Privacy Policy

At We Hear You (WHY) we want everyone who supports us, or who comes to us for support, to feel confident and comfortable with how we manage their personal information. We are committed to treating you with respect and openness. This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use and store your personal information (this means any information that identifies or could identify you).

This Privacy policy may change, and we will keep this page up to date with information on how we deal with your personal data.

We will never sell your personal data. We will only share your personal data with a third party if we have obtained your written consent to do so.

This policy covers:

  • Who we are

  • How we collect information about you

  • Information we collect and how we use it

  • Sensitive data

  • Marketing and profiling

  • Legal basis for using your information

  • Keeping your information safe

  • How long we hold your information for

  • Your rights

  • Cookies

  • Contacting us

Who we are

We Hear You are a charity (Registered Charity Number 1156001) who provide counselling to children, young people and adults affected by cancer or other life- threatening conditions.

How we collect information about you

Your personal data (any information which identifies you, or which can be identified as relating to you personally for example, name, address, phone number, email address) will be collected and used by us. We will only collect the personal data that we need.

We collect information from you in the following ways:

1.        When you interact with us directly

This could be if you contact us about our services, register with us for an event, share your story with us, make a donation to us, purchase something, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity or otherwise provide us with your personal information. This includes when you phone us, visit our website, interact with us via social media, email us, or get in touch through the post, or in person.

2.        When you interact with us through third parties

This could be if you provide a donation through a third-party company such as Just Giving and provide your consent for your personal information to be shared with us.

3.         When you visit our website

We gather general information which might include which pages you visit most often, and which services, events or information are of most interest to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We also use "cookies" to help our site run effectively. There are more details below – see 'Cookies'. We use this information to personalise the way our website is presented when you visit, to make improvements and to ensure we provide the best service and experience for you. We use anonymous information, for all website activity and link clicks, which does not identify individual visitors to our website.

4.        From other information that is available to the public

In order to tailor our communications with you to your background and interests, we may collect information about you from publicly available sources or through third party subscription services or service providers (we have provided further details about this below – see 'Profiling: Making our work unique to you').

Information we collect and how we use it

We collect, store, and use the following kinds of personal information:

  • Your name.

  • Your contact details (including postal address, telephone number, e-mail address and/or social media identity).

  • Where you have attended WHYinwork training, any information regarding your company and role which you may have provided us with.

  • Your date of birth.

  • Your gender.

  • Your bank or credit card details where you provide these to make a payment.

  • If you volunteer for us or apply for a job with us, information necessary for us to process these applications and assess your suitability (which may include things like employment status, previous experience depending on the context, as well as any unspent criminal convictions or pending court cases you may have).

  • Information about your activities on our website(s) and about the device you use to access these, for instance your IP address and geographical location.

  • Information about events, activities, and products which we consider to be of interest to you.

  • Information relating to your health (for example if you are taking part in or attending an event for health and safety purposes, as well as where you share your experiences of using our services with us).

  • Where you have left us a legacy, any information regarding next of kin with which you may have provided us to administer this.

  • Information as to whether you are a taxpayer to enable us to claim Gift Aid.

  • Age, nationality, and ethnicity information for monitoring purposes; and any other personal information you provide to us.

Sensitive data

Certain types of personal information are in a special category under data protection laws, as they are more sensitive. Examples of this type of sensitive data would be information about health, race, religious beliefs, political views, trade union membership, sex life or sexuality or genetic/biometric information.

We only collect this type of information about our supporters to the extent that there is a clear reason for us to do so, for example asking for health information if you are taking part in a sporting event, or where we ask for information for the purpose of providing appropriate facilities or support. We will also collect this type of information if you make it public or volunteer it to us – for instance if you tell us you have a life- threatening condition when you access our counselling services or sharing your story for marketing or media purposes.

Wherever it is practical for us to do so, we will make why we are collecting this type of information clear and what it will be used for.

We will use this information to:

  • Provide you with the services, products, or information you asked for.

  • Administer your donation or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid.

  • Keep a record of your relationship with us.

  • Respond to or fulfil any requests, complaints or queries you make to us.

  • Understand how we can improve our services, products, or information by conducting analysis and market research.

  • Manage our events.

  • Send you correspondence and communicate with you.

  • Administer our websites and to troubleshoot, perform data analysis, research, generate statistics and surveys related to our technical systems.

  • Testing our technical systems to make sure they are working as expected.

  • Display content to you in a way appropriate to the device you are using (for example if you are viewing content on a mobile device or a computer).

  • Generate reports on our work, services, and events.

  • Safeguard our staff and volunteers.

  • Conduct due diligence and ethical screening.

  • Monitor website use to identify visitor location, guard against disruptive use, monitor website traffic and/or personalise information which is presented to you.

  • Process your application for a job or volunteering position.

  • Conduct training and quality control.

  • Audit and administer our accounts.

  • Meet our legal obligations, for instance to perform contracts between you and us, or our obligations to regulators, government and/or law enforcement bodies.

  • Carry out fraud prevention and money laundering checks.

Counselling services

We run services to provide support to individuals affected by cancer or life- threatening conditions and collect personal information to provide those services. We may receive personal information about your health when you speak, email, or contact us by post. We will use this information to answer your questions and provide you with information on our services. This information will not be used for marketing purposes and will not be passed to anyone else without your express permission or in cases where this is required the law.

Marketing and profiling

Sending marketing communications

Our marketing communications include information about our latest service developments, campaigns, successes and requests for donations or other support.

