Privacy Policy

Towcester u3a treats your privacy rights seriously. This privacy policy sets out how we will deal with your ‘personal information’, that is, information that could identify, or is related to the identity of, you as an individual.

1. What personal information do we collect?

When you express an interest in becoming a member of Towcester u3a you will be asked to provide certain information. This includes the following mandatory information required for membership purposes:

your name
home address
email address
telephone number/s

This will also include the following information you may have provided on a voluntary basis:

any group activities you may like to participate in
any professional qualifications, hobbies, skills, expertise, or talents you are prepared to share with other members
your prior occupation
bank account information
date of birth
passport number

2. How do we collect this personal information?

All the information collected is obtained directly from you, usually at the point of your initial registration and when you join an activity group. This is collected via membership forms, online contact forms, or by group coordinators. The lawful basis for collecting and storing your information is due to the contractual relationship that you, as a member, have with Towcester u3a.

In order to inform you about the groups, activities and events that you can access as a member we need to store and process a certain amount of personal information.

3. How do we use your personal information?

We use it:

For the administration of your membership
To communicate with you about general membership information and the organisation of events
To communicate with you about your group activities
For the administration, planning and management of Towcester u3a Committee members and group coordinators will communicate with you by email, post, other digital methods or telephone to inform you about the above matters.

4. Who do we share your personal information with?

We may disclose information about you:

Internally – to committee members and group coordinators – as required to facilitate your participation in our u3a activities and events;
Externally – to the company that oversees the distribution of the Third Age Trust magazine – Third Age Matters;
Where we have a statutory duty to disclose it for other legal and regulatory reasons. We do not anticipate any further need to share your information outside of Towcester u3a but, if the need should arise, we will first seek your consent and inform you as to who the information will be shared with and for what purpose.

5. How do we store your personal information?

We have in place a range of security safeguards to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. Security measures include dedicated password and encryption controls. Your membership information is held on a central database, which can be accessed by committee members. Your personal information is also held on a restricted local basis by committee members and group coordinators in spreadsheets and associated digital programs for access by them for the purpose of carrying out their u3a duties.

6. How long do we keep your personal information?

We need to keep your information so that we can provide our services to you. Bank account and other information you may have provided on a voluntary basis will be deleted or securely destroyed as soon as the service it was collected for has been performed. Information collected for membership purposes will not normally be stored for longer than 12 months after the expiry of your membership when it will also be deleted or securely destroyed. The exceptions to this are the rare instances where there may be legal or insurance circumstances that require information to be held for longer whilst the issues are investigated or resolved. Where this is the case, you will be informed as to how long the information will be held for and when it is deleted.

7. How your information can be updated or corrected

To ensure the information we hold is accurate and up to date, you will need to inform us about any changes to your personal information. You can do this by contacting the membership secretary by post or via email at membership@towcesteru3a.co.uk. You will have the opportunity to update your information on an annual basis, as required, via the membership renewal process. Should you wish to view the information that Towcester u3a holds on you, you can make this request by contacting the membership secretary as detailed above. There may be certain circumstances where we are not able to comply with this request. This would include where the information may contain references to other individuals or for legal, investigative or security reasons. Otherwise we will usually respond within 14 days of the request being made.

8. Facebook

Towcester u3a operates a private Facebook page on a closed members-only basis which is subject to the Facebook privacy policy. All the personal data on this Facebook page is posted there by members acting in their individual capacity; therefore, we do not collect and store any personal information in relation to this service, and nor do we use or share any personal information that members may post on it. An administrative process is in place to monitor the content and ensure the security of it. Although entry to and use of the Facebook page is only available to those members who have registered to join it, the page can still be viewed externally by other Facebook users generally.

9. Photographs

Photographs that uniquely identify an individual also constitute personal data. From time to time, we will publish photographs in our newsletters or on our website that were taken and submitted by members. Where these photographs contain personal data, they will only be processed and published when they qualify for exemption from the General Data Protection Regulation by reason they were taken during an appropriate u3a activity or event for use under one of the prescribed ‘special purposes’ (i.e. journalistic, academic, artistic or literary purposes), and the publishing of them is reasonable and deemed to be in the public interest of our membership. Photographs that are displayed on our Facebook page are posted by members under Facebook privacy terms and conditions. These photographs are not collected, stored, used or shared by us but are nonetheless monitored as part of our administrative process.

10. Availability and changes to this policy

This policy is available and can be accessed on our website – www.towcesteru3a.co.uk. This policy may change from time to time. If we make any material changes we will make members aware of this via our Newsletter, Facebook, at monthly members’ meetings or by post or email.

11. Contact

If you have any queries about this policy, need it in an alternative format, or have any complaints about our privacy practices, please contact us at membership@towcesteru3a.co.uk or any committee member listed on the committee contacts page under “About” on the main menu