Privacy Policy

1. Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).

2. Who are we?

Valley Church is the data controller (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

3. How do we process your personal data?

Valley Church complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • To administer membership records;
  • To promote the interests of the charity;
  • To manage our employees and volunteers;
  • To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of Gift Aid applications);
  • To perform religious ceremonies and services;
  • To provide pastoral care;
  • To inform you of news, events, activities and services at Valley Church;

4. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

  • Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and process your gift aid donations and keep you informed about events.
  • Processing is necessary for carrying out a legal or regulatory obligations;
  • Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a political, philosophical, religious or trade union aim provided:
    • the processing relates only to members or former members (or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes); and
    • there is no disclosure to a third party without consent.

5. Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for purposes connected with the church.

We may have to share your data with the following third parties or use third party service providers for the purposes set out below:

  • CCPAS (The Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service) – for DBS (disclosure and barring service checks) and safeguarding queries.
  • ChurchSuite – personal data, provided by consent, will be processed via ChurchSuite in order to maintain the church database and to allow communication via email.
  • ClearBooks – for financial purposes relating to giving information and maintain a database of donors etc.
  • Google – for communication purposes via email and data/document storage.
  • HM Revenue & Customs – for financial purposes in relation to Gift Aid.
  • HSBC Bank – for financial purposes in relation to giving.
  • MailChimp and TextLocal – for church-wide communication. Please see below for further information relating to MailChimp.
  • Professional advisers (lawyers, insurers in the UK who provide legal and insurance services).

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and treat your data in accordance with the law. Our third party service providers are not allowed to use your personal data for their own purposes. They are only permitted to process your personal details for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

5.1. International Transfers

We do not transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). However we do use MailChimp, which is a third party communications and marketing provider, whose servers are based in the USA. MailChimp is certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield framework approved by the European Commission.

6. How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep data for as long as you are a member of our church and/or have consented to us keeping you informed of events and activities in our church.

Specifically, we retain membership data while it is still current; Gift Aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; and we may keep a roll of members past and present and a roll of dedications, baptisms, marriages funerals, etc. permanently.

7. Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  • The right to request a copy of your personal data which Valley Church holds about you;
  • The right to request that Valley Church corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for Valley Church to retain such data;
  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time
  • The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [Only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case the data controller processes the data by automated means].
  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
  • The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [Only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics]
  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.

8. What we may need from you

Please note that for any requests made, Valley Church may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that your personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. This may involve contacting you to ask for further information.

9. Obligation to inform us of any changes to your personal data

It is very important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate, as such, we ask that you inform us of any changes to your personal data so we may update our database accordingly.

10. Third party website links

Our website may include links to third party websites. Please note that by clicking on those links, third parties may be able to collect or share data about you. Any data collected in this way will not have been shared by Valley Church. Valley Church does not control these third party websites and is not responsible for their privacy policies/notices, as such, please ensure that you read the websites' privacy notice or privacy policy when you visit the site.

11. Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

12. Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact the Designated Data Controller at:

Valley Church, Fourfields, Bamber Bridge, Preston, PR5 6GS
Telephone: 01772 696717
Email: [email protected]

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113, via their website or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Last updated: Thursday 6th September 2018

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