Occasionally, we may include information from partner organisations or

organisations who support us in these communications. We operate an ‘opt-in only’ communication policy. This means that, except as set out below, we will only send marketing communications to those that have explicitly stated that they are happy for us to do so.

We may use information you have given us directly, for example the record of your previous donations to and/or relationship with us, your location and demographics, as well as the type of activity you have been involved with, to tailor our communications with you about future activities.

Events and fundraising

When you have asked for details about one of our events, we will send you information including, where relevant, ideas for fundraising and reminders on key information about the activity.

Where you have signed up for an event with a third party (for example the London Marathon or Global Adventure Challenges) and told the event organiser that you wish to fundraise for us, we may contact you with information and support for your fundraising for that event.

WHYinwork

When you have asked for details about one of our WHYinwork seminars, we will send you information about our offer. We will also send prospecting communications to you with the option to ‘opt-out’ / ‘unsubscribe’ from future communications.

Managing your contact preferences

We make it easy for you to tell us how you want us to communicate, in a way that suits you. Our forms have clear marketing preference questions, and we include information on how to opt out when we send you marketing. If you don’t want to

hear from us, that’s fine, and you can change your preferences at any time. Just let us know when you provide your data or contact us on 01373 455255 or info@wehearyou.org.uk

If you’ve decided you don’t want to be contacted for marketing purposes, we may still need to contact you for administrative purposes. This may include where we are processing a donation you’ve made and any related Gift Aid, thanking you for a donation or participation in an event, or keeping in touch with you about volunteering activities you are doing for us.

Building profiles

We want to improve how we talk to you and the information we provide through our website, services, events, and information. To do this we sometimes use profiling and screening methods so that we can better understand our supporters, your preferences and needs to provide a better experience for you.

We may carry out targeted fundraising activities using profiling techniques based on the information that we hold about you. We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

Legal basis for using your information

Data protection laws mean that each use we make of personal information must have a ‘legal basis’. The relevant legal bases are set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) and in current UK data protection legislation.

  • Consent – you have given clear consent for us to use your personal information for a specific purpose.

  • Contract – the use of your personal information is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because we have asked you to take specific steps before entering into a contract.

  • Legal obligation – using your personal information is necessary for us to comply with the law.

  • Vital Interest – using your personal information is necessary to protect health or life. For example, a safeguarding issue or an incident at an event.

  • Legitimate interest - there is a legitimate interest for We Hear You to process your information to help us to achieve our aim of ensuring that everyone affected by cancer or a life-threatening condition can access counselling. Whenever we process your personal information under the ‘legitimate interest' lawful basis we make sure that we take into account your rights and interests and will not process your personal information if we feel that there is an imbalance. Some examples of where we have a legitimate interest to process your personal information are where we contact you about our work via post, use your personal information for data analytics, conducting research to better understand who our supporters are, improving our services, for our legal purposes (for example, dealing with complaints and claims), or for complying with guidance from the Charity Commission.

Keeping your information safe

We take looking after your information very seriously. We ensure there are appropriate technical and organisational controls in place to protect your personal information.

Our websites may contain links to other sites. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites.

Any debit or credit card details which we receive on our website are passed securely to Enthuse, our payment processing partner, according to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards.

How long we hold your information for

We will only keep your information for as long as it is reasonable and necessary. This is determined by legal and operational considerations. For example, keeping information for gift aid purposes or health and safety requirements.

Your rights

You have various rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you –

these are set out in more detail below.

1.        Access to your personal information

You have the right to request access to a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, along with information on what personal information we use, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it for and whether it has been used for any automated decision making. You can make a request for access free of charge. Please make all requests for access in writing and provide us with evidence of your identity.

2.        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.

3.        Consent

If you have given us your consent to use personal information (for example, for marketing), you can withdraw your consent at any time.

4.        Rectification

You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you.

5.        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.

6.        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.

7.        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.

8.        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.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, you can do so by contacting us at We Hear You, 14-15 North Parade, Frome, BA11 1AU or by emailing info@wehearyou.org.uk We may be required to ask for further information and/or evidence of identity. We will endeavour to respond fully to all requests within one month of receipt of your request, however if we are unable to do so we will contact you with reasons for the delay.

Please note that exceptions apply to a number of these rights, and not all rights will be applicable in all circumstances. For more details we recommend you consult the guidance published by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.

You can also make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner's Office, https://ico.org.uk

Cookies

'Cookie' is a name for a small file, usually of letters and numbers, which is downloaded onto your device, like your computer, mobile phone or tablet when you visit a website.

They let websites recognise your device, so that the sites can work more effectively, and also gather information about how you use the site. A cookie, by itself, can't be used to identify you.

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you come to our website and also allows us to improve the user experience.

The cookies we use

We use the categorisation set out by the International Chamber of Commerce in their UK Cookie Guide.

We use all four categories of cookies:

1.     Strictly necessary cookies are essential for you to move around our website and to use its features, like our shopping basket and your account

2.     Performance cookies collect anonymous information about how you use our site, like which pages are visited most

3.     Functionality cookies collect anonymous information that remember choices you make to improve your experience, like your text size or location. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog

4.     Targeting or advertising cookies collect information about your browsing habits in order to make advertising relevant to you and your interests. As such if you visit the Mind website you may then be more likely to see adverts about Mind’s work on other websites as your browsing suggests that this is an area of interest

No cookies, please

You can opt out of all our cookies (except the strictly necessary ones). Find out how to control and delete cookies in your browser. But, if you choose to refuse all cookies, our website may not function for you as we would like it to.

If you have any questions about how we use cookies, please contact us.