Privacy

本隱私權政策只提供英文版。

The Belonging Christian Church (or Belonging, or The Church) is an independent Christian Church and a charitable incorporated organisation registered with Charity Commission England and Wales. Charity registration no. 1206709.

Each and individual person is wonderfully and beautifully made in the image of God. And everyone is entitled to their own personal information. Here at Belonging, we respect and understand that privacy is incredibly important. We are committed to respecting your personal information and processing it responsibly and transparently. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal data. It applies to all your interactions with us, whether online, offline, or through our activities.

What is our privacy policy?

Personal data is any information that identifies, or could identify, a living individual. This includes details like your name, email address, or phone number, but also less obvious things like your IP address. We take protecting this information seriously, and how we handle it is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A privacy policy is a document that outlines how an organisation handles personal information. It tells you what data is collected, how it’s used, who it’s shared with, and your rights regarding your data.

What information do we hold?

Belonging may hold the following personal data:

Identity data: name and any other biographical information you may provide us.
Contact data: phone number, email address, and address.
Imagery: photographs, and videography.
Donation and giving data: financial, Gift Aid and bank information.
Communications data: your preferences in receiving our church information and updates.
Safeguarding data: DBS record.
Non-identifiable data: such as IP address used to connect your computer to the internet, browser type, browser version, operation system and platform.

What are the principles in the collection of your personal data?

Belonging takes your privacy with the highest care and is committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Here’s how we ensure your data is safe and secure:

Accurate and Up-to-Date: We regularly review and update your data to ensure its accuracy. You can also help by informing us of any changes.
Secure Storage: We implement strong security measures to protect your data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or disclosure. This includes secure storage protocols and regular security updates.
Minimal Data Collection: We collect and retain the information we absolutely need to fulfil our church activities and maintain a healthy community. We avoid unnecessary data collection and we remove data that we no longer need.
Transparency and Control: We are transparent on how we process your personal data and provide you with control over it. You can access, update, or request the deletion of your information at any time through email contact.
Technical Safeguards: We utilise appropriate technical measures to protect your data, like encryption and access control systems. Only appropriate staff and volunteers are able to access the data they require for each service.

How do we process your personal data:

Belonging uses your personal data for the following purposes:

To manage, administer and promote the life of the church;
To provide pastoral care and services to individuals;
To keep records for our events or activities;
To manage our employees and volunteers;
To administer attendance and other statistical records;
To fundraise and promote the interests of the charity;
To administer financial transactions and donations (including the processing of Gift Aid);
To prevent and detect crime;
To manage, administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, user experience research, statistical and survey purposes;
To comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

What is our legal basis for processing your personal data?

Our legal basis for processing your personal data varies based on different services and purposes. The following list covers the most common type of data that we hold. Please contact us at any of the service times or by emailing [email protected].

Interest-Based Updates: Data related to your expressed interests allows us to personalise communication and ensure you receive relevant information about Belonging activities and events. This serves both Belonging and your legitimate interests.
Belonging Communications: We process data with your consent to keep you informed about general Belonging updates. You can opt-out at any time.
Cell Group, Event and Course: Information collected for the operation of our groups and events is essential to fulfilling contractual obligations for preparation, or for legitimate interests related to their operations.
Children and Youth: The safety and well-being of children and youth are paramount. We obtain parental consent before collecting any data and utilise it solely for their vital interests.
Employee, Volunteer, and Member Data: Processing of data related to employees, volunteers, and church members adheres to legal and contractual requirements, while also serving the legitimate interests of our church community. Where applicable, your consent is obtained and can be withdrawn at your discretion.
Financial process: Processing is necessary for carrying out legal obligations in relation to Gift Aid or under employment.

How long do we retain your data?

The length of time on the storing of your personal data varies by purpose. For more information please email [email protected].

Disclosure of your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential. Belonging, however, requires using external services to operate our operations such as accountant, email and other systems. We list out the services that we acquire in the following list, and we only process some of your personal data with these services:

Internal: Internal staff, trustee, volunteers
Third-party services:
- Communication platforms: Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger;
- Online meeting space: Google Meet;
- Online workspace: Google Workspace (Google Mail, Drive, Docs, Sheets and more);
- Web hosting services provided by: Cloudflare, ReCAPTCHA, First Avenue Group Limited and more;
- Professional services: lawyers, bankers, auditors, insurers, or any professionals based in the United Kingdom, including accounting software;
- Disclosure and Barring Service checks;
  HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other government authorities based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities;
- Service provider: First Avenue Group Limited based in the United Kingdom who is granted for IT and system administration support only.

For each individual service on how they process their privacy, please visit the individual service’s website for more information.

Your rights

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

Request access to the data we hold about you;
Have inaccurate and incomplete data rectified;
Have the personal data we hold on you deleted (except where we are required to hold the data by law and where there is legitimate interest to withhold it);
To restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances;
The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time;
The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Data that is held on consent will only be processed as long as we have your consent. To adjust or enquire for more information, please email at [email protected].

Further processing

If there is a scenario where we would need to use your personal data for a new purpose that has not been consented before nor covered by this policy. We respect you and your personal data, therefore we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Cookies

Our websites use or may use cookies for the following reasons:

To allow you to carry information across pages of our websites and for ease of use when you return to one of our sites;
To measure our website traffic and analyse how our websites work. This will allow us to make changes to our websites in the future and make them easier to use;
We may use external players or features which may be affected by your choice, such as YouTube and Google Forms;
You can accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. Please note that if you disable all cookies then you may not be able to access some parts of our websites.

Third-party links

We do not affiliate, endorse or partner with any external websites that are linked, unless clearly listed. The links are provided to create ease of access, such as helping you to find your way to our gathering.

When you click on a link to a third-party website, you will leave our website and enter the website of the third party. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or security of third-party websites. It is your responsibility to read the privacy policies of third-party websites before clicking on any links. We cannot guarantee the security of any third-party website, and we urge you to take precautions when visiting any website.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may make amendments to the policy based on the changes of our services, which will be available at any time on our website without notice. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

If you have any questions, comments or requests regarding this data and privacy policy please email [email protected]. For more information regarding data protection legislation please go to ico.org.uk.

Document Information

Last update on policy date: 18th April, 2024