Our Privacy Policy
Voluntary Action North East Lincolnshire (VANEL) is committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold and how we use it. This policy is designed to give you a clear explanation about how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us and to ensure that we are honest and clear about your privacy and personal information at all times.
Contents
Who are we?
Your acceptance of this policy and our right to change it
What’s new in this version of the policy?
What is personal data?
Overview of this policy
Our full policy
The information we collect
How we collect your information
How we use your data
Storing your data
Use of cookies and other online technology
Keeping your information up to date
How to change the way we contact you
How to find out what information we have about you
Who are we?
In this policy, on our websites, in social media or in our documentation we use ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ to refer to Voluntary Action North East Lincolnshire, also known as VANEL. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a Data Controller under registration reference Z4837606 for all of our activities.
We are a registered charity no. 1002624 (England and Wales). VANEL is also a company limited by guarantee 02593527. Our registered company address is 23 Bargate, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, DN34 4SS.
Our main website is www.vanel.org.uk, our main phone number is 01472 231123, our general contact email is office@vanel.org.uk. VANEL has a Data Protection Lead staff member who is the point of contact for all matters related to this privacy policy, to VANEL data compliance and for queries related to your data. Use data@vanel.org.uk for direct contact with the Data Protection Lead.
Your acceptance of this policy and our right to change it
When you use our websites or use our services (including by phone, email or in person) or provide your information to us in other ways, we will collect your information and use it in the way(s) set out in this policy. If you do not agree with this policy then please do not use our websites or services.
We will make changes to this policy from time to time. If we do so we will post the changes on this page, make clear what the changes are and then the changes will apply from the date they are posted.
This policy was last amended on 10th May 2018.
What’s new in this version of the policy?
This is the very first version of the policy and was published on 10th May 2018.
What is personal data?
Personal data is information that can be used to help identify an individual, such as, but not limited to, name, address, phone number or email address. Some categories of data are more sensitive, which is known as personal sensitive data and this might include health information. Non-personal data is data that can’t identify you personally, but can provide us with information to improve your services.
Overview of this policy
It’s important that you read our policy in full, but to help guide you here is a quick summary:
– VANEL will collect information that can be personal data, sensitive personal data or non-personal data.
– We collect information about individuals that we provide support to including volunteers, service users, or subscribers to our information or support services.
– As an infrastructure support organisation, VANEL provides services to organisations, but we will hold information about people in those organisations who are our points of contact or representatives engaging with our services.
– We collect information in order to provide our services, to provide information, to administer and provide grants, to accept donations or to fundraise, for administrative, research, profiling and analysis purposes.
– We will only ever collect information that we need or that helps us to provide the best possible services and to fulfil our charitable aims and objectives.
– We do our utmost to keep personal information secure. This includes both on our digital databases, systems and websites, and in our paper record archives.
– We retain your information only as long as it is necessary to provide an appropriate service. We hold and process your data always in line with current data protection laws.
– We will never share your data with another company, charity or organisation for their marketing or commercial purposes.
– We will only share data when we are required by law to do so, or under strict data sharing protocols or with carefully selected suppliers or partners who do work for and with us. For example a mailing service to help us with newsletter distribution, a research partner, a project delivery partner or a funding partner. In all cases where sharing data is necessary our partners are required by their contract with us to treat your data as carefully as we do, to only use it as instructed and to allow us to check that they do this.
– Our websites use cookies or similar technology so that we can provide a personalised website experience to you.
Our full policy
The policy applies to all the websites we operate, to our use of emails and any other methods we use for collecting information including paper based methods and face to face data collection. It covers what we collect and why, what we do with your information, what we don’t do with your information and what rights you have.
The information we collect
We collect information from you either an an individual or as an individual related to an organisation. We collect information in order to provide the best service possible.
We collect three kinds of information
1. Non-personal information such as IP addresses (the location of the computer on the internet), pages accessed and files downloaded. This helps us to understand how many people use our websites, how many people visit on a regular basis and how popular/useful our web pages are. This information doesn’t tell us anything about who you are or where you live.
2. Personal information. We will ask you for information in order to provide you with the services requested, for example it may be to send you an e-newsletter, information you requests or to engage you with one of our services.
3. Sensitive personal information. We may ask you for information about your ethnicity or health, but only when a project or service you are connecting with has a specific need for this and it is only collected with your permission.
