Introduction

This website is owned by Freedom for Animals, registered charity number 1124436.

We, Freedom for Animals, have created this Policy in order to demonstrate our commitment to preserving your privacy and safeguarding any personal details you provide to us via our website or by other means. This Policy explains how we collect and use your information.

We will ask you to consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy when you first visit our website.

By using our website or providing us with your personal information you are agreeing to this Policy. We may update this Policy at any time without notice to you, so please check it regularly. This privacy policy was last updated on 22nd September 2023.

Collecting your data on the website

We may collect personal information (for example your name, your address, your e-mail address, or your telephone number) from you when you:

  • Make a donation to us
  • Register your support
  • Become a member
  • ‘Take action’ on one of our campaigns on our website
  • Make an enquiry
  • Make a purchase from our online shop
  • Join our E-newsletter
  • Volunteer for us; or
  • Contact us or become involved with us in another way

We may also collect information on any other people you name when dealing with us, for example if you purchase an Adopt an Animal pack as a gift, we will need your gift recipient’s address. We won’t contact them about anything else unless they ask us to. 

We may also collect information from the public domain, either directly or from third parties. Except where permitted by law, we will never collect sensitive personal data about you without your consent.

We also use IP addresses to help us analyse trends, administer the site, track users’ movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Your data may also be available to our website provider to enable us and them to carry out analysis and research on demographics, interests and behavior of our users and supporters to help us gain a better understanding of them to enable us to improve our services. This may include connecting data we receive from you on the website to data available from other sources. Your personally identifiable data will only be used where it is necessary for the analysis required, and where your interests for privacy are not deemed to outweigh their legitimate interests in developing new services for us. In the case of this activity the follow will apply:

  1. Your data will be made available to our website provider
  2. The data that may be available to them include any of the data we collect as described in section 3 above.
  3. Our website provider will not transfer your data to any other third party, or transfer your data outside of the EEA.
  4. They will store your data for a maximum of 7 years.
  5. This processing does not affect your rights under sections 10 or 16 of this privacy policy

Keeping data secure

This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control.

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

We may send communications to you by email. E-mail is not a fully secure means of communication, and whilst we try to keep our systems and communications protected we cannot guarantee this.

We make no representations about any other websites, and when you access any other website through a link on our website (including social media sites) please understand that it is independent from us and that we have no control over that website or the way your personal information is collected through those websites. Those websites may have their own privacy policies and we encourage you to look at those policies or contact the website operators directly to understand how your personal information is used.

Financial transactions relating to donations and purchases on this website are handled by our payment services providers, Stripe, GoCardless or paypal. We will share transaction data with our payment services providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds. You can find information about the payment services providers' privacy policies and practices at:

-      Stripe (URL https://stripe.com/gb/privacy)

-      GoCardless  (URL https://gocardless.com/legal/privacy/)

-      Paypal (URL https://www.paypal.com/ie/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full)

Internet-based transfers

Given that the Internet is a global environment, using it to collect and process personal data necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis.  This means for instance that data you pass to us may be processed outside the European Economic Area, although the data will always be held securely and in line with the requirements of UK data protection legislation.  By communicating electronically with us, you acknowledge and agree to our processing of personal data in this way.

Data Protection Law - Your data and Freedom for Animals

When dealing with your personal information we will at all times comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 (“the Act”), and any other applicable legislation. We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner's Office and our data protection registration number is Z204280X. You can make contact at any time on [email protected].

There are various lawful bases for using personal data. These are:

Consent, Legitimate Interest, Contract, Legal Obligation

These four bases apply to different types and uses of data at Freedom for Animals. For example,

  • if you have given us your consent to send you emails on our newsletter list.
  • If you donated to a particular appeal and we think you would have a legitimate interest to receive a letter with an update on that appeal.
  • If we have a contract with you if you bought a gift from our online shop and we need to send it to you.
  • If we have a legal obligation for example keeping your details on file to claim Gift Aid, after you give us your permission.

Whatever basis we use, we will always balance your rights against the interests of our charity. We will only use your personal information in a way you would expect and will respect any requests you may make to stop hearing from us.

