Privacy policy
This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") tells you how Local Welcome (hereinafter referred to as “Local Welcome”, "we" or “us”) processes your personal information, including through our website www.localwelcome.org (the "Website").
This Policy (and our terms and conditions) explains how we will process any personal data that we collect from you, or that you give us. It also tells you our views and practices about your personal data and how we will treat it.
For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation (including but not limited to the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)), the data controller of your personal information is Local Welcome of UNIT A - 82 James Carter Rd, Mildenhall Industrial Estate, Suffolk, IP28 7DE.
What information do we collect and do we collect it;
We collect personal information about you when you engage with us as a user, including as a member/potential member, leader/potential leader, guest/potential guest, newsletter subscriber or supporter.
Information you give us;
There is certain information we collect from you directly. This might be when you fill in forms on the Website or when you contact us by phone, by SMS, by e-mail or via any other contact method. For example, this might be information you provide to when you contact us to attend one of our events.
Data collected from members
If you sign up to become a member (signing up to receive event invitations), we will collect your first and last name, e-mail address, phone number, and the city you are in. If you sign-up for a ticket to one of our events we will collect your financial and credit card information.
When you attend one of our events we will also collect data relating to your attendance at the event, and post-event survey responses which are anonymous.
Data collected from leaders
If you sign up to become a leader (applying to be approved as a leader), we will collect all of the data required to be a member (stated above). In addition, we will collect verbatim responses to interview questions, your full address including postcode, and your signature. We will also have access to data through your sharing of a government disclosure check that you will undertake: your full name including middle names, your date of birth, and any unspent criminal convictions you may have. Finally, if you are approved as a leader (leading meals in your city), we will collect your Facebook name, Facebook profile details and Facebook picture (where applicable); and anecdotal feedback about meals. We may also collect your financial and credit card information in relation to leadership subscriptions.
Data collected from guests
If you are signing up to be a guest at one of our events, we will ask for your name, phone number and city. [We run events from time to time which are aimed at supporting guests who identify as having similar characteristics ([such as shared mental health conditions]). When you sign up as a guest, you may choose to volunteer further information about yourself, including special category personal data relating to your physical or mental health. You are not obliged to share this information. We will always ask for explicit consent to collect special category personal data and you may withdraw your consent for us to process this data at any time.]
Data collected from donators
If you support us with a financial donation (one-off or recurring), we will collect your first and last name, email address, financial and credit card information, and gift aid intent.
If you subscribe to receive our monthly newsletter, we will collect your first and last name and email address.
Other ways we may collect data
If you contact us for any other reason (for example, to notify us of a problem with our website), we may also collect other ad hoc information about you from our discussion.
Information we collect about you automatically;
When you use the Website, regardless of whether or not you sign up to be a Local Welcome member, as is the case with most websites, we automatically get some technical details such as your chosen browser and unique IP address. As is common to all major websites, we also collect information about your visit, including information about how you are using the Website including the movement of your mouse, what buttons you click, and any phone number you may phone us on with a customer service issue. Most of this information is collected via the use of cookies.
Cookies are a useful way for us to understand how supporters/donors use our website. Cookies are created by your web browser when you visit our website. Every time you go back to the Local Welcome website, your browser will send the cookie file back to the website's server. They improve your experience of using our website, for example, by remembering your preference settings so that you are presented with information likely to be most relevant to you, and by measuring your use of the website to enable us to continuously improve our website to ensure that it meets your needs. Cookies can also be used to show you relevant content on social media services such as Facebook - these are known as "retargeting'" or "advertising" cookies. For further information about cookies and how to amend your browser settings in order to block cookies, please see the cookie information below.
Information we receive from other sources;
We may also receive certain personal information about you from third parties. For example, if you contribute to Local Welcome via fundraising sites like JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving. These independent third parties will pass your personal information to Local Welcome where you have indicated that you wish to support Local Welcome and have given your consent or it is a necessary part of completing a contract with you.
We also obtain your personal information through one of our third party IT service providers, which we use to allow you to sign up to become a Local Welcome member or a guest at an event, through our website.
We might also obtain your personal information through your use of Facebook depending on your settings or the privacy policies of these social media and messaging services. To change your settings on Facebook, please refer to Facebook’s data policy below, which will tell you how to do this:
Information about others;
To help you tell your friends and family about a particular event you are supporting, you might give us information about other people (or allow us to collect this information for you from your social networks or your email contacts list). Please let them know and make sure that they are happy for you to provide us with their information. You might want keep a record of their consent and provide them with a copy of or link to this Policy.
