Privacy policy

CONCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

PRIVACY POLICY

1. INTRODUCTION

The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (‘CS’) is committed to protecting your privacy and security. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data, to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information.

From May 2018, CS will ask its supporters to “opt-in” for marketing communications. This means you’ll have the choice as to whether you want to receive these messages and be able to select how you want to receive them (email, phone or post).

You can decide not to receive these communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so please contact CIRCA Subscriptions by emailing shellmember@gmail.com, writing to CIRCA Subscriptions, 14 St Barnabas Court, Cambridge, CB1 2BZ or telephoning them on +44 (0) 1223 321910.

We will never sell your personal data, and will only ever share it with organisations we work with where necessary and if its privacy and security are guaranteed.

Questions? Any questions you have in relation to this policy or how we use your personal data should be sent to The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, c/o CIRCA subscriptions (contact details above).

2. ABOUT US

Your personal data (i.e. any information which identifies you, or which can be identified as relating to you personally) will be collected and used by the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (UK charity no. 208205) and processed by our membership managers Cambridge International Reference on Current Affairs (CIRCA) Ltd (Company No: 02303125, registered in England and Wales). It will be held on a database for the sole use of CS, as set out in the 1998 Data Protection Act.

The lawful basis for CS collecting and processing your data is either:

·         on the basis of your consent, or

·         as a necessity for the performance of your contract of membership with CS, or

·         as a necessity for compliance with a legal obligation to which CS is subject.

We’ll only use your information for the purpose or purposes for which it was collected.

3. WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Personal data you provide: We collect data you provide to us, such as information you give when joining the Society, making a donation, placing an order or communicating with us. For example: personal details (name, email, address, telephone); whether payments are gift-aided; and details of your interests.

If you join CS as a family, details of all members will be recorded along with your relationship to each other. For our junior members, parental consent will be sought before processing or storing personal data, and the details of a parent or guardian will also be recorded along with your relationship to each other.

We process cheques, bank transfers and online payments, but we do not collect or retain your financial data, only a record of transactions.

Information created by your membership of CS: We collect data about your activities and involvement with CS (details of how you’ve helped us by being involved with our surveys; attendance at field and/or indoor meetings (including photographs); receipt of CS or other related publications). If you decide to donate to us then we will keep records of when and how much you give and whether it is for a particular reason.

Information from third parties and non-members: We sometimes receive personal data about individuals from third parties. For example, if we are partnering with another organisation (e.g. you provide your information to another charity we’re collaborating with on a conservation project). We occasionally receive personal data from non-members, for example specifically related to the ordering of publications or recording attendance at a meeting.

Occasionally, we may collect information about speakers, collaborating naturalists or similar individuals (e.g. particularly well known or influential people) from public sources. This could include public databases, news or other media. We don’t do this to everyone, and it is the exception not the rule.

Sensitive personal data: We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health, beliefs or political affiliation) about supporters and members. However there are some situations where this will occur (e.g. if you volunteer with us or if you have an accident on one of field meetings). In this situation, we’ll take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected.

·         Volunteering: If you are a volunteer (whether specifically for CS, or if you are helping us for other reasons - for example you work/volunteer for another organisation which is running an event with us) then we may collect extra information about you (e.g. details of emergency contacts, medical conditions etc.). This information will be retained for legal reasons, to protect us (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim) and for safeguarding purposes.

·         Accidents or incidents: If an accident or incident occurs at one of our events or involving one of our volunteers then we’ll keep a record of it for the recommended period of up to 7 years (which may include personal data and sensitive personal data). If there is an incident or accident involving someone under 18, we are required by law to keep the information relating to this at least until their 21st birthday. 

4. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

Marketing: We may use personal data to communicate with people, to promote CS and to help with fundraising. This includes keeping you up to date with our news, updates, meetings and fundraising information. For further information on this please see Section 6 (Marketing).

Administration: We use personal data for administrative purposes (i.e. to carry on our charity work), including:

·         receiving donations (e.g. direct debits or gift-aid instructions);

·         maintaining a database of our members;

·         performing our obligations under membership contracts;

·         fulfilling orders for our publications or other goods;

·         helping us respect your choices and preferences.

Membership profiling: We hold data on the interests of our members, if they have provided it to us.
This data may be published (with members’ consent) in issues of Mollusc World or in membership lists. Understanding the interests of our members helps members with similar interests to contact one another
and CS provide a better experience (e.g. through more relevant communications).

We do not carry out any other form of profiling.

5. DISCLOSING AND SHARING DATA

We will never sell your personal data.

