Our Privacy Policy
At VSA, we are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what data we hold and how we use it.
We will use your personal information, which you have provided to us, in accordance with the data protection law and the General Data Protection Regulation Act of 2018. (Known as GDPR)
Our privacy policy sets out clear explanations about how and why we, Aberdeen Association of Social Services (T/A VSA), use and protect and collect your personal information via the phone, email, online, any other correspondence, or from third parties.
Our privacy policy applies to our supporters, volunteers, people we support, customers, the general public as well as visitors to any of our premises.
If you are a VSA employee, please visit the employee handbook or ask HR for an up-to-date copy of our employee privacy policy.
This policy explains:
If you have any queries about this privacy and cookies policy, please contact the Data Protection Officer at data.protection@vsa.org.uk or call 01224 212021. You can also write to us at VSA, Data Protection Department, 38 Castle Street Aberdeen, AB11 5YU
Changes To Our Privacy Policy
All policies across our organisation, including our data protection and privacy policies, are reviewed and updated if required annually. This policy may change from time to time throughout the year to reflect any changes in legislation, guidance or to capture any changes we have made to how we collect and use your data. Please visit this section on our website to keep up to date with any changes made to this policy.
Who we are
Aberdeen Association of Social Services T/A VSA, is a leading social care charity in Scotland and is a registered Scottish Charity SC012950 and a Company limited by guarantee under number SC018487. VAT Registration No. 265 8668 08.
We are also registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number Z7253656.
Our privacy notice for the general public, supporters, and volunteers
Overview
VSA ("we") is committed to protecting any personal information you share with us and will always ensure you are happy with the way we handle it.
In order to help support the development of VSA's voluntary income, our Fundraising department uses a dedicated database to store personal information collected by VSA over the course of our relationship with our members, volunteers, donors, sponsors, employees and suppliers.
VSA only collects personal information that you have provided directly to us or have made publicly available (for example, on social media, blogs, websites, etc.).
N.B.: This privacy statement does not apply to the information VSA collects from people who are registered in our services. Their information is handled independently and according to the nature of each service and our regulators' requirements. Please see our‘people who use our services’ privacy notice.
What personal information we collect
When you support VSA, whether it is by becoming a member, making a donation, volunteering, taking part in an event to fundraise for us, we will usually collect:
We do not store any debit/credit card details.
Where appropriate, we may also record the following:
How we use your personal information
VSA will use personal information for the following:
Our direct marketing
We hope to develop a strong relationship with you and ensure we know how you want to be contacted and for what purpose, so we also record your communication preferences. This is why we have moved to an “opt-in only” marketing communication policy; this means that you choose what you want to receive and how. You will find opt-in options on all our registration forms and you can also update them at any time by contacting our Fundraising department on Fundraising@vsa.org.uk or our Reception 01224 212021 (Mon-Fri 9.00-17.00).
VSA will keep you posted on our progress, events, opportunities to support us in different ways or may ask for donations according to your preferences only.
VSA will never sell or share your personal information with third party organisations for marketing purposes. We will always be clear about how your information will be used and what will happen to it on our registration forms.
Building your profile
In order to get to know you better, VSA may also collect personal information when it is already publicly available from social media sites, for example Facebook and Twitter, or has been published in articles/newspapers. We may also collect information related to your professional career on sites such as Companies House or LinkedIn as well as business publications. This information helps us to better understand your interests and target our communications with you accordingly.
Sharing your personal information
VSA will only share your information if:
VSA only chooses partners we can trust and will only pass personal data to them if they have signed a contract that requires them to abide by the requirements of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, treat information as carefully as we do, only use the information for the purposes it was supplied (not their own purpose or the purposes of any other organisation) and allow us to carry out checks to ensure they are doing all these things.
How we store your personal information
The information we collect is stored by us on computers located in the UK. We may transfer the information to other departments within VSA and to other reputable third-party organisations, as explained above, and we will always check where they are situated (inside or outside the EEA) prior to any arrangements being made. We also store paper files.
VSA places a great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information associated with our members, volunteers, donors, sponsors, employees and suppliers. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal information under our control. For example, only authorised personnel are authorised to access user information and we use secure server software (SSL) to encrypt financial and personal information you input before it is sent to us. While we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will not occur while it is under our control, we use our best efforts to try to prevent this.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information across the internet is not completely secure and whilst we do our best to try to protect the security of your information, we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will not occur whilst information is being transferred.
Where you or we have provided a password enabling you to access parts of our website, it is your responsibility to keep this password confidential. Please do not share your password with anyone.
We will keep your personal information only for as long as we need it to provide you with the information you have required, to administer your membership, regular donations and sponsorships, or administer your marketing preferences to comply with the law. We do not communicate with people who have asked us not to.
When we no longer need the information, we will always dispose of it securely, using specialist companies if necessary to do this work for us. Some personal information we hold is retained to fulfil statutory obligations; for instance, HMRC requires us to retain Gift Aid declarations for a set period of 6 years from the end of the accounting period they relate to.
What we do not do with your personal information
VSA will never sell or share your personal information with other organisations to use for their own purposes.
Your rights
The GDPR gives you certain rights over your personal information and how we use it. These include the right to:
If you wish to exercise any of those rights, please contact the Data Protection Department in writing to VSA, 38 Castle Street, Aberdeen, AB11 5YU or by emailing data.protection@vsa.org.uk.
For more information about your rights under the Data Protection Act, visit the Information Commissioner’s website.
Cookies
VSA uses cookies on its website. Cookies are text files that contain two pieces of information: a site name and a unique user ID (your IP address). When you visit our website and accept our cookies, they are downloaded onto your device. They help enhance your experience on our website and we collect this information in a way that does not identify you.
You can find our cookies policy and instructions on how to control and delete them here
Other useful information
Children’s personal information
It is our policy not to request donations, subscriptions or membership, or accept orders (such as subscription to our newsletter, request to sponsor one of our animals and baby animals, registering for an event or a fundraising challenge) from children under the age of 18.
Links to third party websites
Our website contains links to various third-party websites which we believe may be of interest to our website visitors. There are also links to some of our sponsors (when they support a section of our website). This privacy statement only governs VSA’s website; we are not responsible for third-party websites, please check their privacy policy before sharing any personal or financial information on their website.
Social media websites
VSA operates a number of social media pages such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Although this privacy statement covers how VSA will use your personal information from those pages, it does not cover or govern how social media websites will use it. Please ensure you read their privacy policies before sharing any information and make sure you familiarise yourself and use their privacy settings and reporting mechanisms to control how your personal information is used.
Posting or sending inappropriate content
We may use your personal information to inform relevant parties such as law enforcement for any content you send us online, or via the post that we believe to be inappropriate, defamatory or content in breach of laws.
Other people’s data
Before providing someone else’s personal information, please ensure they are happy for you to do so (for example when you tag someone in a photo on social media or share their story with us, etc.). Under no circumstances should you make public someone else’s home address, email address or phone number.