Privacy policy

1. Information about us

We are a private company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company number 02631049. We are a registered charity and our registration number is 1003904. Our main trading address is 7 North Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 1PE.

The person responsible for data protection at HEART UK is The Controller.

2. Contact us

To contact us, please write to us at the above address, email hello@heartuk.org.uk, Telephone: 01628 777046.

Your marketing preferences

Keep in touch with HEART UK

We'd like to keep in touch with you about the vital work we do, our fundraising and opportunities to support us.

We will never sell your data and we promise to keep your details safe and secure.

HEART UK is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. If you have any queries about this policy or how we use your personal information, please contact us by emailing hello@heartuk.org.uk.

This policy (together with our Terms & Conditions and any other documents referred to in 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. By contacting HEART UK, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (the Act), the data controller is HEART UK.

3. Legal basis for processing

We collect your information for the purposes described in paragraph 9. The lawful basis for which we process your information is:

your consent, as detailed in paragraph 4;
processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party. If you fail to provide this information we may be unable to perform the contract;
processing is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations;
processing is necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interest pursued by us or a third party, except where your rights as a data subject override our legitimate interest. The legitimate interest we rely on is the fulfilment of the charitable purposes of HEART UK

4. Your consent

We require your express consent to use your information for certain purposes. By positively accepting this privacy policy, you consent to our processing such information in accordance with the purposes and provisions of this privacy policy.

In particular, you consent to us contacting you including for marketing and fundraising purposes in accordance with your marketing preference. To update your preferences email hello@heartuk.org.uk or telephone 01628 777046

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. If you wish to do so, please contact us at the address above.

5. Information you provide us

To the extent that you provide us with information about someone other than yourself, we rely on you to obtain their consent and to bring this privacy policy to their attention.

6. Children

If you are under the age of 16, we need your parent or guardian’s permission before you can use our services, sign up to our e-newsletter, make a donation or join our Children and Young People Programme.

7. How do we collect information?

We obtain personal information from you when you use our website or helpline, enquire about our activities, register with us, send or receive an email, call us, ask a question, become an Ambassador or professional member with us, enter a competition, carry out a fundraising activity or otherwise provide us with personal information.

We may also receive information about you from third parties, for example from Just Giving, Virgin Money Giving, Every Day Hero or via our clothes recycling company, Intersecond; and from individuals or third party organisations who share our interests and may introduce you to us.

We may obtain information from you where we interact with you outside our website, for example if you follow us or we follow you on social media, or if we connect with you via a third party.

8. What information do we collect?

We collect personal data as defined by the Act. The personal information we collect might include name, date of birth, email address, postal address, and telephone number. We record your requests for information and any feedback we receive from you.

We may also collect technical information relating to your use of our website, including your browser type or the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet.

We may collect your sensitive personal data, such as your racial and ethnic origin, physical and mental health and sexual life, for example in conversation with you via our helpline. If you do provide us with sensitive personal data, we would only use this to the extent necessary to provide you with appropriate advice.

We want to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. If any of the information that you have provided us with changes, for example if you change your email address, name, payment details, or if you wish to cancel your registration, please let us know using by emailing us at hello@heartuk.org.uk or call us on 01628 777046.

We also gather general information about the use of our website, such as which pages users visit most often and which services, events or facilities are of most interest. We may also track which pages users visit when they click on links in emails. We may use this information to personalise the way our website is presented when users visit, to make improvements to our website and to ensure we provide the best service for users. Wherever possible we use aggregated or anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our website.

9. How do we use this information?

We will use your personal information:

to promote the aims of HEART UK;
to maintain a summary of your history with us;
to process donations, event details or other payments and verify financial transactions;
to keep you informed about our activities;
to provide you with services, products or information you have requested;
to provide you with information about future events and products and services we think may be of interest to you, including third party events, products and services;
to obtain feedback on our services from you;
to manage your donations and contact you about them;
to respond to professional membership requests;
to respond to your requests about becoming an Ambassador with us;
to respond to your requests about our programmes, including our Children and Young People Programme;
to get in touch about helpline support;
to handle your literature orders;
for research purposes to enable us to improve our service to you;
for administration purposes to notify you about changes to our services and as part of our efforts to keep our website safe and secure; and to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

We will only use your personal information for electronic marketing purposes if we are allowed to do this by law or if we have your consent. If you agree to us providing you with marketing information, you can always opt out at a later date. If you would rather not receive marketing material from us, please let us know at any time by emailing h ello@heartuk.org.uk or telephone 01628 777046

We may analyse the personal information we collect to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you in the most appropriate way and with the most relevant information. Where relevant, we may also assess your personal information for the purposes of fraud and credit risk reduction.

