1. INTRODUCTION
The right to be informed is one of the key transparency requirements of the UK GDPR.
This right requires organisations like Action Against Hunger to provide individuals with clear and concise information about what we do with their personal data, at the point we collect it. Organisations fulfil this requirement or right usually via a privacy policy (also called a privacy notice).
Please note, this is an external facing policy page on our website, which can be found here: https://www.actionagainsthunger.org.uk/privacy-policy.
2. PRIVACY NOTICE
An introduction
Action Against Hunger is building a world where no one dies from hunger.
Life-threatening hunger is predictable, preventable and treatable, so a world without it is possible.
But we can’t do this without you, which is why taking care of the information you provide to us is so important.
We strive to make sure all of you, who support our work, can be confident we’ll treat your personal information with the upmost care.
This privacy policy gives you details about how we collect, use and store your personal information. It also tells you how you can change the way we contact you, or stop receiving communications from us.
And to reassure you, we never share your information with other organisations for their own marketing purposes.
We encourage you to revisit this policy, as we will update it from time to time. If we ever make any significant changes, we’ll endeavour to contact you directly.
How to contact us
If you have any questions or queries about this policy and how we handle your personal information, please call our Supporter Care team on 020 8293 6190 (9:30am-5:30pm) or email: support@actionagainsthunger.org.uk
Our registered postal address is 6 Mitre Passage, London, SE10 0ER.
Action Against Hunger UK Limited (‘Action Against Hunger’) is a registered charity and our registration number is 1047501 in England and Wales and SC048317 in Scotland.
We’re also a company limited by guarantee incorporated in England (company number 03069468) and have a wholly owned trading subsidiary called Action Against Hunger Enterprises Limited (company number 06569439).
How we collect your information
We need to handle information about you to carry out our vital work, to promote our work and raise necessary funds.
We routinely collect details about you in the following ways:
- when you make a donation
- when you sign up to receive our newsletters and updates
- when you interact with other organisations, such as JustGiving, and give permission for your details to be shared with us
- when you register to attend one of our events
- when you get involved with fundraising for us
We may also gather information about you from openly available sources, or may receive your business contact details from other reputable organisations. Where this is the case, we’ll contact you to let you know, and you can always request we remove your details from our systems.
What information we collect
We only collect personal information relevant to the type of interactions you have with us. The type of information we routinely collect includes:
- name, email address, postal address, telephone number and taxpayer status (for Gift Aid eligibility)
- information about the donations you make, events you register to attend, any fundraising you do for us and details of any interactions you have with our Support Care team
We do not store any sensitive payment card data in our systems. We have an active PCI-DSS compliance programme in place – this is the international standard for safe card payment processes.
We do not routinely collect what’s known under data protection law as ‘special category data’. This includes information about your health, ethnicity, your biometrics or political opinions.
You may wish to give us details about accessibility requirements when there’s a clear reason for doing so. For example, where this is necessary to take part in a fundraising activity or to attend one of our events. The information you give us is kept securely and deleted when no longer required.
Schools sometimes get involved in fundraising for us. But we don’t collect information about the children themselves.
Our use of cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies on our website. Some cookies are essential for our website to work. Others gather useful information such as which pages are visited the most and how long people spend reading specific pages.
This information helps us to improve our website and your online experience. We also use cookies for campaign targeting and advertising purposes. They help us to use our limited advertising budget in the most effective ways.
You have the right to accept or decline certain cookies. You can review or change your cookie preferences here:
Update your cookie settings
How we use your personal information
We collect and hold supporters’ personal information for the following reasons:
- processing donations, payments and gift aid
- running events and other fundraising activities
- conducting market research or asking you to participate in surveys
- improving our website and communications
- understanding our supporters better
- keeping a record of your relationship with us
- to advertise and reach other individuals who may be interested in supporting us. We do this using Facebook (Meta) and Google services.
Our fundraising communications with you
It’s really important for us to be able to keep you updated about the difference your support is making, our upcoming events and other ways you can get involved.
We ask for your permission (consent) to contact you by email and/or telephone. You can always stop receiving marketing and fundraising related communications from us by using the Unsubscribe link in our emails, telling us over the phone on 020 8293 6190 or by contacting us at: support@actionagainsthunger.org.uk
We also send updates about our work and fundraising by post. You can always opt-out of receiving these at any time, using the same contact details above.
The Fundraising Preference Service
Action Against Hunger, in line with the Fundraising Regulator’s rules, are signed up to the Fundraising Preference Service. This gives people another clear way of asking us, and other charities, to stop sending communications about charitable giving and fundraising. We’re committed to upholding fundraising best practice and giving you control over whether we contact you or not.
Our research activities
We carry out research about people who we believe may be interested in supporting us, becoming ambassadors or potentially providing us with a significant donation. This enables us to focus our communications as effectively as possible and helps us to raise much needed funds for our lifesaving work.
