access to the information and where we obtained the personal data from. Once we have received your request we will endeavour to respond within one month.
• There are no fees or charges for the first request but additional requests for the same personal data may be subject to an administrative fee.

2. The right to correct and update the personal data we hold on you

• If the personal data we hold on you is out of date, incomplete or incorrect, you can inform us and your personal data will be updated.

3. The right to have your personal data erased

• If you feel you that we should no longer be using your personal data or that we are illegally using your personal data, you can request that we erase the personal data we hold.
• When we receive your request we will confirm whether the data has been deleted or the reasons why it cannot be deleted (for example because we need it for our legitimate interests or regulatory purpose(s)).

4. The right to object to the processing of your personal data

• You have the right to request that we stop processing your personal data. Upon receiving the request, we will contact you and let you know if we are able to comply or if we have legitimate grounds to continue to process your personal data. Even after you exercise your right to object, we may continue to hold your personal data to comply with your other rights or to bring or defend legal claims.

5. The right to data portability

• You have the right to request that we transfer some of your personal data to another controller in certain circumstances. We will comply with your request where it is feasible to do so within one month of receiving your request.

6. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of personal data to which consent was sought.

• You can withdraw your consent early by telephone, email, or by post (see contact details below).

7. The right to object to the processing of your personal data where applicable.
8. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.

8. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review and we will place any updates on our website www.church.org.uk. If we make a significant change, we will notify you. This Notice was last updated in Oct 2022

9. CONTACT DETAILS

You can also contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF