Privacy Policy

The Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust (ELGT) takes your privacy very seriously.  This privacy statement explains how we collect, use and store personal information about you in line with our data protection policy.

In processing your personal data, we are committed to comply with our obligations as data controllers under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  You can find more details on the GDPR at the Information Commissioner’s Office website (https://ico.org.uk/).

ELGT is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. SC132480 and a charity registered in Scotland No. SC018196.

This privacy notice applies to all of ELGT’s programme of activities, which includes the Lothians & Fife Green Network Partnership (LFGNP; http://www.lfgnp.org.uk).  All personal data collected by LFGNP is covered by this privacy notice.

What personal information do we collect?

ELGT collects and stores personal data on individuals mainly for the purposes of administering our charitable activities.  We also occasionally process personal data for other reasons, such as recruitment, managing volunteers, identifying donors or for marketing purposes.

We collect data on:

• participants in our services and events, including contact details; photographs for publicity purposes; and age, gender and health information where this is relevant to the activity
• newsletter subscribers and others on our mailing lists who have requested information on our services and activities
• candidates for recruitment for both paid and voluntary positions, including application forms and equal opportunity monitoring forms
• donors, potential donors and funders, including contact details
• suppliers, contractors and freelance consultants, including contact details
• ELGT partners and representatives of other organisations
• website visitors

ELGT will only collect and hold information where there is a genuine business or legal need, and will not use it for any purpose other than that for which it was collected without the individual’s consent. We will always make it clear why we are requesting or storing data.

There are two main categories of information that we may process:

• general personal information such as name, address and contact details;
• sensitive or special categories of data such as age; sex/gender; ethnicity; physical or mental health; disability; religious or similar beliefs; sexuality; and information about criminal allegations, proceedings, convictions or related security measures.

We do not collect data in the second category on our service users or people attending public events except in the rare circumstances where there is a legitimate need to do so (for example, holding health details for participants taking part in outdoor or physical activities).

How do we collect your personal information?

The main ways we will collect personal data are:

• registration forms for our services and activities
• other contact forms such as our newsletter sign-up form
• direct emails sent to @elgt.org.uk or @lfgnp.org.uk email addresses
• through social media contact (e.g. our Facebook page or Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn)
• by phone or face-to-face contact
• by post sent directly to us
• at public fundraising or promotional events

 How do we use your personal information?

We collect and store personal data in order to:

• deliver our services to participants;
• confirm your identity and keep in touch with you by post, e-mail, telephone, or other method;
• provide you with information on events, services and activities of relevance to you;
• meet legal responsibilities and statutory obligations, including those related to equality and diversity;
• monitor and evaluate our services to make improvements and to meet funder requirements;
• demonstrate outcomes;
• promote our activities and achievements.

Who do we share your personal information with?

We do not share your personal data with any other organisation unless you have given us express and specific consent to do so.  Where we need to provide information to third parties such as funders and partner organisations for the purposes of monitoring and evaluation, this is anonymised so that no one individual can be identified.

Where you have provided explicit consent for us to pass information to partner organisations, they are obliged to keep your information secure and to use the information only to fulfil specific and agreed purposes.

How long do we keep your personal information for?

Personal data will be stored only for as long as there is a genuine business need. The exact period of time depends on the type of information and any statutory or legal requirements relating to the information. When required, the exact period of time will be informed at the time of collecting your personal information. Thereafter, it will be disposed of safely and securely.

How do we protect your personal information?

ELGT takes security and the protection of data in both physical and electronic form very seriously.  The Trust has implemented policies and procedures to prevent the loss, misuse, alteration, unauthorised access and theft of personal information; these include IT security, office security, the encryption of all electronic devices, and procedures to prevent careless handling of personal data.

Every effort is made to ensure that all staff and volunteers are fully trained in these policies and procedures and the associated guidance in relation to your personal information.

What are your rights?

Under the GDPR, you have a number of rights.  This section provides a brief overview of those rights.

1. The right to be informed

You have a right to be given information about how your data is being processed and why.

We provide you with this information by this Privacy Statement, which is published on the ELGT website; by providing specific privacy statements on forms where we are collecting data, particularly sensitive personal data; and by providing further information on request.

2. The right to access

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.

If you would like to access this information from us you must submit a request in writing to info@elgt.org.uk or to our office address. You will be provided with the information you have requested without delay and within one month of the date of receipt of the request, unless it is very complex in which case it can be done in 2 months in accordance with the GDPR.  Under normal circumstances you will need to provide us with reasonable proof of your identity in order for us to release the personal data to you.

3. The right to rectification

We will make every effort to delete or amend any personal data that are found to be incorrect or out of date. If you are aware of any changes that need to be made to your own details, please update our information by contacting us at info@elgt.org.uk.

4. The right to erase

You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

• You consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained.
• We are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent.
• You have validly objected to our use of your personal information.
• Our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

5. Right to lodge a complaint

If you have a complaint about the way ELGT has handled your personal data, we hope that you will contact the Trust in the first instance so that we can resolve the situation directly.  However, every individual has the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (contact details can be found on their website at https://ico.org.uk/) if you believe there has been an infringement of the Data Protection Regulation.

6. The right to withdraw consent

Where we use your personal information with your consent you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.

7. Right to object to direct marketing

We promote our activities primarily through our newsletters, social media, and other electronic mailing lists for specific groups or geographical areas. You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes at any time.

Newsletter subscribers can unsubscribe at any time by using the link provided in the newsletter itself, or by contacting the Trust directly and requesting to be removed.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Our data protection policy is regularly reviewed and we will place any updates on this website. Paper copies of the privacy statement may also be obtained from us on request.

This privacy statement was last updated on 14 May 2018.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

The browsers of most computers, smartphones and other web–enabled devices are typically set up to accept cookies. If you wish to change your cookie preferences for this website or any other websites, you can do so using your browser settings. Your browser’s ‘help’ function will show you how to do this.

We are working on more advanced tools for you to manage the setting of cookies on this website but for now, continued use of this website implies that you are happy for these cookies to be set.

The table below explains the cookies we use and what they do.

Update 23.05.19 GDPR compliance
If you don’t want us to contact you please let us know by emailing treetime@elgt.org.uk or calling 0131 445 4025.