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The Scottish Bame Women

Privacy Policy

Scottish Bame Women is committed to protecting your privacy and treating your personal data with transparency, dignity, and care.

Charity Information: Scottish Bame Women is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), Scottish Charity Number SC053466, regulated by the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). Our designated contact email is thesbworg@pm.me.

1. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Scottish Bame Women (“SBW”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and protects personal information when you visit our website (thesbw.org), use our contact form, make a donation, or communicate with our team. We act as Data Controller in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Information We Collect and Lawful Bases

We believe in data minimisation and collect only information that is strictly necessary for clear charitable purposes:

  • General Enquiries (Contact Form): When you contact us through our website, we collect your name, email address, and message. Lawful basis: Legitimate interests (to respond to your enquiry and provide assistance).
  • Donations & Financial Records: When you make a charitable donation online, our payment processor (Stripe via GiveWP) collects your name, email address, donation amount, and billing/payment details. Payment card details are handled directly and securely by Stripe; SBW does not hold or store credit or debit card details. Lawful basis: Legal obligation (charity accounting and financial records) and legitimate interests.
  • Technical & Security Data: When you browse our website, standard web server logs may record your IP address, browser type, operating system, and pages visited for website maintenance, security monitoring, and troubleshooting. Lawful basis: Legitimate interests (maintaining website security and uptime).

3. Important Warning on Sensitive Personal Data

Our website contact form is designed for general enquiries only. We do not invite, request, or encourage the submission of confidential support requests, medical details, mental health information, or other sensitive personal data through our general website form. If you require confidential community support, please email our team directly at thesbworg@pm.me so that appropriate secure handling can be arranged.

4. Donor Privacy Commitment

We hold donor trust in the highest regard. In accordance with our agreed policies:

  • We do not publish donor names or publicise individual contribution amounts.
  • Donor information is kept strictly confidential and used solely to process payments, provide automated donation receipts, and maintain required charity accounting ledgers.
  • We do not sell, rent, trade, or share donor personal details with external commercial third parties.

5. Marketing and Communications

SBW does not send marketing newsletters or unsolicited promotional communications at launch. If an optional newsletter is introduced in the future, it will operate strictly on an opt-in consent basis with clear, one-click unsubscribe options.

6. Volunteers

We do not operate an online volunteer-registration form on our website at launch. Any future volunteer recruitment will be accompanied by dedicated volunteer privacy information.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected:

  • General enquiries: Ordinarily retained for no more than 12 months following resolution of your query, and deleted earlier when no longer needed.
  • Donation and accounting records: Retained for a minimum of 6 years in accordance with statutory charity financial and accounting reporting obligations in Scotland.
  • Technical server logs: Retained routinely for up to 90 days before deletion or overwriting.

8. Data Security and Access Controls

We maintain appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Access to our enquiry inbox (thesbworg@pm.me) is restricted to a small, authorised SBW team and protected by strong authentication and two-factor authentication (2FA).

9. Third-Party Data Processors

We use reputable third-party service providers who process data strictly under our instruction and in accordance with UK data protection legislation:

  • Payment Processing: Stripe Payments Europe Ltd (PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment gateway).
  • Email & Communications: Secure email provider (Proton AG) with zero-access encryption for stored messages.
  • Web Hosting: Secure UK/EEA cloud hosting infrastructure with SSL/TLS encryption.

10. Your Data Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have rights regarding your personal data:

  • Right of access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
  • Right to rectification: You may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
  • Right to erasure: You may request the deletion of your personal data where there is no legal reason for us to retain it.
  • Right to restrict or object to processing: You may request that we limit how we process your data or object to specific processing activities.

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at thesbworg@pm.me. We will respond without undue delay and within one calendar month.

11. Regulatory Status & Complaints

SBW is currently completing its data protection registration and fee-exemption assessment. If you have concerns about our data handling, please contact us first so we can resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK supervisory authority: the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

12. Policy Review

This policy was reviewed and adopted in October 2026. Any future updates will be published on this page.