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Privacy statement

At Concern Worldwide we are committed to protecting the privacy of our supporters, staff an anyone else who entrusts their personal information to us.

Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation that specialises in tackling hunger among the most vulnerable people in the world’s poorest places. Our work would be impossible without the compassion and generosity of our donors and supporters. We are committed to protecting the privacy of our supporters, staff and anyone else who entrusts their personal information to us. We always endeavour to protect your personal information through compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, the UK General Data Protection Regulation and other relevant laws and regulations.

Concern Worldwide (UK) is a registered charity - registered charity numbers 1092236 (England and Wales) and SC038107 (Scotland) - and a charitable company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales under company number 4323646. The following Concern Worldwide (UK) Privacy Statement explains how we collect, store, use and protect personal information.

Please be assured that we never sell your data and we never share it with another company or charity for their own marketing purposes.

Protecting your personal information

If you contact us regarding an event, activity, campaign, request information, make a donation or use our website, you may provide some personal information to us. For example, you may provide your name, your postal address, your email address, your telephone number, credit card and debit card information. All personal information is protected by secure systems and processes. These are specifically designed to protect the information at all times and prevent loss, misuse, unauthorised access or disclosure, alteration or destruction of information. For example, we use a specialist payment gateway provider to enable online donations to be made securely by card, Apple Pay and Paypal. This helps to ensure any personal and financial information is fully protected and kept private.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our service providers. In order to safeguard your information we will ensure any such transfers are in strict compliance with data protection legislation, with all appropriate contractual arrangements in place. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storage or processing. Concern Worldwide (UK) will take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that your personal data is processed securely and in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

How we use your information

We may process personal information in a number of ways, such as:

  • to process donations and Gift Aid
  • to provide any information or services you request from us
  • to identify ways to improve our services and day-to-day operations
  • to keep you updated with our work and fundraising appeals (unless you ask us not to)
  • to enhance, tailor and personalise our communications for your benefit
  • to improve the performance of our website and improve the experience of website visitors
  • to deliver relevant online advertising

Lawful basis for processing

Concern Worldwide (UK) obtains and processes personal data fairly and lawfully, in an open and transparent manner. We will only do so if at least one of the following conditions applies:

  • It is necessary to fulfil a contract or agreement we have with you. For example, if you make a donation we need to process your personal data so that we can manage the payment and send you an acknowledgement.
  • We have your consent. For example, if you give us permission to keep you updated regarding our campaigns and fundraising activity.
  • It is in Concern Worldwide (UK)’s legitimate interests and these interests are not overridden by your own rights or interests, for example, to tailor our communications as shown below, or to contact you by post.
  • It is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation.
  • It is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another individual.
  • It is in the public interest or where we have official authority vested in us.

How long we keep your information

Concern Worldwide (UK) will only keep data in a form that permits personal identification for the duration necessary to fulfil our legal obligations and operational objectives. Once the respective retention period has elapsed, Concern Worldwide (UK) undertakes to anonymise, destroy or erase this data.

Keeping you updated

We believe that it is important to keep our donors and supporters updated about how your generous support is making a difference to our vital work tackling hunger and how you can help save more lives through campaigning and appeals - unless you ask us not to, in which case we will respect your wishes. When you provide your contact details to us we will normally ask if you agree to these communications and which communication channels you do and don’t wish us to use. You can change your preferences at any time by emailing us at [email protected], calling 0800 032 4001 or writing to Supporter Care, Concern Worldwide, 47 Frederick Street, Belfast BT1 2LW. We also provide the opportunity to ‘unsubscribe’ in all of our campaigning and fundraising mailings and emails.

Tailoring our communications

To ensure our communications are as relevant and interesting as possible, we often tailor their content based upon our supporters’ characteristics and behaviours. This also enables us to manage our fundraising and marketing activity in the most cost-effective and efficient ways, so we can keep our costs as low as possible. For example, a mailing we send to someone who has given a single donation may differ from one we send to someone who gives regularly by direct debit. We may sometimes use supplementary information from reputable third parties to help us understand more about our supporters. We may verify existing contact information, to check that it is still up to date. If we find postal addresses have become out of date over time we may update them to ensure our records are accurate. We may sometimes use geo-demographic information to understand more about our supporters and your interests. We may use publically available information to understand more about a small number of our donors or people that we believe may be interested in supporting our work. These legitimate activities enable us to tailor our fundraising and marketing activities to make them as appropriate as possible for our supporters and reflect their interests as closely as possible.

