This is a joint policy, covering operations across our three collaborating charities: Sight Support West of England, Insight Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Sight.

Introduction

Your privacy is important to us.  Sight Support West of England, Insight Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Sight promise to respect any personal data you share with us, or that we get from other organisations and keep it safe.  We aim to be clear when we collect your data and not do anything you wouldn’t reasonably expect with it.

The information below sets out how we collect, use and protect any information we may hold about you.

When we collect personal data, we will always have clear communications and marketing preferences displayed and information about how to change how we contact you, including if you wish us to stop contacting you entirely.

Where we collect info about you from

We collect information in the following ways:

• When you give it to us DIRECTLY

You may give us your information in order to sign up for our services, to receive our newsletter, make a donation, tell us your story, or communicate with us.

• When you give it to us INDIRECTLY

Your information may be shared with us by other organisations, for example referral agencies such as local authorities or other charities, or fundraising sites like JustGiving.  These independent third parties will only do so when you have indicated your consent. You should check their Privacy Policy when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process your data.

• When the information is available publicly

This may include information found in places such as Companies House and information that has been published in articles/newspapers. Occasionally we might also use commercially available mailing lists to support our fundraising work.

• When you access our website

Like most websites, we use cookies to help deliver a more tailored and useful service. More information about cookies can be found on this external website.

What personal data we collect and how we use it

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

Services:

We run services to support blind and partially sighted people across the West of England, and we collect personal data in order to provide those services.  Some of the information will also be stored on our secure case management system to help us provide a consistent service and also for quality monitoring or evaluating the services we provide.

Our Sight Advisor teams may collect sensitive personal data about your background, challenges and issues (such as sight condition and registration status) when you choose to share this information.  They will use this information to answer your questions and give advice or guidance.

We use some of the information provided, including gender, ethnicity and age to monitor the types of people who use our services, to ensure that everyone who could benefit has access to our service and to fulfil our statutory requirement to report back on this. We may also ask you whether we can use your stories for case studies or for fundraising materials, but will only do this with your consent.

We will also send you information we feel might be of use to you, along with regular updates about the charity and our services through our newsletters.

We may also collect and retain your information if you send feedback about our services or make a complaint.

Fundraising:

For us to achieve our charitable objectives in supporting people living with sight loss, we need to raise money from members of the public through inspiring them to donate. To achieve this, we need to contact supporters and potential supporters through various means including mail, advertising and email.

If you support us, for example make a donation, volunteer, register to fundraise, or sign up for an event, we will usually collect some contact details, and information about you such as why you have chosen to support us and what fundraising you are doing.  We will also collect payment details.  For one off donations, we securely destroy payment details as soon as they payment is processed and do not store them.  For regular donations (like Direct Debits) we use secure payment processing, and do not store your payment details (including bank account details) anywhere else.

We will mainly use your data to:

• Provide you with the services or information you asked for

• Administer your donation or support your fundraising, including processing gift aid
• Keep a record of your relationship with us
• Ensure we know how you prefer to be contacted
• Thank you for your support, and let you know how your donation has made an impact

Users of our website:

We may collect, store and use information about your computer and about your visits to and use of our website.

When someone visits our website we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. View the Google Privacy Policy here.

Like most websites, we also use cookies to collect information. Some cookies are functional, and needed to help our website function properly – for example allowing you to enter information into our events search box.  Other cookies are for our analytics, to help us understand who is visiting our website. We do not use cookies to collect or record information on your name, address or other contact details. You will have a pop-up message the first time you visit our website (or after you have deleted all cookies on your browser) asking if you are happy to accept non-essential cookies.

The main purposes for which we use cookies are:

• For technical purposes essential to effective operation of our websites, particularly in relation to site navigation.
• To enable us to collect information about your browsing, including to monitor the success of campaigns, competitions etc.

How we keep your data and who has access

We ensure that there we have appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details.  Our data is held on secure computer systems following modern data security practice and in secure data format. We also hold some paper records, also kept securely. Only properly authorised personnel are able to access this information and only for clearly defined reasons.