We try to gain a better understanding of a person’s interests and their reasons for giving, or not giving. We only keep details which we feel are relevant and necessary.
We gather information from openly available sources, or we may be given details about you by someone who knows you. For example, one of our ambassadors, trustees or friends may mention you might be a good person to approach about our work.
We will let you know as soon as possible if we are holding information about you. You can always ask us to delete this information if you wish.
Due diligence
When the charity is given a significant gift, we need to carry out necessary checks to make sure we protect our reputation.
We do this using publicly available information, and our checks could include looking into the sources of where money has come from and previous business practices. If you don’t wish us to carry out such checks, we may need to decline your donation.
The lawful bases we rely on
Under data protection law we need to have a lawful basis for our activities. Routinely we rely on a contract with you, your consent or we rely on legitimate interests.
There may be some circumstances where we have a legal obligation to handle personal information, or it is necessary in an emergency situation.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we balance our interests with your privacy rights and freedoms, and you always have the right to object to this.
We rely on legitimate interests for the following activities:
- to send you information by post about our work and fundraising activities
- to call you, (unless you have previously objected to hear from us or are registered with the Telephone Preference Service). Please note, we only use legitimate interest where you provided us with your phone number prior to GDPR (when we weren’t asking for consent). Since 2018, we routinely we collect your consent for telephone calls.
- to contact you in your professional capacity to see if you are interested in getting involved in our work
- to carry out research and conduct surveys
- to understand our supporters better; to tailor our fundraising and communications to make them as relevant as possible for our supporters and to reflect their interests as closely as possible
- to conduct targeted advertising
Your privacy rights
Under UK data protection law you have a number of privacy rights. These are as follows:
Informed: You have the right to be informed about how we handle your personal data. This privacy policy is our way of providing this information, and we’ll always make this easily accessible for you when you give us your details.
Access: You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you and the purposes for which we are using it.
Erasure: You have the right to request we delete any personal information about you. This is not an absolute right, and there may be circumstances in which we can justifiably keep certain information.
Object: You have the right to object to receiving direct marketing from us. We will make it clear on all our communications how to easily stop hearing from us future. You also have the right to raise an objection about how we’re handling your personal data.
You also have the right to ask us to amend any personal information which is incorrect or to restrict our use of your personal information.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights or have any other query, please use the following contact details:
Email: support@actionagainsthunger.org.uk
Address: 6 Mitre Passage, London, SE10 0ER.
Telephone: 0208 853 7571 (9:30am-5:30pm)
In order to fulfil a request, we may need to ask you for proof of identity.
If you’re concerned about the way in which we have collected and used your personal information, please contact us and we’ll do our best to resolve this for you.
If you’re unhappy with the way in which we have handled your personal information you have the right to raise a complaint with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.
Who we share information with
We won’t, under any circumstances, share or sell your personal information with any third party for their own marketing purposes. You will not receive marketing from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us.
We use the services of other companies to help us run our fundraising activities. These suppliers handle personal details on our behalf. This is always conducted securely, under appropriate contractual arrangements and the personal information they have access to is limited to what’s strictly necessary.
Our suppliers include; an email service provider, telemarketing agencies, door-to-door fundraisers and mailing houses.
We also use external services to collect registrations for events, run activities such as auctions, as well as companies who support us in processing donations, and provide further information about our supporters.
In other circumstances we may need to disclose your information if required to do so by law or as expressly permitted under applicable data protection legislation.
Please remember if you use a link to go from our website to another website, our Privacy Policy will no longer apply.
How we keep your information secure
We place great importance on the security of all personal information about our beneficiaries and supporters.
We take appropriate steps to make sure your personal information is stored in a secure environment and to prevent any unauthorised access.
Our servers are based in the UK, and our suppliers are routinely also based in the UK.
Where suppliers are based outside the UK, the transfer of personal information is either based on an adequacy decision (recognised by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office) or appropriate safeguard measures are in place.
How long we keep your information for
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity. For example, we will keep a record of donations subject to gift aid for at least seven years to comply with HMRC rules.
If you request we stop sending you marketing materials, we will keep a record of your contact details to make sure we are able to continue to honour your request.
When your information is no longer required, we will always delete or dispose of it securely, in accordance with our internal data retention policy and procedures.
If you would like future information about how long we keep your information for, please use the contact details provide above.
3. POLICY REVIEW
This privacy policy needs to be seen as a live document, which at any time accurately reflects what we do with supporter data and why.
At any point if we want to do something new or different with supporter data, we will review and update the privacy policy accordingly. We will circulate the updated link to supporters (via email, or including a link in our You Against Hunger supporter magazine). We will leave it at least one month before implementing the new data activity (to give supporters a fair chance to read about the change).
In addition, this policy shall be reviewed at a minimum, on an annual basis, to evaluate is effectiveness and implementation, taking advice from external specialist advisers where appropriate.