Privacy Policy
Helston Light and Life Church Privacy Notice
Helston Light and Life Church is part of the Light and Life Free Methodist Church West Cornwall Charity, registered in England and Wales (1147067).
This Privacy Notice explains what to expect when Helston Light and Life Church collects and processes your personal information. We encourage you to read this notice carefully and if you’d like to learn more about our data protection and privacy policies or get further clarification, please contact the Helston Light and Life Church Secretary at our church office and we will be happy to assist.
Address:
Light & Life Centre
Water-ma-Trout Industrial Estate
Helston
TR13 0LW
T: 01326 564994
W: www.helstonlightandlife.co.uk
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Our Commitment
Helston Light and Life Church is committed to respecting your privacy and ensuring the personal information you have entrusted to us is held securely. We process personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. These laws are being updated on 25th May 2018 to strengthen your rights to privacy and give you control over the personal information that organisations hold about you.
Personal information of children will only be collected and processed with the explicit permission of the parent / guardian of the child.
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How we collect personal information
We may collect personal information in the following ways. When you:
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Register to be included in the Helston Church directory
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Subscribe to receive emails through our Mail Chimp service.
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Visit our website and accept the use of cookies (see our cookie policy for further details).
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Submit a DBS application.
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Register to make regular or one – off payments via standing order or direct debit.
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Register as a Gift Aid donor.
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Register to take part in events that take place through the church
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Contact us with an enquiry.
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Attend church or a church event when photographs or videos are being taken.
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Apply for a position, provide references or submit expenses claims.
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The personal information we collect
The information we collect may include:
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Personal identifiers such as your title, name, date of birth and gender.
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Contact details including postal address, post code, email address and telephone number(s).
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Family relationship details including parental responsibility.
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Church attended and membership details.
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Financial information such as your bank details.
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Whether you are a UK tax payer.
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Records of your communications with us.
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Photographs or video footage taken during church events.
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Application specific details such as employment history or former residences.
Sensitive personal data
The Data Protection Act recognises some information as ‘sensitive personal data’. This includes, but is not limited to, information which may reveal your religious beliefs, health issues, race or ethnic origin. We may collect information when:
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You have disclosed any health concerns or disability in order that we may meet any additional requirements that you may have.
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We receive prayer requests which may include information that reveals sensitive personal data.
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If you are working with children or vulnerable individuals you will be required to undergo a DBS check which may require the collection of sensitive personal data such as conviction history.
Helston Light and Life Church will always treat any sensitive personal data we process with great care, and process the information in accordance with the Data Protection Act.
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Why we collect your personal information
We collect personal information for processing in the following ways:
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To keep you informed about what’s happening throughout the church and about both internal and external events that may be of interest.
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To enable us to contact you with relevant and appropriate information.
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To enable us to compile and update the Church Directories.
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To enable us to create serving and preaching rotas for use within the church.
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To enable us to offer a positive experience for all visitors to our website, and to identify where we can improve.
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To create, update and improve the visual impact of our website and marketing campaigns using photographs.
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To process gifting and financial donations as one-off gifts or through regular tithing.
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To reclaim tax on Gift Aid donations, if applicable.
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To manage our employees and volunteers.
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To ensure our safeguarding responsibilities and policies are adhered to.
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For compliance with employment law and other statutory requirements.
Marketing permissions
Helston Light and Life Church feel it is important to offer you the opportunity to be notified and kept informed about what’s going on through the church. This includes sending you information about news and events that are coming up in the future, both led by the church and by other identified organisations where we feel they could be of value.
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Email marketing: We will ask for your permission to contact you by email for marketing purposes.
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Phone marketing: We will ask for your permission to contact you by phone / text for marketing purposes.
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Postal marketing: We will only send you marketing communication by post if you have given us permission to do so.
Helston Light and Life Church is committed to respecting your choice to receive marketing information. You can update your permission and contact preferences at any time by:
Writing to the Helston Light and Life Church Secretary
Light & Life Centre
Water-ma-Trout Industrial Estate
Helston
TR13 0LW
Phoning the church office on: 01326 564994
Emailing the church office at: helston@lightandlife.co.uk
Clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link included in each Mail Chimp communication we send.
