Colchester Operatic Society’s Privacy Policy

You can read our full privacy policy here.

General Privacy notice

We respect your privacy and are committed to complying with privacy legislation.  The information below is what is referred to as a ‘Privacy Notice’ which explains how we use and protect your personal information.

Our Secretary and Chair act as Data Protection Officers for the Society, whose role is to ensure that any personal information processed by the Society is processed fairly and lawfully. If you have any concerns or questions regarding how we look after your personal information, please contact our chair by email: chair@colchesteroperaticsociety.co.uk or our Secretary by email: secretary@colchesteroperaticsociety.co.uk.

1. What is Personal Information?

Personal information is often records that can identify and relate to a living person. This can also include information that when put together with other information can then identify a person. For example, names, online identifiers or location data.

2. What are Special Categories of Information?

This is personal information that needs more protection due to its sensitivity.  Information we may hold that counts as special category is likely to include:

• religious or philosophical beliefs
• ethnicity
• details of physical or mental health
• genetic/biometric information

3. How we limit the use of personal information

We use personal information to contact our members and interested parties about our productions and events and any other relevant Society information; but wherever possible, the information that we process will be anonymised, pseudonymised or de-personalised.  This means the information can no longer identify a person.

We do not sell personal information to any other society or organisation for any purpose.

4. Why we use personal information

We use personal information to help us run the Society effectively, produce shows and concerts (referred to as productions) for our members to participate in, to promote our productions and events and to safeguard all our members.  Please see our retention schedule (section 2 of our Privacy Policy) and our specific privacy notices which explain how we use personal information for specific purposes.

5. Your privacy rights

The law provides you with a number of rights to control the processing of your personal information:

Accessing the information we hold about you

You have the right to ask for all the information we have about you. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must normally give you access to everything we have recorded about you. However, we will not let you see any parts of your record which contain:

• Confidential information about other people; or
• Information a committee member thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental well-being; or
• If we think that the prevention or detection of crime may be adversely affected by disclosing information to you.

This applies to paper and electronic records. If you ask us, we will also let others see your record (except if one of the points above applies). If you cannot ask for your records in writing, then please speak to our Secretary or Chair who will take a verbal request in person.  If you have any queries regarding access to your information please contact secretary@colchesteroperaticsociety.co.uk.

Changing information you believe to be inaccurate

You should let us know if you disagree with any information we may hold about you. Wherever possible we will change or remove incorrect information.  Please use the contact details above to report inaccurate information.

Asking for your information to be deleted (right to be forgotten)

In some circumstances you can request the erasure of the personal information used by us, for example:

• Where the personal information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected
• Where you have withdrawn your consent to the use of your information and there is no other legal basis for the processing
• Where there is no legal basis for the use of your information
• Where erasure is a legal obligation

Where personal information has been shared with others, we shall make every reasonable effort to ensure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.

Please note that the right to erasure does not extend to using your personal information where:

• It is required by law
• It is used for exercising the right of freedom of expression
• It is in the public interest in the area of public health
• It is for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes where it would seriously affect the achievement of the objectives of the processing
• It is necessary for the establishment, defense or exercise of legal claims.

Restricting what your information is used for

You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal information for where one of the following applies:

• You have identified inaccurate information, and have notified us of this
• Where using your information is unlawful, and you wish us to restrict rather than erase the information
• Where you have objected to us using the information, and the legal reason for us using your information has not yet been provided to you

When information is restricted it cannot be used other than to securely store the information, and with your consent, to handle legal claims, protect others, or where it is for important public interests of the UK.  Where restriction of use has been granted, we will inform you before the use of your personal information is resumed.

You have the right to request that we stop using your personal information in some circumstances, for example where we are relying on your consent.

Computer based decisions about you and if you are ‘profiled’

You have the right to object about decisions being made about you by automated means (by a computer and not a human being), unless it is required for any contract you have entered into, required by law, or you have consented to it. You also have the right to object if you are being ‘profiled’. Profiling is where decisions are made about you based on certain things in your personal information.

