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Privacy and Cookies Policy

This Privacy and Cookies Policy sets out how we collect and use your data. It relates to the website www.rsbc.org.uk.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

By accepting our services, you acknowledge you have read and understood this privacy policy.

For the purposes of European Economic Area data protection law, (the “Data Protection Law”), the data controller is RSBC, otherwise known as the Royal Society for Blind Children.

 

1. Who we are

RSBC works to ensure that blind and partially sighted children have access to the same opportunities and experiences as sighted children. We want blind and partially sighted children and young people to be able to live lives without limits.

Our supporters, volunteers and the children, young people and families we support are all important to us and we are committed to keeping your data safe. We want to make it clear what information we collect about you and how we use it.

RSBC is the abbreviated name for the Royal Society for Blind Children. We are a registered charity under number 307892 and a company registered in England and Wales under number 139928.

If you have any questions, comments or requests about this Privacy and Cookies Policy, you can contact us either by writing to:

Eileen Harding, People and Facilities Director, RSBC, Life Without Limits Centre, 10 Lower Thames Street, London, EC3R 6EN or by emailing eileen.harding@rsbc.org.uk

 

2. Information we collect about you

We will collect and process the following personal data from you:

Information you give us

This is information about you that you give us directly when you interact with us by filling in forms on our website or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. The type and amount of data we collect and use will depend on why you have provided it.

Supporters

If you support us, for example by signing up to a fundraising event, donating, signing up to Gift Aid, or signing up to a campaign, we will usually collect your name, contact details, and whether you would like to be contacted, and how we would do so. If appropriate, we may also ask to collect your date of birth, financial details, Gift Aid eligibility, reasons for support, and responses to our campaigns.

We collect this data so we can keep you up to date with information and products you have requested, or may be interested in, and to ask for more support, in the way that you have chosen; to run our events; and to fulfil our legal responsibilities for financial and Gift Aid reporting.

Volunteers

If you apply to be a volunteer with RSBC, we will ask for the following information: name, contact details, emergency contact details, contact preferences, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, whether you have a disability, criminal convictions, and your availability to volunteer.

We collect this information so that we can keep you informed of volunteering opportunities, pay expenses, anonymously track the inclusivity and accessibility of our volunteering programmes, and ensure the safety of our volunteers, staff and the young people we support.

Services

RSBC provides a range of services for children and young people aged up to 25 years old. If you apply for any of these, we will collect your name (and, where applicable, the name of your child, contact details, emergency contact details, contact preferences, ethnicity, gender, date of birth, details of disability and health (including physical and mental conditions).

We collect this data so that we can process your application, keep you up to date with information about our services, keep young people safe at our services, help us anonymously measure inclusion and accessibility at our services, provide suitable mobility equipment, and accommodate disability or health conditions.

Please be assured that we will only use such sensitive information for the purposes set out in this policy and as provided by law.

Information we collect about you from your use of our website

We will automatically collect information from you each time you visit our website.

This includes:

Technical Information

Technical information may include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform.

Information about your visit

Information about your visit may include the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time), services

 

3. Cookies and other technologies

Our website uses cookies and/or other similar technologies, such as Facebook Pixel and Google Remarketing Tag, to collect and store certain information. These typically involve pieces of information or code that a website transfers to or accesses from your computer hard drive or mobile device to store and sometimes track information about you. Cookies and similar technologies enable you to be remembered when using that computer or device to interact with websites and online services and can be used to manage a range of features and content as well as storing searches and presenting personalised content.

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to distinguish you from other users. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allows us to improve it.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies and similar technologies, but if you prefer, you can change your browser to prevent this. Your help screen or manual will tell you how to do this. We also give you information about how to disable cookies below. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of our website if you do so.

Several of the cookies and similar technologies we use last only for the duration of your web session and expire when you close your browser. Others are used to remember you when you return to our website and will last for longer. These are detailed below.

We use these cookies and other technologies on the basis that they are necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or because using them is in our legitimate interests (where we have considered that these are not overridden by your rights), and, in some cases, where required by law, where you have consented to their use.

 

Types of Cookie

We use the following types of cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies

These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website and under our terms with you. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.

Analytical/performance cookies

These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our website and to see how visitors move around the website when they are using it. This helps our legitimate interests of improving the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

Functionality cookies

These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us, subject to your choices and preferences, to personalise our content, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Targeting cookies

These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information, subject to your choices and preferences, to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

We may also work with advertising networks that gather information about the content on our Services you visit and information on other websites and services you visit. This may result in you seeing advertisements on our website or our advertisements when you visit other websites and services of third parties.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them below.

