Overcoming MS is committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about how we use your personal data.
The purpose of this policy is to give you a clear explanation of how we protect your privacy, how we use your information and your control over how we use your personal information. The policy covers the following:
- Who we are
- The information we hold about you
- Where we collect information from you
- How we keep your data safe
- How we use your personal information
- Who we share your data with
- How long we keep your personal information
- How we use cookies
- What to do if you have a complaint
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or want to change the way we use your personal information please get in touch by contacting us:
Email: [email protected]
Post: Overcoming MS, c/o Gravita Oxford LLP, First Floor, Park Central, 40-41 Park End Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 1JD, England UK.
Who we are
Overcoming MS
Registered charity number: 1157579 in England and Wales, SC050752 (Scotland) and operates in Northern Ireland.
Registered company number: 9044459 in England and Wales
Registered office: c/o Gravita Oxford LLP, First Floor, Park Central, 40-41 Park End Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 1JD, England UK.
Australia: Registered with the ACNC (ABN 50 603 488 508)
USA: Overcoming MS is a qualified 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organisation
The personal information we hold about you
We only ask for information we need to provide the service requested, which is usually name, email address and your consent.
We may ask for and store other information where it is relevant to do so, for example:
postal address, donation amount, consents associated with being recorded, photographed or sharing your story, or gift aid eligibility if you are making a donation.
We do not collect or store credit or debit card details. If you use your debit or credit card to donate to us or pay for a service, the transaction is handled securely via our payment providers; we are not provided with any of your card details.
Special category data
Sensitive ‘special category’ information needs more protection. Our processing of special category data includes information about your MS status and information about accessibility, dietary or medical needs for example when attending in-person events. We may collect sensitive personal data if you make the information public yourself or if you tell us about your experiences relating to MS (for example, if you write a blog for us). We will always make it clear to you when we collect this information from you, what sensitive personal data we are collecting and why.
Where we collect information about you
Information you give to us directly
We collect personal data when you contact us or fill in any of our forms, for example, on the Overcoming MS website, when you sign up for an event, apply to work with us for example as a volunteer or Facilitator, when you donate or when you create a Live Well Hub account.We collect personal information if you email or phone us with your details or if we ask you to fill in an evaluation form in preparation for, or following an event or course. We also collect your personal data when you fill in our surveys if we have told you they are not anonymous.
Information you give to us indirectly
Your information may be shared with us by independent event organizers, such as Global Adventure Challenges, who run UK and overseas treks. Your information may be shared with us from online platforms such as such as Committed Giving, Raisely, JustGiving, Facebook Fundraising, Eventbrite, Dot Digital, Zoom and Mighty Networks.
These independent third parties, which are sometimes based outside the UK, will only share your data with us when you have indicated that you are happy for your details to be shared. You should check their own privacy policy when you provide your information to fully understand how third parties will process your data.
How we keep your data safe
We endeavor to keep your personal information as safe as possible and take this responsibility very seriously.
We store your data on our secure CRM database. Access to CRM is limited to staff and our external CRM support agency, and is strictly controlled by unique password protected log in. The CRM data is cloud-based, encrypted and held in Microsoft’s UK based data centres.
Platforms we use to collect data have been vetted for suitable levels of encryption and are protected as tightly as possible from unauthorised access. We ensure we only use reputable technologies and companies that we have vetted.
Our suppliers are not allowed to use your information for their own business purposes. We require these companies to have appropriate organisational and technical measures in place to ensure they can keep your data safe.
How we use your personal information
As a citizen of the UK or European Union, we use (process) your data according to the lawful bases set out by UK General Data Protection Regulation or General Data Protection Regulation (for EU citizens). If you are a non UK or EU citizen, you will be subject to the data processing laws of your country, however since UK GDPR and GDPR are considered some of the toughest privacy and security laws in the world, you can rest assured that your data will be processed with the same care and respect as a UK or EU citizen, even if your country does not require us to be so strict. We process data of American citizens that share information about their MS status with us, in accordance with the United States’ Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
We process personal information under one of the following lawful bases:
- Contract – when we process your personal information to fulfil a contractual or potential contractual arrangement. E.g. employee application.
- Consent – where you agree to us using your personal information for a specific and purpose or purposes. E.g. signing up to receive the monthly newsletter
- Legitimate interest – where we use your data in a way we think you would consider to be appropriate because of our existing engagement with you. E.g. to send information about fundraising by post or email you about a change in service we provide to you, or if we feel we have something new to offer that we think could benefit you.
- Legal obligation – where there is a statutory or other legal requirement to process or share the information. E.g. to claim Gift Aid on your donation if you are eligble.
- Vital Interests – where we may need to share your personal information without your consent for the purpose of emergency safeguarding.
If you interact with us, we may use your data to:
- provide you with the services, products or information you requested.
- ensure your experience is optimized at events such as high-risk challenge events or ‘in person’ events that Overcoming MS hosts.
- administer your donation or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid.
- keep a record of your relationship with us.
- add you to email lists to receive communications you requested.
- tailor the communications you receive when we contact you.
- understand how we can improve our services, products or information by including your data in anonymized analyses.
- send you emails to tell you about changes to our resources or services if we think you would expect to hear from us about them.
