Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Quercus Foundation 

Effective: Date:  January 2017

QUERCUS FOUNDATION (“We”) take your privacy seriously and are fully committed to protecting and respecting the privacy and personal information of the individuals and institutions that support us in compliance with the UK’s Data Protection Act 1998 and related UK legislation.

This policy 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 visiting www.quercusfoundation.org you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy. If you disagree with any of the terms herein, please immediately discontinue use of the Site.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), the data controller is Quercus Foundation of 11 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4HH.

Information we collect from you

We will collect and process the following data about you:

  • Information you give us. This is information about you that you give us both online and offline by filling in forms on our site www.quercusfoundation.org (our site) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you register to use our site, make donations to Quercus Foundation, subscribe to any of our services and when you report a problem with our site. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, financial and credit card information.
  • Information we collect about you. When you visit our website, we collect information in a way which does not identify the user. We only record data such as the type of web browser and operating system you are using, the pages within our website that you visit, and the date and time of your visit. We cannot identify you personally from this information and we will not associate any data gathered from this site with any other personally identifying information from any source. We do not attempt to collect any personal data about you through this website unless you provide it to us voluntarily; for example, by making a donation.
  • Information we receive from other sources. This is information we receive about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. In this case we will have informed you when we collected that data if we intend to share those data internally and combine it with data collected on this site. We will also have told you for what purpose we will share and combine your data. We are working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies). We will notify you when we receive information about you from them and the purposes for which we intend to use that information.

Third-Party Services and Sites

This Policy only applies to the quercusfoundation.org site. If you land on our site from other websites (or move to other sites from our website) you should read their separate privacy policies. This policy does not address the privacy, information, data or the policies, procedures or practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site or service to which our site links. Users of our website are asked to note that we are not responsible for such matters.  The presence of a link on our site to the site of a third party does not imply endorsement of such third party site. In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, or security practices of any third party organisations. This includes, without limitation, social media platform providers, app developers and providers, operating system providers, wireless service providers and device manufacturers.

By reference to the above, please note, in particular, that we use Stripe as the software platform to process online payments. Stripe’s privacy and data protection policy can found here.

Cookies

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.

Uses made of the information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

  • Information you give to us. We will use this information:
  • to carry out our obligations arising from any donations and/or other arrangements (contractual or otherwise) entered into between you and us (including claiming Gift Aid, where applicable) and to provide you with any information that you request from us.
  • to provide you with information about charitable activities we undertake or other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already obtained or enquired about together with news items, campaign and charitable project updates related to fundraising.
  • to providing service update emails regarding our site and your specific account and to notify you about changes to our charitable activities and other services. If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data (the donation form).
  • to improve the service we offer.
  • to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about charitable activities or services we feel may interest you. If you are an existing contributor, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about charitable activities or services similar to those which were the subject of a previous engagement between us. If you are a new contributor, and where we permit selected third parties to use your data, we (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this. If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data (the donation form).
  • to personalise the look of our site and our communications with users to tailor them to users’ personal preferences (as may be indicated in direct communications between us or inferred by means of donation history, charity page likes etc or derived from market research).
  • to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
  • to assist us in the prevention of online fraud.
  • to enable allowing charities and other organisations with whom we work and who are registered with us to have visibility of any donations made and, where the user/donor provides the required consent, to permit fundraisers, charities and not-for-profit organisations  to provide such user with further details about their activities.
  • Information we collect about you. We will use this information:
  • to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
  • to allow you to participate in interactive features of our services, when you choose to do so;
  • as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
  • to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
  • to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.
  • Information we receive from other sources. We will combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

Opt-Out of News and Updates

You will only receive news stories and updates from us where you have clicked the tab marked “yes” on the “Donate Now” page and thereby opted-in to receiving such information. If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the donation form.

Disclosure of your information

You agree that we have the right to share your personal information with:

  • Any member of our group (from time to time), which means any subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries (if any), each as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.
  • Selected third parties including:
  • business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you;
  • advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others.  We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we will provide them with aggregate information about our users (for example, we may inform them that 500 men aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, women in SW1). We may make use of the personal data we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers’ wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience; and
  • analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

  • In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
  • If the Quercus Foundation or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation and/or other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Quercus Foundation, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Where we store your personal data

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data.  You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at info@quercusfoundation.org.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our associates, other charitable organisations, 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.

Access to information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request will be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we 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.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to info@quercusfoundation.org.