PRIVACY POLICY

1. Introduction

British Naturalists’ Association (‘BNA’) is committed to protecting your privacy and security. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data, to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information. It forms part of BNA’s compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation coming into force in May 2018. We will keep this document updated and will always refer to it when we ask you for your consent.

2. About BNA

Your personal data (i.e. any information which identifies you, or which can be identified as relating to you personally) will be collected and used by British Naturalists’ Association (registered charity no. 296551 and company limited by guarantee no. 2119195) whose registered office address is The Cedars, 68 Grove Road, Tring, Herts, England, HP23 5PB.

3.What information we collect

We collect data you provide to us. This includes information you give when joining, placing an order or communicating with us. For example:

  • Personal details (name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone number (s) etc.) when you join as a member;
  • Personal information you may provide to us for use in our publications or promotional material such as that concerning our conferences or other meetings;
  • Financial information (payment information such as direct debit or standing order details, whether donations are gift-aided, date of most recent subscription payment, date next subscription payment due, date(s) of subscription reminder letters/ emails, date of most recent other payments, list of publications to be sent);
  • Category of membership (Ordinary, Youth, Family, Honorary, Student, Corporate, Life, Associate, Registered, Fellow, Fellow (honoris causa), whether or not senior citizen rate applies and whether you are an affiliated body);
  • Your particular field (s) of interest;
  • Records of any accidents or incidents during BNA events (which may include personal data, and sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health) where we will take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected.

4. How we use personal information

The principal lawful basis for processing your personal data is that the processing is necessary for the legitimate interests of the Association, its members, and the third parties with whom we may share personal data (see below for the groups with whom we may share personal data), that is unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides these legitimate interests. We shall however be asking members to “opt in” to receive ‘additional marketing information’. (see below under Marketing information). Personal data collected and processed by us may be used for the following purposes:

  • Administration of membership including:
    -receiving donations (e.g. direct debits, standing orders, or gift-aided instructions);
    -maintaining databases of our members;
    -performing our obligations under membership contracts such as giving notices of Annual General Meetings and providing publications;
    -sending subscription reminders;
    -fulfilling orders for goods, bookings for conferences or other events (whether placed online, over the phone or in person);
    -administration of donations and legacies;

Personal data collected and processed by us may be shared with the following groups where necessary:

  • Our accountant, chartered accountant, independent examiner, HM Customs & Excise, our bank;
  • Our insurer and insurance broker;
  • Family, associates or representatives of the person whose personal data we are processing;
  • Printers and distributors of our publications
  • Other members including officers of BNA Branches
  • Companies House and Charity Commission.

5. Magazines, Newsletters

Country-Side, British Naturalist, Graded Members’ Newsletter and some marketing communications (for example information about BNA conferences and other BNA events, or events in which BNA is taking part) are provided as a benefit to members. We send these out to those members entitled (unless you specifically ask us not to).

6. Marketing information

Our magazines and newsletters do include marketing information such as internal advertisements, details of our conferences and other events, special offers from third parties (e.g. negotiated discounts on books), items for sale in the BNA shop and information about leaving a legacy. All of this we consider a benefit of membership. We may also send out from time to time to those members who wish to have it ‘additional marketing information’ which we think may be of interest. By ‘additional marketing information’ we mean, for example, information about products (such as books and equipment) or services marketed by other organisations which may prove helpful to the natural historian, details of events of other organisations which may be of interest, and information about specific appeals. We will not send out such ‘additional marketing information’ unless we have your specific consent.

7. Young people

We want young people to share in the enjoyment of natural history and conservation and there are opportunities in our magazines and on our website for readers to share their photos, stories and pictures. If we publish your child’s picture, photo or story, we’ll usually include their first name and age with it. If your child enters a competition and is one of the lucky winners or runners- up, we’ll publish their name and winning entry alongside the other winners. If your child is under 18 then we’ll need permission from you as their parent or guardian for them to enter one of our competitions or to share a picture, photo or story with us, and will only use his or her personal data with your consent. We won’t send ‘additional marketing information’ by email, letter, or message or make calls about this to under 18 year-olds.

8. Storage of personal data

The membership data is held in a database on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information. The computers are password protected and have up to date anti-virus protection software. Backup copies are made on other media. Access to that data is only available to Council members and Officers of BNA with whom access has been shared. Backup data will only be used to restore corrupted or lost primary data. We will only use and store information for so long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. How long information will be stored for depends on the information in question and what it is being used for. For example, if you ask us not to send you additional marketing information by email, we will stop storing your email addresses for marketing purposes (though we’ll keep a record of your preference not to be emailed). We continually review what information we hold and delete what is no longer required. We never store payment card information.
We cannot guarantee of course the security of your home computer or the internet, and any online communications are at the user’s own risk.

9. Access to personal data

You have the following legal rights:

  • The right to confirmation as to whether or not we have your personal data and, if we do, to obtain a copy of the personal information we hold (this is known as subject access request);
  • the right to have your data erased (though this will not apply where it is necessary for us to continue to use the data for a lawful reason);
  • the right to have inaccurate data rectified; and
  • the right to object to your data being used for marketing or profiling.

Please keep in mind that there are exceptions to the rights above and, though we will always try to respond to your satisfaction, there may be situations where we are unable to do so.
If you wish to exercise your rights please write to our Hon. Membership Secretary at BNA, BM 8129, London WC1N 3XX, UK.

10. Deletion of personal data

If a member dies or when membership has lapsed the details of the member will be deleted after two years.

11. Complaints

You can complain to BNA directly by contacting our Hon. Membership Secretary using the details set out above. If you are not happy with our response, or you believe that your data protection or privacy rights have been infringed, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates and enforces data protection law in the UK. Details of how to do this can be found at https://ico.org.uk/

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We’ll amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure it remains up-to-date and accurately reflects how and why we use your personal data. The current version of our Privacy Policy will always be posted on our website.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 27th February 2018.