ACFA collects personal information when you apply for membership or when you book onto ACFA Training or events. We will use this information to provide the member services requested, such as regular information updates, meeting notifications and ACFA Training opportunities by email, phone or letter. We will also use the information to maintain membership records and to enable statistical analysis. Data may be passed to other parts of the organisation, other ACFA member organisations, or companies or contractors operating on our behalf in order to enable these functions to take place. ACFA will not share your information for marketing purposes with external companies or organisations.

ACFA is committed to protecting your personal information. Our Privacy Policy contains important information about what personal details we collect; what we do with that information; who we may share it with and why; and your choices and rights when it comes to the personal information you have given us.

We may need to make changes to our Privacy Policy; so please check our website for updates from time to time.

This version of our Privacy Policy was last updated 17th May 2018.

Who we are

In this policy ‘ACFA’, ‘We’, ‘Us’, ‘Our’ refer to ACFA which is an Unincorporated Association established in 1982 to provide a not for profit support network for its membership which consists of local advice organisations, their staff and volunteers.

How to Contact us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or the information we collect or use about you, please contact:

ACFA, c/o St Pauls Advice Centre, 146 Grosvenor Road, Bristol BS2 8YA

Email: info@acfa.org.uk

Information we collect and use

Information about you that we collect and use includes:

• Information about who you are when you register as a member or to attend a training course or other event e.g. your name, organisation you work for, job title and contact details, payment details
• Information about you and the organisation you work for when you voluntarily complete member surveys or provide feedback e.g. your name, organisation you work for, job title and contact details
• Information about your contact with us e.g. meetings, phone calls, emails / letters
• Information that is automatically collected e.g. via cookies when you visit our website

Where we collect your information

We may collect your personal information directly from you, from a variety of sources, including:

• an application for ACFA membership
• registering for one of our events e.g. training course, conferences or meetings
• phone conversations with us
• emails or letters you send to us
• attendance at ACFA meetings
• participating in surveys
• using our online services such as websites and social media

What we collect and use your information for

We take your privacy seriously and we will only ever collect and use information which is personal to you where it is necessary, fair and lawful to do so. We will collect and use your information to:

• process an application for ACFA membership
• manage your membership account
• process an order to attend an event e.g. training course, conferences or meetings
• send you information about your membership, and the training or events available to members by email, phone or letter. If you do not wish to receive such information, please email  ‘OPT OUT’ in the subject field.
• send you member news and information relevant to our membership by email, phone or letter. If you do not wish to receive such information, please email  ‘OPT OUT’ in the subject field.
• analyse website usage using information collected through cookies

If you do not wish us to collect and use your personal information in these ways, it will mean that we will be unable to provide you with full benefits of ACFA membership.

Who we may share your information with

We may share your information with third parties for the reasons outlined in ‘What we collect and use your information for.’ This would include

• Companies we have chosen to support us in the delivery of the products and services we offer to you as part of your membership with ACFA, e.g. research, consultancy or technology companies.
• Other current ACFA members e.g. to enable improved member communication and partnership working

We will never sell your details to someone else.

Where your information is processed

The majority of your information is processed in the UK and European Economic Area (EEA). However, some of your information may be processed by us or the third parties we work with outside of the EEA e.g. surveys, newsletters, emails

Where your information is being processed outside of the EEA, we will ensure that we will only transfer personal information to organisations with good data protection practices and privacy policies.

How long we keep your information

We will keep your personal information only where it is necessary to provide you with our products or services while you are an ACFA member.

Your individual rights

You have several rights in relation to how ACFA uses your information. These include:

Right to be informed

You have a right to receive clear and easy to understand information on what personal information we have, why and who we share it with – we do this in our Privacy Policy and privacy information.

Right of access

You have the right of access to your personal information. If you wish to receive a copy of the personal information we hold on you, you may make a data subject access request (DSAR).

Right to request that your personal information be rectified

If your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you can ask us to ensure it is corrected.

Right to request erasure

You can ask for your information to be deleted or removed if there is not a compelling reason for ACFA to continue to have it.

Right to restrict processing

You can ask that we block or suppress the processing of your personal information for certain reasons. This means that we are still permitted to keep your information – but only to ensure we don’t use it in the future for those reasons you have restricted.

Right to data portability

You can ask us for a copy of your personal information for your own purposes.

Right to object

You can ask us to stop processing your personal information if we are using it for direct marketing purposes. You can also object to ACFA processing your personal information where we were using it for scientific/historical research and statistics or for our legitimate interests. To do this you must give specific reasons why you are objecting to the processing of your data. These reasons should be based upon your particular situation.

Rights related to automatic decision making including profiling

ACFA does not use solely automatic decision making in relation to member personal information. However, you have the right to ask ACFA to give you information about its processing of your personal information and ensure profiling processes are working as they should.

How to make a complaint

We will always strive to collect, use and safeguard your personal information in line with data protection laws. If you do not believe we have handled your information as set out in our Privacy Policy, please email  and we will do our utmost to make things right.

If you are still unhappy, you can complain to our Supervisory Authority. Their contact details are UK – ICO