Privacy Policy

At Mercy Relief we understand that your decision to support us is what allows us to continue to be ‘Here for Every Human’ at times of need, as we have been doing for over 25 years. This is why we believe in being transparent about why we need your personal details when you support us and how they will be used.

Full Privacy Policy

Who are we?

Mercy Relief(“We”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We understand that your privacy is Important. When you give us your personal details – for example when you give a donation, sign a petition, sign up to receive email updates, support any of our schemes or register for any of our events – you may receive follow up information from us directly relevant to this activity, including how your donation is helping.

This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

For the purposes of GDPR the Data Controller is: Mercy Relief, unit 3, The Bordesley centre, Stratford Road, B11 1AR

Information we collect from you

We will collect and process the following data about you:

Information you give us.

This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our website www.mercyrelief.org.uk (our website) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you register to use a secure part of our website, subscribe to any of our updates or newsletters, search for a service, make an enquiry, request further information, make a donation on our website, engage us to provide assistance or services, during the course of a legal matter, participate in social media functions on our website, enter a competition, promotion or survey, register for an event and when you report a problem with our website. The information you give us may include your name, position, company, contact details (such as address, e-mail address and phone number, DOB), your personal preferences, choices and requirements specific to particular requests or services, financial and credit card information.

Information we collect about you.

With regard to each of your visits to our website we may automatically collect the following information:

Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;

Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for’ page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our client service number.

This is information we receive about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. In this case we will have informed you when we collected that data if we intend to share those data internally and combine it with data collected on this website. We will also have told you for what purpose we will share and combine your data.

We are working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, accountants, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers).

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our website. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie policy.

Legal grounds for collection and use of your personal information

We will only collect, use and otherwise handle your personal information when:

We have your consent for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes (see the third paragraph of section 1 above and section 5); and/or

it is necessary for our legitimate interests in connection with operating the website and our business, in particular:

responding to your queries;

carrying out marketing activities;

providing services and/or information to you;

transmitting personal information between our group companies for internal administrative purposes;

keeping in touch with you and/or your business;

hosting and maintaining our website;

providing technical support to you;

preventing and detecting fraud and other criminal offences;

ensuring network and information security;

As long as, in each case, these interests are in line with applicable law and your legal rights and freedoms; and/or

where this is necessary for legal obligations which apply to us; and/or

where this is necessary for the performance of a contract we have with you (for example to provide goods and/or services to you) or that you have with a third party; and/or

where this is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract

Uses made of the information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us. We will use this information:

To fulfil your requests – to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, respond to your queries and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;

Events

If you register for one of our fundraising events, we will share your name, business name and professional title with other people that are attending the same event;

if you register for one of our other events, we may share your name with other people that are attending the same event;

if you register for an event jointly organised with a selected third party, we will share your name, business name and professional title with the other event organiser for event communication management;

Marketing and updates –

To provide you with information about other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already been involved with or enquired about;

Where you have provided us with your contact details, to provide you with information about goods or services we feel may interest you. This may be by post, telephone or electronic means (e-mail or SMS).

If you do not want us to use your data in this way, you can opt out. If you opt out of marketing communications, your visit to and use of the website will not be affected.

Marketing Opt-Out – you are entitled to opt-out of marketing communications at any time and free of charge by emailing info@mercyrelief.org.uk or on our “Manage Your Preferences” section of our website or by using the “unsubscribe” option included in any marketing e-mail or other marketing material received from us.

Changes – to notify you about changes to our service;

Website content presentation – to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

We may also use any personal information that you provide to us:

Where legally permitted for specific purposes made clear at the point of collection on particular pages of our website; and/or

Where we otherwise have legal grounds for collection and use of your personal information as explained in more detail in clause 4 above.

If you choose not to provide personal information requested by us, we may not be able to provide you with the information and/or services you have requested or otherwise fulfil the purpose(s) for which we have asked for the personal information. Aside from this, your visit to the website will remain unaffected.

Information we collect about you. We will use this information:

To administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;

To improve our website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;

To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so; As part of our efforts to keep our website safe and secure;

To measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;

To make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our website about goods or services that may interest you or them.

Information we receive from other sources. We will combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive), where those purposes are compatible.

Disclosure of your Information

Some services that we provide require the involvement of third parties. We have carefully selected these third parties and taken steps to ensure that your personal information is adequately protected.

You agree that we have the right to share your personal information with the following third parties:

Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics works using cookies.