Ensuring data accuracy
Helston Light and Life Church recognises the requirements that personal data held should be accurate and kept up to date. We have processes in place to enable us to do this:
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The Church Directories are updated annually and you will be given the opportunity to check and ensure the data held is accurate.
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All emails sent through Mail Chimp communications include a link to allow you to update your personal data.
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Any errors or updates can be reported to the church office at any time.
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Ensuring the relevance of your personal information
Helston Light and Life conducts annual Data Audits to ensure that any personal information held is relevant, processed as needed and complies with the requirements of the Data Protection Act.
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Information Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. Information held by Helston Light and Life Church is secured in the following ways:
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Access to personal information is restricted to those who need to process the data.
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Electronic personal information is stored on password or PIN protected computer systems and securely deleted when no longer needed, in accordance with data retention regulations.
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The use of memory sticks for transferring personal information is discouraged unless the device is password protected or encrypted. Personal information is deleted from devices once the transfer has taken place.
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Paper based personal information is stored in locked filing cabinets and destroyed by shredding when no longer needed, in accordance with data retention regulations.
Who we share your personal information with
Helston Light and Life Church will only share your personal information with your consent. This may include:
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Including your personal information in the Church Directory. The directory is published within the church electronically and in hard copy and includes personal identifiers, contact details, family relationships and church attended. Note: Helston Light and Life Church advises secure storage and disposal of the directories when they are no longer required or have become outdated, but has no control over how individuals choose to do this.
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By request: If a request is received by the church from an individual or organisation for your personal information (for example, a phone number), the church will always contact you to obtain your permission before sharing any information.
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The church uses Mail Chimp as one of our preferred email marketing platform. The data held on the Mail Chimp website is limited to the processing requirements of the church and includes: Name, email address, gender, church attended, membership status and subscription status. You can find more information about how Mail Chimp manages stored personal information by visiting their website: mailchimp.com.
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Photographs may be used as part of Helston’s Light and Life’s marketing and advertising on the church website, and may be included in the design of leaflets or flyers to promote church events and activities.
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If you are logged in to a third party service (such as gmail) when you visit our website, information about your visit to our website and the pages you browse may be collected by the third party. See our cookie policy for further details.
Data Retention
Helston Light and Life Church will only keep your personal information for as long as it is required and in accordance with statutory requirements. Where the information is no longer required, we will ensure that it is disposed of in a secure manner.
If you have indicated that you do not wish to hear from us in the future, we will keep the minimum information necessary to ensure we avoid contacting you any further.
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Data Erasure
You have the right that personal data held by Helston Light and Life Church will be erased upon your request within the requirements of the Data Protection Act. Helston Light and Life Church will only make exceptions to erasing data if it falls within the Data Retention requirements and allowances of the Data Protection Act.
Your rights concerning the personal data we hold
The Data Protection Act (DPA) gives you the right:
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To request in writing and securely obtain copies of the personal information Helston Light and Life Church holds about you. To correct or update your personal information processed by Helston Light and Life Church.
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To request Helston Light and Life Church to stop using your personal information for marketing purposes or for any other purpose where there is no legal requirement for continued processing.
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To choose whether or not to receive marketing communication from us by email, text or telephone.
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That personal data held by Helston Light and Life Church will be processed as per the Data Retention and Data Erasure requirements.
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For more information about your information rights visit www.ico.org.uk
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Concerns or compliments
Please contact us if you wish to raise a concern about how Helston Light and Life Church uses your personal information, or to compliment us with what you think we have done well. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office about how we manage your data. For more information please visit www.ico.org.uk.
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Changes to this privacy notice
Helston Light and Life Church will review our privacy notice regularly. The terms of this notice may be updated at any time, for example, in the event of changes in law and how we operate. If there are any significant changes in the way we process your personal information, we will send a notification and contact you directly.
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You can view our policies online at: www.helstonlightandlife.co.uk/privacypolicy or hard copies are available on request by contacting the church office.