If you enter your personal details in one of our online forms, we may use this information to contact you even if you do not "send" or "submit" the form. We will only do this to see if we can help with any problems you might be experiencing with the form or with our website.

10. Do we share your information with anyone else?

We may share your personal information with other charities or organisations which share our aims and partner organisations with which we work from time to time to promote the aims of the Charity (details of which can be found in our website or on request to Contact Us).

We may need to provide your information to our contractors, publishers, IT specialists, finance team, event organisers, mailing houses and suppliers who provide services on our behalf, to the extent necessary to enable you to receive those services.

If you make a payment or donation to us we will need to share your information with our payment processor. By paying via our payment processor you agree to accept their terms and conditions for the use of their services, including their privacy policy. We suggest that you read their privacy policy when using their service as we are not responsible for data you share with them.

We may also need to disclose your information if required to do so by law or as expressly permitted under the Act.

We may need to share your information with our service providers, associated organisations and agents for the purposes described above. Refer to section 3

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.

11. How do we protect personal information?

We use a secure service when you make a donation through our website, via a virtual gateway operated by CAF (Charities Aid Foundation). Our online payment system is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliant.

We take appropriate measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date and kept only for so long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is used. However, you should be aware that the use of the Internet is not entirely secure and although we will do our best to protect your personal data we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal information which is transferred from you or to you via the Internet. Any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures to try to prevent unauthorised access.

12. How long do we keep your information for?

We retain your personal information for no longer than necessary. Where minimum retention periods are required, for example by HMRC for tax purposes, we will retain your information for the statutory minimum period.

Unless otherwise required by law, we will retain your information for as long as we have an active relationship with you and for two years thereafter, unless you request erasure of your information earlier in accordance with paragraph 14 below.

We will use your contact details to send you information about the Charity in accordance with ‘Your Preferences’ for as long as we have an active relationship with you and two years thereafter, unless you exercise your right to prevent direct marketing in accordance with paragraph 13 below.

13. Your Rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you (for which we may charge a fee if permitted by law).

You may ask us, or we may ask you, to rectify information you or we think is inaccurate, and you may also ask us to remove information which is inaccurate. If you inform us that your personal data is inaccurate, we will inform relevant third parties with whom we have shared your data so they may update their own records.

You may also obtain your personal data from us and reuse it for your own purposes, or for another service. This right applies in limited circumstances, specifically if we are processing your data on the basis of your consent or the performance of a contract with you, and if we are doing so using automated means.

You have a right to seek the erasure of your data (often referred to as the ‘right to be forgotten’). You may wish to exercise this right for any reason, for example where it is no longer necessary for us to continue holding or processing your personal data you may withdraw your consent. You should note that we are entitled to and reserve the right to retain your data for statistical purposes.

You have a right to prevent us from processing your data for the purposes of marketing. If you would like us to stop using your personal data for this purpose, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights above, please let us know using the contact details at the start of this policy. We will act in accordance with your instructions as soon as reasonably possible and there will be no charge.

If you think we are in breach of our responsibilities to you, you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner at www.ico.org.uk.

14. Changes to this policy

Any changes we may 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.

This privacy policy was last amended in March 2018

15. Information about Our Use of Cookies

‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information stored on the hard drive of a user’s computer which contain information about the user. The information is used to track a visitor’s use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

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 site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

We may store information about your user preferences using cookies which we can access when you visit our website in the future. We do this to help enhance your interaction with our website.

If you want to delete any cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to instructions for your file management software to locate the file or directory that stores cookies.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies may include analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

We use the following cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies

These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that may enable you to log into secure areas of our website.

15.1 Analytical/performance cookies

They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

15.2 Functionality cookies

These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

15.3 Targeting cookies

These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

Version 1.01 14 March 2018

We use the following cookies on this site:

Cookie	Description	Expiration time
accept_cookies	When you visit the site for the first time a message about cookies appears on the screen. If you select ‘Continue’ an acceptance cookie will be stored on your machine, otherwise the message will always appear. Once the cookie is set the message will disappear.	4 years
PHPSESSID	Contains an anonymous identifier that can be used by the server to provide a continuous service.	Session – expires when browser is closed
_ga	Google Analytics cookie - Used to distinguish users	2 years
_gid	Google Analytics cookie - Used to distinguish users	24 hours
_gat	Google Analytics cookie - Used to throttle request rate	1 minute
__atuvc	Functional cookie for AddThis social sharing widget - Stores an updated page share count	1 year
__atuvs	Functional cookie for AddThis social sharing widget	Session – expires when browser is closed
loc	Functional cookie for AddThis social sharing widget	1 year
uvc	Functional cookie for AddThis social sharing widget	1 year