Under 16s
We are committed to protecting the privacy of the young people that engage with us. If you are under
16 and would like to get involved with VANEL, please ensure you have consent from a parent or guardian before you provide your personal information to us. We do not send any marketing communications direct to children under 16.
How we collect your information
We collect information about you in the following ways:
Information you give to us directly, for example when you:
– Sign up to our e-newsletter or other digital news services
– Request information from us
– Contact us as a representative of a group, organisation, business or charity and engage with any of our service offers. Services could include formal services such as VANEL membership, Supporting Volunteer Award (SVA) or Volunteer Development Service (VDS) or other services such as critical friend support for funding applications, organisational healthchecks, assessments and analysis services or similar
– Join or attend one of our networks or groups (examples could include Volunteer Managers Network (VMN) or IGNITE Steering Group).
– Register for or attend one of our briefings, workshops, training sessions, multi-session training courses or programmes, conferences or other similar events
– Join any online closed groups we may create or manage (examples might include closed Facebook or Google groups, websites we might create or other online tools)
– Apply for funding programmes that we administer, deliver, manage or support
– Engage with funded projects or programmes that we manage, host or deliver
– Enquire about volunteering opportunities or request support with volunteering
– Take part in surveys or questionnaires that we may run
– Volunteer with us or apply to work with us
– When you visit our websites, we collect technical information such as the IP address you use to visit the website, your browser type and version
– Contact us or become involved with us in any other way not listed above.
Information from third parties
It is possible we will be provided with your information from a third party through a referral route, partnership programme or other data sharing approach. This information will only be shared with us in this way if you have already consented to this with the third party or there is some other acceptable legal basis on which they hold your information and pass it to us. In such circumstances we will hold and process your data in accordance with this policy, current legislation and any other restrictions or rules agreed with that third party.
Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services, we may access information from those accounts or services.
How we use your data
We will mainly use the information we collect about you to:
– Provide you with the services, products or information you asked for. This could include support from a project or programme we run, administer, host or manage, it could include e-newsletters or other marketing promotion or a service you require.
– Support and further our mission, for example if you have shared your story or given us consent to use your photo, we may use this in marketing or promotional materials.
– Administer your participation in one of our events, training courses, other activities, projects or programmes, networks, groups, committees, surveys or service delivery
– Keep you up to date with a service you have enquired about
– Support you in a request to volunteer or engage with volunteering opportunities
– Support our charitable aims and objectives by telling you about the work we are doing and the services that we have available that we believe are of relevance and interest to you
– Carry out any obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us.
– Process a job or volunteering application.
Keeping a record of your relationship with us
We record contact we have with you, so we have a clear understanding of our relationship, how you’ve supported us or have been supported by us in the past. We may also collect and retain your information if you send us feedback about our services, give us a compliment or make a complaint.
Understanding how we can improve our services, events, products or information
We believe it’s important to make sure that all of our services are the very best they can be, which is why we evaluate them. Once you’ve used one of our services, taken part in an event or received information, we may get in touch to ask you about your experience. You don’t have to take part but it’s really valuable to help us improve in the future.
Understanding our supporters and working more effectively
We are committed to providing everyone who gets in touch with us with the very best experience, providing you with timely and relevant communications and using our resources effectively.
To do this, we may use profiling techniques to provide us with general information about you, which may include geographic, demographic or other information relating to you to better understand your interests and preferences. This information is compiled, either by our employees or occasionally a third party insights company, using publicly available data or information that you have already provided to us.
Publicly available information may include information found in places such as Companies House, the Charity Commission, LinkedIn, listed Directorships, typical earnings in a given area or published in the media.
Communicating with you
If you have provided us with your postal address we may send you direct mail which might include updates on our work including the information and support services we offer. We may also contact you about projects, programmes, volunteering, events and campaigns related to what we believe will be relevant to you. We do not ask for consent to write or call you about these things, because, as a charity, each of these activities is fundamental to how we work, so we have a legitimate interest to contact you. However, you will also have an option to opt-out of receiving marketing communications by post or phone.
If you receive our e-newsletter or other e-news you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link in the email. Our mass email service allows us to track who has opened our e-newsletter and what links have been clicked on. This allows us to monitor what information is most useful to improve our content and information in future.
Storing your data
When you give us your details, you agree to us recording your details on our database(s), so we can provide you with the best possible service every time you contact us. We hold your personal information for as long as required to provide you with the information or services you have requested, to administer your relationship with us, to provide you with information or advice you have requested, to keep you informed about the work of VANEL and our services, to comply with the law or to ensure we do not communicate with people who no longer wish to hear from us.
