Privacy Notice

We are The Human Dignity Trust, a registered charity no. 1158093 (in England and Wales) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales no. 7472200 whose registered address is at 4th Floor West – Quality House, 5-9 Quality Ct, Chancery Ln, London WC2A 1HP (“we”, “us” or “The Human Dignity Trust”).

The website at www.humandignitytrust.org is owned and operated by us. If you are a user of our website or an individual requesting advice from us (directly or indirectly), The Human Dignity Trust is the data controller for your information whether collected via this website or otherwise in accordance with this policy.

The Human Dignity Trust is committed to protecting your privacy and will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully. This policy explains how we collect and use your information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). This applies to all personal information which we collect and process. Personal information is information from which an individual’s identity can be ascertained.

The person in our organisation responsible for data protection is Alistair Stewart.

1. How do we collect information about you?

Information you give us

1.1 We may collect personal information directly from you in the following ways:

(a) our use of cookies (please see the Cookies section below);

(b) you make a donation to us, or respond to our mailings, appeals, raffles or competitions;

(d) you contribute content for use on our website;

(e) you subscribe to newsletters or updates or request information The Human Dignity Trust;

(f) you contact us with enquiries or other correspondence (including via social media) or become involved with us in another way; or

(g) you provide information to us directly (e.g., via email) in connection with your request for advice in relation to litigation or policy work.

Information we receive about you from other sources

1.2 Your information may be shared with us by a local lawyer, advisor, researcher or non-governmental organisation in connection with litigation or policy work.

1.3 Your information may also be shared with us by other third parties, namely MailChimp, Just Giving, Paypal, Virgin Money Giving, Stripe and similar entities, an up-to-date list of whom will be provided on request. They will have their own policies on data protection and privacy. It’s a good idea to check their privacy policy when you provide your information to them to understand fully how they will process your data and how they may share it with others.

1.4 If you interact with us (directly or indirectly) in one of the ways listed above, we may collect and process the following personal information about you:

(a) your name, address, email address and other contact information (such as details of your social media accounts/profiles);

(b) information you enter onto our website or provide us in correspondence;

(d) details of your visit to our website, including your IP address.

In order to use your personal data we must have a lawful basis for doing so. When we process the information above for the purposes listed in Section 2 below, unless otherwise specified below, it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) in providing advice and support to individuals as part of our aim of defending the rights of LGBT people. We have assessed the legitimate interest and are satisfied that this is justified in order for us to carry out our core functions of furthering the individual rights of LGBT people.

If you request for advice in relation to litigation or policy work, whether directly (e.g., via email) or indirectly (e.g. via a local lawyer, advisor, researcher or non-governmental organisation), we may collect and process special categories of personal information about you such as:

Personal data relating to sex life or sexual orientation;
Personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences;
Racial or ethnic origin;
Political opinions;
Religious or philosophical beliefs;
Trade union membership;
Genetic data;
Biometric data; and
Health data.

We will not process special categories of personal information about you unless you have provided us with your explicit consent in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR or the processing is otherwise lawful.

1.5 The Human Dignity Trust occasionally has volunteers helping the charity. If you provide information to our volunteer groups, some or all of that information may be shared with The Human Dignity Trust.

1.6 If providing us with information for inclusion on the website, you may provide us with information about others (e.g. in a case study or an article). You must ensure that they have agreed to you providing us with this information. We recommend that you keep a copy of them having agreed to this, and that you give them a copy of this policy.

2. Why do you need my details and how do you use them?

2.1 We will process your personal information in accordance with our obligations under applicable data protection laws and regulations, particularly for the following reasons:

(a) to provide you with the advice, services or information you have asked for (including advice in relation to litigation or policy work);

(b) to administer your donation or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid;

(c) to comply with applicable laws and regulations, and requests from statutory agencies (we need to process your information in this way in order to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject);

(d) for our own internal administrative purposes and to keep a record of your relationship with us, for example as a volunteer for us;

(e) to provide you with information about us, our fundraising campaigns, our services, and any other information, products or services that we provide or provide access to (and manage your communication preferences in this regard and more generally) – we will only send you electronic marketing if you have given us your consent to do so and you may change your mind at any time;

(f) to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer/mobile device; or

(g) to improve our service by contacting you for feedback.

2.2 When you make a donation through the website, you may be taken to a third party fundraising/payment provider such as Just Giving or Virgin Money Giving. Information you provide when donating is being given primarily to that third party who may then share that information with us. See above under “information we receive from other sources” for more details.

3. Will you pass my information onto other organisations or individuals?

3.1 We will not sell your personal information, and we will not pass your personal information to any third parties except in the circumstances set out in this policy.

3.2 Where you have granted your consent and in accordance with such consent, we may share details of your case (including special categories of personal data referred to above) with third parties so that we (and they, where applicable) can provide advice to you or otherwise further our aims.

We may also allow our staff, volunteers, consultants, or other providers acting on our behalf (for example, our website hosts) to access and use your personal information for the purposes for which you have provided it to us. If we do this, we will not give those individuals/organisations any rights to use your personal information (or to contact you) except in accordance with our instructions and this policy.