Google Analytics

Name: _ga and _gid
Purpose: This cookie enables us to monitor traffic levels, search queries, and visits to our website. Google Analytics stores IP addresses anonymously on its servers in the US. These cookies enable Google to determine whether you are a return visitor to our website, and to track the pages that you visit during your session.
Expires: _ga expires after 2 years. _gid expires after 24 hours.

ExpressionEngine (CMS)

Name: exp_last_visit, exp_last_activity, and exp_tracker
Purpose: This cookie is used by the ExpressionEngine content management system to track a user’s session.
Expires: exp_last_visit and exp_last_activity expire after 1 year. exp_tracker expires when the browser session expires.

Sessions

Name: PHPSESSID
Purpose: This cookie is used to store session information, and typically used to maintain a logged-in status between pages.
Expires: Expires when the browser session expires.

 

Disabling cookies

The effect of disabling cookies depends on which cookies you disable but, in general, the website may not operate properly if all cookies are switched off.

If you want to disable cookies on our website, you need to change your website browser settings to reject cookies. How you can do this will depend on the browser you use. Further details on how to disable cookies for the most popular browsers are set out below:

For Microsoft Internet Explorer:

  1. Choose the menu “Tools” then “Internet Options”
  2. Click on the “Privacy” tab
  3. Select the setting the appropriate setting

 

For Google Chrome:

  1. Choose Settings then Advanced
  2. Under “Privacy and Security,” click “Content Settings”.
  3. Click “Cookies”

 

For Safari:

  1. Choose Preferences then Privacy
  2. Click on “Remove all Website Data”

 

For Mozilla firefox:

  1. Choose the menu “Tools” then “Options”
  2. Click on the icon “Privacy”
  3. Find the menu “Cookie” and select the relevant options

 

For Opera 6.0 and further:

  1. Choose the menu Files then “Preferences”
  2. Privacy

 

Where you have not set your permissions, we may also separately prompt you regarding our use of cookies on our website.

 

4. How we use your information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us

We will use this information to:

  • Take steps in order to enter into any contract or carry out our obligations arising from any contract entered into between you and us, including notifying you about changes to our service and processing and thanking any donations which you make through our website or post.
  • Provide you with information about our goods or services we feel may interest you, if you have given your consent to receiving marketing material from us at the point we collected your information, where required by law or otherwise in our legitimate interests provided these interests do not override your right to object to such communications. See 6. Our supporter updates.
  • Ensure in our legitimate interests that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer and that we provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us.

 

Information we collect about you from your use of our website

We will use this information in our legitimate interests, where we have considered these are not overridden by your rights:

  • To administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes.
  • To keep our website safe and secure.
  • For measuring or understanding the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you.
  • To improve our website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our website, when you choose to do so.
  • To audit the use of our website.

 

Information we receive from other sources

We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you in our legitimate interests (where we have considered that these are not overridden by your rights). We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive) and to research and profile existing and potential supporters as below.

 

5. Research and Profiling of Supporters

It’s vital that our fundraising efforts are as effective as they can be. By developing a better understanding of our supporters through researching them using publicly available sources, we can tailor and target our fundraising events and communications to those most likely to be interested in them. This allows us to be more efficient and cost effective with our resources and reduces the risk of someone receiving information that they might find irrelevant, intrusive or even distressing. We undertake in-house research and may engage third party organisations to help us identify people who may be able to support us with a larger gift. We use existing information you have given us from our database and combine this with information from publicly available sources such as the electoral register, land records, ‘rich lists’, Who’s Who publications, public social media accounts and Companies House records. We only use reputable sources, where someone would expect their information may be read by the public.

We’re committed to putting you in control of your data, and you’re free to opt-out of this processing of your data at any time. To find out more or to opt-out, please contact us at supporter.care@rsbc.org.uk or on 0203 198 0225.

 

6. Our supporter updates

Updates by email, text or phone

We will only send you marketing information electronically (i.e. by email or text), and we will only call you if you have specifically agreed to us doing so. We rely on consent for this processing, and you can withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any of our messages to you.

Updates by post

We may send you marketing information by post unless you have previously opted out or said that you don’t want to be contacted. We rely on legitimate interests for this processing, as we consider that we have a legitimate interest to promote RSBC to potential and actual supporters.

You can object to further marketing or change your communication preferences at any time by sending us an email to supporter.care@rsbc.org.uk or by calling 0203 198 0225.

 

7. Keeping your information up to date

We use information from external sources (such as the Post Office national change of address database, the public electoral roll or Experian) to identify when we think you have changed addresses. This is so that we can update our records and stay in touch. We only use sources where we are confident that you’ve been informed of how your information may be shared.

