Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement of the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland

November 2018

The purpose of the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland (PHSI) is to advance public education in the history of the Churches of the Presbyterian Order in Ireland by various means, including the collection and preservation of historic materials and records of such churches. In providing a service to fulfil this purpose, the Society takes your privacy seriously and is committed to protecting your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, 2018.

  1. Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).

  1. The Data Controller

The Council of the PHSI acts as the Data Controller. This means that they decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

  1. Legal basis for Processing your Personal Data

The legal basis we rely on will primarily consist of one or more of the following:

Processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the Society or by a third party except where such interests are overridden by the interests, rights or freedoms of the data subject. This is where we need to use your data to engage in our normal day to day activities e.g. maintaining our membership records and keeping details of depositors.

Explicit consent of the data subject e.g. where we keep you informed of events that are not organised by the Society but may be of interest to members.

  1. Sharing your Personal Data

We will not release or sell your personal details to anyone outside our organisation for mailing or marketing purposes without your permission but see 5 below.

  1. How the information will be used

Personal information provided by you during your application and current membership, and any communication with the Society via forms on our website, will be used to contact and communicate with you about your membership e.g. renewals, reminders, your enquiry and to provide the goods and services requested. It will also be used for the administration of the Society’s membership records.

When you register as a researcher or join as a member of PHSI, we collect certain personal information from you (for example your name, address, email address, telephone number) to process your membership. All such information is held on secure servers of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Maintenance of our membership records requires the Society to work with a trusted third party who satisfies the use of such data in accordance with this policy.

As a life member, annual member or student member you will automatically receive the Annual Bulletin, papers relating to your membership and notices of Society events. Any other notices about events unconnected with the Society will require your prior written consent before we contact you.

By submitting your personal information to us you consent to the use of that information as set out in this Statement. We keep our Privacy Statement under review and if we change it, we will post the changes to our website and give notice as appropriate.

  1. How long do we keep your personal data?

Membership data will be kept during the period of your membership of the Society and for 7 years after your membership has lapsed, been cancelled by you or your death. All other records recording your personal details will be kept for 10 years and then destroyed or deleted except for depositor details which have to be retained permanently.

  1. Your rights and your personal data

We take appropriate measures to ensure that the information we receive is kept accurate and up-to-date and retained only for so long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is used. If your personal details change or you do not wish to renew your membership, please help us to keep your information up-to-date by notifying us by e-mail to phsilibrarian@pcinet.org or by writing to us at Assembly Buildings, Fisherwick Place, Belfast BT1 6DW.

You have the right to request what personal information the Society holds about you and to correct or update it.by contacting the Society at phsilibrarian@pcinet.org or by writing to us at Assembly Buildings, Fisherwick Place, Belfast BT1 6DW.

In order to serve you most efficiently, the reputable third-party online payments system PayPal handles our transactions. They receive the information needed to verify and authorise your payment card and to process your order. All such organisations are under strict obligation to keep your personal information private.

  1. Monitoring of our Website

We use Google Analytics to monitor use of our website. Google Analytics use cookies to gather statistics about our visitors, such as where you come from before entering our website, which pages you look at on our site and where you go afterwards. Information collected in this way is anonymous and does not identify individual visitors. This information allows us to improve our website and the services we provide. For more information about Google Analytics, please see Google's Privacy Policy .

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to our website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

We reserve the right to amend this privacy statement. The latest version will be available on our website so please check from time to time. By continuing to use the website you will be deemed to have accepted any changes.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information as to how the website is being used.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org  or www.allaboutcookies.org .

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, please visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout for details.