Summary
VSSN respects in full the principles enshrined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and aims to adhere to best practice in the processing of any personal data supplied to us.
We only process personal data to provide an effective service and we do not pass on any personal data to third parties except as part of a contract to provide services on our behalf or where clearly required for financial or regulators’ purposes.
You have a number of rights under the GDPR. To make a request regarding your data contact the office via execofficer@vssn.org.uk.
You can view our Privacy Notice below or download it here
You can view our Data Protection policy in full here.
Alternatively you can contact the Executive Officer for a copy to be sent by email.
Voluntary Sector Studies Network Privacy Notice
VSSN is not required to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) but respects in full the principles enshrined in it. We aim to adhere to best practice in the handling of any personal data supplied to us, including through your use of the online forms on this Web site or those provided for our use by third parties.
We acknowledge with thanks the consents granted to us by you for the inclusion of material about you or your institution on this Web site, such as the links we include in the Networks section. We recognise all rights to the associated property such as institutional logos.
We only hold and process personal data about members in order to provide an effective service. We do not pass on any personal data to third parties except as part of a contract to provide services on behalf of VSSN (as detailed below) or where clearly required for financial or regulators’ purposes such as the audit or independent examination of VSSN’s accounts, or for gift aid tax claims to the Inland Revenue.
We hope that this statement answers any questions you may have regarding our care of your information but if you have any further questions please contact: VSSN, 289 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield S7 1FJ execofficer@vssn.org.uk Tel: 07434 680461.
What data we hold
When you join VSSN or book onto an event, we will ask for your name, job title, the organisation you work for / study at and department, the email and postal address you want us to use to contact you and a telephone number. Members select a subscription rate based on income and a payment method. If you chose payment by debit or credit card, we do not have access to your card details – the payment processing service is provided by Worldpay and they do not pass on full card numbers to us. If you submit proposals to contribute to an event that VSSN runs and these are accepted, we will share the information you provide to other event participants and with your permission, in advertising the contents of the event on our website.
Why we hold and process your data
We hold and process the data you supply in order to deliver services to you, specifically to:
- Supply regular copies of Voluntary Sector Review.
- Include you in the members directory on our website.
- Keep you informed about news, events and activities of VSSN via the email newsletter.
- Request information for specific purposes related to your contact with/ involvement in our work, networks and event attendance.
- For our own analysis of VSSN membership trends.
How we hold and process your data
We hold your details electronically in our members database and in the members directory, which is published on our website and viewable by all members of VSSN through a password protected log-in. Our members database is held on an encrypted and password protected hard drive and is hosted by our cloud provider, OneDrive, with access restricted to authorised personnel via a password protected log-in. Occasionally documents including member’s names and institutions / roles / interest areas will be hosted in VSSN Drop Box folders with access restricted to authorised VSSN personnel via a password protected log-in – for example when we are planning an event a list of attendees might be shared by the event organisers. We have reviewed OneDrive and DropBox’s data security standards and confirmed that these provide high standards of protection for the data hosted.
How long we will hold your data for
We will hold your data in the database and in the members directory on the website during your term of membership. It will be removed from the members directory and current version of the members database six months after your membership lapses (to allow for late renewals) and securely archived in an encrypted backup of our database for a further period of 6 years to comply with our audit and HMRC rules, after which it will be permanently deleted.
Who at VSSN has access to your data
Our Executive Officer and authorised Steering Group members have access to data held by VSSN to enable them to deliver membership services and events. All VSSN personnel are aware of the importance of confidentiality and your right to privacy.
Third parties
We will only transfer your data to third parties in order to deliver the above services to you. To handle and store online information we use our website database hosted by Nativespace who are based in the UK and all their servers are based in the UK. We also use SSL connection vssn.org.uk, which means that connections between site visitors and the server are encrypted.
Your name and the mailing address you supply is shared with Policy Press who publish and distribute Voluntary Sector Review on our behalf. Policy Press undertake to only use your data for this purpose and to ensure your data is protected.
If we are organising an event with a partner organisation we may share the contact details of attendees with that partner to enable them to communicate with attendees about the event. We will ensure that any partner undertakes to only use your data for this purpose and to ensure your data is protected.
We use MailChimp as our email automation platform for our e-Newsletter and your email address is transferred to MailChimp for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms. Unsubscribe options are included with these mailings.
If you chose to participate in VSSN discussion groups you will sign up to a JiscMail mailing list. JiscMail is a UK higher/further education and skills sectors’ not-for-profit organisation for digital services and their Privacy Notice can be viewed here. Unsubscribe options are included with these mailings.
How secure is the information I give you?
VSSN takes the care of your data seriously and undertakes to protect your personal information by putting in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the data we collect. Where we use other parties to handle your data (as named in this statement), we will seek to ensure they safeguard your data.
In today’s cyber environment it is unfortunately not possible to completely guarantee against loss, misuse or alteration of data, for example in the event of a successful cyber-attack. However, should this scenario arise, we will contact you as soon as possible giving full details of any data that has been compromised.
Your rights
You have a number of rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to access your data, the right to restrict or object to further processing and the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
To make a request regarding your data contact the office via execofficer@vssn.org.uk
Obviously, if you do not wish to disclose your contact details, or you wish your data to be removed, VSSN will be unable to provide any services to you.