Consent

We will always collect your consent to email you. You can withdraw consent at anytime by contacting [email protected].uk or calling 0845 330 3911

Legitimate Interest

This legal basis means that organisations can process your personal information if they 1. have a genuine and legitimate reason for doing so and 2. that use does not harm any of your rights and interests as an individual.

There are times when we may use a Legitimate Interest basis to keep in contact with you. This is because it is not always practical to get consent yet we believe you would be interested to receive information from us. This would always be led by your rights as an individual and we would never contact you if we felt it was inappropriate to your interests.

At Freedom for Animals we assess every communication we send to determine if it is line with your interests and expectations. We recognise that our supporters feel passionately about the cause and therefore would be genuinely interested to receive more information or fundraising appeals to make our work for animals possible. We will of course honour any requests to stop communications at your request at any time.

Here are some examples of when we may use a Legitimate Interest basis to use your information:

  • To send postal communications such as thank you letters, campaign updates or fundraising appeals.
  • To process your donations.
  • To process your orders from our online shop.
  • To send updates on your Adopt an Animal pack to you or your gift recipent.
  • To prevent fraud when transacting on our website.
  • To improve security of our websites and systems.
  • To analyse your personal information to ensure that our communications are relevant to you.

Volunteers

As with most organisations, volunteers must apply by completing an application or submitting a CV. They also provide their contact details such as email, address and phone number. We have found at Freedom for Animals that we have some volunteers who volunteer regularly and others who give time when they can, on a more ad hoc basis. Therefore we need to keep these contact details on file for longer periods, to reach out to volunteers when we may need them for events or help with a project in our office.

We also believe these individuals are passionate and interested in the cause, so will also use Legitimate Interest grounds to send them relevant information on our work.

We will safely store CVs and application forms, and delete once the volunteer has joined the team.

Financial Supporters

These are supporters that help or have helped us with financial gifts. A supporter’s pattern of giving can often change over time. Some supporters may give regularly, once a year or even once every couple of years. We believe these individuals, even those who give more sporadically, are clearly still engaged with the cause. Therefore we will keep their data on file and continue to contact them under Legitimate Interest grounds until they notify us otherwise.

When it is necessary we will contact you for administrative purposes, e.g. to contact you regarding a payment.

Life members

For supporters who have signed up to be a Life member or having pledged to leave us a gift in your will – we need to keep your information to ensure that your wishes are fulfilled.

Animal Adopters

For those who have chosen to symbolically Adopt an Animal with us, we will continue to contact you throughout your adoption period and beyond via post and email, unless you tell us otherwise. If you purchase the adoption pack on behalf of someone else (as a gift) we will communicate with them for the duration of their adoption, only about their adoption. We will continue contact with them after that period if they give us permission.

Activists and Fundraisers

This group encompasses those people who take part in our work for animals through a campaign action such as a petition or joining a protest and those who chose to hold fundraising events or collections. We will use Legitimate Interest grounds to stay in touch with these people as we believe they are actively engaged in the work we do.

Interested people via an enquiry

These are supporters of our mission, who have demonstrated an interest in our cause by contacting us for more information. We think someone that has reached out to us to find out more would like us to send them the relevant information and further relevant information in future.

Legitimate Interest to send you direct mail

Unless you tell us not to, we will rely on our Legitimate Interest ground (explained above) for sending you direct mail. From time to time, we would like to post you exciting updates about our work and how you can support us, including fundraising activities and campaign actions. Unless you have requested that we do not send you some, or all of this, our direct mailings do include marketing and fundraising asks which further the aims and objectives of Freedom for Animals.

We are always mindful of trying to only send you what you are interested in and only as often as is appropriate.

Data Sharing

Freedom for Animals do not share, sell or swap your information with other organisation for marketing reasons.

To help us communicate the work we are doing and provide these services we use a few select, trusted service providers including enewsletter services to communicate, donation processing services to collect donations and data analysis services to ensure our data is always up to date so we can keep in contact with supporters. These providers only receive information that is necessary to carry out these services and they have no authority to use your data in any other way or share you data elsewhere

We may share or disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by any law or court order.

