Updated: June 2024

1. Introduction 

At The Transformers Church, we take your privacy seriously, we recognise the importance of your data and we understand that you care about your personal data is processed, used or shared. This policy explains how we collect data, use and store information and what it means for you and we want you to know that we care about your privacy and will never use your personal data for any reason other than the reasons described within this policy.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of our website / giving us any personal information by any means of communication, including in person. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using our website or services immediately or talk to us about your concerns.

2. About Us

The Transformers Church is a company limited by guarantee and is registered with The Company’s House in the United Kingdom (Registered number 12499615)

It is the data controller and you can get in touch with any questions you may have about The Transformers Church with the contact details below:

1. Telephone: 0748 546 8369

2. Email: info@ttc.church

 

3. How we collect your information

• From direct contact with us

We collect personal information when you do the following:

a) Contact us by mail, email or telephone

b) Sign up for an event

c) Support us through donations or purchase of goods or services

d) Take up a voluntary or paid employment position

e) Give information in person

The information we collect from the above stated points of interaction may include identifiers such as:

• your name

• postal address 

• e-mail address 

• phone number

• church attended

• credit card or financial information, 

• other personal information

• Age

•photographs

Additional information may be required if you take up a voluntary or employment role at the Transformers Church.

• From using our website

When you use our website (ttc.church), we may collect non-personal data such as IP addresses, details of pages visited and files downloaded. your login information where applicable and appropriate, your browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, and operating system and platform. Cookies are used to collect website usage information. (See section on Cookies)

• Indirectly from third parties

We collect information from third parties such as PayPal when you support The Transformers Church and have given your consent. You may wish to check their privacy policy to find out more information on how they will process your data.

• Where you give permission to other organisations

We may collect information that you make available on through other organisations including social media platforms for example, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or similar organisations. You may wish to check their privacy policy to find out more information on how they will process your data.

• Sensitive data

When and where provided, we may collect sensitive personal data, including but not limited to, your religious beliefs, ethnicity, or your physical or mental health related information and any other pastoral information you share with us.

4. Basis of processing your data

• The legal basis for processing personal data varies with the purpose for which the data is collected which includes providing the services you have requested, and to keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and for processing your donations. 

• We will process your personal data on the basis of the consent you provided us with. You are free to change your preferences at any time.

• Other processing based on legitimate interest is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social protection law, or a collective agreement. Legitimate interest is also the basis of our processing relating to members or former members (or those who have regular contact with us in connection with these purposes) and for claiming back tax under the government’s Gift Aid scheme, as we are a not-for-profit body with religious aims.

 

5. What we will use your data for

We collect personal information on our online database ‘ChurchSuite’, MailChimp and GoogleApps each time you interact with us, We may use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

• To inform you of news, events, activities, groups and services running in The Transformers Church

• To register you for events, conference and promotions

• To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public

• To provide pastoral care to our attendees and to safeguard the well-being of individuals and 3rd parties

• To administer attendance/membership records

• To improve the user experience of our website

• To improve the products and services offered to you

• To raise funds and promote the interests of the church

• To keep an accurate and up to date records of our employees and volunteers

• To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of Gift Aid applications when it is set up)

• Statistical analysis

• To provide pastoral care or ministry

• To remain consistent with our values and beliefs as an organisation

Outside where stated above unless otherwise required to do so by law, we will not otherwise share, sell or distribute any of the information you provide to us without your consent. 

Where we transfer any personal data outside the EEA, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the GDPR.

6. Your rights

You have various rights under GDPR, which this policy upholds:

• The right to be informed about our collection and use of personal data

• The right of access to the personal data we hold about you

• The right to correct any personal data we hold about you that is inaccurate

• The right  to delete any personal data we hold about you. To do this please email us at info@thetransformerschurch.org.  An exception is where we are required to hold the data by law or because we must have the information for a particular reason e.g. for Gift aid, safeguarding.

• The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data

• The right to data portability (obtaining a copy of your personal data to re-use with another service or organisation)

• The right to object to us using your personal data for particular purposes

• Rights with respect to automated decision making and profiling. 

Data that is held on consent will only be processed as long as we have your consent. To withdraw your consent, you can contact us by emailing us at info@ttc.church

7. How long do we keep your information?

We will keep your personal information only for as long as we consider it necessary to carry out each activity unless required to keep for UK law and will be deleted within 24 months of your last activity or contact with us, unless you request to be forgotten or delete your record or remove the information yourself. 

We take account of legal obligations and accounting and tax considerations as well as considering what would be reasonable for the activity concerned. 

