Privacy Policy

This website is run by the Friends of St Mary’s Church Brabourne. We respect your privacy and comply with the Data Protection Act 2018. You are welcome to access our site without disclosing your personal data.

We also have information about how we use personal information for supporters of the Friends.

Here you will find information about the ways in which we collect and use personal data about you.

Any changes we may make to what we do with your personal data in the future will be posted on this page. If you have a question which is not answered by the information on this page, please use the contact details at the bottom of this page to get in touch with us.

This policy does not cover links to third party sites.

How we use your information

What information do we collect?

If you contact us through our website, we may keep a record of that correspondence; details of transactions you carry out through our website and details of your visits to our website including but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with this website

We also collect non-personal information such as browsing data to help us to monitor and improve the performance of our website and other online tools.

How do we use personal information?

We may use your personal data in the following ways:

To ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you. Where you have provided your telephone number or email address, we take that to indicate that you agree to this use of your personal data. You may contact us at any time to request that your personal data is not used for direct marketing purposes.   

To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.  

To notify you about changes to our website and the services we provide.

We will only use any personal information you send us for the purposes for which you provide it.

How do we protect personal information?

We will only hold your information for as long as necessary. 

All officers who have access to your personal data are obliged to respect the confidentiality of this information. 

If you do not want us to use your data for news and updates, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data.

Safety online 

Please note that any information you may post on online forums may be viewed by anyone visiting our site. Do not post any information about yourself that you would not be happy for random passers-by to see. 

Cookies and analytics 

Our site uses cookies. A cookie is a small text marker stored on your computer that enables us to track the use of our website. We use cookies to help us understand what our users' interests and preferences are to ensure the website is as user friendly as possible, and for marketing purposes, including remarketing. 

Supporters (Friends) Personal data – what is it?

Your personal data is information that identifies you; such as your date of birth or your address or describes you and reveals something about you. If you have joined the Friends and supported us financially, we will hold information about this, for example your financial contributions.

The Friends will respect your privacy and your rights and only process information about you where it has a legitimate need to do so.

How we use your information

To help you take action

Where you donate money to the Friends, we will collect, hold and use your information to help you undertake that action. This may mean contacting you with information about the action. We do so to ensure you have the best experience possible, we fulfil our agreed commitment to you and the aim of the action is achieved.

To send you information about future ways you can take action

By supporting us, you're doing something to help maintain our wonderful Church. We'd love to keep in touch, and update you on the latest news, and how you can do more to help with fundraising or volunteering.

With your consent we will keep you up to date with our news by email, SMS, telephone or social media and let you know how you can continue to support us.

To analyse the effectiveness of our work

As a charity, it’s really important to us that we ensure we are spending our money and resources effectively and efficiently. For that reason, we may analyse the details you have provided us.

We do this to help us understand why people are motivated to support the Friends and to help us create a fuller and better picture of our supporters. This enables us to communicate with our supporters more effectively and appropriately, and to reach out to individuals who may wish to give additional support with a further monetary gift or volunteer their time/services.

We may contact you and ask you to take part in market research opportunities or ask for feedback. Participation is completely voluntary but it enables us to know what we are doing well, but equally what you feel we could be doing better. This will help us ensure what we are offering as opportunities for people to get involved is relevant, appropriate. You can opt out of being contacted about market research at any time by contacting us.

Sharing your information

The Friends does not sell your information to other charities or organisations.

With your consent, the Society may pass your information on to media organisations to use to promote the work of the Society.

The Society may need to share information with government agencies where we have a legal obligation to do so (for example, with HMRC for gift aid purposes).

We will not share your information with any other organisation without your consent other than under the following circumstances:

If we are required to by law e.g. to the police if we agree it is essential to the prevention or detection of a crime.

Receiving information from third parties

We will only receive information from third parties about you in the following circumstances:

Where you have donated money via a third party platform

Storing your information

We keep your information only as long as it is needed for the purpose we were collecting and using it for and then we dispose of it securely. How long we keep your information depends upon our relationship with you.

The record we keep of your interaction with the Society as a supporter will be kept for up to ten years from the date of our last engagement with you. After this point, your record will be anonymised so you are not able to be identified from the information held.

If you ask us to stop sending you marketing material, we will need to keep limited contact information about you to make sure we do not mistakenly send you direct marketing in the future. We’ll keep this limited information for 10 years.

Where is your information held?

We hold most information on our IT systems which meet international security standards. Some information may be kept in a paper record format, but where possible this will be transferred to an electronic record and the paper record securely disposed of.

Where we use other organisations to help us operate they may hold information outside the UK. However, where this is the case we make sure that your rights are protected through engaging in appropriate due diligence and robust contract management

If you support the Society by donating money, we have to keep records of this in our accounts for 7 years.

Security and confidentiality

We  take care to ensure the security of your information in use, storage and transmission and that it is only accessed by verified persons who have the necessary authority. All of our people who have access to your personal information are obliged to respect the confidentiality of this information and we deliver training to make sure this happens

Your consent

If we are using your personal information on the basis of your agreement then at any time you can withdraw your consent, by telephone, email or letter, and we will not carry out any further processing on that basis.

Your rights

We aim to keep the information we have about you accurate and up to date. If you find errors or inaccuracies in your data, we will erase, complete or amend that information upon request.

If, at any time, you want to see what information we hold on you, receive a portable copy of it, ask for corrections to be made or ask us to stop using your information in any way, then please do contact us and we’ll do our best to respect your wishes.

You can ask us whether we are keeping personal data about you, or raise  a subject access request about the data we hold on you by writing to:

Information Governance Manager,

Friends of St Mary’s Church, East Brabourne

23 Upper Bridge Street

Wye

Ashford

Kent

TN25 5AW

Alternatively, you can email our team by using the contact button on the Officers page and filling out the online form for general enquiries.

Before we can respond to your request we require proof of identification e.g. a copy of a valid passport or a valid UK driving licence.  Once we have received this along with full details of your request we aim to respond as soon as possible in a maximum of 40 days (as permitted by the law).

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we are processing your information then you can contact us as outlined above including using the on-line feedback form. If you are still unhappy after receiving our response, you can raise your concern to the Information Commissioner’s Office for them to investigate.

This page was last updated in April 2022. If our use of your personal data changes, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we will share it with other parties.