Privacy Policy

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At Action Against Stalking, we take our values seriously and apply these values to everything we do – including how we treat your personal information.

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Your ongoing support is invaluable to us, as without it, we cannot continue to support victims of stalking.

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We will ensure we treat your personal information with respect.

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Below is our commitment to you – whether you’re a supporter, donor, fundraiser, volunteer, referrer, online or in person, or victim of stalking seeking support via our throughcare service : we’ve included a guide to how, why, and when we obtain and use your personal information, and how we keep it safe and secure.

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Our Commitment to You

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We are responsible for protecting your personal information, and we take this responsibility very seriously.

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If you have any queries or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact our Chief Executive by email at enquiries@actionagainststalking.org.

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We want you to be happy with the information you give us, understand how it is used, know that we treat it with care, and know that you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

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We promise:

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To only collect personal information (or ‘data’) from those who directly interact with us: supporters, donors, fundraisers, event attendees, volunteers, referrers (or potential referrers), victims of stalking (and/or those who make enquiries), friends and relatives of those who use our services, and those who use our website.

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We – Action Against Stalking – are the ‘data controller’ in respect of your personal information, and are responsible for what happens to it, where it goes, and who sees it.

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We will never sell your data to third parties for their own marketing needs.

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We will collect the minimum personal information we need, limited, where relevant, to your:

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·    Name

·    Age/date of birth

·    Gender

·    Contact number(s)

·    Email address(es)

·    Postal address

·    Contact preferences

·    Information for market analysis including case studies. 

·    Records of fundraising events you’ve attended

·    Campaigns you’ve supported

·    Record of your contact with us – whether a query, compliment, or complaint.

 

We will only obtain and use this information, where relevant, to:

 

·    Raise further awareness of Action Against Stalking and the work we do

·    Help raise further funds to support victims of stalking across the UK

·    Learn how best to contact you (and what about)

·    Keep a record of your support

·    Progress applications (employment, volunteering) or any other enquiries

·    Learn how to improve our products and services

·    Best provide our services

 

We will keep your data for personal information for:

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·    As long as you are an active donor, or fundraiser – and only for as long as necessary after your last interaction with us.

·    Up to six years in relation to Gift Aid (in compliance with HMRC regulations)

·    Up to seven years if you work for or volunteer with us

·    As long as necessary if you have pledged a Legacy to us.

·    If you have been supported or reached out to our Throughcare Support Service.

 

You can opt out of receiving communications from us at any time.

 

We will only be able to send communications, updates, or information to those who have stated they are happy for us to do so.

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You can request to access, change, or delete your information at any time (some restrictions apply in relation to children’s information, that we may be legally required to hold on to for longer).

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We will only share your personal information with carefully selected third party partners, where relevant – and never for third party sale purposes – for:

 

·    Secure storage

·    Sending printed material (newsletters, updates, magazines, appeals), via our printing companies.

·    Securely processing Direct Debits through our bank.

·    Collecting any survey answers through a research agency

·    Securely processing donations from text giving platforms, using our partners

·    The previously mentioned third parties can only act on our instructions, in line with our contracts with them, and cannot use your personal information for any reason outside of those instructions, or sell those details to any other organisations.

 

We will protect your personal information by:

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·    Only keeping it for as long as is strictly necessary

·    Only passing it to carefully selected third parties

·    Anonymising your personal details when using data for market analysis

·    Ensuring all online forms are encrypted and that our network is protected

·    Securely destroying your personal data after the need for it has expired

·    Acting upon any requests to view, change, or delete your information, within 30 days.

 

If you are unhappy with how we’ve handled your personal information, or a complaint you’ve made in respect of this, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 

Who we are:

 

In the legal sense Action Against Stalking is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), registered in Scotland (Charity Number: SC044905). Our registered office is at Room 2.071, University of Scotland, University Avenue, Ayr, KA8 0SX.

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Action Against Stalking are the data controller for the information you give us. We use your consent, or legitimate interest, as the lawful basis for processing personal information.

 

Privacy notice

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The rest of our privacy policy explains how your personal information is obtained, used, and protected, specifically in relation to:

 

·    Victims of stalking throughcare support

·    Recruitment and HR

·    Fundraising, Donations and Legacies

·    Volunteering.

 

For the victims of stalking we support through throughcare support:

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As victims are sometimes referred to us by third parties (GPs, other charities etc.) the referring bodies will initially provide us with data for which we will process and add to during the victim’s involvement with the charity. This information will be periodically shared with the referrer.

 

For those victims coming directly to the charity, the data will be stored securely and added to during the period of engagement.

