Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

1. Who we are

The Columban Missionaries in Britain are a group of Columban ordained and lay missionaries together with co-workers, who see ourselves being called to be a missionary presence in Britain, encouraging and listening to the local Church in its efforts to reach out beyond its boundaries for the sake of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The Charity is registered with the Charity Commission as The Society of St. Columban for Foreign Missions: in England and Wales 221594 and Scotland SCO 38948.

This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

In meeting its objectives the Charity, as a data controller, processes the personal data of the following categories of people:

• Donors
• Legacy pledgers
• People who join us
• Subscribers

There are audience specific privacy policies for each of the categories above that support this Privacy Policy and we encourage you to read those that are relevant to your relationship with us for greater detail on how we manage and use your personal data.

We may need to change or update this Privacy Policy from time to time and if we do so we will post the changes here. Where the changes are significant, we will inform individuals.

Dated: 1st October 2020

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2. What we do with personal data

The personal data that we may collect about you, the reason why we collect it and what we do with it will depend on your relationship with us.

We collect personal data in lots of ways; such as when you sign up for an activity, sign up for email newsletters or make a donation to us. See the audience specific privacy policies below for more detail.

2.1. Pray

We invite donors and supporters to pray for the strength, protection and safety of our missionaries, and the people they serve. We do not collect any personal data for this purpose.

2.2. Donors – online / over the telephone / by cheque / pledge or leave a legacy

Your donation to the Columban Missionaries will help make a real difference to those living on the margins of life in Britain and in countries around the world where we work.

2.3 People who join us

There are four ways you can “join” in the work of the Columban missionaries: Ordained Priesthood; Columban Lay Mission; Columban Faith in Action programme and/or Columban Invitation to Mission programme.

2.4 Subscribers

You can receive the latest news, stories, reflections and insights from the Columban world via Far East magazine, Vocation for Justice magazine and Columban e-newsletters.

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3. Your rights

You have various legal rights in relation to the information you give us, or which we collect about you, as follows: –

  • The right to access your information and obtain confirmation that we are processing your personal information (see below our Subject Access Request process);
  • The right to have your personal information rectified if it is incomplete or inaccurate;
  • The right to have your personal information removed or deleted in certain circumstances, for example when you have withdrawn consent to it being processed and we have no other basis for processing it;
  • The right to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
  • The right to object to certain processing including the right to not be subject to automated decision-making and the right to object where we are processing your information on the basis of our legitimate interest;
  • The right to require us not to send you marketing communications; and
  • Where you have provided your consent to the processing, the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your data (without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal).

Please note – not all of the above rights are absolute and requests may be refused where exceptions apply. For a more detailed explanation, please see the Information Commissioner’s guidance.

Subject Access Request

You can ask us to confirm if we are keeping any personal information about you and you can also request to receive a copy of that personal information – this is called a Subject Access Request (SAR).

To make a SAR you may be asked to provide adequate proof of identity such as a copy of your passport, birth certificate, or driving license before your request can be processed.

Try to be as clear as possible about the information you are seeking, as this will help us respond to your request more efficiently. Once we have received your SAR and any necessary proof of identity, you will receive a response from us within a month unless circumstances permit us to extend that deadline.

If you would like to submit a SAR or exercise any of the other rights referred to above, please email us on yourprivacy@columbans.co.uk or write to:

Data Protection Lead,
Columban Mission Office,
St. Columban’s,
Widney Manor Road,
Solihull, B93 9AB.

You can also call the Mission Office on 01564 772 096.

If you are not happy with how we handle any of your requests, queries, or concerns, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk), which oversees the protection of personal information in the UK.

Updating your communication preferences

We will respect your privacy. This means we carefully manage the communications we send you to ensure that we are contacting you in the most relevant way.

Email

You can change your email preferences or unsubscribe at any time by:

  • clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the end of any emails you receive from us; or
  • by contacting yourprivacy@columbans.co.uk or calling the Columban Mission Office on 01564 772 096 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am to 4.00pm).

Alternatively you can unsubscribe from other email communications by replying to the sender.

Please note that we may embed links to third party websites or pages that are not managed by the Charity. If you follow any of these links, please note that they have their own privacy policies. Please check those third-party policies before you submit any personal information to those websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.

Post

You can change your mail preferences or ask to be removed from a mailing list at any time by:

  • contacting office@columbans.co.uk or calling the Columban Mission Office on 01564 772 096 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am to 4.00pm); or
  • by writing to us at: Columban Mission Office, St. Columban’s, Widney Manor Road, Solihull B93 9AB

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4. How do we keep your information secure?

We take appropriate security measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction. When sharing your data with third parties, we do so securely, including taking the following safeguards:

  • PCI DSS standards. We comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards in relation to debit/credit card payments made on our website to protect financial information from theft and fraud. Your card details are not stored on the Charity’s electronic systems or as hard copies.
  • Methods of disposal. Paper documents are disposed of by shredding in a manner that ensures confidentiality.
  • Firewalls and encryption. We use industry-standard and up-to-date firewall and encryption technology.
  • Secure data transfers. When transferring your data we ensure it is protected by using a secure data transfer site.
  • Restricted access. Access to personal and financial data is permitted to authorised staff only.
  • Secure storage. Our data storage is assessed through a secure physical and electronic process.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our website and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal information, we will use adequate procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Whenever we engage a third party to act on our behalf we ensure that the contract we enter into with them requires them to comply with UK data protection laws, to process your information only for the purposes we specify and to make sure they have the appropriate controls in place to protect the security of your information.

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5. Contact us

You can contact us at any time to change your communication preferences or let us know when something changes. If you have any queries about our Privacy Policy or want to raise a concern about how we process the information we hold about you, please email yourprivacy@columbans.co.uk or write to:

Stephen Awre (Data Protection Lead),
Columban Mission Office,
St. Columban’s,
Widney Manor Road,
Solihull B93 9AB.

You can also call us on 01564 772 096.

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