Privacy Policy

Introduction

Mediation Buckinghamshire (MB) trading as Alternatives to Conflict takes your privacy extremely seriously. This policy sets out how we collect and process any personal data you may provide to us when you use our services or become a donor, and when you use our website
https://alternativestoconflict.org.uk

Contacting Us

MB has appointed a Data Protection Officer, who will be responsible for privacy matters and the protection of personal data we hold as an organisation, please contact the Mediation Buckinghamshire office who will provide you with contact details.
MB is registered in England and Wales, Charity No.1093803 and a Company Limited by Guarantee No. 444326. Our registered office is Mediation Buckinghamshire, Unit 246 Desbox, East Richardson Street, High Wycombe HP11 2GG
Phone: 01494520821

Making Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we collect or process your personal information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who are the UK’s supervisory authority for data protection. Complaints and concerns can be lodged with the ICO via this link:
https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
We kindly ask that before any complaints are lodged with the ICO, that you contact us first to try and resolve any issues you may have.

The Data we Collect

Personal information we may collect from you and process includes:

• identity and contact info – such as your name, date of birth, address, email addresses, phone numbers and photographs
• payment data – credit card or direct debit details when you become a donor to our organisation
• next of kin information (with their consent)
• your gender, ethnicity, race and religion
• cookies and IP address information when you use our website

Special Category Data

Under the General Data Protection Regulation/Data Protection Act (2018), special category data is data which includes information about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data.
MB does collect sensitive personal data as part of our service. Our lawful purposes and conditions for obtaining and processing this data are set out in a section below.
How do we use your personal data (such as name/address/contact details)?
We will only use your personal data for the following reasons:

• To provide you with the services we offer
• to liaise with other organisations regarding your case
• to improve the quality of our services and charity
• to inform donors and potential donors of Mediation Buckinghamshire news, events and fundraising efforts
• to sign you up for any events we may be organising
• to on-board volunteers
• defending a claim if we need your information to defend a legal claim against us by you or by another party

How we Obtain your Data

We obtain your personal data via a number of ways:

• from referrers
• from yourself
• via paper and online forms when you sign up to be a supporter or volunteer, sign up to our digital marketing or to attend one of our events
• when you use our website https://alternativestoconflict.org.uk

Our Lawful Purpose for Collecting and Processing your Information

We have identified that we will use your personal data for the following reasons:

• With your explicit consent
• to protect your vital interests
• in the performance of a contract where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests

we have identified that we will use special category data under the following conditions:

• with your explicit consent
• to protect your vital interest
• where it is necessary for reasons of public interest in the areas of public safety or safeguarding

Where we rely on consent as a lawful purpose for processing your personal data, you have the right to withdraw consent (where legally applicable) at any time by contacting our Data Protection Officer.

Sharing your Personal Data

We may need to share your personal data with third parties in order to provide you with our services or to help us raise funds for our charity.
These third parties include:

• the Police
• your employer in cases of workplace mediation
• your landlord
• local authorities
• organisations such as the Police, solicitors, courts for the purposes of complying with the law
• services providers who host our website and systems
• payment card providers who handle transactions on our behalf (for donors)
• third-party marketing organisations we work with when you sign-up to our marketing as a charity

We do not sell your personal data onto third parties. For the avoidance of doubt, we will only share data that is necessary for the legitimate work of the charity (for instance data relating to diversity and inclusion). We do not share the personal content of any intake or joint meetings unless there is a risk of serious harm to you or others or to MB.

International Transfers

Where possible, we ensure that your data is stored within the European Economic Area (EEA), however some of our storage locations and service providers may be hosted outside of the EEA. When we do need to transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure one of the following safeguards are in place to provide a similar level of security of your data:

• your personal data has been transferred to a country that has been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission
• the hosting environment we use has specific contracts, codes of conduct or certification mechanisms in-place which have been approved by the European Commission
• where we transfer data to the United States, we ensure our providers are certified as part of the EU-US Privacy Shield programme

If none of these safeguards are available, we will only transfer your data with your explicit consent – which can be removed at any time by contacting us.
Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

Retention Periods

Your personal information will be retained in accordance with our data retention policy which categorises all the data assets held by us and specifies the appropriate retention period for each data asset.
These periods are based on the requirements to keep the data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, to meet any legal requirements or to satisfy any reporting, accounting or contractual needs.
Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you would like further information on our retention periods.

Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation/Data Protection Act (2018), you have certain rights regarding your personal data, these include the right to:

• request access to your personal data
• request correction of your personal data
• request erasure of your personal data
• object to processing of your personal data
• request restriction of processing your personal data
• request transfer of your personal data
• withdraw consent

You may exercise any of these rights by raising a subject access request with us. You can do this by contacting our Data Protection Officer.
We will not charge you for making a request and we will make all reasonable efforts to respond to you within 30 days. Sometimes it may take longer than 30 days to gather all the information we may hold on you, in this situation we will keep you updated at all times.
You can instruct us at any time to stop processing your personal data for the purposes of marketing.
We may refuse your request or withhold any personal information that you request if there is an overriding legal reason for us to do so.

Information Security

MB takes the security of your information extremely seriously. In order to protect your data, we implement a risk-based approach to adopt the strongest organisational and technical controls in order to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data.

Website and Cookies

The only website this privacy policy applies to is the MB’s website. If you use links to any other website from the MB’s website, then you will need to read their privacy policy. We take no responsibility (legal or otherwise) for the content of their websites.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to track the use of it. This allows us to better understand patterns on our website and how we can develop and improve it, as well as analysing the traffic on our site for marketing or advertising purposes.
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.

The cookies we use

• forms related cookies. When you submit data to us through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence
• site preferences cookies. In order to provide you with a great experience on our websites, we provide the functionality to set your preferences for how this site runs when you use it. In order to remember your preferences, we need to set cookies so that this information can be recalled whenever you interact with a page to meet your preferences
• third party cookies. In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site

From time to time we test new features and make subtle changes to the way that the site is delivered. When we are still testing new features, these cookies may be used to ensure that you receive a consistent experience whilst on the site while also ensuring we understand which optimisations our users appreciate the most.

Managing Cookies

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The method for doing so differs with each browser, the following guides for the most common internet browsers detail the processes for doing this:

• https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Google Chrome)
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Mozilla Firefox)
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer)
• https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471 (Safari)
• https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Microsoft Edge)

Blocking cookies may impact your experience on our website as you may not be able to make full use of the features on it.

Information in Other Formats

If you would like this notice in another format (for example: audio, large print, braille) please contact our Service Manager who will endeavour to facilitate your request.