The membership data is disclosed where necessary to the Society’s Hon. Officers and shared with CIRCA Ltd (a data processor) for the sole purpose of administering membership subscriptions and fulfilling the membership contracts. Microsoft software is used for processing data, Google for the Society's email and questionnaire services and Mailchimp.com for sending emails to members: Microsoft, Google and MailChimp are all based in the U.S. and participate in and have certified their compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. Some of the Society's Hon. Officers use alternative service providers (currently, lineone and ntlworld for email) but in each case we will only allow that Officer to process or store your data if it will be adequately protected by their service provider. 

If you have opted-in to marketing, we may contact you with information about our partners, but these communications will always come from CS and are usually incorporated into our own publications
(e.g. advertisements in Mollusc World).

Occasionally a membership list will be published to enable members to contact one another. Updates to this list (contact details of new members or changes of address etc. for existing members) are published in Mollusc World. You may choose how much of your data is published in these forms and none of this personal data will be published without your express consent. It could include your name, address, email address (where applicable), conchological interests and a small amount of other information in certain cases (e.g. if you are a life member, honorary member or past president). The Members’ List is intended to allow members to contact other members with similar interests or in their local area. It will be circulated in hard copy to all members; we ask members to use it for CS purposes only, not share the data outside the CS, and store the list securely, but we are not able to guarantee the security of your data once it is published.

Your presence at and/or involvement in Council or ordinary meetings will be recorded in the minutes, which form part of the historical record of the CS. 

Your presence at and/or involvement in field meetings or other CS events may be recorded in Officers' reports or mentioned in articles published about the event (online or in print); we will endeavour to remind you at the beginning of events of this potential use of your name. If CS takes photographs at an event, we will seek consent of any identifiable people before using it in our publications or online. At the beginning of an event, we will offer you the chance to request not to be photographed for CS purposes. 

We may share personal data with subcontractors or suppliers who provide us with services. For example, if as a member or non-member author you receive copies of our regular publications, your name and address will be shared with the mailing houses (currently Henry Ling Ltd and Short Run Press Ltd). However, these activities will be carried out under a contract which imposes strict requirements on our supplier to keep your information confidential and secure.

Occasionally, where we partner with other organisations, we may also share information with them (for example, if you register to attend an event being jointly organised by us and another charity). We’ll only share information when necessary and we’ll make sure to notify you first.

CS Hon. Officers: The contact details of key contacts (such as the Society’s Hon. Officers) are also published in the Members’ List as mentioned above, with telephone numbers where applicable, in our publications and on the website (www.conchsoc.org), but in each case only when your specific consent has been obtained.

Also with your consent, we may store your bank details if we make regular payments to you (e.g. for expenses).

Mollusc records submitted to the Conchological Society. The use of Personal data attached to submitted biological records is covered by the Society’s existing “Policy on access to records” and “Data release policy” which are viewable at http://www.conchsoc.org/node/2063 and http://www.conchsoc.org/footer/data-release.php.

6. MARKETING

From May 2018 CS will ask its supporters to ‘opt-in’ to receive most communications. This includes all our marketing communications (the term ‘marketing’ is broadly defined and, for instance, covers information about conservation and CS – see below). This means you’ll have the choice as to whether you want to receive these messages and be able to select how you want to receive them (post, phone, email).

Changing your mind: You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time, by contacting shellmember@gmail.com or writing to CIRCA Subscriptions, 19 Sturton Street, Cambridge, CB1 2SN or telephoning +44 (0) 1223 564334.

What does ‘marketing’ mean?

Marketing does not just mean offering things for sale, but also includes news and information about:

·         our charity, projects, meetings and workshops and conservation work;

·         our role in educating the public in the identification, recording and conservation of molluscs;

·         CS benefits and offers (eg research grant scheme or equivalent, book auctions etc);

·         volunteering opportunities and how you can help conserve molluscs;

·         appeals and fundraising (including donations etc.);

·         our meetings, events and activities (and where relevant local groups);

·         products, services and offers (our own, and those of third parties which may interest you);

·         leaving a legacy;

·         taking part in projects.

Publications: Our colour magazine, Mollusc World, and The Journal of Conchology as well as other occasional publications, are provided as a benefit to our members. We send these out to all our members (unless you specifically ask us not to) and you can choose to unsubscribe from general marketing communications without giving up your subscription to these regular publications. However, please be aware that Mollusc World may include advertisements, and fundraising information.

