Introduction
At Somerset Ornithological Society we are committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. We have established this Privacy Policy in order for you to understand our policies with regard to your personal information.
Gathering and Use of Information
The Somerset Ornithological Society is a data controller and will only collect your personal information when you voluntarily sign-up for a membership account in order to access certain areas of our site, or when you sign-up for Society Membership. We collect it to provide membership services or process, store, collate, analyse and report on your ornithological records should you submit any. The personal information we collect (‘personal data’) are names, addresses and, temporarily, bank account details of Society members, and email addresses of website members. We use the data of Society members for administration and fulfilment of membership and notification of Society news, events and activities. We typically hold this data in the form of spreadsheets on domestic, password-protected, personal computers owned by committee members. The email addresses of website members are held securely on this website and only authorised administrators may access them.
Access to our web site is generally unrestricted, and you may browse it anonymously. We will retain such information only as long as you are a member of this site or a paid-up Member of the Society.
Legal basis for holding personal data
The General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (GDPR) set out allowable justifications for holding personal data. The basis on which we rely is ‘legitimate interest’, since the personal data we collect for annual membership is necessary for the functioning of the Society and providing benefits to members. The way in which we use it has little impact on the privacy of members.
Data Sharing
We may need to supply your data to national ornithological bodies such as the British Birds Rarities Committee and British Ornithological Union Records Committee in connection with processing ornithological records of rare birds. We may also provide your name and address to a mailing house for the purpose of sending out the annual Bird Report. Otherwise we will not sell, rent or share it with third-parties, unless required by Law, or if we receive your specific consent to do so.
Data Retention
We will hold the personal data we collect as long as the data subject remains a member of the Society.
Your rights as data subjects
Under the GDPR, you, as a data subject, have a number of rights, which are:
- The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you;
- The right to request that we correct 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 us to retain it;
- The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time
- 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 lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.
If you wish to exercise any of these rights, you should initially contact us by email or in writing at the email or postal address shown in the ‘Contact Us’ section of the home page of this website.
Cookies
Our website utilizes “cookies”. A “cookie” is a small text file that permits us to recognize your browser in order to customize your experience, or permit you to access restricted areas. Cookies do not contain personal information. You can disable cookies using the controls on this page but this will adversely affect website performance and may mean you cannot use some of the website features or access certain areas.
IP AddressPaste
Your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address is usually associated with the place from which you enter the Internet, like your Internet Service Provider, your company or your university. We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, gather broad demographic information, and administer our Web site.