Privacy Policy

East Lancashire Ornithologists Club (ELOC)

Privacy Notice

Introduction

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 strengthened the rules relating to the protection of personal data and requires that data subjects are informed how the Club will manage the collection, storage, sharing and destruction of their data.  The GDPR has six fundamental principles which underpin how a person or organisation controlling or processing personal data must act.  Full details of these principles are detailed in Article 5 of the GDPR but in essence they are:

  1. Personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
  2. Must be collected for a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose.
  3. Should be adequate, limited and relevant to what is necessary.
  4. Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
  5. Retained only for as long as necessary.
  6. Processed securely in an appropriate manner to maintain security.

ELOC is committed to ensuring data provided to us is held in a secure and GDPR approved manner. We hold some items of personal data relating to members and presenters and will endeavor to ensure that in every case the GDPR principles are implemented.

What information does ELOC collect about you?

The only personal information ELOC collects about members is that which serves the legitimate interests of the club.  This information is that provided by you on the membership application or as part of the registration process for the Clubs Website.  This is restricted to: name, postal address, phone number and email address.  The Club holds this data with your consent, and it is required to cease using this data should you withdraw this consent.

What ELOC uses your data for?

Members’ personal data is collected in order us to communicate with club membership and, where relevant, to keep a record of the bird sightings you report.  This includes notification of membership renewal, details of AGM/EGM and other club meetings, annual report delivery, newsletter delivery, club events e.g. trips, monthly birding walks and open days.  In addition, sighting data, which may include named observer details, is maintained which is used to prepare club annual reports.

How ELOC keeps your personal data up to date?

The committee ensures that data is maintained up to date by conducting periodic reviews of the data held to ensure it remains relevant and is not held for longer than is needed.  In addition, the Club Secretary and Treasurer carry out annual renewals thus giving members a yearly opportunity to make changes to their personal details.  More frequent changes to personal data will only be made when a member contacts a member of the committee to inform them of changes to their data.

Who does ELOC share your information with?

The Club does not share your personal data with any external organisations unless required to by law.  Your name and location may on occasion be reported in the club’s annual report should a special sighting be reported, however, you can ask that this is not done.

How ELOC keeps your personal information secure?

Personal data are stored on a database within the Club’s website and on locally held devices belonging to the Club Secretary and Treasurer. Your data can only be accessed and processed by these two committee members and by the website administrators, access to the web-based data is restricted to a specialist area of the website and is password controlled.  The Webmaster listed on the club’s website is a qualified data protection officer.

How long does ELOC retain your information?

Membership subscriptions are due on 1stJanuary. The master copy of members data is maintained by the Club Secretary and this data is updated by the Secretary by October 1st every year in liaison with the Club Treasurer. Details of lapsed members is maintained for a a period of three years to assist marketing initiatives.  Data entries on the Bird Reporting will be held for 20 years unless you request their removal.  The only data held on this database is your name, held to record your sightings and the location, although this only refers to the area you were in rather than a precise location.

Other Communications that may be of interest

If the committee feel that members may find an item unrelated to Club matters, of interest, it will communicate this by email, using the Club’s website or Facebook page. Members wishing to receive emails on bird related, non-club matters can opt into the system when joining or renewing their membership.  Members who don’t wish to receive this form of communication will receive club-based communications only.

Your Data and your Rights

You have a right to ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you.  To do this you must apply to the Club Secretary who will require proof of identity before issuing you with copies of the data.  In all cases of subject access requests, the Secretary will endeavor to provide the data within 30 days as required by GDPR or will inform you should there be a need for more time to collate the data.

You have the right to have any inaccurate data corrected.

You have the right to have your personal data deleted.

You have a right to object to the processing of your personal data.

You have the right to restrict processing in certain circumstances.

You can help us to maintain data up to date by informing us of any changes to personal circumstances which may impact the data we hold (such as change of address or email address etc.).

Special Data

GDPR classifies certain items of data to be special and holding these items is prohibited unless a specific legitimate reason exists for holding the data.  These data types include medical data, data relating to political affiliation, trade union membership, ethnic origin etc.  The club does not currently hold, intend to hold or process any items of special data and will inform all members, in advance, of any change to this position.

Where is your data held?

The data maintained on the Club’s website is hosted by Bluehost Web Hosting Service.  This is a US based company, but data related to UK based orgnaisations are held on UK servers based in London.

Queries of Complaints

If you have any queries relating to the data held by us or complaints relating to the management of that data you should contact the Club Secretary in the first instance at, djchew@btinternet.com and we will attempt to address your concerns as soon as possible.


However, if you are not satisfied with the way that the club has treated your request/complaint, you can refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.  (https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or Tel. 0303 123 1113.