Pastoral and sensitive personal information will only be kept whilst you are receiving pastoral Care from The Transformers Church and your records will be deleted within 24 months of either your pastoral situation have being resolved or you no longer wish to access pastoral care from our organisation.

8. Security

• We ensure that access to personal data is restricted to only staff and volunteers of The Transformers Church and that suitable training is provided to them on handling personal data.

• We may store your information on computers, in paper form, or both.

• All computers that store any personal data are password protected.

• Laptop computers and similar devices that contain confidential information are encrypted where possible.

• Any paper files that hold personal information (other than names and contact details) are kept on secure premises in locked cupboards and filing cabinets.

• Information you provide may be stored on our secure servers or third-party organisations. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password that enables you to access certain parts of our site or app, or a business partners site or app, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

• Payment Security: If you use your debit or credit card to donate to us, purchase something or pay for an event, whether online (via paypal or bank transfer) or by Giving Envelope, we will process your information securely in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Standard. We may hold your bank account details if you have asked us to set up a standing order for you, which are stored securely and retained in line with legal requirements.

• We use online systems such as ChurchSuite, Google Apps. You may wish to read their Privacy Policies to find out more information on how they meet the GDPR.

• We may make limited use from time to time of external companies to collect or process personal data on our behalf. When we do so, we carry out checks on these companies, put in place contracts to make sure our requirements are clear, and carry out periodic reviews. When we do use external companies, we remain responsible for the storing and processing of your personal data.

• Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

9. When we share your personal information

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

We may use your data for statistical analysis and share the results with third parties, but your data will never be shared with third parties.

1. Legal duty

We may need to pass on information if required by law or by a regulatory body. For example, a Gift Aid audit by the HMRC, or if asked for details by a law enforcement agency.

2. Our service providers

We do not sell or pass any of your personal information to any other organisations and/or individuals without your express consent, with the following exception – by providing us with your details you are giving the church your express permission to transfer your data to our service providers including mailing houses, such as ChurchSuite and MailChimp, to enable fulfilment of the purpose for collection. 

 

10. Cookies

a) What are cookies?

A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Our website makes use of cookies to collect information about our visitors through Google Analytics.

b) How we use them on our website

To enjoy our website to the full, we recommend that you leave cookies turned on. If you turn off cookies then you may not be able to enter parts of the site. The cookie data that we collect we may use to customise the content on our website and to help to understand visitor’s current and future needs

c) Managing cookies

Most browsers allow you to turn off the cookie function. To do this you can look at the help function on your browser.

d) Third party cookies

We work with a number of third party suppliers who set cookies on our website to enable them to provide us with services. These are mainly used for reporting purposes so we can improve the way we communicate. We use websites such as YouTube to embed videos and you may be sent cookies from these websites. We do not control the setting of these cookies, so we suggest you check the third party website for more information about their cookies and how to manage them. 

We also use third party suppliers such as Google Analytics and these providers may use cookies. They may also use tracking pixels, which are commonly found in advertising to track the effectiveness of adverts. As some of these services may be based outside of the UK and the European Union, they may not fall under the jurisdiction of UK courts. If you are concerned about this you can change your cookie settings (see above) and can find more information about this here.

11. Your choices and telling us when things change

1. Preferences

You are free to change your preferences on what you receive from us, or how we contact you. You can do so at anytime by sending an email to info@ttc.church

2. Updating your details

We do appreciate it if you keep your details up to date. You can do so in the same way as updating your preferences (above). We may use Post Office address search, postcode lists or other available sources to confirm data that you provide us with, where, for example, we are unsure of what you have completed on a form. We will not use these sources to create data that you have chosen not to provide, for example, if you have left a telephone number blank; nor will we automatically update changes of address, we will normally only update your address when you tell us it’s changed.

3. Telling us to stop processing

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data, to ask us to restrict our processing or to object to our processing of your personal data. You can do so at anytime by sending an email to info@ttc.church

12. Access to your information

You have the right to request details of the information we hold about you. To make this request, please write to us at the details above. If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact us at info@thetransformerschurch.org and we will do our best to solve the problem for you. If we are unable to help, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office. For more information about your rights under the Data Protection Act (DPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you can visit the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk

13. Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was last updated in November 2020. We may amend this policy from time to time to take account of changes to our processes or changes to data protection or other legislation. By continuing to use our website you will be deemed to have accepted these changes.

14. Further processing

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

15. Governing law

The Privacy Notice is subject to English law. All claims or disputes (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with the use of the websites shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

If you have any queries please contact us at tunde.cole@ttc.church.