Privacy and Data Protection

At DfAD we take the privacy of our supporters very seriously and we are committed to protecting your privacy online.

This statement explains the privacy and the data protection practices which apply to our website.
In this Policy references to DfAD or to “we” or “us” are to DfAD.

Our aim is to safeguard our users’ privacy whilst providing a personalised and valuable service. Collecting personal information is necessary if we are to satisfy the expectations and requirements of our users, e.g. by communicating with them and providing an interactive service. We appreciate that you do not want the personal information you provide to us distributed indiscriminately and here we explain how we collect information, what we do with it and what controls you have.

What information do we collect?

We collect two kinds of information about our users:

a. non-personal information such as IP address (the location of the computer on the internet), pages accessed and files downloaded. This helps us to determine how many individuals use our sites, how many people visit on a regular basis, which pages are most popular, and which pages are least popular. This information doesn’t tell us anything about who you are or where you live, it simply allows us to monitor and improve our service.

b. personal information such as name, postal address, telephone number, e-mail address, date of birth (where appropriate), card or bank details, information about your interests and hobbies etc. We collect this information only in connection with specific activities, such as inclusion into our skills database, feedback, donations, surveys, etc. The information is either needed to fulfil your request or to enable us to provide you with a more personalised service by analysing or reviewing the information that you provide to ensure that we give you access to or send you the information that you are interested in. You don’t have to disclose any of this information to browse our sites. However, if you do choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services.

How is the information used?

Any personal data relating to you will be used and recorded by us in accordance with current data protection legislation and this Privacy Policy. We will use the information you provide to:

  • fulfil your requests, for example inclusion into the skills database, donations, participation in campaigns and provision of information;
  • process, donations, or other payments and verify financial transactions;
  • identify contributors;
  • record any contact we have with you;
  • prevent or detect fraud or abuses of our websites and enable third parties to carry out technical, logistical or other functions on our behalf;
  • in aggregate (and therefore anonymously) to profile your use of the websites and carry out research on our users’ demographics, interests and behaviour to help us gain a better understanding of how our users navigate and use the websites, and to enable us to improve our engagement with you; and
  • provide you with information which we think may be of interest to you, as explained below.
  • We collect data in real time in order to send you operational assistance emails in case your transaction is not completed.

As well as using personal information to fulfil requests, we also like to keep our supporters informed about DfAD’s activities or about updates to our site. From time to time we also share personal information with other like-minded organisations, but we will not share your information if you have indicated that you do not want us to do so (see next paragraph). In addition, we sometimes contact our supporters with offers from companies that benefit WWF-UK and may be of interest.

By entering information into the contact form you will generally be agreeing to receive mailings, emails or text messages from DfAD but have the right not to receive this information. In other situations, when submitting your personal information, you will be given the option not to be included in mailings or other contacts from DfAD or other organisations (whether by post, e-mail or other electronic messaging, telephone or fax). If you do agree to receive this information, and later decide that you no longer wish to be contacted, you can let us know by e-mailing: admin@dfad.org.uk.

If we contact you by email or text message, each time you receive a message you will also have the option to decline to receive further information from us in that manner. We may disclose aggregate statistics about our site visitors in order to describe our activities to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.

We may disclose personal information if we receive a complaint about any content you have posted or transmitted to or from our site, if required to do so by law or if we believe that such action is necessary to protect and defend the rights, property or personal safety of DfAD, its site or its visitors.

Except as indicated above we will not use or transfer this data to any third parties without your prior permission.

 

Links

Our site contains links to other sites. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites even if you access them using links from our websites and recommend that you check the policy of each site you visit.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party website, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners or operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site and contact its owner or operator if you have any concerns or questions.

Security

We place great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information associated with our supporters, customers and users. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to user information. We use secure server software (SSL) to encrypt financial information you input before it is sent to us, and our database is hosted in a secure data centre. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of data will not occur, we use our best efforts to prevent this.

Use of cookies

In simple terms a cookie is a small piece of information sent from our website to your computer to help us to identify you quickly. If you prefer not to accept a cookie, you can navigate around our sites like a normal user. Any information gathered by the use of cookies is compiled on an aggregate, anonymous basis.

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your hard drive to store and sometimes track information about you. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you should be able to change your browser to prevent that. You should read the information that came with your browser software to see how you can set up your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, this should then give you the opportunity to decide whether to accept it. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of a website if you do so. Cookies are specific to the server that created them and cannot be accessed by other servers, which means they cannot be used to track your movements around the web.

Cookies can be used for a variety of purposes, such as providing personalised pages, but at present, we use them only to work out how many people visit our sites.

Where is the information stored?

Information which you submit via our websites is sent to a computer located in the United Kingdom. This is necessary in order to process the information and to send you the information you have requested. Information submitted by you may be transferred by us to other reputable third party organisations as referred to in this Policy, and these may be situated outside the European Economic Area.

Changes

We may make changes to this Policy from time to time. If we change our Privacy Policy we will post the changes on this page. If the change in our Privacy Policy affects the use of your personal information we will use our best endeavours to contact you by email to seek your consent to the use.

Your acceptance of this Policy

By using our site, or by entering information in the contact form, you consent to the collection and use of information by DfAD in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Policy, please do not use our site or enter information in the contact form.

Your rights

Any personal information submitted via our websites or by text is treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.  If you would like to review or revise information you have previously provided to us online, you may do so by emailing admin@dfad.org.uk.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you or if you have any questions relating to this Privacy Policy or how we use the personal information we have about you, please write to:

DfAD

61 Link House

New Convent Garden Market

Nine Elms Lane

London

SW8 5PA

Last updated: May 2013