For Women Scotland

Privacy Policy

For Women Scotland takes your privacy seriously. We will never share your personal information without your permission and we will take care to safeguard any information you give us.

For Women Scotland is a not-for-profit private limited company by guarantee (company number: SC669393). The organisation is a data processor of your information under the conditions of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. This notice covers all directors, staff, consultants and volunteers acting for the organisation.

Contact details

We can be contacted by email: info@forwomen.scot

Information for supporters

For Women Scotland engages with supporters who sign up for our newsletter, email our organisation, join in with campaigns actions such as emailing their MSPs, attend meetings and demonstrations, or donate to us.

What type of information we collect

We only collect information about you that you deliberately give us, which may include:

  • your name
  • your X or Facebook account name
  • your sex
  • your email address
  • your IP address
  • your postal address
  • your constituency/region and MP/MSPs
  • payment details and amounts, if you buy goods or make a donation to us
  • which of our campaigns you have got involved with, and how you have contributed
  • what kinds of information you are happy to receive from us, and how
  • responses to surveys
  • information you send to us by email or direct message.

The information collected may include some sensitive personal data which is classed as “special category data”. This category includes religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, and data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

How we get the information and why we have it

We get this information from you when you provide it to us by emailing us or messaging us on social media platforms, donating to us, purchasing goods or services from us, signing a letter or petition, attending a meeting, taking part in a campaign or survey, or subscribing to our newsletter.

We collect this information in order to be able to:

  • communicate with you about our work, and ask for your help with it
  • provide you with information or products you have requested from us
  • process donations received from you
  • respond to any complaints or feedback from you

Ways in which we use your personal information

We will never sell your details to other organisations.

We will not disclose your personal data to any other organisation unless you’ve given your specific consent for us to do so, or we are legally obliged to do so. 

If you sign a letter or petition to be handed to the government, or other organisation, these details will be handed on to the recipient of the letter or petition. These details will not be shared further, unless you give permission for them to be published.

We will sometimes use approved third-party data processors to process information on our behalf, such as Mailchimp for our email list, and Paypal for donations or purchases. Data processors with which we share your information are only authorised to use that information to fulfil their contractual obligations to us. They are not permitted to use it for any other purpose.

To ensure that we communicate with you through your preferred channels, you can update your preferences at any time.

Lawful basis for processing data

All the data that we use is held in accordance with the requirements laid out in current data protection legislation. 

We may rely on the following lawful purposes when we process personal data:

  • contract – we may process personal data in order to perform our contractual obligations where our contract is with you as a data subject
  • consent – we may rely on your freely given consent at the time you provided your personal data to us
  • legitimate interests – we may rely on legitimate interests based on our evaluation that the processing is fair, reasonable and balanced. These include research and publication to deliver relevant, timely insights and speciality knowledge in pursuit of our mission and to support those who interact with us.

If you have any questions about your personal information, or how we manage our data, contact info@forwomen.scot

Security

We have put appropriate technical and organisational security policies and procedures in place to protect personal data from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. We aim to ensure that access to your personal data is limited only to those who need to access it. Those individuals who have access to the data are required to maintain its confidentiality.

This website uses industry-standard software protection for secure financial transactions. Your personal information, such as your credit card number, is securely encrypted so that it cannot be read as the information travels over the internet. We do not store any card information on our servers.

Individuals who contact us with personal experiences and concerns

We take particular care when we work with people who share personal experiences with us. 

We may use anonymised information you share with us in case studies and stories that we share with MPs/MSPs, the media, on our website, in our email campaigns or on our social-media channels.

We would only share identifying information outside For Women Scotland with your specific consent. 

Sometimes people contact us seeking our help and support or get in touch to bring our attention to a specific issue within an organisation. This may be because we have made an appeal for particular types of information or because they are seeking advice.

We collect information about you in the following ways:

  • when you email us directly or use a contact form or survey on our website or newsletter
  • when you contact us on social media channels
  • when you call us by phone or messaging application.

We use our legitimate interest to collect and retain this data. 

Journalists, MPs/MSPs, other professionals and campaigners

We collect and maintain personal details of journalists, MPs/MSPs and other professionals and campaigners with whom we wish to maintain a working relationship. We use this information to decide when to contact you to share information or to invite you to collaborate. 

We rely on our legitimate interest in order to retain and use this information. 

If you do not wish us to contact you or retain your personal information for this purpose contact info@forwomen.scot

Other data subjects

In conducting research, developing case studies and responding to enquiries, and developing stories for publication or broadcast in the media, we may record information on other individuals who have not submitted this information to us. This may be information that has manifestly been made public, such as that they have published themselves, or that has been reported in the media. It can also include information that has been shared with us by individuals concerning situations they are involved in with others, such as colleagues at work.

It is generally not possible to contact such individuals directly, but, having regard to Article 14(5) of the UK GDPR, we take all reasonable steps to protect their rights and freedoms, and we make the required information on our processing policy publicly available by way of this notice.

We rely on our legitimate interest in order to retain and use this information. This is based on our evaluation that the processing is fair, reasonable and balanced.

These interests include research and publication to deliver relevant, timely insights and specialist knowledge in pursuit of our mission, working with journalists, making official complaints and referrals or providing information to officials and politicians, and to support those who interact with us.

Special category data

Special category data includes personal data revealing political opinion and personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs. It also includes data concerning health, a person’s sex life and their sexual orientation.

Sex (whether someone is male or female) is not special-category data. 

The Information Commissioner’s Office says that information on a person’s transgender status or “gender identity” may involve special category data, depending on the circumstances. This might arise if the information reveals specific details about the person’s health status or medical care. The basic fact that someone who is male publicly declares himself to be a woman (or vice versa) is not special category data. 

Information that someone believes or does not believe in the idea of gender identity relates to beliefs, and is therefore likely to come under the definition of special-category data.

Where we process information on the gender-critical beliefs of our supporters we rely on Article 9(2)(d), the “not for profit condition”. In other cases we rely on 9(2)(e), that it has been made public by the data subject.

Use of cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enable the server to collect information from the browser. This website use cookies to provide you with a more personalised web service.

This website uses Ionos Site Analytics and Google Analytics, which are two of the most widespread and trusted analytics solutions on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site, and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit.

You may avoid the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in the cookie consent popup or in your browser.

Information retention

We will hold your personal information no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed (for example, participating in a campaign or making a donation to support our work). If you ask for your personal information to be deleted we will manage your request in a transparent way.

Your rights

Under data protection law, you have various rights including: 

  • Access – 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. 
  • Rectification – you have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. This right always applies.
  • Erasure – you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Restriction – you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.
  • Objection to processing – you have the right to object to processing if we are able to process your information because the process is in our legitimate interests.
  • Portability – you have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You can make a request by emailing us at info@forwomen.scot. We will take steps to confirm your identity before processing your request. We will respond to your request within one calendar month of the request, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Privacy notice for minors

The protection of minors is very important to us, so we won’t actively seek to collect personal information from those under the age of 18.

Minors should always ask a parent or guardian for permission before sending personal information to anyone online.

Making a complaint

If you think your rights have been breached or you are not happy with the ways we handle your data, you can raise a complaint by contacting info@forwomen.scot with Data Protection Complaint in the subject line.

Any questions or concerns that may not require a formal complaint can also be sent to this address. 

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office by writing to: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, or by telephone on 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745.

Review

This privacy policy is kept under regular review.

Last updated: November 2024.