How we use your information;
We use the personal information we collect about you for a number of purposes:
to manage and process Local Welcome membership fees;
to correspond with you regarding your membership or your attendance to one of our events;
to check that we are providing you with information on the services and events that are most suitable to you;
to ensure that any specific needs you have are catered for should you be attending one of our events;
to provide you updates about Local Welcome and our events;
to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;
for fraud or verification checks;
to give you information about other services or events that we offer that are similar to those that you have already asked about or have been involved with;
to give you, or allow certain third parties to give you, information about goods or services we feel may interest you;
to tell you about changes to our service;
to make sure that content from the Website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
to comply with legal and regulatory requirements;
to administer the Website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
so that you can use any interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
as part of our efforts to keep the Website safe and secure;
to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of the Website about goods or services that may interest you or them;
to make informed decisions if we have concerns about your welfare (in line with our safeguarding policy);
to measure and evaluate the impacts of our service; and
to help us design improvements to the service.
Who we share your personal information with;
We may share your personal data between other users of Local Welcome in the following ways:
if you sign up for a ticket for one of our events (whether that be as a member, guest or potential leader), we will share your first and last name with the local leaders running the event you have signed up for. This is done in the form of an attendance list, so that the leaders can execute our door policy at the event. [If you attend one of our specialised events for individuals with shared characteristics, we will not share your personal data with other attendees (except the local leader), but you should be aware that guests may be able to infer personal data about you from your attendance at a such an event; and]
if you are a leader, we share your first and last name and e-mail address with other leaders in your group on days when you are leading an event together. This is so that leaders running events together can communicate with each other.
We may disclose your personal information to a limited category of trusted third parties, including:
third party service providers who perform functions on our behalf (including external consultants and professional advisers such as lawyers, auditors and accountants);
third party IT providers where we have an appropriate data processing agreements (or similar protections) in place;
tax, audit, or other authorities;
Local Welcome board members, trustees, and advisers and their trusted third party service providers and affiliates;
advertisers and advertising networks that need the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others;
analytics and search engine providers that help us improve and optimise Local Welcome;
emergency health and social care teams, if we are sufficiently concerned about your welfare (in line with our safeguarding policy);
in anonymous form to funders or potential funders of Local Welcome;
in anonymous form to the Charities Commission or any other regulatory body; and
if we have to disclose or share your personal data to comply with any legal obligation, or to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Local Welcome, our members, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
We do not share, rent or trade your information with third parties for marketing or promotional purposes.
How we protect your personal data;
All information we hold about you is stored on secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password to access certain parts of the Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Please do not share your password with anyone. Unfortunately, the sending of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information sent to the Website and so if you send information you do so at your own risk. Once we hold your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to stop unauthorised access to it.
Where we transfer your personal information;
[The personal information that we hold about you may be sent to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (which means the 28 European Union member states, together with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, ”EEA”), including by our suppliers. Your information may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. This may include staff working to, among other things, help process your donations and payment details, or to provide support services. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy and applicable legal requirements, for example by entering into data transfer agreements which incorporate the current standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission for transfers of personal data.]
Keeping your records;
If you sign up to Local Welcome in any capacity except a guest, we will hold your personal information for 12 months after you stop engaging with us in any way. This includes but is not limited to: opening one of our emails, sending us an email, or undertaking a financial transaction with us (such as buying a member ticket). After 12 months have elapsed, we will delete your personal information from our central database.
Deleting your personal information from our central database means that we will stop contacting you because your consent has expired. It does not mean that we have deleted all incidental instances of your personal data (for example, personal data contained in historic emails) - we will only do this if you invoke your right to erasure (see below).
If you sign up to Local Welcome as a guest, we only delete your personal information if you invoke your right to erasure (see below).
Your Rights:
Access to your information
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email us at events@local-welcome.org. If we provide you with access to the information we hold about you, we will not charge you for this unless permitted by law. If you request further copies of this information from us, we may charge you a reasonable administrative cost. Where we are legally permitted to do so, we may refuse your request. If we refuse your request we will always tell you the reasons for doing so.
Right to object
This right enables you to object to us processing your personal data where we do so for one of the following reasons:
because it is in our legitimate interests to do so (for further information please see below);
to enable us to perform a task in the public interest or exercise official authority;
to send you direct marketing materials; or
for scientific, historical, research, or statistical purposes.
Right to withdraw consent;
Where we have obtained your consent to process your personal data for certain activities, you may withdraw this consent at any time and we will cease to use your data for that purpose unless we consider that there is an alternative legal basis to justify our continued processing of your data for this purpose, in which case we will inform you of this condition.
