PRIVACY POLICY

Your personal information

This statement sets out how Living Waters Church deal with any personal information we collect from you or that you provide to us.

We will collect and deal with your personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Act. For the purpose of the Act, we are the data controller of personal data we hold about you.

What is ‘personal data’?

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.

How we may use your personal information

Personal information that we collect may be used by us in a number of ways:

• To tell you about events that the church is running which we think may be of interest to you.
• To provide pastoral care, support, teaching and challenge for you in accordance with the teaching of the Bible.
• To enable us to maintain appropriate safeguarding arrangements for our children and young people and vulnerable adults.
• To help you identify where you could serve in the life of the church.
• To help us organise rotas, community groups and to communicate with you.
• Maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications).
• Manage our employees and volunteers.
• Comply with the law on data sharing.

We will collect and handle your personal information either with your consent or because it is necessary for us to do so for the purposes of our legitimate interests outlined above.

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following information about you:

• Your contact details.
• Your attendance at events and meetings run or hosted by us.
• Your participation in rotas for service in the church.
• Information contained in emails or other correspondence from you and records of telephone calls or meetings with you.
• Your marital status, age, gender and information about your immediate family.
• Details of money that you give to the church.
• Information contained in checks provided by the Disclosure & Barring Service.
• Information that you share with us for the purposes of pastoral care, encouragement, training and prayer.
• Medical information where necessary to ensure that the care and hospitality that we provide for you is appropriate to your needs.
• Details of your visits to our website (including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own purposes or otherwise, and the resources that you access.

What data do you collect?

DIRECTLY WITH US

We collect personal information each time you engage with us. For example, when you give to us, sign up for a community group, volunteer to serve, fill out a form on our website , or otherwise provide your personal details, we collect the information you provide.

INDIRECTLY FROM THIRD PARTIES

We collect information from third parties, such as ‘DBS, Social services, other organisations who use the building’. You may wish to check their privacy policy to find out more information on how they will process your data.

CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL DATA

We may collect personal information, such as your name, telephone number, address, and email address. We may also collect other information, such as gender, date of birth, ethnicity, language, nationality, and country of birth.

SENSITIVE DATA

Where you provide the information, we may collect sensitive personal data, including, but not limited to, your religious beliefs or your physical and mental health.

Who do you share my data with?

LEGAL DUTY

We may need to pass on your data if required by law or a regulatory body. For example, a gift aid audit by HMRC, or if asked for details by a law enforcement agency.

OTHERS

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 where we have a legitimate interest to do so. For example, if you sign up to volunteer in a team, we may pass your name and contact details on to the team leader so they can be in contact with you about volunteering.

Occasionally, we may employ agents or sub processors to carry out tasks on our behalf, such as processing donations or providing services to facilitate our website and other web-based software. Sometimes this means data is stored outside of the UK or European Union. Wherever the data is stored, these agents or sub processors are bound by contract to protect your data and we remain responsible for their actions.

We will only share your data with other third parties outside the church with your consent.

How we will store information

Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

The data that we control may be transferred and stored outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) , for example where our software providers store information on servers outside the EEA. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Where there is a transfer outside the EEA we will ensure that organisation to whom information is transferred is one which subscribes to equivalent standards under the Act.

We will take reasonable, necessary steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy statement.

We will store your information for no longer than reasonably necessary, usually for the time that you are attending the church. After this we may continue to hold your contact details for as long as you agree in order to keep you informed about the ministry of the church.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for the purposes of informing you of events and other opportunities. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing at any time by contacting us.

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act.

You may request that personal information is corrected where it is not correct or that the information is deleted. You may also object to the church processing information about you. Where you have consented to us handling your information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

Data Protection Contact

To exercise all relevant rights, to update your information, or if you want further information on how your data is used, how we maintain the security of your data, and your rights, please contact Living Waters Church’ Data Protection Officer. You can do this as follows:

By emailing: info@livingwaterschurch.life

You can also write to:

Data Protection Officer
Living Waters Church
St Jude’s Terrace
Laygate
South Shields
NE33 5PB

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise this with us in the first instance, or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113, via email at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/, or by writing to:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Changes to this Privacy Notice

This notice was last updated in February 2024. We may amend this notice from time to time to take account of changes to our processes or changes to data protection or other legislation.