Privacy Policy

South Hampshire Deaf Children’s Society Privacy Statement

The South Hampshire Deaf Children’s Society is the charity dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people in the South Hampshire region.

We are registered with the Charity Commission under registration number Charity No. 231401.

We take your privacy very seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information. This privacy policy explains how we may collect and use the information you give us. If you have any questions regarding our Privacy Policy, or to discuss your preferences for how we communicate and process your information please email info@shdcs.org.uk.

Summary of this policy

This policy includes:

How we collect information
Where we collect information from
What categories of personal information we collect
The purposes for which we will use your personal information
Children’s data
Our use of cookies
How we keep your data safe and who has access to it
Who we share your personal data with
How we keep your information up to date
How long we keep your personal information for
Our legal basis for processing your information
Your rights in relation to your information
Changes to this policy

How we collect information

We may collect information about you whenever you interact with us, for example when you:

Enquire about our activities or services, visit our website or donate to us.
Sign up to receive updates on a campaign or our activities.
Create or update your membership.
Post content to our website/social media sites (including Facebook).
Volunteer for us.
Attend a meeting with us and provide us with information about you.
Take part in one of our events.
Fundraise on our behalf.
Contact us through any channel, including online, email, phone, SMS, social media or post.
Give permission to use images of yourself or your young children or young people in our activities.

We may also receive information about you from third parties – but only if you’ve given them permission to share your information.

Where we collect information from

We may collect information in the following ways:

When you give us information directly, for example when you:
1. request specific information which requires us to obtain your details;
1. provide data on other family members (with permission to do so);
1. make a donation;
1. campaign for us or participate in one of our events;
1. complete any of our website forms; or
1. register for one of our events.
When you give us information indirectly: your information may be shared with us when you use other fundraising sites and provide your consent to be contacted by the South Hampshire Deaf Children’s Society, for example if you are fundraising for us via JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving . These organisations will have their own privacy policy and/or privacy statements, so please ensure you understand how they use your data.
Via social media. Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services like Facebook and Twitter/X , you might give us permission to access information from those accounts or services.
When you are using our website: upon visiting our website information about your visit is recorded and stored. See the section below on the use of cookies for more details.
When your information is available from other public sources: we may collect personal details about you from the public domain, such as from social networks, company websites, political and property registers, and news archives. We may use data services agencies to collect this information. Please see the how we use your information below for more details.

What categories of personal information we collect

The type and quantity of information we collect and how we use it depends on why you are providing it.

If you become a member or support us, for example by making a donation, volunteering, registering to fundraise, signing up for an event, attending a meeting or campaigning for us, we may collect where relevant:

Your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number and information necessary to process your membership or to process a donation or regular contribution like credit/debit card details or bank details.
We collect date of birth to monitor the effectiveness of our fundraising, verify your identity if you contact us, investigate potential fraud, check that fundraising agencies working on our behalf are following agreed processes, and to enable us to keep a historical record of people who have worked on our behalf via third parties (for example, fundraisers). If you wish us not to hold your date of birth then please let us know.
We also collect date of birth for all young people we support, obtained from parents or guardians.
We may also collect other information, for example health or dietary information from people attending our events, information on next of kin so we know who to get in contact with them if there is a problem at an event you attend.
We also collect information on your experience of deafness or the experiences of a child or relative. We will not process sensitive personal information (special category data, in our case information about deafness and other health information) about you without your explicit consent.
If you contact us, for example by telephone, letter, SMS, email or via social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter/X) or respond to a contact we make to you, we may keep a record of that correspondence so that we are able to refer to it in future, and keep a record of the kind of issues people raise.
When we send communications to you, we will record details of these along with any actions you take as a result, such as support given (e.g. donations), other actions taken (e.g. helping with our campaigning), or requests you make to change the way that we communicate with you in the future.
We will log information onto our database systems to retain a history of what you have requested and to ensure that we comply with any requests or complaints that you have made.

How we will use your personal information

We will use your personal information in a number of ways, including for the following purposes:

