Shawmind takes your privacy very seriously. We ask that you read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information about what to expect when we collect personal information about you and how we will use your personal data.

This policy applies if you are a visitor to our website, work with us and support us (author, volunteer, donor, customer or employee), participate in any of our online sessions or forums, or register for our newsletter service. We will keep this policy updated to show you all the things we do with your personal data.

Who are ‘we’?

In this policy, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refers to Shawmind, an independent charity registered in England and a registered charitable company in the UK. Find out more about our work.

Our data controller can be contacted by email: data-controller (at) shawmind.org

What personal data do we collect about you?

We collect data from you if you sign-up to our marketing newsletters, donate to us, work, write or volunteer for us, visit or purchase something from our web-site, sign up for a training or support event, or any of the other ways you interact with us. We will only collect the personal data that we need.

For the majority of interactions you might make with us, we will collect the following personal information from you:

  • Personal details (name, email address, country etc)

In addition to the above:

  • If you donate to us, we may also collect: financial information (credit or debit card details)
  • If you work with us (as an author, as a business, as a volunteer or employee) we may also collect:
    • Financial information (including your bank details)
    • Date of birth, age and gender
    • Occasionally we may receive information about you from other sources (such as credit reference agencies) to help us decide whether or not we wish to do business with you.
    • Photographs and videos
    • CV and employment information
  • Any other information you provide in any communications between us.
  • If you attend any of our support services, we may also collect:
    • Your physical address
    • Contact and name details of your next of kin

Sensitive Personal Information

If you share your personal experience or the experiences of a friend or relative, we may also collect this health information. If you provide us with any Sensitive Personal Information by telephone, email or by other means, we will treat that information with extra care and confidentiality and always in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

You can of course decide if you want to remain anonymous, if you are happy to share your personal details with staff members or if you would like us to share your story with the media or other parties as part of our work telling people’s personal stories about mental health.

A special note about the Sensitive Personal Information we hold

Data Protection Law recognises that some categories of personal information are more sensitive. Sensitive Personal Information can include information about a person’s health, race, ethnic origin, political opinions, sex life, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.

We will only use this Sensitive Personal Information:

  • For the purposes of dealing with your enquiry, training, support, and quality monitoring or evaluating the services we provide.
  • We will not pass on your details to anyone else without your express permission except in exceptional circumstances where we are required to do so by law. Examples of this might include anyone reporting serious self-harm or posing a threat to others or children contacting us and sharing serious issues such as physical abuse or exploitation.
  • Where you have given us your express consent or otherwise clearly indicated to us that you are happy for us to share this information (for example, by submitting your story).

What technical information do we collect about you?

If you use our website, we may collect cookies. Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. The information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. For further information about cookies visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org. You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases some of our website features may not function if you remove cookies from your browser.

If you subscribe to our email newsletters, we will collect information about how successful our emails are in terms of how many people open them and click them.

How do we use this information?

We will only use your personal data on relevant lawful grounds as permitted by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (from 25 May 2018)/UK Data Protection Act and Privacy of Electronic Communication Regulation.

We will mainly use this information:

  • To process your donations or other payments, to claim Gift Aid on your donations and verify any financial transactions.
  • To provide the services or goods that you have requested.
  • To update you with important administrative messages about your donation, an event or services or goods you have requested.
  • To comply with the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and follow the recommendations of the official regulator of charities, the Charity Commission, which require us to identify and verify the identity of supporters who make major gifts so we can assess any risks associated with accepting their donations.
  • To keep a record of your relationship with us.
  • Where you volunteer with us, to administer the volunteering arrangement.

If you do not provide this information, we will not be able to process your donation, sign you up for a particular event or provide goods and services you have requested.

We may also use your personal information:

  • To contact you about our work and how you can support us.
  • To invite you to participate in surveys or research.

Marketing communications

If you choose to hear from us, we may send you information about Shawmind, Trigger Publishing and Everymind At Work.

You can change your mind later and unsubscribe by emailing contact@shawmind.org or by clicking ‘Unsubscribe’ at the bottom of any marketing emails you receive from us.

We will collect information about how successful our emails are in terms of how many people open them and click them.

How do we store this information?

We will use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal information on our systems. However, you should be aware that the use of the Internet is not entirely secure and for this reason we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal information which is transferred from you or to you via the Internet.

The information you provide may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) that do not have similar protections in place regarding your data and restrictions on its use as set out in this policy. However, we will take steps to ensure adequate protections are in place to ensure the security of your information. The EEA comprises the EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. By submitting your information, you consent to these transfers for the purposes specified above.

We will hold your information for as long as is reasonable and necessary for the relevant activity, which may be to fulfil statutory obligations (for example, the collection of Gift Aid). After this, it will be securely destroyed.

Who do we share your information with?

The personal information we collect about you will mainly be used by our staff (and volunteers) so that they can support you.

We will never sell or share your personal information with organisations so that they can contact you for any marketing activities. Nor do we sell any information about your web browsing activity.

We may however share your information with our trusted partners and suppliers who work with us or on our behalf to deliver our services, but processing of this information is always carried out under our instruction. We make sure that they store the data securely, delete it when they no longer need it and never use it for any other purposes. Some examples of where we may share your information are with our fulfilment partners who help to create and send information to you to reduce our costs, with our partners who help us to process donations and claim Gift Aid and our partners who help us to manage our social media accounts.

We enter into contracts with these service providers that require them to comply with Data Protection Laws and ensure that they have appropriate controls in place to secure your information.

Legal disclosure

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law (for example, to comply with applicable laws, regulations and codes of practice or in response to a valid request from a competent authority); or, in order to enforce our conditions of sale and other agreements.

Your Rights

You have various rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you – these are set out in more detail below. If you wish to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, you can do so by contacting our Data Controller at data-controller (at) shawmind.org. You can also make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office.

  • Access to your personal information: All individuals who are the subject of personal data held by Shawmind are entitled to:
    • Ask what information the charity holds about them and why.
    • Ask how to gain access to it.
    • Be informed how to keep it up to date.
    • Be informed how the charity is meeting its data protection obligations
  • If an individual contacts the charity requesting this information, this is called a subject access request.
    • Subject access requests from individuals should be made by email, addressed to the data controller at data-controller (at) shawmind.org. The data controller can supply a standard request form, although individuals do not have to use this.
    • Individuals will be charged £10 per subject access request. The data controller will aim to provide the relevant data within 14 days.
    • The data controller will always verify the identity of anyone making a subject access request before handing over any information.
  • Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Please contact us as noted above, providing details of your objection.
  • Consent: If you have given us your consent to use personal information (for example, for marketing), you can withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Rectification: You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you.
  • Erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, you have withdrawn consent, or where we have no lawful basis for keeping it.
  • Portability: You can ask us to provide you or a third party with some of the personal information that we hold about you in a structured, commonly used, electronic form, so it can be easily transferred.
  • Restriction: You can ask us to restrict the personal information we use about you where you have asked for it to be erased or where you have objected to our use of it.
  • No automated decision-making: Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. You have the right not to be subject to automated decisions that will create legal effects or have a similar significant impact on you, unless you have given us your consent, it is necessary for a contract between you and us or is otherwise permitted by law. You also have certain rights to challenge decisions made about you. We do not currently carry out any automated decision-making.

Please note, some of these rights only apply in certain circumstances and we may not be able to fulfil every request.

Monitoring

Your communications with our teams (including by telephone or email) may be monitored and/or recorded for training, quality control and compliance purposes to ensure that we continuously improve our customer service standards.