Privacy Policy

Arthritis Support is a local charity, registered in England and Wales with the local authority (No. 19/01339/SSLREG). As a charity that receives no government funding, we rely entirely on the kindness and generosity of our valued supporters to help people with arthritis. We are completely committed to protecting our supporters’ personal information and will only use the information that you provide lawfully.

This policy explains how we collect and use your information and it may be necessary to update it at any time without notice so please check it regularly.

If you have any queries about this policy please contact us by writing to Kemp House 152-160 City Road London EC1V 2NX or email: from our site by providing us with your personal information you are agreeing to this policy and consenting to our collection and use of that information as set out in this policy.

How do we collect information?

We may obtain personal information from you in a variety of ways, including when you:

• Email us and need help
• Advice on caring for your family members (correspondence remains confidential between you and the specific advice service)
• Apply to become a member or volunteer
• Becoming a sponsor
• Making a donation
• Register for any of our campaigns, events and services
• Subscribe to our newsletter or our magazine
• Contact us with a general enquiry or other correspondence
• Post comments via social media
• Play the lottery
• Buy our goods online at AS shop
• Visit our website (www.arthritissupport.co.uk for any reason, please see our cookies policy for the information that is collected
• Update your previously registered contact details with publicly available sources,
• All information collected is processed in accordance with our legal requirements and applicable data protection legislation.

What information do we collect?

The information we collect depends upon your reason for visiting our website or discussion at one of our meetings or events may include:

• your name, postal address, telephone number and email address (including details you provide from any social media account/profile such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter)
• credit/debit card information or bank account details if setting up a Direct Debit mandate or making a purchase
• analytical data when you visit our website via cookies and your Internet Provider (IP) address. For further information regarding this activity please read our cookie policy records of any correspondence
• information you enter into our website

Why do we collect your information?

Arthritis Support has a legal basis for processing your personal information in relation to the reasons you have submitted your details these include:

When we have your consent to process your information for a specific purpose, for instance:

• to respond to your requests for specific services, products and information
• to contact you in relation to all purposes where you have consented

When the processing is in relation to a contract, we may have with you, for instance:

• to process your donation, Gift Aid or membership – and any queries or issues that may arise in connection with this processing (not at present
• to manage your purchase orders, delivery of products and communicate with you about those orders
• to process the data of and communicate with Arthritis Support staff and volunteers in relation to the roles they carry out for the charity

When the processing is necessary in order for us to comply with a legal obligation, such as data protection and any other applicable legislation, for instance;

• to record any contact, we have with you so that we can manage any queries or complaints
• to provide an increased level of security for the benefit of all staff
• to prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our website

When we exercise our legitimate interest to raise the charity’s profile, awareness and funds to support the welfare of cats in our care, by:

• keeping you up-to-date on AS news such as fundraising campaigns, challenges, achievements etc
• enabling third parties to carry out technical, logistical or other legitimate functions on our behalf, or
• conducting research on the demographics, interests and behaviour of our supporters to enable a better understanding of your requirements. This allows AS to identify areas for improvement in providing our services and make communications as relevant as possible. If this research is conducted by a third party AS will ensure that all personal information will be processed in accordance with data protection law
• making a decision, on the basis of a supporter’s level of giving and postcode, whether to send different communications to people who might choose to give higher donations. Where a supporter is identified as being potentially able and willing to give more than they already do, we may try to build a better understanding of how they might want to support us. To do this we conduct in-house research and may use additional, publicly-available information from third party sources where it is available, such as Companies House and Land Registry records. This allows us to make sure we are spending your donations effectively, by using research and analysis to inform our decisions and ensure our conversations with you provide the best supporter experience possible

AS will never swap or sell your details. When dealing with your personal information we will always comply with the current UK data protection law and any other applicable legislation.

We will only use your personal information for direct marketing purposes if we are permitted to do so by law or if we have your consent. For more information on direct marketing go to Marketing communication. The law does permit us to send marketing mail (post) without prior consent until you opt-out of this service which you can do at any time.