Google Analytics cookies collect your IP address, however because IP anonymisation is used on this website, your IP address will be shortened (and therefore anonymised) as soon as technically possible and before it is stored or otherwise used in connection with Google Analytics.

The anonymisation process takes place within the European Union or the European Economic Area, except in exceptional cases, where your full IP address may be sent to a Google server in the USA and shortened there.

We use the information collected by Google Analytics cookies to find out about how visitors use our website.

The IP address sent by your browser in connection with Google Analytics will not be combined by Google, with other data.

You can prevent Google Analytics cookies from being stored by setting your browser software accordingly (see our cookie policy for further information). However, please note that you may not then be able to make full use of all the website’s functions.

You can also opt-out of Google Analytics by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com

ii) Sharing with our group companies

The personal information you provide on the website is collected by Mercy Relief(UK). However where you ask or indicate that we should do so (e.g. in an online form) or where we are otherwise legally permitted to do so in accordance with this privacy policy, we may transfer your personal information between and to other Mercy Relief entities. Mercy Relief entities are our subsidiaries or partners acting on our behalf.

When Mercy Relief or any of its subsidiaries or partners intends to use your personal information for a new purpose, they will let you know about this.

Sharing with our service providers

We may share your personal information with our third party service providers based in the UK or the European Economic Area (“EEA”) who we engage to process the information that we collect from you on the website or otherwise, and/or to host and maintain our website, content or services, on our behalf and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We will let you know if we need to transfer your personal information to any third party service providers located outside of the EEA.

Where we employ third party companies or individuals to process personal information provided by us (and not collected by them), they only use this personal information on our behalf and in line with our instructions and this privacy policy.

Sharing with other selected third parties

We may share your personal information with selected third parties including:

Business partners for the performance of any contract we enter into with you;

Business partners with whom we organise a joint event, for joint or our marketing purposes. Where we do this for joint events, we do it for the purpose of removing duplicates from our invitation list and for event communication management. We may do this when we hand over the organisation of a regular event to another organisation and we or the new organiser will contact you at that time to let you know. We will never share your confidential matter or enquiry details with such business partners;

Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website;

If you are a supplier we may contact credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you;

Our website offers the possibility to share content on social media channels, e.g., Facebook. The respective social media provider will directly gather personal information only after you click on the corresponding sharing button. Please refer to the privacy policy of the social media providers to learn more about what personal information is collected and used.

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

If Mercy Relief or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its clients will be one of the transferred assets.

*If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use or our terms of business and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Mercy Relief or its subsidiaries or partner companies (see section 6.ii), our clients, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations, regulators and law enforcement agencies for the purposes of preventing and detecting fraud, other criminal offence, credit risk reduction and/or to ensure network and information security.

How long do we store personal Information

Our policy is to retain your personal information for the length of time required for the specific purpose or purposes for which it was collected. Such purposes are set out in this privacy policy. This is automatically overridden when we are asked to comply with any legal obligation.

Where you are a donor, the period your information (including your personal data) will be retained is set out in our terms and conditions. However, on occasion we may be obliged to store some data for a longer time, for example, where a longer time period is required by applicable laws. In this case, we will ensure that your personal data will continue to be treated in accordance with this privacy policy.

For more information on how long cookies are stored, please refer to our cookie policy.

Where we store your personal data All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be processed securely by Worldpay, pay safe or caf online. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Confidentiality

We acknowledge that the information you provide may be confidential. We will maintain the confidentiality of and protect your confidential information in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (when we collect your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on our leaflets, brochures or letters or by letting us know when we collect your information. You can also exercise the right at any time by managing your preferences on our website (click here) or by contacting us at info@mercyrelief.org.uk

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

If you wish to:

Access, confirm, correct, rectify, update, supplement, anonymise, block, restrict or delete your personal information;

Object to our use of your personal information;

Withdraw your consent;

If you have any questions about our processing of your personal information; or

If you would like to transfer your personal information from us to another person or business,

Please contact us at info@mercyrelief.org.uk

Where you request access to your personal information, the information will be provided in writing. In order to comply with your request, we may ask you to verify your identity. We will fulfil your request by sending your copy electronically, unless the request expressly specifies a different method. For any subsequent access request, we may charge you an administrative fee.

We will provide you with all rights in relation to your personal information to which you are entitled under applicable law. If you are unhappy with the way that we have handled your personal information, you can make a complaint to the authority responsible for data protection in the country that you are based. Contact details are typically available online, or alternatively you may ask us for assistance at info@mercyrelief.org.uk

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to info@mercyrelief.org.uk