Data provided to VANEL may be held in paper form (non electronic) or as digital information in our databases. Where we hold digital information our databases are either in-house on our own servers, computers and devices wholly under VANEL control, or on secure databases provide to VANEL, all of which are hosted within the UK or the EU. Access to all digital systems are limited, restricted to appropriate and relevant staff and volunteers at VANEL (based on role and need) and are managed under strict processes.
Currently our websites and email systems are managed by Krystal Hosting services which store data in a UK data centre. Other services that we use (such as Mailchimp) are hosted in the UK, or in the EU and in all cases they adhere to necessary data protection legislation.
All paper records are stored on premises at our offices. These offices are securely locked when no members of staff are present and access is restricted and monitored during the working day.
In line with data protection principles and laws, VANEL will ensure that personal data will:
– Be obtained fairly and lawfully, and shall not be processed unless certain conditions are met.
– Be obtained for a specific and lawful purpose.
– Be adequate, relevant, but not excessive.
– Be accurate and be kept up to date to the best of our ability.
– Not be held longer than necessary. The necessity will be defined by its viability in help the Charity achieve its aim.
– Be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subjects (those about whom information is stored).
– Be subject to appropriate and effective security measures.
– Not be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) unless explicitly stated.
Your details will be kept securely and only shared with trusted suppliers who enable us to deliver our charitable objectives, for example, distribution of our newsletter or if required to by law, i.e. with the police or a regulatory body. At all times we remain legally responsible for your data. We never share your data with any third parties for their own marketing or commercial purposes, including charities.
Use of cookies and other online technology
We may use cookies or other analytic technologies on our websites or within our e-newsletters or other online systems which may collect and use certain information about your device(s), your use of websites, apps or services and other unique identifiers personal to you. These techniques are used only for analytical purposes and at VANEL we retain none of this personal data outside of these systems.
Where VANEL uses other third party platforms (including but not limited to social media platforms, cloud based services or e-mailing services) those third party platforms may also collect limited personal data as described above using cookies or similar technologies. Where they do so, their collection, us and protection of your information is governed by those third parties’ privacy policies and practices and not this VANEL privacy policy.
You may use your own devices and technologies (such as your browser) to manage your own data sharing (including cookies).
VANEL does not store personally identifiable information, but we do use the information we gather to help improve the experiences and services we provide. For example they might help us to resolve errors or determine the most relevant information and service to show our visitors in the future.
Keeping your information up to date
We retain your information only for as long as is necessary and whilst it is held we try to keep your information up to date. We might be able to do this from publicly available sources, but we really require you to let us know if anything changes about your data. Please contact VANEL through any of our communication channels to inform us about changes to your data or specifically contact us via the Data Protection Lead on data@vanel.org.uk and we will update your records.
How to change the way we contact you
Your personal preferences and keeping your data accurate is of utmost importance to us.
If at any stage you do not want to hear from us or want to update your details you can contact us via post, email or phone as detailed at the start of this policy. Our Data Protection Lead staff member can be contacted via data@vanel.org.uk, but you can contact any staff member.
If you subscribe to our e-newsletter or other email distribution lists then an unsubscribe link is available in all the emails you are sent. Use this to update your subscription preferences.
If you are a named contact for a service we provide to you or the organisation you represent (such as VANEL membership, a 1:1 support programme, an ongoing training programme, our volunteering services such as SVA or VDS) then we will need to contact you as part of this relationship and we collect your data under a contractual basis rather than based on consent. Upon your request we can update your details or contact you in different ways but may not be able to remove all your contact information whilst the terms of a contractual relationship are still in force.
During any phone conversation you have with us, please feel free to let us know how you prefer to be contacted.
How to find out what information we have about you
Any person whose personal information is held or processed by VANEL has the right to know:
– What information we hold about them.
– How to gain access to this information.
– How to keep it up to date.
What the charity is doing to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and EU General Data Protection Regulation.
Individuals have a right to access certain personal data being kept about them, either physically or digitally. Anyone who wishes to exercise this right should apply, in writing, to the Data Protection Lead at VANEL at the address above. VANEL will respond within one month, providing that the request includes appropriate contact details, proof of identity from the individual and we can validate the request.
If you are unhappy at any time about the way we process your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Lead at VANEL at the address above, who will investigate your concerns.