3.3 The only other times we will pass your details to anyone else would be:

(a) to enable payment providers to complete transactions;

(b) to organisations within the payment card industry in order to prevent online fraud;

(d) where you have given us consent to do so via our application form; or

(e) where The Human Dignity Trust or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by us will be one of the transferred assets

3.4. If a third party is processing your data on our behalf they will only do so under contracts with us which contain strict provisions to protect your data and confidentiality.

Marketing communications

3.5 We may send you information about our business such as marketing material or newsletters. We will only send you electronic marketing material if you have given us your express consent and we will ensure you can opt out of receiving this at any time. Opt out details will be provided on each communication.

4. How long will we keep this information about you?

4.1 We will only keep information about you for as long as is necessary for the purposes you have provided it to us. For more information on this please see our retention policy. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the following criterion: the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data; the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data; the purposes for which we process your personal data; whether we can achieve those purposes through other means; and the applicable legal requirements.

5. How do you keep my information secure?

5.1 This site has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control.

5.2 We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, altered, disclosed and/or processed in an unauthorised manner.

In addition, we limit access to personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have an operational ‘need to know’. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

5.3 We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

5.4 We may communicate with you by email. 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.

5.5 We make no representations about any other websites, and when you access any other website through a link on our website (including social media sites) you understand that it is independent from us and that we have no control over that website or the way your personal information is collected through those websites. Those websites may have their own privacy policies and we encourage you to look at those policies or contact the website operators directly to understand how your personal information is used.

6. Where is my information stored?

6.1 The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored in, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). Some data may be stored using US-based cloud storage services. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA. If we send your personal information outside the EEA we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable data protection laws, including, where relevant, entering into EU standard contractual clauses (or equivalent measures) with the party outside the EEA receiving the personal information.

7. Cookies

7.1 For information on how cookies are used on this website, please see our Cookie policy below.

8. Your rights and how to contact us

8.1 You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data(commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that your data is being lawfully processed.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to request that any incomplete or inaccurate data which we hold about you is corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data which you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data in the following circumstances: where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below); where we may have processed your information unlawfully; or where we are legally required to erase your personal data. Please note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure due to specific legal reasons (e.g., where we are required to keep the information by law). If such circumstances arise, you will be notified at the time of your request.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) if our legitimate interest is overridden by your own interests and/or fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where you consider our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to yourself or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Please note, this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use, or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.

8.2 To request details of the information we hold about you, if you have provided us with your personal information but decide at a later date that you no longer want to receive information from us, or if you wish to update us that your contact details have changed or change your preferences, simply let us know by:

(a) sending an email to [email protected]

(b) writing to 4th Floor West – Quality House, 5-9 Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1HP; or

8.3 If you contact us for this purpose, we will take all necessary steps to confirm your identity before allowing access or otherwise taking action, which we view as an important step in safeguarding your data.

8.4 You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance. The ICO can be contacted via its website at: www.ico.org.uk

8.5 Instructions for unsubscribing from emails will also be included in each email communication we send.

We will update this policy from time to time so please check it regularly.

Cookie policy

1. What are cookies?

1.1 Like most websites, we use cookies. Cookies are tiny pieces of data saved on your computer or mobile device. There are several types of cookie and they each have different functions or uses.

2. How do we use cookies?

2.1 We use cookies for a variety of reasons:

(a) Essential cookies – these are required for the operation of our website, for example to enable you to log in to secure areas of the website or make use of a shopping cart and e-payment services.

(b) Analytic/performance cookies – these 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.

(c) Functionality cookies – these are used to recognise you when you return to our website so that we can personalise our content for you and remember your preferences, e.g. whether you are signed up to email alerts.

(d) Targeting cookies – these record your visit to our website, pages you have visited and links you have followed. We may use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed to you more relevant to your interests, and may share this information with third parties for this purpose.

2.2 The table below provides more information about the cookies we use and why:

Type of cookie	Function and further information
Google analytics	This is common performance cookie that many websites use. It allows us to collect anonymous information about how you and other users use our website and helps us to improve the website.

3. Third party websites and social networks

3.1 If you click on a hyperlink from our website to any third party websites (e.g. if you ‘share’ content from our website with friends or colleagues on social media), you may be sent cookies from these third party websites. They will do so pursuant to their own policies on privacy and cookies. It’s a good idea to check their privacy policies to fully understand their use of cookies.

3.2 Some of the content on our website is provided by third parties. This includes but is not limited to: Google Maps for interactive mapping, YouTube or Vimeo for hosted video and Flickr for images. When you visit a page containing content from one of these sites a cookie may be set. We do not have any control over these cookies and they will be set pursuant to the third party’s own policies on privacy and cookies.

4. Disabling cookies

4.1 When you clicked on our website our cookie banner alerted you to the use of cookies and directed you to this policy for more information. By clicking ‘Accept’ you consented to our use of cookies as updated from time to time and the cookies we use will be stored on your device (unless rejected or disabled by your browser).

4.2 Internet browsers normally accept cookies by default. However, it is possible to set an internet browser to reject cookies. If you do not accept our use of cookies as set out in this policy, please set your internet browser to reject cookies. This may impair your ability to use our website so that some features may not work.

5. Changes to this policy and further information

5.1 We may update our use of cookies, and this policy, from time to time, so please check this policy regularly.

5.2 You can find out more about cookies generally and how to disable them at allaboutcookies.org

Privacy Notice & Cookies Policy