If you would prefer that we don’t use your information in this way, we will respect your wishes. Please let us know by contacting us at [email protected].

Please be assured that we never sell your data and we never share it with another company or charity for their own marketing purposes.

Your rights with regard to your information

You have rights under UK Data Protection legislation with regard to our processing of your data. You can exercise these rights at any time by contacting us in writing at: Supporter Care, Concern Worldwide, 47 Frederick Street, Belfast, BT1 2LW.

You have the right to be informed about any personal data that we hold which relates to you, including how we acquired such data and the purposes for which it is being used. This right requires that you will be given a copy of your personal data which you may have supplied to us via our website or in other correspondence and interactions.

To exercise this right, you must make your request in writing to the address specified above and include a copy of your passport or driving licence and a recent utility bill to verify your name and address. No fee is required for this service. Your request will be dealt with as soon as possible and we will respond to you within one month from the date on which your request was received.

You have the right to have inaccurate personal data corrected. If you discover that we hold inaccurate personal data about you, you have the right to instruct us to correct that information. If you inform us of any changes to your personal information, we will update our records accordingly. If you wish to request that we correct inaccurate information about you please email us at [email protected] or write to Supporter Care, Concern Worldwide, 47 Frederick Street, Belfast, BT1 2LW. Such an instruction must be in writing and must contain evidence of the correct information. We will respond as soon as possible, and in any event within one month from the date on which your instructions are received.

In certain circumstances, you have the ‘Right to be Forgotten’. This means that you can request that Concern Worldwide (UK) removes any and all references to you from our records and systems. We will comply with all such requests in a timely manner, as required by the UK General Data Protection Regulation, unless other operational or legal obligations require us to retain such data for a particular purpose or period of time.

You have the right, at all times, to object to the processing of your personal data which you find intrusive, excessive or unwarranted. Concern Worldwide (UK) will respect your right to do so, but may need to continue such processing where required do to so by law or within the terms of an existing contractual arrangement.

Website and social media analytics

Concern Worldwide (UK)’s websites use website analytics, including Google Analytics, which provides aggregated information about visitors to the website, for example, the number of visitors in a day, which parts of our website are most popular and if there are any trends, such as one specific page being viewed mostly by people in a particular country. This helps us to understand how people interact with our websites so that we can continually improve them. We also have an active presence on social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) and use analytical tools to monitor the performance of our social media posts, for example, the number of likes and shares, as well as audience information. This helps us to improve our activity on social media.

Online advertising

We may, on some occasions, wish to advertise on social media or other websites. When we do this we may wish to use the information you provide us with to target our digital and social media advertising. This enables us to improve efficiency and keep our costs down. For example, this may include securely providing contact details such as your name and email address to digital advertising networks or social media companies such as Facebook. We may use your information to enable us to display advertising to you, or to potential supporters who have similar characteristics to you. Any information we share with social media companies will be sent in an encrypted format and will not be used for their own marketing purposes.

If you prefer that we don’t use your information in this way, we will respect your wishes. Please let us know by contacting us at [email protected].

Cookies and similar technologies

Our websites and sub-domains use cookies and similar technologies to: provide users with the best possible digital experience; improve our website’s functionality and security; understand more about who visits our websites, where they come from, and how they donate; and to assist us in spreading news about Concern’s work through digital marketing activities. 

Please visit our Cookie Policy to find out more about cookies and similar technologies. You can find a detailed list of all cookies placed on devices via our website, and a list of vendors placing those cookies including links to their privacy statements, in the Cookie Declaration on the cookie policy page.

Legitimate Interests Assessments

Where we process personal data under the legal condition of Legitimate Interests, we conduct a process called a Legitimate Interests Assessment to consider and balance the interests, right and freedoms of our supporters and potential supporters with the interests of Concern UK. You can view or download copies of these Legitimate Assessments here.

Updating this statement

This statement is subject to change at any time and any changes to our privacy statement will be posted on this page without prior notification.

This Privacy Statement was last updated in January 2021.

Questions?

If you have any queries or questions about privacy and/or the security of your personal data, please contact us at [email protected].