Changes to your data

From time to time we may contact you to ensure that the information you have provided us with remains accurate and up to date. In some circumstances we may use external data lists to avoid misdirecting our communications with you, this includes FPS and TPS.

Like all organisations, we comply with requests for the disclosure of personal information where this is required or permitted by law. This could include requests from law enforcement or tax agencies. In these circumstances, the request must be submitted in writing and in accordance with the relevant legal requirements.

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us or with the Information Commissioner's office https://ico.org.uk/

Requesting your data

Under the law, you have a right to request a copy of the data we hold on file for you. If you make a request we will aim to send a copy of the data to your home address, via recorded delivery, within 30 days from the request. To do so email [email protected], call 0845 3303911 write to our Administration Department at 83 Ducie Street, Manchester. M1 2JQ

Updating your contact preferences

If you have provided us with your details, but decide at a later date that you no longer want to receive information from us, if you wish to update us that your contact details have changed or you want us to change the way we contact you, simply let us know by:

  • Sending an email to [email protected]
  • Writing to the following postal address: Freedom for Animals, 83 Ducie Street, Manchester. M1 2JQ
  • Calling the following telephone number: 0845 330 3911

Instructions for unsubscribing from e-mails will also be included in each e-mail communication we send.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Policy, please contact us at [email protected]

Website Cookies

About cookies

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

Our website uses cookies to help us to improve our website and the way you use it. The cookies we use mean that our website will remember you and may pre-populate fields such as your name and address when you’re filling them in on our website. Cookies are small text files that websites transfer to your device (computer, phone or tablet) and provide us with information such as what type of device you’re using, what specific device you have, what operating system you’re using, what your device settings are and why our website might have crashed on your device. Your device manufacturer or operating system provider will have more details about what information your device makes available to us.

The names of the cookies we use on our website and the purpose for which we use them are set out below. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies, but blocking cookies may have a negative impact on the usability of our website and you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

Cookies that we use

Please see our cookie policy for more information: www.freedomforanimals.org.uk/cookies/policy

We use cookies for the following purposes:

Cookie Name

Used by

Description

Expiration

__utma

Google Analytics

Stores the amount of visits of a user, the time of their first visit, the previous visit, and the current visit. It does not contain any personal information and is used only for analytical purposes.  

2 years from set/update

__utmz

Google Analytics

This performance cookie stores where a user came from (eg. search engine, search keyword, link).

6 months from set/update

_ga and _gid

Google Analytics

Used to distinguish between website users in Google Analytics.

2 years and 2 hours

_gat_UA-XXXXXXXX-X (where the Xs are replaced by the Google Analytics ID number)

Google Analytics

Used to moderate calls to the Google Analytics service.

1 minute

__unam

ShareThis

Set as part of the ShareThis service and monitors "click-stream" activity, e.g. web pages viewed, navigation from page to page, time spent on each page etc. The ShareThis service only identifies a user if they have separately signed up with ShareThis for a ShareThis account and given them consent. Checks how long you stay on a site: when a visit starts, and ends. It does not contain any personal information and is used only for analytical purposes.

14 months

cc_cookie_accept

Website

Stores whether the user has accepted the cookie message or not.

365 days

ASP.NET_SessionId

Website

Used for authenticating a user's session after logging in. Closes when you exit the browser.

End of session

ARRAffinity

Website

Tells our infrastructure which server to handle the request.

End of session

MemberLoggedIn

Website

A binary flag which stores whether a user is logged in or not.

End of session

ai_session and ai_user

Website

Tracks users as they navigate the website predominately for infrastructure performance insights.

1 day

DisplayName

Website

Keeps track of a donors preference to show their name during a Direct Debit.

End of session

Cookies used by our service providers

Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google's privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. The relevant cookies are:  _ga, _gid, _gat, __utma, __utmt, __utmb, __utmc, __utmz and __utmv

Complaints

If you have a complaint about us, or the treatment of your data, you can contact the Charity Commission. The Charity Commission is the independent watchdog for charities.  You can make a complaint about a charity on their website at www.charity-commission.gov.uk.

If you've got a complaint about our fundraising activities you can also complain to the Fundraising Regulator.  You can do this at: https://www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk/

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.