We may need to disclose your details if required to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors.

When might we share your data?

Sometimes, we will agree with you for us to make a referral to another organisation on your behalf.  This might include the rehab team at your local council for example.  These referrals will only be made if you ask us to do so on your behalf.  We will make sure at your appointment that you want us to make the referral, and then confirm this in writing to you afterwards – including details of who we have shared your information with.  We will always explain to you what information we need to share in order for the referral partner to be able to carry out their services.

We will share your details in exceptional circumstances where legally required, for example where a child or vulnerable adult reports abuse, or someone reports serious self-harm or a serious intention of harming someone else.  In accordance with our safeguarding policy, this will include where we suspect a vulnerable person is at risk of harm.

We work with trusted partners to send fundraising material, however this is always done in line with the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice. Our partners are contractually obliged to only use the information we supply to them for the purposes we ask them to and must not share, sell or use this information for any other reason. Sight Support West of England, Insight Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Sight do not sell personal details to any other organisation.

We are required to submit some information to the HMRC for purposes of Gift Aid.

We, and our partners, are legally required to adhere to the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We do not operate or fundraise outside of the UK. We also use secure servers within the UK or EU. However, due to how the internet works, it is impossible to guarantee that data will not be stored or transmitted outside of the UK at some time (such as our Gift Aid submissions to the HMRC). To reduce this risk, we ensure we use systems which encrypt these files before transmission.

When we will contact you

Clients who have used our services:

We will contact you to update you on relevant events and news. We will also be in touch for catch up calls and to follow up on the support you are receiving from us. We want to constantly monitor and review our service, to ensure it is the best it can be, and to do this we need to keep in touch with you regularly.

As part of our newsletters and updates (both print, usb and email) we will on occasion include news, information or events from other organisations.  These will always be related to sight loss, and / or supporting older residents in the West of England.  These messages will always be reviewed by our Community Sight Loss teams, to make sure that they are relevant and appropriate.  Organisations we work with might include cultural organisations like theatres and art galleries, or other support services such as the Macular Society or Age UK.  We will never share your personal details with these organisations.

We may also contact you with fundraising and marketing materials to provide you with opportunities to support our work should you wish to do so.  You can opt out of receiving these communications at any point.

Supporters and potential supporters:

Our three charities do not undertake any “door-to-door” fundraising methods, but we do undertake mailings and campaigns to increase our donations, including talking to people in person at events.

We will contact you to let you know about our ongoing projects and progress in supporting local people living with sight loss.  In order to continue to fund our work, we will contact you occasionally to ask for donations.

If the Fundraising Preference Service, or you, informs us you wish our communication with you to stop, we will honour that request as soon as possible. If we have already sent out a letter it may not be possible to stop it so you could receive one more.

Keeping your data up-to-date

As a group of small charities, we don’t have the resources to cross-check your contact information with publicly available sources to keep your records up to date, so we really appreciate it if you let us know if your contact details change.

Your right to know what we know about you, make changes or ask us to stop using your data

You have a right to ask us to stop processing your personal data, and if it’s not necessary for the purpose it was provided to us for, we will do so.

You have a right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, although we reserve the right to charge a small fee to cover the costs involved.  If there are any discrepancies in the information we provide, let us know and we will correct them.

If you want to access your information, send a description of the information you want to see and proof of your identity by post to Sight Support West of England, The Beeches, Browfort, Bath Road, Devizes SN10 2AT.   We do not accept these requests by email so we can ensure that we only provide personal data to the right person.

If you have any questions please send these to info@sightsupportwest.org.uk, and for further information see the Information Commissioner’s guidance.

Changes to this Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time.  If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear by contacting you directly, or by posting a new version on our website.  You should check this policy on our website occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know by contacting us on 01380 739113 or info@sightsupportwest.org.uk.

Third party websites

The website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites.