Privacy Policy - Veterinary Christian Fellowship

Summary of how we use your data

The Veterinary Christian Fellowship (VCF) uses your personal data to manage and administer your membership and your involvement with the organisation, and to keep in contact with you for these purposes.

Some data is shared with the other members of the organisation, who will use your data to coordinate regional meetings, support, arrange Extra-Mural Study placements for veterinary students and develop mentoring networks and pass on prayer requests. This will only be done with your permission.

What does this policy cover?

This policy describes how the VCF will make use of the data we handle, including our use of the Regional Groups, Student Groups, EMS Database and the informal Mentoring Network.

It also describes your data protection rights, including a right to object to some of the processing which we may carry out. More information about your rights, and how to exercise them, is set out in the “What rights do I have” section.

What information do we collect?

We collect and process personal data from you. This includes:

your name
your address, email address and phone number(s)
the year and academic institution from which you qualified
your area of work or study, including contact details
Details of payments made to VCF and associated payment and/or bank account details, where you provide these to pay for membership, booking into events or providing donations, including Gift Aid
Details about communications you have had with VCF Officers
your attendance at VCF events and information collected for the purpose of administering those events

What information do we receive from third parties?

We often receive introductions for possible new members or people who may wish to seek support from the VCF. This can be from individual members or from missionary groups or other Christian organisations. We receive information from payment and booking systems such as PayPal, relating to VCF events. We also refer to professional information registers held in the public domain.

How do we use this information?

The VCF complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for the following purposes: –

To enable us to provide a service for the benefit of VCF members and interested parties;
To administer membership records and bookings for VCF organized events;
To fundraise and promote the interests of the VCF;
To manage our employees and volunteers;
To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);
To inform you of news, events, activities organised by the VCF and other relevant organisations;
To provide informal support for those affiliated with the VCF
For the purpose which are required by law
To use your data for other purposes not specified above – before doing this we would contact you to obtain your consent

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Processing is conducted for a legitimate interest of the VCF a not-for-profit body with a political, philosophical or religious aim provided: –
- the processing relates only to individuals who we have regular contact with to keep you informed about news, events, activities and services from the VCF and
- there is no disclosure to a third party without consent.
Processing is necessary for carrying out legal obligations in relation to Gift Aid or under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement;
Explicit consent when it is not covered by the above basis.

Who will we share this data with, where and when?

Personal data may be shared with government authorities and/or law enforcement officials if required for the purpose above, if mandated by law or if required for the legal protection of our or the Charity Commission’s legitimate interests in compliance with applicable laws.

We may enlist the services of third-party agents and their sub-processors to collect and process and store your personal data to facilitate us in our usage of your data. We will ensure any third-party data processor we utilise is fully compliant with the GPDR regulations. A copy of the services we use can be obtained on request. Where information is transferred outside the EEA, and where this is a stakeholder or vendor in country that is not subject to an adequacy decision by the EU Commission, data is adequately protected by EU Commission approved standard contractual clauses, an appropriate Privacy Shield certification or vendor’s Processor Binding Corporate Rules. A copy of the relevant mechanism can be provided for your review on request.

How long will you retain my data?

We process the majority of your data for a long as you are an active member, and for a maximum of 10 years after this.

Where we process personal data with your consent, we process the data for 10 years unless you ask us to stop, when we will only process the data for a short period after this (to allow us to implement your requests). We also keep a record of the fact that you have asked us not to process your data indefinitely, so that we can respect your request in future.

Where we process personal data in connection to a legal obligation, we will keep this data for 6 years from your last interaction with us.

We will retain information held to maintain statutory records in line with appropriate statutory requirements or guidance.

What rights do I have?

You have the right to ask us for a copy of your personal data, to correct, delete or restrict (stop any active) processing of your personal data; and to obtain the personal data you provide to us in a structured, machine-readable format.

In addition, you can object to the processing of your personal data in some circumstances, in particular where we don’t have to process the data to meet a contractual or other legal requirement.

These rights may be limited, for example if fulfilling your request would reveal personal data about another person, or if you ask us to delete information which we are required by law to keep or have compelling legitimate interests in keeping.

To exercise any of these rights, you can get in touch with us using the details set out below. If you have unresolved concerns, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

How do I get in touch with you?

We hope that we can satisfy queries you may have about the way we process your data. If you have any concerns about how we process your data, you can get in touch with our Data Controller, the VCF Secretary, at secretary@vcf.org.uk