Privacy policy

We have published this privacy policy to ensure that members and third parties are informed about the personal information we hold and how it is used. The Royal Photographic Society operates within the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (“data protection legislation”), which were introduced in May 2018.

This privacy policy sets out how we collect and process any personal data that we collect from you, or that you provide to us, in connection with the work of the RPS.

This Data Protection and Privacy Policy should be read alongside our website terms and conditions. You can also learn more about cookies used on this site.

Data controller

The Royal Photographic Society is the data controller of the personal information you submit to us. You can contact us at:

The Royal Photographic Society
337 Paintworks
Arnos Vale
Bristol BS4 3AR
United Kingdom

 

Our registration number with the Information Commissioner’s Office is Z5700718.

Whose personal information do we hold?

We hold personal information relating to:

  • Our members
  • Our staff
  • Our Council members
  • Volunteers (who are not members)
  • Visitors to our offices
  • General enquirers
  • Suppliers/Contractors
  • Employees at other organisations we work with
  • Applicants for jobs and roles as volunteers
  • Attendees at our events (who are not members)
  • Registered website users
  • Anyone who has asked to receive information from us or our volunteers

What personal information do we hold and how do we collect it?

We obtain your personal information directly from you face-to-face at events and meetings, via post, email or our website, or via telephone. Depending on your relationship with us, we may hold the following categories of personal information:

  • Name and contact details
  • Financial information
  • Education, profession and skills
  • Access/Dietary requirements
  • Age
  • Disabilities (normally only if requested)
  • Health information (normally staff only)
  • Criminal convictions (normally staff and trustees only)

Purpose and lawful basis for using personal information

Data protection legislation requires that we have a specific lawful basis in place for each of the reasons why we use your personal information. These are set out below.

If you are a non-member who is not registered on our website, we will ask you for your consent when:

  • we want to send electronic communications (email, SMS) promoting the work of the RPS, events we are running or where we are looking to raise funds to further the work of the RPS.

We rely on our legitimate interests where we:

  • send electronic communications (email, SMS) to members about RPS activities and events and other information we feel is consistent with membership
  • send electronic communications to registered website users in order to provide services through our website
  • send paper communications promoting the work of the RPS, events we are running or where we are looking to raise funds to further the work of the RPS
  • communicate with you about operational or administrative issues relating to your membership or the work of the RPS e.g. notification of the AGM
  • work with corporate partners to promote the work of the RPS and look to develop relationships further
  • process payments for our goods or services
  • take bookings for and administer our events
  • gain feedback from you at those events
  • receive and assess applications from prospective volunteers
  • coordinate and communicate with our volunteers
  • recruit new staff to allow us to consider applications and make a decision about whether someone is appointable
  • administer membership renewals.

This is where we have identified a legitimate interest of the RPS and it is necessary to use your personal information for a specific purpose, and this is not outweighed by any privacy risks caused to you. If you wish to know more in relation to the legitimate interests set out above, please contact us at: dataprotection@rps.org

We have a legal obligation where we:

  • need to meet our tax obligations e.g. collecting and disclosing Gift Aid records
  • manage our staff e.g. in relation to remuneration, absence management
  • administer staff pensions details
  • need to meet our health and safety compliance obligations, to staff, volunteers and attendees at events
  • assess and appoint new trustees e.g. information required by the Charity Commission.

When you choose to give us any information relating to your ethnicity, health or sexual orientation that we will only use for the purpose of monitoring, we rely on the lawful basis relating to equality of opportunity set out in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Your rights under data protection legislation

You as an individual have rights as follows:

  • The right to be informed about processing of your personal data.
  • The right to have your personal data corrected in case of inaccuracy and to have incomplete personal information completed.
  • The right to object to processing of your personal data.
  • The right to restrict processing of your personal data.
  • The right to erasure of your personal data.
  • The right to request access to your personal data and information about how we process it.
  • The right to move your personal data (Data Portability).
  • The right to withdraw consent (where use of personal information is based on consent).

For further information in relation to these rights, please see the Information Commissioner’s Office website (https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/).

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us by writing to the Society at the address given above or emailing dataprotection@rps.org.

Who we disclose your personal information to

We will pass certain personal information to third parties where we are required to or where necessary to fulfil a service we provide. The categories of third parties we disclose personal data to are listed below:

  • Volunteers of the RPS
  • Payroll providers
  • Pension providers
  • Professional advisers (e.g. for HR and legal advice, when necessary)
  • Event organisers
  • Organisations sending communications on our behalf or assisting in the administration of RPS business (e.g. mailing houses, email systems, etc)
  • Organisations providing us with IT services and support

How long will we keep your personal information?

We will not keep your personal information for longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it is held. This will depend on the nature of your relationship with us. In general, we will keep personal information for the following periods of time:

  • for members, the duration of your membership and then seven years after you are no longer a member to enable us to deal with any subsequent queries and for legislative requirements relating to the processing of payment information.
  • after this seven year period, to ensure we have a full historic record of all our members, we will retain basic information relating to your membership indefinitely i.e. name, postcode and dates of membership.
  • for staff, the duration of your employment plus six years after you leave the RPS (with seven years for certain financial records).
  • for volunteers (who are not also members), the duration of you being an active volunteer with us, plus 7 years.
  • for non-member attendees at events, once the event has taken place, we will keep your personal information for 7 years unless you have also provided consent to be contacted about the work of the RPS.
  • for people who have consented to be contacted about the work of the RPS who do not fall into the categories above, solely for as long as your consent is valid.

How we keep your personal information up to date

To ensure we are able to communicate with you effectively, we only use the very latest data provided by you. To help us do this, please keep us informed if any of your details change or update your own details via MyRPS, by contacting any staff member, by writing to the address above, or by emailing dataprotection@rps.org.

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Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will review this policy at least annually and whenever there is a change to the way in which we use personal information. Where possible, we will notify you whenever there is a substantive change to this policy with a summary of any changes made.

This page was last reviewed on 21/12/2019.