Privacy notice

 

 PRIVACY NOTICE 

Mercy in Action is committed to keeping your personal information private and making sure it is used responsibly. Please see below to learn more about how and why we collect and use your information, and feel free to contact us at enquiries@mercyinaction.org.uk with any questions.  

 

WHO WE ARE 

We are a UK based charity taking action against poverty, injustice and inequality to see children and families thrive. ‘We’ or ‘us’ refers to:  

  • Mercy in Action, a registered charity (no. 1096068) and company limited by Guarantee (no. 04627969).  

  • Mercy in Action Trading Ltd, a registered company in England and Wales (no. 11025273) 

Our registered address is 11 Foxcote Avenue, Peasedown St. John, Bath, BA2 8SF. 

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT? 

Personal data is any information that can be used to identify you or another person. We collect information about you: 

  • When you give it to us directly. For example, when you make a donation to us, use our services, apply to volunteer with us, or contact us. 

  • When you use our website. We collect information about how our website is used and track which pages users visit. 

  • From third parties. We may also receive information about you from our third-party partners with whom you interact, such as when other organisations refer you to us when you have given them consent to do so.  

  • When you use social media. Depending on your privacy preferences on social media platforms, we may receive personal information about you when you interact with us using those platforms. We encourage you to read the Privacy Information of the social media platform(s) you use.  

The information that we process is dependent upon your relationship with us. We may collect the following personal information: 

  • Your name and contact details 

  • Your date of birth 

  • Financial information (bank account number, UK taxpayer information for gift aid) 

  • Credit or debit card information (although we do not store these details, it is collected by our third-party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions) 

  • Information about your visits to and use of our website, including for example your IP address (see our cookies page for more information) 

  • Information about your use of our services 

  • Your communications with us 

  • CCTV images, when you visit one of our sites that has CCTV installed 

  • Any other personal information you choose to share with us. 

 

DO WE PROCESS SPECIAL CATEGORY DATA? 

Some personal information is more sensitive and is known as ‘Special Category Data’ – it includes things like information about your health, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political opinions, sexual orientation or any genetic or biometric data that is used to identify you.  

We do not usually collect ‘special category data’ about our supporters. When you use our services we may collect some sensitive information, where there is a clear and valid reason for doing so. For example, if you are using Action Pantry, we may collect information about any allergies that you have. In addition, if you are applying to volunteer with us, we may collect health information to enable any reasonable adjustments to be made – you can find out more about our processing of volunteer personal information in our Volunteer Privacy Notice. 

When collecting Special Category data, where appropriate, we will make it clear why we are collecting this type of information and what it will be used for.  

 

HOW DO WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION?  

We mainly use your personal information to: 

  • Process your donations or other payments, to claim Gift Aid on your donations and verify any financial transactions. 

  • Provide the services that you have requested. 

  • Update you with important administrative messages about your donation, an event, or services you have requested. 

  • Respond to your requests, queries, or complaints. 

  • Keep a record of your relationship with us. 

  • Send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. 

  • Conduct analysis of our services to demonstrate our impact and apply for funding. 

  • Comply with the Charities Act 2016 and follow the recommendations of the Charity Commission, which require us to identify and verify the identity of supports who mange major gifts so we can assess any risks associated with accepting their donations. 

  • Safeguard our staff and volunteers. 

  • Where you volunteer with us, to administer the volunteering arrangement.  

If you do not provide this information, we may not be able to process your donation, respond to your enquiry or provide the services that you have requested. 

 

YOUNG PEOPLE’S PRIVACY 

If you 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian’s permission before providing us with any personal information.  

 

ON WHAT BASIS DO WE COLLECT, STORE AND USE YOUR INFORMATION? 

We will only process personal information about you for the relevant purposes (when the law permits us to). We usually process your personal information when: 

  • It is necessary to fulfil or enter into a contract with you. 

  • It is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. 

  • You have given us your specific consent. 

  • Where we rely on ‘legitimate interests’ for processing your personal information. 

Where we believe that the processing is in the legitimate interests of you, as the data subject, a third party, or of Mercy in Action, we consider your rights, interests, and any impact on you and will not process your personal information if we feel our interests are overridden by the impact on you. 

Some examples of where we have a legitimate interest to process your personal information are when we send postal communications about our work, conduct research to better understand who our supporters are, improving our services, use CCTV in and around our premises for security purposes or for our legal purposes.  

 

KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION SAFE 

We have implemented appropriate physical, technical, and organisational measures to protect the personal information that we process from improper access, use, alteration, destruction, and loss. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information using the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information sent to us this way, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our site.  

Any credit card or debit card details provided to us via our website are passed securely to our payment processing partner, according to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards. 

 

HOW LONG DO WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? 

We only store data as long as it is reasonable and necessary for the relevant activity. Our time periods take into account operational and legal considerations. Usually, we will keep your information for no longer than 7 years after the end of our relationship with you.  

 

DO WE PROVIDE INFORMATION TO OTHER PARTIES? 

Rest assured that we never share or sell your personal information with other organisations for their own marketing purposes.  

Occasionally, we may need to share your information with a small number of trusted partners for administrative purposes (for example, sending out Gift Aid letters via Charity Resource Printing). In these instances, we always ensure that the external companies adhere to appropriate controls to protect personal information.  

Sometimes we are legally required to share data, or we may share it where we believe it is necessary to protect or defend our rights, property of the personal safety of our people or visitors to our premises or websites. 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA 

To promote the work we are doing, we use social media. We have accounts with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – when you engage with our posts, we may receive personal information about you. For example, when you visit one of our Facebook Pages, Facebook Ireland and Mercy in Action processes information about you and how you they use the page. This includes information about which of our posts you like or share, what you view, any comments that you post on the page, and what you click on. This helps us improve our offering on Facebook. Facebook Ireland is a ‘joint controller’ with us where we collect information about you from your actions on our Facebook page.  

Further details of how Facebook processes your personal information, the legal basis it relies on, your rights and Facebook’s contact details can be found at www.facebook.com/privacy/policy  

 

YOUR RIGHTS 

You have various rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you. If you wish to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, you can do so by contacting our Data Protection team at Mercy in Action, 11 Foxcote Avenue, Peasedown St. John, Bath, BA2 8SF or by email at: enquiries@mercyinaction.org.uk. If you feel unhappy with our usage of your personal information you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

You have the right to: 

  • Ask us for copies of your personal information. 

  • Ask us to rectify any personal information you think is inaccurate, including asking us to complete information you think is incomplete. The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at enquiries@mercyinaction.org.uk, or, for specific Gift Aid matters, please contact giftaid@mercyinaction.org.uk  

  • Ask us to delete your information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, or you have withdrawn consent, or where we have no lawful basis for keeping it. 

  • Ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. 

  • Ask us to provide you or a third party with your personal information in a structured, commonly used form – this is known as your right to data portability. 

  • Object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest or processing your information for direct marketing purposes.   

It is always your choice as to whether you want to receive information about our work, how we raise funds and the ways you can get involved. If you do not want us to continue to contact you, you have the right to object or change your mind at any time. However, we may still need to contact you if you carry on dealing with us, for example if we are processing a donation that you made or providing you with information you have requested. 

 

NB: This policy will be reviewed annually and may be subject to change