Privacy Policy

Who are we?
River is a family of churches meeting in Marlow, Maidenhead, Slough and Englefield Green. We are a UK Charity (Reg. No. 1146525); our registered office is 81 St Judes Road Englefield Green TW20 0DF (but this address should not be used for routine post as we don't have any staff based there). You can contact us via hello@riverchurch.org.uk.

How does this policy relate to you, and what is this policy about?
This policy lets you know what personal information we collect from you and what we do with it, and other related information you might need to know.
 
The Personal data we process:
We collect personally identifiable information submitted by visitors in connection with the website “contact us” e-mail address, and other electronic and non-electronic means. If you want to register on the website, the minimum information we need is your first and last name and a password. We also ask for some further, voluntary information so we can provide a richer, more useful address book.

If you have a prayer request, or involvement in pastoral issues or associated ministries, more confidential and sensitive information may be processed by our staff or volunteers. Some of these, such as CAP (Christians Against Poverty), may have specific privacy notices associated with them. 

We also collect and process information about Giving and Donations including Gift Aid. 

What do we use your personal data for?
We use information collected via our website and in other ways:

  • To contact you about your query
  • To manage and develop the services that we provide
  • To check that our terms are being complied with and to enforce them when necessary
  • To provide anyone with information they have requested (such as an upcoming event or course)
  • To create a useful resource in the form of an online directory of users
  • To provide an interactive web site where email is used to communicate with the users (following their options) and make improvements to our website
  • To provide a security mechanism whereby we can restrict content to certain groups of users.
  • We do not sell to a third party or redistribute it for any reason – see below
  • We will not contact you directly if you merely view our website
  • Internet Cookies are only used to store your website font size preference setting. 

If you have registered on the website, you have control over who is able to access specific items of information. By default, your personal information will be visible to other authenticated users of the site. You can change these settings from your personal profile page. Your information will be used to build the online address book.
 
What is the legal basis for processing your data?

  • For website users, where you contact us, or you have registered on the website, we believe we can process this data with a legitimate interest in order to operate as a church. You choose what information we send you and dictate your preferences, and we will ask you to update these every 2 years.
  • If you have a child attending a youth meeting, group or event, we keep attendance records for safeguarding reasons.
  • If you make financial donations (with or without Gift Aid) we have a legal obligation to process this data. 

Do we share your personal data with anyone else?
We may share your personal data with other third parties where this is necessary to enable those third parties to provide services to us, such as website provision and financial systems. In each such case, we will retain control of the use of your personal data and we will have a contract with the third party which protects your personal data against unauthorised use or disclosure and allows the third party to use the personal data only in accordance with our instructions.
 
We may also share your personal data with others if we are required to do so by law or in any other circumstances where the applicable regulations specifically permit us to do so in the absence of your prior consent.
 
How long will we keep your personal data?
If you send a query via email we will keep your personal data for up to 2 years after the date on which you sent your query in, unless you thereafter subscribe to one of our services in which case a separate agreement and statutory retention periods will apply.
 
Other retention periods apply for different purposes:

  • if you are registered on our website, we will ask for updates to the contact list every 2 years, although you can remove yourself from the website at any time. After that, we will delete it and we will no longer have any copies of it. If, at any time, you withdraw your consent to our processing your personal data, then we will delete your personal data at that point and we will no longer have any copies of it (see below for more detail about how to withdraw your consent).
  • For financial and accounting data processing, the legal requirement is we retain this for 7 years.
  • Children’s group sign in forms are kept for 3 years but for child protection concerns we keep these records for 75 years.

How secure is your personal data?
We are committed to maintaining the privacy and security of your personal information according to the terms outlined in this policy. We will take appropriate technical and organisational measures against unauthorised or unlawful processing of your personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, your personal data, and we will take steps to communicate this policy and ensure its importance is understood by our church volunteers and team members. .
 
Where do we process your personal data?
We will process your personal data within the European Economic Area ("EEA”)
 
What are your rights in relation to your personal data?
At any time you may withdraw your consent to our processing your personal data, which we will honour unless there is a legal obligation not to do so. To do this, you should use the contact details below. Once your consent is withdrawn, we shall not process your personal data any further and will delete it without retaining a copy.
 
You have the right to access any personal data that we process relating to you. We may ask you to verify your identify before we provide access to the relevant personal data. You also have the right to restrict your processing, or to port your data, if applicable.
 
We would like to ensure that your personal data is accurate and up to date. If any information that you have provided to us changes (for example, if you change your email address), please let us know. We will review website registrations every 7 years and delete them if we have not heard back from you.
 
If you are unhappy with the way in which we process your personal data or have any other complaint in relation to that processing, you are entitled to ask the Office of the Information Commissioner to review the matter. Details about your rights in relation to your personal data, and about how to contact the Office of the Information Commissioner are on their website at www.ico.org.uk.
 
How can you contact us?
You can contact us using hello@riverchurch.org.uk.