Privacy Statement

St John’s Harborne

 Privacy Statement

St john’s Church Harborne

Data Protection Officer: Catherine White, Operations Manager

Date of Statement: 16th September 2024

Related Documents: St John’s Data Protection Policy*

This is the privacy statement for St John’s Church, Harborne. It tells you how we will process (use and store) your data, what data we hold, your individual rights and how you can interact with us about your data.

This statement covers our use of personal data, which is any information about a living individual which allows them to be identified from that data (for example a name, images, email address, or address).  Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information.

Processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protect Regulations which is implemented and monitored by the Information Commissioners Office.

Who are we? This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the PCC of St John’s Church and the Incumbent, who are the Joint Data Controllers for your data.  St John’s has a number of responsible people for the control and processing of personal data that we hold including trustees (PCC), Clergy, staff and volunteers.  All relevant staff, volunteers, trustees will receive appropriate training in GDPR requirements.  For clarity, the term Data Controllers covers employees, office holders, volunteers and trustees for St John’s Church

So, how is your data used and processed?

St John’s Church processes details which include:

·           Identity Data: names, titles and images, video footage, gender, age, date of birth, marital status, nationality, education/work histories, academic/professional qualifications, family composition and dependants

·           Contact Data including telephone numbers, postal /residential addresses and email addresses

·           Financial Data: Where you give financially in support of St John’s Church, pay for church activities (event bookings etc.), financial identifiers such as payment/transaction identifiers.

·           Special Category Data: As a church (religious organisation), the data we process is likely to constitute sensitive personal data because the very fact that we process your data at all may be suggestive of your religious beliefs.  GDPR outlines clearly special categories of data of which religious or similar beliefs is one.  Details of special categories can be found in the full Data Protection Policy*

·           Technical and usage data including your IP address, usage of our website and MyChurchsuite and interest in events.

As a Data Controller, all our appointed persons will comply with their legal obligations to keep personal data up to date; to store and destroy it securely; to not collect or retain excessive amounts of data; to keep personal data secure, and to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and to ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. If you have any concerns about how your data is being used, please speak with our Data Protection Officer, the Operations Manager.

What are we doing with your data?

We only hold data that either we are legally obliged to or that helps us fulfil our missional and charitable aims as a church and charitable organisation.

We hold and process data to:

·         meet all legal and statutory obligations which include maintaining and publishing our electoral roll in accordance with the Church Representation Rules;

·         comply with and facilitate our Safeguarding Procedures ensuring that all children and vulnerable adults are provided with safe environments (please see our Safeguarding Policies);

·         help you grow as a disciple, provide you with pastoral and spiritual care (such as visiting you when you are gravely ill or bereaved) and to organise and perform occasional offices for you, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals;

·         manage, administer and promote the life of the Church;

·         Maintain our own accounts and records;

·         Process and record financial donations (including Gift Aid information);

·         Communicate with you about your opinions and skills e.g. surveys

·         Update you about changes to our services, events, church family news and any matters of interest related church life;

·         Send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you e.g. Weekly Roundup, Prayer Updates.

Our processing also includes the use of CCTV systems for the prevention and prosecution of crime

What is our legal basis for processing your personal data?

·         Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a political, philosophical, religious or trade union aim provided.

·         Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests to enable our charitable and missional aims. For example, maintaining safeguarding our children, recording our financial donations and operating team rotas for the effective function of Sunday services, Youth and Children’s Ministry.

·         Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. Retaining safeguarding records and gift aid declarations are examples of this.

·         We are required by the Church Representation Rules to administer and publish the electoral roll, and under Canon Law to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns.

·         We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to provide a direct service to you. For example, if you buy tickets for a church event, or hire a room.

·         Explicit consent may be given by you, for example completing a Hello and Welcome card, or online version, signing up to the prayer news or the weekly roundup, completing media release forms for images and videos to be shared on social media and marketing campaigns.

Will we share your data?

You can be reassured that we will treat your personal data as strictly confidential. It will only be shared with third parties where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or where you first give us your prior consent.  It is possible that we will need to share limited data with some or all the following (but only where necessary):  

·         Departments of Diocese of Birmingham

·         Our agents and contractors. For example, we utilise commercial providers to send out newsletters on our behalf, and to maintain our database software – Mailchimp, Churchsuite, Staffology Payroll Services

All of these organisations will have their own privacy policies.

How long will we keep your personal data?

Our general rule is to keep data no longer than necessary. Where you continue to actively engage with our church services, activities and events, we will retain the appropriate data for you so that we can best serve your involvement. We will regularly conduct a process of review, by which we will assess who is actively engaging in church activity, and where this is not the case we will remove your data. Additionally;

·         We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. For example this covers service, wedding, baptism registers and safeguarding records.

·         We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records, including Gift Aid for a minimum period of 7 years after the last donation to support HMRC audits.

What are your rights regarding your personal data?

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data: When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

·         The right to access information we hold on you.  At any point you can contact us to request the information we hold on you as well as why we have that information, who has access to the information and where we obtained the information from. Once we have received your request we will respond within one month. There are no fees or charges for the first request but additional requests for the same data may be subject to an administrative fee.

·         The right to correct and update the information we hold on you.  If the data we hold on you is out of date, incomplete or incorrect, you can inform us, and your data will be updated. You also have access as to be able to update aspects of your personal data directly via My Churchsuite

·         The right to have your information erased.  If you feel that we should no longer be using your data or that we are illegally using your data, you can request that we erase the data we hold. When we receive your request we will confirm whether the data has been deleted or the reason why it cannot be deleted (for example because we need it for our legitimate interests or to meet statutory or legal requirements)

·         The right to object to processing of your data.  You have the right to request that we stop processing your data. Upon receiving the request we will contact you and let you know if we are able to comply or if we have legitimate grounds to continue to process your data. Even after you exercise your right to object, we may continue to hold your data to comply with legal obligations.

·         The right to data portability.  You have the right to request that we transfer some of your data to another controller. We will comply with your request, where it is feasible to do so, within one month of receiving your request

·         The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of data to which consent was sought. You can withdraw your consent easily by telephone, email, or by post (see contact details at end of Privacy Statement)

·         The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Transfer of Data Abroad

Any electronic personal data transferred to countries or territories outside the EU will only be placed on systems complying with measures giving equivalent protection of personal rights either through international agreements or contracts approved by the European Union. Our website is also accessible from overseas so on occasion some personal data (for example an email address) may be accessed from overseas, however it is our general practice not to publish any other personal data on our website or in our printed news sheets unless with your express permission.  An individual subscriber of the weekly roundup may forward this email and this is beyond our control.

You are very welcome to get in contact with us…

If you have any queries or concerns about how we use your data, please do get in contact with us.

Our Data Protection Officer is Catherine White Operations Manager and can be contacted at:

Address: Church Office, 5a Greenfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 0ED

Email: catherinewhite@stjohnsharborne.org

Tel: 0121 427 4601

*St John’s Data Protection Policy is available via the above contact details.