If you have concerns regarding automated decision making, or profiling, please contact us so we can advise you about how your information is being used.

6. Who will we share your personal information with?

The law does not allow us to share your information without your permission, unless there is proof that someone is at risk or it is required by law.  This risk must be serious before we can go against your right to confidentiality.  When we are worried about physical safety or we feel that we need to take action to protect someone from being harmed in other ways, we will discuss this with you and, if possible, get your permission to tell others about your situation.   We may still share your information if we believe the risk to others is serious enough to do so.

There may also be rare occasions when the risk to others is so great that we need to share information straight away. If this is the case, we will make sure that we record what information we share and our reasons for doing so. We will let you know what we have done and why as soon as or if we think it is safe to do so.

We use a third party data controller called Mailchimp to compile and operate a marketing mailing list.  You can read more about how Mailchimp uses your personal information here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

We use a third party data controller called Kindlink to manage donations and giftaid and hold a donor database made up of our members and supporters. You can read more about how Kindlink uses your personal information here: https://www.kindlink.com/privacy-policy.html

7. How do we protect your information?

We will do what we can to make sure we hold personal records (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we will only make them available to those who have a right to see them.  Our security measures include:

• Encryption allows information to be hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or cypher. The hidden information is said to be encrypted
• Controlling access to systems, hard copy records and buildings allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it
• Ensuring our Society Officers and Committee members are aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.
• Ensuring there are ways for us to access your information should something go wrong with any online/computer systems being used
• Keeping up to date with the latest security software updates on computer systems used to process and store personal information
• Wherever possible your information will not leave the UK.  Some electronic database systems used maybe hosted outside of the UK but within the EEA.  We will inform you if any personal data is hosted or shared with 3^rd parties who operate outside of the EEA and where information may be accessible outside of the UK or EEA through our Privacy notices. 

8. How long do we keep your personal information?

Our retention schedule (see section 2 of our privacy policy) lists how long your information may be kept for different purposes.

You can view our retention schedule here.

9. Where can I get advice?

You can contact our Secretary via email at secretary@colchesteroperaticsociety.co.uk or our Chair via email at chair@colchesteroperaticsociety.co.uk .  Alternatively you can write to Colchester Operatic Society at:

15 Parkside Quarter
Colchester
Essex
CO1 1EA

For independent advice about information protection, privacy and information sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

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

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Alternatively, visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk.

Online: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/contact-us-public/

Website: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

10. Cookies & how you use this website

To make this website easier to use, we sometimes place small text files on your device (for example your iPad or laptop). These are known as ‘cookies’. Most big websites do this too. Where we do this, we will ask for your consent when you visit our website.

Cookies improve things by:

• remembering the things you’ve chosen, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page
• remembering information you’ve given (for example, your address) so you don’t need to keep entering it
• measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs.

By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.
We do not use cookies on this website that collect information about what other websites you visit (often referred to as privacy intrusive cookies).
Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. Indeed, you can manage and/or delete these files as you wish using you own web browser settings.
To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org.

Other people’s cookies

We sometimes use videos from YouTube and feeds from other websites such as Facebook and Twitter. These websites place cookies on your device when watching or viewing these pages.
Below are links to their cookie policies:

• Google and YouTube
• Facebook
• Twitter

Turning off cookies

You can stop cookies being downloaded on to your computer or other device by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. If you do this, however, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
There is more information about how to delete or stop using cookies on AboutCookies.org. If you wish, you can also opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics – for more information see Google’s privacy policy.

Further guidance on the use of personal information can be found at ico.org.uk

Privacy Notice Last updated: October 2024

Specific Privacy notices

You can read our specific privacy notices by clicking the links below:

Processing Membership Data

Processing Committee Data

Processing Data for Marketing Purposes

Publishing Programmes

Processing and Publishing Digital Images

Processing Volunteers and Chaperone Data

Processing Contracted Individuals’ and Companies’ Data

Processing Date for Donations and Gift Aid

Specific Privacy Notices Last updated:  October 2024

If you require any of these documents in an alternative format please contact us to discuss your needs.