How we may use your information
The legal basis that we rely on for processing your data will depend upon the circumstances in which it is being collected and used, but will in most cases fall into one of the following categories:
- where you have provided your consent to allow us to use your data in a certain way
- where the processing is necessary to carry out for the performance of a contract with you
- where the processing is necessary in order for us to comply with a legal obligation; or
- where it is in our legitimate interests to perform our functions, for example, processing donations or sending you administrative communications where our legitimate interest is to raise funds and to deliver our charitable purposes
Service providers
We use service providers (such as fundraising agencies, prospect research companies, direct mailing companies, mobile marketing providers, payment processors, market research companies and software platform providers) to help us provide you with our services. For example, Capita is the data processor responsible for delivering our National Call Centre and Civica administers our annual meeting and elections.
We may give relevant persons within these service providers access to your personal information, but only to allow them to perform their services for us. Some service providers may be based outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) however, we will endeavour to ensure that any data transfers outside of the EEA are carried out in compliance with relevant data protection legislation and that the processing of your data is subject to appropriate security measures. This may include engaging service providers that are accredited under the EU-US Privacy Shield, entering into EU approved model contracts or taking other steps to assess the adequacy of overseas suppliers.
Legal requirements
We may disclose your personal/sensitive personal information when required by law, for example, to HMRC for tax purposes or to police forces for the prevention or detection of crime. Further, we safeguard the sharing of such information by using formalised information-sharing agreements with organisations where appropriate, or on an ad hoc basis after ensuring the request and disclosure are legally compliant.
When we conduct prosecutions, we may publish the identity of the defendant in court alerts and press statements.
Data research and accuracy
On occasion, we may also use your personal information for research purposes so that we can improve our services and better meet the needs of our beneficiaries. This may include us contacting you to see if you would like to become involved in one of our research projects. We also feature case studies on our website and materials about the amazing work that our supporters undertake for us. In both instances, we will always obtain your prior consent before using your data in these ways.
We continually strive to improve the quality and accuracy of the information you have provided, such as your contact details, by checking against external data lists such as the Post Office's National Change of Address database & The National Deceased Register. This helps us ensure our records are fully up-to-date and to avoid misdirecting communications.
