This policy explains what happens to your information when you use lancslgbt.org.uk. We have written it in plain English, and we have tried to describe only what the site actually does.
Lancashire LGBT is a registered charity in England and Wales, no. 1137578. We are the “data controller” for the information described here. If you have any question about this policy, or want us to do something with your information, email hello@lancslgbt.org.uk or call 07788 295521 (Monday to Wednesday, 9am–4pm).
This policy covers our website. It does not cover the support services themselves — if you join a group, come to counselling or use our one-to-one support, we will explain separately what we record and why.
When you just visit the site
We use Google Analytics to understand how people find and use the site — which pages are read, roughly where visitors are, what device they use. This sets cookies in your browser and sends information, including your IP address, to Google. We use it to make the site better, not to identify you, and we never try to work out who an individual visitor is.
You can stop this by using your browser’s privacy settings, by turning on “Do Not Track”, or by installing Google’s opt-out add-on. Nothing on this site stops working if you do.
Our security software, Wordfence, also records visitors’ IP addresses so it can block attacks on the site. That is the only reason we hold it.
When you contact us
If you fill in the form on our contact page, you give us your name, your email address and whatever you write in the message. That is emailed to us so we can reply. We use it to answer you, and we do not add you to any mailing list on the strength of it.
Please remember that email is not a secure or private way to send sensitive information. If you would rather talk to someone, call us.
When you join our mailing list
Our newsletter is run through Mailchimp. When you sign up, your email address is stored by Mailchimp on our behalf, and their servers are in the United States. We use it only to send you the newsletter you asked for. Every email we send has an unsubscribe link, and you can also ask us to remove you at any time by emailing hello@lancslgbt.org.uk. We will never sell or swap your address, or pass it to anyone else.
When you donate
Donations are handled by PayPal, and some of our donation forms use Donorbox. Your payment goes to them, not to us: we never see or hold your card or bank details. They will tell us that a donation was made, and usually the donor’s name and email, so that we can thank you, keep proper charity accounts and — if you have said yes to Gift Aid — claim it from HMRC. PayPal and Donorbox handle your payment information under their own privacy policies.
When you search our directory for something near you
Our directory lets you type a postcode to sort groups by how close they are. That lookup happens in your own browser: the postcode is sent to postcodes.io, a free service that turns a postcode into a map position, and the distances are worked out on your device. We do not store your postcode, and we are not told what you searched for.
Content from other websites
Some pages include things hosted elsewhere — Mental Health Hour episodes play from YouTube, and our footer shows a badge served by the Fundraising Regulator. When your browser loads those, the site they come from can see your IP address and may set its own cookies, exactly as if you had visited that site directly. We use YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, which limits what it records unless you press play.
Our directory and resource pages link out to lots of other organisations. Once you follow a link, you are on their website and their privacy policy applies, not ours.
Who else sees your information
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing. We do use these companies to run the site and our services, and they only act on our instructions:
- Google Analytics — understanding how the site is used
- Mailchimp — sending our newsletter
- PayPal and Donorbox — taking donations
- Wordfence — keeping the site secure
- our website host and our email provider
We may also have to share information if the law requires it, or if someone is at risk of serious harm.
How long we keep it
We keep information only as long as we need it. Newsletter subscribers stay on the list until they unsubscribe or ask us to remove them. Donation records are kept as long as charity and tax law requires. Messages sent through the contact form are kept while we are dealing with them and are cleared out periodically afterwards.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- tell you what information we hold about you, and give you a copy
- correct anything that is wrong
- delete it, where we do not have to keep it
- stop using it for a particular purpose, including marketing
Email hello@lancslgbt.org.uk and we will help. It costs you nothing, and we will normally reply within a month.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we use your information we will update this page.