Compassion Acts is a data controller registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, registration number ZA799867.  Keeping your personal information safe is very important to us.  We are committed to complying with privacy and data protection laws and being transparent about how we use personal data.

We have policies, procedures, and training in place to help our people understand their data protection responsibilities and follow the principles of data protection.

We have a nominated member of staff who serves as our Data Protection Lead.  If you have any questions regarding our Privacy Policy, please email hello@compassionacts.uk

This privacy policy relates to personal information that Compassion Acts collects and uses.

 We may collect your personal information from you directly from you when you:

• communicate with us for any reason in person, by post, telephone, text, email or via our website
• visit a foodbank or are referred to a foodbank

We may also collect personal information about you from other organisations.  For example, from a referral agency such as a doctor’s surgery.

 We only collect personal information that we genuinely need.  This may include:

• contact details such as name, address, email address and phone numbers
• date of birth and gender
• nationality
• any information, including financial information, that you give us relating to your circumstances

Our legal basis for processing personal information is usually for our legitimate interests, if we have your consent, to provide a service to you.

We may collect and use your personal data if it is necessary for our legitimate interest and so long as its use is fair, balanced and does not unduly impact your rights.

Usually, we will only process sensitive personal data if we have your explicit consent.  In extreme situations, we may share your personal details if we believe someone’s life is at risk.

We collect personal information from you directly if you use our services or via an organisation that refers you to a foodbank.  Our legal basis for using this information is legitimate interest as we wish to respond to your need for help and ensure that we are providing help when and where it is most needed.

If a complaint is raised with us, we will process the personal information that is provided to us to manage and resolve the complaint or appeal.  This may include sharing relevant information with the person that the complaint has been made about.  Our legal basis for using personal information for this purpose is legitimate interest.

We will use the personal information that you share with us if you agree to help us promote our work. This might include photographs and videos. For example, we may use you information in case studies and stories that we publish or share with the media. We will only use your information for this purpose if you have given your consent for us to do so.

We will only share your personal information where we need to, where someone’s life is at risk, or we are required to do so by law.

You have the right to: 

• ask us for copies of your personal information.  This right always applies.  There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process
• tell us to change or correct your personal information if it is incomplete or inaccurate
• ask us to restrict our processing of your personal data or to delete your personal data if there is no compelling reason for us to continue using or holding this information
• receive from us the personal information we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, so that you can send it to another organisation
• object, on grounds relating to your specific situation, to any of our processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on you

For all requests please contact us at hello@compassionacts.uk.  We will respond to any request within 28 days.

We will hold your personal information only for as long as is necessary.  We will not retain your personal information if it is no longer required.

If you are not satisfied with our response to any query you raise with us, or you believe we are processing your personal data in a way which is inconsistent with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose helpline number us 0303 123 1113.

Policy Review Date: 22nd May 2022
By: Board of Trustees