Privacy Policy for Hope ChurchES

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?

Hope Church (Hope Churches, registered charity 1151101) is the data controller.  This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.  The trustees of the charity are responsible for ensuring compliance with this policy and GDPR.

 3. How do we process your personal data?

Hope 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.  The data we hold about you is protected according to the Hope Church Information Security Policy.

We use your personal data for the following purposes: -

  • To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical area as specified in our constitution;

  • To administer membership records;

  • To fundraise and 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 inform you of news, events, activities and services running at Hope Church;

  • To share your contact details with third parties when you ask us to;

  • To fulfil our legal obligations such as processing Gift Aid returns to HMRC and reporting to the Charity Commission.

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

Your explicit consent so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and process your gift aid donations and keep you informed about diocesan events.

Processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement;

Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a religious 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 will only share your data with third parties with your consent.

We will share your personal data with HMRC in order to process gift aid returns.

Our electronic records and systems are provided by the following companies and so your data is necessarily held on their computer systems – protected by passwords, encryption and other safeguards as is reasonably expected:

  • Microsoft Office 365 – files and document storage and church staff email

  • Mailchimp – email lists which you opt-in to receive, and mandatory communications relating to your church membership and attendance

  • Squarespace – church website

  • Facebook - church Facebook page

  • Rightnow Media – we will share your email with Rightnow Media so they can provide you with access to their online TV service if you ask us to

  • Stripe – process online card donations you make through our church website

    We do not use cookies to track website visitors or for marketing - the only time an essential cookie is used is to protect your security while processing a credit card donation through this site.

6. How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep data in accordance with the Hope Church Data Retention Policy, which is:

  • Contact details and personal information about church attenders will be retained for as long as you remain a regular attender plus 2 years

  • Contact details provided by visitors and attendees at events: 2 years after the event

  • HMRC Gift Aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate

  • Information relating to safeguarding issues: 70 years after last contact with the individual concerned (in line with national guidance)

We do not keep your data for longer than is necessary in order to meet our statutory obligations or provide you with the services you would reasonably expect while attending the church.

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 Hope Church holds about you;

  • The right to request that Hope 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 Hope Church to retain such data;

  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time

  • The right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable).

  • 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)

  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office (www.ico.org.uk).

8. Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Policy, 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.

9. Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact us by emailing info@thehope.church or writing to:

Hope Church
17 Hunloke Way
Malmesbury
Wiltshire
SN16 9FL