Fundraising: As a charity, we rely on membership subscriptions, donations and support from others to continue our work. Very occasionally, we may contact members and supporters with fundraising material and communications. As with other marketing communications, we’ll only contact you specifically about fundraising if you’ve opted into to receiving marketing from us (and you can, of course, unsubscribe at any time).

 

7. YOUNG PEOPLE

Photographs, pictures, stories and competitions in our magazines: We want young people to join in our indoor and field meetings and other activities. There are opportunities in our magazine Mollusc World for readers to share their photos, stories and pictures. If we publish your child’s picture, photo or story, we’ll usually include their first name and age with it. If they write an article or story for us, we might also include their surname alongside it.

·         Parental permission: If your child is under 18 then we’ll need permission from you as their parent or guardian for them to share a picture, photo or story with us.

·         Information for parents/guardians: We take great care to protect and respect the rights of individuals in relation to their personal data, especially in the case of children. If your child is under 18, we’ll only use their personal data with your consent. This means that, for example, if your child wants to have their name or picture featured in our magazines, we’ll need you to confirm you’re happy for us to do so.

Marketing and fundraising: We won’t send marketing emails, letters or calls to under 18 year-olds and, in order to donate to CS or order publications from us online, you need to be an adult.

Junior membership and young people’s information: CS adult membership is available to individuals aged 18 and over. Under 18s can have CS junior membership purchased for them by an adult. Parental consent will be sought before processing or storing personal data, and the details of a parent or guardian will also be recorded along with your relationship to each other. We won’t use young people’s personal data for marketing purposes. If a member turns 19 and wishes to join CS as an adult, some of the personal data we hold about that individual (e.g. youth membership history) will be carried over to their adult member details.

 

8. HOW WE PROTECT DATA

We employ a variety of physical and technical measures to make sure your data is protected from unauthorised access, loss, manipulation, falsification, destruction or unauthorised disclosure. 

Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information (using both physical and electronic means). Our Society’s Hon. Officers receive data protection training and are required to follow data protection procedures when handling personal data.

Payment security: All payments to CS via the internet are processed through Paypal which uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers.

 

9. STORAGE

Where we store information: The CS is based in the UK and we store our data within the European Union. Some organisations which provide services to us (Microsoft etc. as listed above) may transfer personal data outside of the EEA, but we’ll only allow them to do so if your data is adequately protected (e.g. the organisation is certified under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield scheme).

How long we store information: We will only use and store information for so long as it is required for the purposes for which it was collected. How long information will be stored for depends on the information in question and what it is being used for. For example, if you ask us not to send you marketing emails, we will stop storing your emails for marketing purposes (though we’ll keep a record of your preference not to be emailed).

After you cease your membership, we will reduce your information to a minimum record for the purposes of reactivating your membership if you so request or for the purpose of recording the history of CS. We will contact you from time to time during a period of eighteen months if your membership has lapsed unless you ask us to cease contact. We continually review what information we hold and delete what is no longer required.

 

10. KEEPING YOU IN CONTROL

We want to ensure you remain in control of your personal data. Part of this is making sure you understand your legal rights, which are as follows:

·         the right to confirmation as to whether or not we have your personal data and, if we do, to obtain a copy of the personal information we hold (this is known as subject access request);

·         the right to have your data deleted. Please note, we cannot fulfil your membership contract without holding and processing your data.

·         the right to have inaccurate data corrected;

·         the right to object to your data being used for purposes other than those for which it has been collected;

Please keep in mind that there are exceptions to the rights above and, though we will always try to respond to your satisfaction, there may be situations where we are unable to do so.

If you would like further information on your rights or wish to exercise them, please write to our Data Protection Officer, Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, c/o CIRCA Subscriptions, 19 Sturton Street, Cambridge, CB1 2SN.

Complaints: You can complain to the CS directly by contacting our Data Protection Officer using the details set out above. If you are not happy with our response, or you believe that your data protection or privacy rights have been infringed, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates and enforces data protection law in the UK. Details of how to do this can be found at www.ico.org.uk.

 

11. LINKS TO OTHER SITES

Our website contains hyperlinks to other websites. We are not responsible for the content or functionality of any of those external websites.

If an external website requests personal information from you (e.g. in connection with an order for goods or services), the information you provide will not be covered by CS's Privacy Policy. We suggest you read the privacy policy of any website before providing any personal information.

When purchasing goods or services from any of the businesses that our site links to, you will be entering into a contract with them (agreeing to their terms and conditions) and not with CS.

 

12. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We’ll amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure it remains up-to-date and accurately reflects how and why we use your personal data. The current version of our Privacy Policy will always be posted here.

 This Privacy Policy was last updated on 28th March 2018.