How do we protect personal information?

We take the security of your information very seriously and have put appropriate measures in place to minimise the risk to your information from loss, theft or misuse. These include:

• use of a secure server (encrypted) to protect your transaction details when making a donation or purchase via our website
• restricted access control, including use of complex passwords, to your information stored on our systems
• taking measures to ensure the information provided is accurate, up-to-date and kept only for as long as is necessary for the purposes that you have given consent
• contractual agreements between working partners (eg banks for payment transactions)
• minimising and/or anonymising the information we hold after it is no longer being processed using technical measures available

Do we share your information?

We will never share your personal information:

• with other organisations for them to use for their own marketing purposes
• for our own marketing purposes if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted by us for such purposes. However, we will retain your details on a suppression list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you

There are some circumstances where we may need to share your information. For instance:

• if we are legally required to do so, eg court order, law enforcement agency pursuing an investigation
• if we believe it necessary to protect or defend our rights, property or the personal safety of our personnel or visitors to our premises or website
• when we work with carefully selected partners for either research or analysis, fundraising and processing card payments eg Natwest, Paypal etc. These partners will only have access to your information when the necessary contractual arrangements have been agreed and signed, these contracts dictate AS requirements for them to process the information and conform to data protection legislation
• information that has to be sent to HMRC as part of the declaration process for Gift Aid so that we can reclaim the Gift Aid on your donation(s)

Your right of access to your information

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you (this is called a Subject Access Request) and how we use that information. You can also request that any inaccuracies are corrected and, in certain circumstances, request that AS should stop processing your personal information, arrange for it to be transferred or erased.

Change contact details or consent

If your personal details change, please help us to keep your information up-to-date by notifying us.

If at any time you’d like us to change the way we contact you, if you would prefer that we did not profile your data, or if you would like to opt out of our communications altogether please contact a member of our Supporter Services team to action your request by:

• email from out site
• write to Kemp House 152-160 City Road London EC1V 2NX 

We will only email or text you if we have your consent to do so, but if you receive anything you would rather not, please let us know. We include an unsubscribe option within every email/text message we send so you are always in control of what you receive.

There are also details of how to opt out of mailings in every pack sent in the post. If you receive a mailing you do not want please let us know so we can update your communication preferences. This will help us to ensure we only ever send you materials that you would like to receive.

Please allow a 28-day period for any changes to take effect.

Do we use ‘cookies’?

Cookies are small pieces of information stored by your internet browser onto your computer or mobile device. AS uses session cookies to ensure that you can interact with our websites successfully but to find out more about our cookie policy and usage, please click here.

Links to third party websites

If you access any other websites published via AS on website or email communication, please ensure you read their Privacy policy Social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn etc)

This policy covers how we will use your information from social media pages that you visit but you will also need to read how the providers of the social media websites will use your information. Please ensure you read their Privacy policy before sharing data and make use of their privacy settings and reporting mechanisms to control how your data is used.

Website information

All information published on this site is provided to the best of our knowledge.

However, while AS is happy to supply any assistance and guidance regarding liable for injury, loss or damage arising from such guidance supplied.

You may print any newsletter or factsheet on this site for your own information but you may not sell it, reproduce it on the internet, distribute it, alter it, or reprint it in any publication Complaints

• email us from our site

 Should you be dissatisfied with our response to your complaint you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office via their website www.ico.gov.uk 

Under GDPR you have certain rights which we set out below;

• The right to be informed about the personal information held and to access it
• The right to check that the personal information we hold is accurate
• The right to have inaccuracies deleted or altered
• The right to have the information erased or to restrict processing
• The right to take your any away any personal data that you have provided, you have consented to us obtaining or is obtained by automatic methods
• The right to object generally and to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office
• The right not to be subjected to automatic decision making

Outside of the European Union?

If we send your personal information outside of the EU we will always need your specific consent. Without that our policy is not to send personal information outside of the EU.

 This policy was last updated Aug 2020