Right to erasure;
You have the right to request that we "erase" your personal data in certain circumstances. Normally, this right exists where:
the data are no longer necessary;
you have withdrawn your consent to us using your data, and there is no other valid reason for us to continue;
the data has been processed unlawfully;
it is necessary for the data to be erased in order for us to comply with our obligations under law; or
you object to the processing and we are unable to demonstrate overriding legitimate grounds for our continued processing.
We would only be entitled to refuse to comply with your request for erasure in limited circumstances and we will always tell you our reason for doing so.
When complying with a valid request for the erasure of data we will take all reasonably practicable steps to delete the relevant data.
Right to restrict processing;
You have the right to request that we restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example if you dispute the accuracy of the personal data that we hold about you or you object to our processing of your personal data for our legitimate interests. If we have shared your personal data with third parties, we will notify them about the restricted processing unless this is impossible or involves disproportionate effort. We will, of course, notify you before lifting any restriction on processing your personal data.
Right to rectification;
You have the right to request that we rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data that we hold about you. If we have shared this personal data with third parties, we will notify them about the rectification unless this is impossible or involves disproportionate effort. You may also request details of the third parties that we have disclosed the inaccurate or incomplete personal data to. Where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision.
Right of data portability;
If you wish, you have the right to transfer your personal data between service providers. In effect, this means that you are able to transfer the details we hold on you to another third party. To allow you to do so, we will provide you with your data in a commonly used machine-readable format so that you can transfer the data. Alternatively, we may directly transfer the data for you.
Right to complain;
You have the right to lodge a complaint and can contact us at accounts@local-welcome.org. You also have the right to make a complaint to your local supervisory authority which is the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can contact them in the following ways:
Phone: 0303 123 1113
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
The Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility for them. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Legal conditions for using your personal data;
There are a number of different ways that we are lawfully able to process your personal information. We have set these out below.
Where using your data is in our legitimate interests;
We are allowed to use your personal information where it is in our interests to do so, and those interests aren't outweighed by any potential prejudice to you.
We believe that our use of your personal information is within a number of our legitimate interests, including but not limited to:
to fulfil our objective of to promote social inclusion for the public benefit in the UK and worldwide by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, and by relieving the needs of those who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society.
to manage allowing members to join;
to process campaign and other donations to the Local Welcome cause;
to provide our donors and other interested third parties with information and marketing materials about our organisation, our campaigns and other information and similar products and services that we may make available;
to help us satisfy our legal obligations;
to help us understand the people that use our services better and provide better, more relevant services to them;
to ensure that our website runs smoothly; and
to help us keep our systems secure and prevent unauthorised access or cyber attacks.
We don't think that any of the activities set out in this privacy policy will prejudice you in any way. However, you do have the right to object to us processing your personal data on this basis. We have set out details regarding how you can go about doing this above.
Where you give us your consent to use your personal data;
We are allowed to use your data where you have specifically consented. In order for your consent to be valid:
it has to be given freely, without us putting you under any type of pressure;
you have to know what you are consenting to – so we'll make sure we give you enough information;
you should only be asked to consent to one thing at a time – we therefore avoid "bundling" consents together so that you don't know exactly what you're agreeing to; and
you need to take positive and affirmative action in giving us your consent – we're likely to provide a tick box for you to check so that this requirement is met in a clear and unambiguous fashion.
We ask for your consent when you register with Local Welcome to send you marketing communications (for example our monthly newsletter) [or when you provide us with special category personal data].
You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. We have set out details regarding how you can go about this above.
Where using your personal data is necessary for us to carry out our obligations under our contract with you;
We are allowed to use your personal data when it is necessary to do so for the performance of our contract with you. For example, we need to collect your credit card or other financial information in order to process your membership fee.
Where processing is necessary for us to carry out our legal obligations;
As well as our obligations to you under any contract, we also have other legal obligations that we need to comply with and we are allowed to use your personal data when we need to in order to comply with those other legal obligations.
Third party websites;
This Policy only applies to the Website. If you land on the Website from other websites (or move to other websites from our website) you should read their separate privacy policies.
Updates
Any changes we make to this Policy in the future will be posted on this page and we may email you to tell you about any changes. Please check back regularly to see any updates or changes to this Policy.
Contact
If you have any questions about this Policy, or would like to exercise your rights with respect to your personal information, send us an email via events@local-welcome.org. The contact details of the Data Protection Compliance Manager are as follows: Andrew Chaplin, andrew@local-welcome.org. If you have any questions about this Policy, or want to complain about how we handle your personal information, Andrew Chaplin, would be happy to help.