Your privacy is important to us. We (Hope Community Church) are committed to safeguarding the privacy of your information.

Why do we collect your personal data?

We collect personal data to provide appropriate pastoral care and to fulfil our purposes as a church. In legal terms this is “Legitimate Interests”. We also collect data required by law. When it is required, we may also ask you for your consent to process your data.

What types of personal data do we collect?

The data we collect includes:

• contact information for purposes of maintaining membership and communicating with those who regularly participate in any church activity.
• information for the purposes of fostering community and advertising our activities.
• sensitive information supporting the pastoral care of members and those in regular contact with the church.
• information necessary for fulfilling our legal obligations.

How do we store your data?

We will use appropriate measures to keep personal data secure at all points of processing. We will not keep your personal data longer than is necessary given the purposes for which it was collected. We will comply with official guidance about retention periods for specific records. We will make sure that personal data held is accurate and, where appropriate, kept up to date. 

Who do we share your data with?

Your data may be stored using appropriate secure cloud services, and third parties only have access if they have a legitimate need as part of their work for us. We will not share your information with third parties for any other reason without your consent unless the law requires us to do so.

What can I do if I have any concerns?

Under Data Protection Law you have the following rights:

• to request access to any of your personal data held by us
• to ask to have inaccurate personal data changed
• to restrict our processing of your data, in certain circumstances
• to object to processing, in certain circumstances, including preventing the use of your data for direct marketing
• to receive your data, or some of your data, in a format that can be easily re-used
• to object to automated decisions, in certain circumstances
• to withdraw consent when we are relying on consent to process your data.

For further information on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of your information and your rights to access information we hold on you, please contact our Administrator.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns

Confidentiality

We are deeply committed to providing pastoral care in a way that preserves your dignity and privacy. That means we will never share gratuitously what you tell us and will do all we can to keep such things private. Our commitment to serving you well means that no pastoral conversation can be promised absolute confidentiality as, for instance, concerns for your safety may mean that it needs to be shared in a limited way.