We do this so that we can continue to contact you if we need to make you aware of changes to our terms or assist you with an enquiry you have made, or where you have chosen to receive marketing messages from us.

We really appreciate it if you let us know that your contact details have changed.

We’re committed to putting you in control of your data and you’re free to opt-out of this processing of your data at any time. To find out more or to opt-out, please contact us at supporter.care@rsbc.org.uk or on 0203 198 0225.

 

8. Who we give your information to

We may give your information to:

  • Any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, who support our processing of personal data under this policy. If any of these parties are using your information for direct marketing purposes, we will only transfer the information to them for that purpose with your prior consent. If we disclose aggregate statistics about visitors to our website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, sponsors and other reputable third parties or for other lawful purposes, these statistics will include no personally identifiable information.
  • Selected third parties.

 

Our selected third parties may include:

  • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website and subject to the cookie section of this policy (this will not identify you as an individual).
  • Affiliates, agents or contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer, fulfilling requests for information, receiving and sending communications, updating marketing lists, provision of support services (such as fraud investigations and customer support) or in other tasks from time to time.
  • Direct marketing agencies, print and production agencies, telemarketing agencies, but only when a supporter has consented to be contacted via these channels, or has been made aware of our use of legitimate interests as the legal basis for marketing by post
  • SMS text providers, Dotdigital or other email communication systems, only when explicit consent has been obtained by the supporter
  • Third-party event providers, only after a supporter has registered for an RSBC place in order to fulfil the obligations of their participation in the event
  • Profiling agencies, such as Mosaic, Acorn, to provide supporter profiling analysis based on postcode
  • Research and profiling companies such as Factory or Prospecting for Gold to better understand you and your philanthropic priorities so that we can be measured in who we might approach for substantial support. (See Research and Profiling of Supporters)
  • Partners, who we work with to deliver services to children and young people
  • Trusts, corporate partners and other funders who request information about the young people we support as part of funding agreements. We only ever provide this information with the explicit consent of young people and, if the young person is under 16, their parent or guardian.

 

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

  • In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets subject to the terms of this privacy policy.
  • If RSBC or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of supply terms and other agreements with you; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of RSBC, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction and to prevent cybercrime.

 

9. Payment processing

Donations made on the website are made through our payment gateway provider, Stripe. You will be providing credit or debit card information directly to Stripe which operates a secure server to process payment details, encrypting your credit/debit card information and authorising payment. Information that you supply to Stripe is not within our control and is subject to Stripe’s own privacy policy and terms and conditions.

 

10. How we protect your information

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

It is advisable to close your browser when you have finished your user session to help ensure that others do not access your personal information if you use a shared computer or computer in a public place.

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites.

 

11. How long we keep your information

We retain personal data for various periods and will be happy to provide our retention schedule for further information on this. We may also retain aggregate information beyond this time for research purposes and to help us develop and improve our services. You cannot be identified from aggregate information retained or used for these purposes.

You can request our retention schedule by writing to: Eileen Harding, People and Facilities Director, RSBC, Life Without Limits Centre, 10 Lower Thames Street, London, EC3R 6EN or by emailing eileen.harding@rsbc.org.uk

 

12. Your rights

You have the right under certain circumstances:

  • to be provided with a copy of your personal data held by us;
  • to correct any errors in that personal data;
  • to request the rectification or erasure of your personal data held by us;
  • to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example);
  • to object to the further processing of your personal data, including the right to object to marketing (as mentioned in 5. Our Supporter Updates above);
  • to request that your provided personal data be moved to a third party.

 

Your right to withdraw consent:

  • where the processing of your personal information by us is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent without detriment at any time by contacting us. You can also change your marketing preferences at any time as described in 5. Our Supporter Updates above.
  • you can also exercise the rights listed above at any time by contacting us at eileen.harding@rsbc.org.uk

If your request or concern is not satisfactorily resolved by us, you may approach your local data protection authority. The Information Commissioner is the supervisory authority in the UK and can provide further information about your rights and our obligations in relation to your personal data, as well as deal with any complaints that you have about our processing of your personal data.

 

13. Changes to this policy

We may modify this notice from time to time. When we make material changes to it, we will post a link to the revised notice on the homepage of our website. The notice will contain the date of any changes and any changes to the notice will become effective from the posting of the revised notice on the website. Use of the site, any of our services under the revised notice, following the changes, constitutes your acceptance of the revised notice then in effect.

 

14. Contact Us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and can be sent by post to: Eileen Harding, People and Facilities Director, RSBC, Life Without Limits Centre, 10 Lower Thames Street, London, EC3R 6EN or by emailing eileen.harding@rsbc.org.uk