Membership
1. To create a membership.
1. Some of the communications you receive from us will be part of your engagement with the South Hampshire Deaf Children’s Society: for example membership information.
Marketing and Fundraising
For marketing purposes to further our charitable aims, for instance fundraising and campaigning activities.
When we get in touch for marketing purposes, we will ask you whether you are happy for us to continue to contact you in this way.
All marketing contacts (e.g. fundraising or campaigning) we make will give you an opportunity to opt out of that particular type of communication.
We may contact you via post, unless you have told us you do not want us to write to you.
We may contact you via email or SMS where you have expressed a preference for a particular type of communication or where you have opted-in to these channels.
Your privacy is important to us and so far as possible we will not send you any type or method of communications you tell us that you do not want to receive. When we first ask for your personal details, we will ask you how you want us to keep in touch and sign post to our Privacy Notice.
You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications or contact us to change your preferences at any time, by contacting us on the details below.
Service provision
To provide you with the services, products or information you have requested.
To update you about any changes to our services.
To ensure we are providing the best possible service, e.g. monitoring phone calls we make or receive, or monitoring complaints.
To give you information about other relevant services or products provided by partners we are working with.
Website
To analyse your website behaviour.
To analyse and improve the operation of our website (see section on cookies below for further details).
Data sharing
We will never allow any other organisation access to the data we hold about you for their own marketing purposes. In order to manage our relationship with you effectively, we may need to share your information with our service providers, associated organisations and agents who support us in our work. Where we do so, we will take care to ensure that they keep your data secure (see Who we share your personal data with below).
Administrative
For administration purposes.
To maintain our organisational records and ensure we have your most up-to-date marketing preferences.
To help us improve our services, campaigns, fundraising or information-offering.
We know not everyone has time to keep us informed of changes to their contact details. So in some circumstances we may look up updated contact details for you, for instance:
1. if you move house, we might be made aware of this or find a new address for you (for example by receiving returned mail or by using Royal Mail’s Change of Address service) in which case we will record updated details in our records; or
1. if you have let us know you are happy to be contacted by phone, and we are having trouble getting hold of you on the number we have, we might look up another phone number for you and update our records accordingly.
To respond to any correspondence you have entered into with us including by letter, email, SMS, social media or other means and contact you in relation to any interaction you have with us, including donations, your regular Direct Debit, activities in relation to your child, membership forms or any online content you have signed up for.
We might use a range of additional information sources to do this, including information from commercial suppliers. If you would prefer we didn’t do this, please let us know.
To administer your payments and donation, including Gift Aid processing.
If you wish to discuss your preferences for how we communicate and process your information or opt out of your data being used in this way please email info@shdcs.org.uk.

Children’s data

We collect and store information about deaf children and young people who we help directly or indirectly through our services or who contact us directly – whether it is provided by their parents or guardians or (in the case of young people 16-25) provided by themselves.

Use of cookies

‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enable the server to collect information from the browser. Essentially, a cookie takes the form of a small text file deposited on your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

strictly necessary cookies
functional cookies
analytics cookies
performance cookies

Please see our cookies policy for further information.

How we keep your data safe and who has access to it

We place great importance on the security of your personal information and will always take appropriate precautions to protect it.

We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details stored on our database. For example, the use of passwords.

We always ensure only authorised personnel (for example our volunteers or trustees) have access to your information, and that they are appropriately trained to manage your data.

When you make a donation or payment we take measures to ensure that the personal information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date and kept only for the purposes for which it was collected.

Despite all our precautions, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose to us online, and you must understand that you do so at your own risk.

Who we share your personal data with

We use external organisations that collect and/or process personal data on our behalf, for example, payment agents, fundraising agencies, mail fulfilment houses, email delivery providers and IT/database suppliers. Before working with these companies we perform checks on them and agree contracts which commit them to meeting all relevant regulations and legislation.

We may legally be required to disclose your details if required to by the police or for regulatory reasons. We will only ever share your data in other circumstances if we have your consent to do so.

Google Analytics

We share anonymised data to Google’s cloud data warehousing service that allows analysis of granular data, there is no personal data shared.

How we keep your information up to date

Where possible, we try to keep your records up to date; for example, using the Post Office’s National Change of Address database. However, we really appreciate it if you let us know if your contact details change.

How long we keep your information for

We will only keep your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purposes outlined in this statement, and in any case within limits set out by law. However, where it is possible we may anonymise information so that it cannot be linked back to an individual, in which case it may be kept for longer.

Income from gifts in wills is vital to the running of the charity. We may keep data you provide to us for a period sufficient to enable us to carry out administration of such gifts and communicate effectively with the families of people leaving us gifts in their will. This also enables us to identify and analyse the source of legacy will income we receive.

Our legal basis for processing your information

We ensure that we have a lawful basis to collect and use your personal data.

In many cases we will seek explicit consent to process your personal and special category data. We will also often process personal data for the performance of a contract. In some instances we may process your information outside of these legal bases when we are legally allowed to do so. This will only be where it is in our legitimate interests to do so and where we are confident that such processing is not likely to unduly prejudice your interests, rights and freedoms.

The law allows for six grounds for processing people’s personal data, of which three are relevant for our activities:

we process your information on the basis of your consent;
we process your information on the basis of a contractual relationship; and
we process your information on the basis of having legitimate interest to do so.

