Affinity Privacy Policy

Our promise

At Affinity, we are committed to the safety and privacy of all personal information that is collected by us from partners, churches, associates and those who sign up for our conferences. In particular, we want it to be clear that we do not sell or trade email lists or any other personal data with other organisations.

By providing personal information to us, either via our website (http://www.affinity.org.uk/) or by another means, you are consenting to the collection, processing, and storage of your data as outlined in this privacy policy.

The information you provide will be held in accordance with the General Date Protection Regulation (GDPR). We will do all we can to protect your privacy and to make sure any personal information you share with us is stored securely.

We value and respect everyone who connects with us. Our aim is to be as clear as possible about how and why we use information you give us. If your questions are not fully answered by the information below, please contact our data protection officer who will be happy to help. Email office@affinity.org.uk or telephone 07936 048259.

Data protection statement

Affinity’s data protection statement is as follows:

“Keeping your data secure is very important to us. By providing your personal details you agree to allow Affinity to contact you either on the basis of the consents you have given us or for our Legitimate Interests in accordance with current data protection regulations. We will never make your personal data available for marketing purposes to external individuals or organisations. For more information email office@affinity.org.uk or read our privacy policy.”

How we collect personal information

We collect personal information each time you are in contact with us. For example this may include, but is not limited to, when you become a member, make a donation, book into an event, request a resource, sign up to a mailing list, give your details to an Affinity speaker at an event or send us an email.

Affinity does not receive or hold any credit card details of donations or payments made via our websites. All credit and debit card payments are handled by external payment processors:

Charities Aid Foundation for donations
Stripe for event ticket sales
SumUp for resource purchases

Each external company uses and processes your payment information in accordance with their privacy policy which can be found on their website.

Why we collect information about you

We collect information about you for the following reasons:

To provide you with information about our work including membership-related mailings, events and resources and to tailor this kind of information according to your location and expressed interests.
To ask for financial and non-financial support, such as prayer.
To process donations you give us and to ensure they are recorded correctly.
To keep records of your relationship with us. For example; what events you have attended, what enquiries you have made, what areas of our work you have supported or what resources you have ordered.
To customise the information and appeals we send to ensure we work in the most cost-effective way and only send information which is appropriate to you.
To enhance or improve your experience on our website. When you indicate your preferences through your use of our site, we may use this information to personalise the site to better meet your needs.

Keeping us up to date with your details and contact preferences

Please tell us as soon as any of your contact details change so that we can keep our records up to date.

You can change the way we contact you or the kind of material we send you at any time by contacting us by mail, phone or email using the contact details above.

You can unsubscribe from any of our regular emails at any time by using the ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘update preferences’ links in the email you have received.

What is our legal basis for processing your personal data?

Our legal basis is as follows:

Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests to enable our charitable and missional aims. For example, maintaining membership records, recording our financial donations, and for the distribution of information
Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. Retaining gift aid declarations are examples of this.
We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to provide a direct service to you. For example, if you buy tickets for an event.

Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these legal bases, we will first obtain your consent to that use.

What personal information do we collect?

Depending upon your interaction with Affinity, we may collect some or all of the following personal and non-personal data:

Name;
Date of birth;
Gender;
Address;
Email address;
Telephone number;
Job title;
Profession;
Payment information;
Your church affiliation;
IP address;
Web browser type and version;
Operating system;
A list of URLs starting with a referring site, your activity on Our Site, and the site you exit to.

When using http://www.affinity.org.uk/ we may also collect:

Log data

When you visit our website, our servers may automatically log the standard data provided by your web browser. It may include your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type and version, the pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on each page, and other details.

Device data

We may also collect data about the device you’re using to access our website. This data may include the device type, operating system, unique device identifiers, device settings, and geo-location data. What we collect can depend on the individual settings of your device and software. We recommend checking the policies of your device manufacturer or software provider to learn what information they make available to us.

Who sees your information?

The information we collect will be used exclusively within. We do not pass any of your personal information to any other organisations and/or individuals without your express consent, with the following exceptions:

Name and address details are passed to mailing houses to enable fulfilment of membership and fundraising mailings and resources you have requested. These may include, but are not limited to, InTouch magazine, membership renewals, resources, and other membership information as required.

Where such details are shared we have confidentiality agreements in place that restrict the use of your information to the purpose for which it is provided and ensure it is stored securely and kept no longer than necessary. All agents we share details with are also compliant with data protection law.

To minimise the risk of unauthorised disclosure of your information, we may use some of your information to verify who you are when you contact us.

Our use of your information

The information that you provide to Affinity will be used to provide you with information about our work including membership-related mailings, events, resources, and other services and activities as described on our website.

By providing information you are agreeing to receive mailings that communicate the work of Affinity. Each time you receive an email you will be able to update your preferences and subscribe or unsubscribe from regular emails via our website.

Affinity may carry out analysis of the personal information we collect about you and add publicly available information to create a profile of your interests, preferences and level of potential donations so we can contact you in the most appropriate way and with the most relevant information.

How long we keep data

We hold personal data for varying lengths of time depending on the type of information in question but in doing so we always comply with Data Protection legislation and statutory requirements.

How and where do we store and transfer your personal information

We may use specific contracts with external third parties that are approved by the European Commission for the transfer of personal data to third countries. These contracts ensure the same levels of personal data protection that would apply under the GDPR. More information is available from the European Commission.

Our primary database is ChurchSuite and our financial records are stored on Liberty Accounts. In addition, some data may be held by individual staff on company email accounts hosted by Google.

Transfer of data abroad

Any electronic personal data transferred to countries or territories outside the UK will only be placed on systems complying with measures giving equivalent protection of personal rights either through international agreements or contracts approved by the UK. Our website is accessible from overseas, however it is our general practice not to publish any personal data on our website.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under Data Protection legislation, you have the right to request access to information about you that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, contact our data protection officer. Email office@affinity.org.uk or telephone 07936 048259.

You also have the right to:

object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress;
prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing;
object to decisions being taken by automated means;
in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or
destroyed; and
claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/concerns

Cookies

Every time you visit our website, it sends us a cookie. This cookie is a text file that tells us about your visit. And when the data comes to us, it’s bulked together with information from all the other visitors to our site. Cookies tell us, for example, about traffic data, location data, device information, the date and time people visit and the pages they visit.

You can view what cookies we store about you and how to manage your cookies in our cookie policy.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. This may be necessary, for example, if the law changes, or if we change our business in a way that affects personal data protection.

Any changes will be immediately posted on our website and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of our website or when you share personal information following the alterations. We recommend that you check this Policy regularly to keep up-to-date.

Affinity Data Controller

Joel Upton
joel@affinity.org.uk

Affinity Data Protection Officer