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In order to best meet the needs of the people we support, Action Against Stalking collects and stores what is classed as Special Category Data.

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Special Category Data is data that is considered “sensitive personal data” under GDPR and other data protection laws as it could reveal racial and/or ethnic origin, religious beliefs and details of the physical or mental health of the people we support.

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By providing any sensitive personal data you explicitly agree that we may collect and use it in order to provide our services.

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If you do not allow us to process any sensitive personal data, this may mean we are unable to provide all or part of our service effectively.

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We will only ever use the information you provide in our online or hard copy forms for:

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·    Sending you information about support

·    Contacting you with follow-up calls

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You can also withdraw your initial application, if you do not wish to go ahead and receive throughcare support.

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In terms of securely storing your information, this is done on a secure web-based database.

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We only keep your information for three years. If a victim undertakes throughcare with us, then the length of time their information is held changes, and is determined by law.

 

Recruitment and HR Administration

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When you apply for a position with Action Against Stalking we will record your details as provided in CV/Application Form and covering letter, which will likely to include your name, postal address, telephone number, email address, educational and work history, referees and contact preferences. (These details will be retained for 12 months post to the applicant progressing to interview stage. Should your application be unsuccessful your data may be stored up to 6 months of the closing date of the position applied for.

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Should your application be successful, on appointment all required right to work checks and, potentially, a check with the Disclosure and Barring Service will be carried out. Details of these checks (or the results from them) will be retained on your HR record.

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If you are successful in being appointed, and during your employment with us, we will retain your full employment record which will include your name, postal address, telephone number, email address, details of your next of kin, bank details (for the purposes of payments), educational and work history, training, appraisals, copies of any complaints, disciplinary or safeguarding matters.

 

Fundraising, Donations, and Legacies

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When you support our work by fundraising; taking part in Action Against Stalking event (such as the Centre for Action Against Stalking Conference); raising funds for us via a third party event (like a marathon); donating your own money or money raised by a group; or choosing to leave a gift in your Will, we’ll collect the information you provide and only use it to:

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·    Keep a record of your support

·    Keep a record of your preferred method of contact (phone, email, post, SMS)

·    Send you relevant information about our work, including campaigns or fundraising events

·    Ask for further support

·    Note fundraising events you’ve taken part in

·    Keep records of our contact with you – updates or information we send,

·    and any enquiries or complaints you make

·    Keep information about donations and Gift Aid, to comply with HMRC requirements

·    We keep information about donations and Gift Aid for 6 years, to comply with HMRC requirements.

 

If you’d rather this information wasn’t shared, you can ask to have it changed, withdraw your consent, or object to it being used to help us (in our legitimate interests) at any time.

 

Volunteers

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We’ll only ever use the information you provide, and references from your chosen referees, to:

Assess and progress your application

Contact you regarding volunteer opportunities.

 

Your rights

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You have the right to:

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·    Ask what information we hold about you – and be given that information

·    Ask us to correct, change, or update any information we hold about you

·    Withdraw your consent for us to use your information

·    Ask us to delete your information entirely

·    Make a complaint or ask any other question in relation to your information

·    In relation to fundraising, legacies or donations, you have the right to opt out of communications.

 

If you wish to do this, please contact our team at email enquiries@actionagainststalking.org

 

You can also write to us at:

 

Action Against Stalking

Room 2.071

University of West of Scotland

University Avenue

Ayr

KA8 0SX

 

If – having contacted us about the use of your personal information – you are unhappy with our response, you can register a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 

Privacy Policy Updates

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Our Privacy Policy is regularly reviewed, and may be updated, based on certain requirements.

With that in mind, you are advised to revisit the policy for the most up-to-date information.

 

Cookies

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‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enable the server to collect information from the browser. Essentially it takes the form of a small text file deposited on your computer’s hard drive.

Action Against Stalking uses cookies to ensure that you can interact with our web sites successfully, to identify you when you visit our web sites and to keep track of your browsing patterns.

The use of cookies does not give us access to the rest of your computer or to personal information about you.

 

How secure is the information which I give to Action Against Stalking?

 

Action Against Stalking takes the care of your data seriously and undertakes processes to protect your personal information in a range of ways.

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In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.

These measures include the use of secure servers, firewalls and SSL encryption. Online payments are processed for Honeypot by Charity Checkout who follow payment card industry (PCI) security compliance guidelines when processing credit card payments. We do not store any credit card details that are provided when making a payment online.

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However, please be aware that the transmission of information over the Internet is never 100% secure so, while we strive to protect your personal information, we can’t guarantee the security of any information you submit to us via our website.