Consent: We will process your data if you have provided consent: this will include storing your information and using this to manage our relationship with you e.g. sending membership information, event attendance details etc.

Contractual relationship: The vast majority of our relationships with our supporters and members are voluntary as opposed to contractual.

Legitimate Interests: In some cases we will make a balanced judgement on whether we have a legitimate interest for storing and processing your data and using it to contact you without having gathered your explicit consent. The law allows for us to collect and use your data if it is necessary for a legitimate interest, as long as we use it in a fair and balanced way that does not unduly prejudice your rights.

Our Legitimate Interests for processing personal data include:

Governance

Delivery of our charitable purpose
Statutory reporting
Reporting criminal acts and compliance with law enforcement agencies
Internal and external audit for financial or regulatory compliance purposes

Operational Management

Trustee and volunteer recording and monitoring for, safety, performance management or workforce planning purposes
Physical security, IT and network security
Processing for historical or statistical purposes

Publicity and Income Generation

Direct marketing and other forms of marketing, publicity or advertisement by post, phone or social media
Personalisation used to tailor and enhance customer and supporter experience in our offline and online communications
Analysis, targeting, and segmentation to maximise the cost-effectiveness and reach of our communications
Processing for research purposes (including marketing research)

Purely Administrative Purposes

Responding to any solicited enquiry from any of our stakeholders
Delivery of requested products or information packs
Administration of Gift Aid
Thank you communications and receipts
Administration of existing financial transactions
Maintaining ‘Do not contact lists’ (suppression lists)

Financial Management and Control

Processing of financial transactions and maintaining financial controls
Prevention of fraud, misuse of services, or money laundering
Enforcement of legal claims including debt collection via out-of-court procedures
Administration of supporters’ estates and/or gifts in wills where we have been named as beneficiary or executor

In extreme situations, we may share your personal details if we believe that it is in your ‘vital interests’ to do so (e.g. if you are taken ill at one of our events we might share your details with emergency services), or if we are compelled by law to do so.

Your rights

You retain control of how we use your data and you have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal information, which we will do. In some circumstances, we may legally be required to retain your personal information for audit purposes. However, this will be discussed with you depending on your requirements. Please contact us by email info@shdcs.org.uk.

You also have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you. If you want to access your information, please email info@shdcs.org.uk. We will not charge a fee unless the request is deemed to be ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’. If so, we may ask for a reasonable fee for administrative costs associated with the request.

Upon successful verification of your identity, you are entitled to obtain the following information about your own personal information:

The purposes of the collection, processing, use and storage of your personal data.
The source(s) of the personal information, if it was not obtained from you.
The categories of personal data stored about you.
The recipients or categories of recipients to whom your personal data has been or may be transmitted/shared with, along with the location of those recipients.
The envisaged period of storage for your personal data or the rationale for determining the storage period.
The use of any automated decision-making and/or profiling.

Under UK Data Protection Legislation you are also granted a number of additional rights.

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, as listed below please contact us at info@shdcs.org.uk for:

Access to your personal information:

You have the right to find out what we hold about you and how we are using your personal data, this is called a right of access. You exercise this right by asking for a copy of the data, which is commonly known as making a ‘subject access request’.

Objection to processing of your personal information:

You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data until this has been rectified if wrong, the processing is unlawful, but you do not wish the data to be deleted, or pending verification on whether legitimate grounds are being used.

Objection to automated decision-making and profiling:

The right to request that we do not make any decisions that are based solely on automated processing.

Restriction of processing of your personal information:

The right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, this can be because we are verifying the accuracy of the data we hold or our processing is unlawful but you wish us not to delete the personal data.

Your personal data portability:

Rectification of your personal information:

Erasure of your personal information:

The right to request the erasure of your personal data that we hold on you, this is also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’.

If you make a request relating to any of the rights listed above, we will consider each request in accordance with all applicable data protection laws and regulations. No administration fee will be charged for considering and/or complying with such a request unless the request is deemed to be excessive in nature.

For more information on these rights please read the relevant guidance issued by the ICO

If you would like to make a complaint about how we process your personal data, please contact us by emailing info@shdcs.org.uk.

If you are not happy with how your complaint is dealt with, you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Alternatively, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office without first referring your complaint to us.

For further information please see the Information Commissioner’s guidance.

Changes to this privacy policy

This policy may change from time to time. If we make any significant changes to this policy, we will publicise these changes clearly on our website or contact you directly with more information.

Please revisit this policy each time you consider giving your personal information to the South Hampshire Deaf Children’s Society.

Reviewed March 2024