- conduct research including profiling to improve our understanding of our supporters and the MS landscape. One of the reasons we do this is so we can target our fundraising activity and make appropriate requests to supporters who may be able and willing to give more than they already do. This targeted activity enables us to most effectively increase fundraising revenue in order to deliver the resources and support for the community.
- ask you for feedback on our resources and services so that we can continue to improve them.
Sharing your story
Some people choose to tell us about their experiences of the Overcoming MS Program to help further our work. They may film their story, write a blog, be recorded for a podcast or become an Overcoming MS Ambassador or volunteer. This may include them sharing sensitive information related to their health and family life, in addition to their biographical and contact information. If we have the consent from the individual, this information may be made public by us at events, in materials, in our PR and fundraising work, on our website, in social media, or in documents such as our annual reports.
Who we share your personal information with
We will never sell your personal data with another company or charity for their marketing purposes.
There are sometimes situations where we need to share your information and these are explained below.
We share with third parties who provide a service to us and are data processors. This would include suppliers, consultants, freelancers and other partners who are contracted to carry out work for us. We require these third parties to comply strictly with our instructions and data protection laws. We enter into contracts with all of our data processors to ensure they are complying with our policies and procedures. Given the global scope of our work, we sometimes contract services outside the UK to carry out professional work on our behalf, all of whom are signatories to our confidentiality and data sharing policies.
At events, we may need to share your personal data with external providers. For example, providers of accommodation or conference centres used for Overcoming MS events may need to know about dietary or accessibility requirements.
In relation to special category data e.g. medical data, we will never share this sensitive data with third parties unless absolutely necessary (for example we are compelled to by a legal or regulatory body) or you have consented for us to use the data for certain purposes e.g. if it will enhance your experience of our events. Rest assured that we will always have a contract in place with third parties that we share such data with, to ensure it is protected.
We may share your data if we are under duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies), or in order to enforce or apply our rights (including in relation to our website or other applicable terms and conditions) or to protect Overcoming MS, for example in cases of suspected fraud or defamation.
We may share your data where we have a duty of care to disclose your personal information in relation to safeguarding, to ensure your personal safety.
We may share your personal story about your experiences of the Overcoming MS Program to help further our work if you have given us consent to do so.
All data is centrally controlled in the UK, which is part of the EEA. However, as an organisation, which is registered and recognised in the UK, USA and Australia, we also work with colleagues and occasionally suppliers in these countries, to ensure that we offer the best possible level of services and care to our communities in these countries. We take great care to put in place suitable safeguards to protect your personal information when processed by the supplier, such as getting contracts in place, anonymising data and sharing through secured channels. Tools we use, such as Mighty Networks, Dot Digital and Google Analytics for our newsletter, may hold and process data outside the EEA, but will comply with the relevant data protection regulations for the international transfer of personal data to ensure that your data is safe and secure. If you require more information, please visit their websites for more details and to review their privacy policies.
How long we keep your data
We keep your personal information for no longer than is necessary, in order to carry out our processing purposes. For example, to provide support and services to you and manage our relationship with you, to manage our business operations, comply with any relevant legal and/or regulatory requirements on us and meet our charitable aims and objectives.
The length of time we keep your personal data varies depending on the nature of the processing. For example, we will keep personal information relating to legacies for decades, so long as the legacy is active, whereas personal data relating to lapsed newsletter subscribers will be removed far more frequently.
In some situations we have a statutory obligation to keep your personal information for a set period of time (at least six years). This mainly concerns financial information such as employee payroll data and donations and related Gift Aid contributions.
At the end of the retention periods, your data will be deleted or anonymised so it can be used in a non-identifiable way to inform our service planning.
Anonymising data means we remove your name, postal address and email address, but keep other data that may have been associated with you such as donation amount or event participation. This is so we can look at trends over time regarding uptake of our services as well as donation levels. Trend data and anonymised analysis are useful for forming insights on how to improve our products and services and fundraising efforts, to support our community in the future.
Personal requirements data collected for attending in-person events is destroyed after the event has taken place.
Your right to your personal information
You have a right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you (Subject Access Right) and to have any inaccuracies corrected. Any such requests will be actioned by Overcoming MS 30 days after your request and provided free of charge.
You also have the right to request us to delete your details permanently, request us to restrict the processing of your personal information or to object to our processing of your personal information.Where you have provided your consent for our use of your personal information, you always have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. It is also important to us that your personal information is accurate and up-to-date. You can edit your information, including your address and contact details, at any time. If you would like to change your preferences, update the details we hold about you or withdraw your consent, please get in touch:
Email: [email protected]
Post: Overcoming MS, c/o Gravita Oxford LLP, First Floor, Park Central, 40-41 Park End Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 1JD, England UK.
How to complain
If you are unhappy with our work, with something we have done or failed to do, we want to know about it. Please get in touch:
Email: [email protected]
Post: Overcoming MS, c/o Gravita Oxford LLP, First Floor, Park Central, 40-41 Park End Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 1JD, England UK.If you still feel that we have not handled your complaint effectively, then you may also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies for a number of reasons, including
- Proper functioning of certain areas of the website
- Monitoring website performance
- Tracking marketing and fundraising campaign activity
- Enhanced and personalized functionality
For more information on cookies, please view our cookie policy.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the email address you provided to us or by placing a prominent notice on our website.
Last updated on 19th December 2024