Privacy Policy

Helping Rhinos Privacy and Cookie Policy

Helping Rhinos, a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity No. 1175762) is committed to protecting the privacy and the lawful processing of your personal data.

Helping Rhinos is the Data Controller, and our data processing is in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulation 2019 (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other data protection legislation that may be appropriate.

This privacy policy explains the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we uphold your rights and how we store and handle your data and keep it safe, as well as who to contact should you have any questions about the data we hold.

This policy applies if you contact us about our services or if we contact you.

What data will we collect?

We will only collect information from you that is relevant to your engagement with us. These occasions will include, but are not limited to:

  • When you support us by giving a donation;
  • When you buy a product from us that supports our cause;
  • When you are a staff member, donor or supporter of Helping Rhinos;
  • When you are employed by Helping Rhinos as a contractor;
  • When you are a volunteer of Helping Rhinos;
  • When you become a member of Helping Rhinos;
  • When you visit our offices or an event we may organise;
  • When you communicate or engage with Helping Rhinos by letter, email or other means, including social media; or
  • When you access or engage with any of the websites we host.

In particular, we may collect the following information from you which is defined as ‘personal data’:

  • personal details such as name, email address and postal address;
  • financial details in certain situations;
  • social media name;
  • IP address;
  • page visited;
  • web browser;
  • any search criteria entered;
  • previous web page visited and other technical information.

If you choose to share personal data with us, then we will store this information on our database. Access to the database is limited to only those members of Helping Rhinos staff who need to see it in order to process donations, send acknowledgement emails and to make you aware of Helping Rhinos events, campaigns and news. We will only send these to you where appropriate and where we have your consent to do so.

In certain situations, we may collect or be exposed to information that is referred to as being in a ‘special category’. This could include:

  • physical or mental health details;
  • biometric data;
  • data concerning health;
  • racial or ethnic origin;
  • religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature;
  • criminal convictions;
  • sexual orientation.

Basis for processing personal data

The basis on which we process your personal data is one or more of the following:

  • It is necessary for the performance of our contract with you;
    • In certain circumstances, we need your personal data to comply with our contractual obligations. This might include a Gift Aid claim that you may have pledged or where you purchase a product from Helping Rhinos.
  • It is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation;
    • If the law requires it, we may need to collect and process your data. This will include sharing with law enforcement agencies details of people involved in fraud or other criminal activity affecting Helping Rhinos.
  • It is in our legitimate interests to do so;
    • In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running our charity, and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests.
    • Examples include:
      • We may contact you to tell about other services we provide that we think may be of interest to you.
      • We may invite you to participate in events about topics that may be of interest that we organise from time to time. You will always have a right to object to receiving further communications.
  • You have given us your consent (this can be withdrawn at any time by contacting us via the details provided below).
    • In specific situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent. This may include when you agree to receive an email about ways you can become a supporter or to receive information from us about other ways to help us, or when you make an enquiry about products that we sell to raise money for our cause. To protect you further, we make sure we adhere to the particular rules concerning electronic communications sent by email or text.

Basis for processing special categories data

The basis on which we process your special categories of data is one or more of the following:

  • you have given us your consent (this can be withdrawn at any time by advising our data protection officer);
  • it is necessary to protect your vital interests;
  • you have chosen to make the data public; or
  • it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

How will we use your data?

We may use your information for the following purposes:

  • if you have provided Helping Rhinos with an email address, then we may send you information about Helping Rhinos events, news and projects which we are involved in. These emails will always be accompanied by a link allowing you to unsubscribe at any time. Your email address will be stored on our secure database in the UK, and the emails will be sent using a third-party application called MailChimp which processes and stores your email address securely in the US. MailChimp will also provide us with details about which emails you have opened and when, and what links within an email you may have opened. Helping Rhinos will only use this information to ensure that what we send is relevant, timely and interesting to you. MailChimp are certified with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and details of their privacy policy can be found on their website;
  • if you have provided us with your credit or debit card details for the purposes of making a donation or online purchase, then we will use those details only for the purposes of processing that donation or online purchase, which we do through a secure service provided by Global Payments. We do not store card details, electronically or otherwise;
  • where a donation has been sent to us in the post, we will store a paper copy of the donation only for the purposes of maintaining an audit trail. Card details on these forms are destroyed before they are stored;
  • if you have provided Helping Rhinos with a Gift Aid declaration, then this will be held either as a paper record in our secure offices, or electronically on our secure database in the UK. For the purposes of claiming Gift Aid your name, postcode and the donation amount (against which we are claiming tax relief) will be shared with HM Revenue and Customs using their secure online portal. Please contact us to update your Gift Aid record should there be any change in your contact details or circumstances;
  • Helping Rhinos will, from time to time, use the donation and giving history of our supporters to analyse trends over time and people’s propensity to donate towards our various projects. We use the results of this analysis to ensure that any fundraising appeals we send are appropriate to our donors both in terms of timing as well as the amount of money that we might ask for. This enables us to raise money more efficiently and respectfully;
  • we may also collect your social media username if you interact with us through those channels in order to help us respond to your comments, questions and feedback. The data privacy law allows this as part of our legitimate interest in understanding our audience;
  • promotion of our projects and/or products;
  • maintaining accounts and records;
  • supporting and managing staff; or
  • supporting and managing volunteers and/or members.

Who will we share your information with?

Helping Rhinos will never trade, sell or share your personal details with any third party, charity or commercial organisation unless it is strictly necessary for processing a donation, membership subscription or mailing list sign up. We do not rent or share lists with other organisations, and we will never do so.

Stop Communications

You can request to stop receiving our communications, or for us to delete your data, at any time by emailing [email protected]. Please note if you request to stop receiving communications, we will need to store your details on a secure database to enable us to comply with your request (even if we delete your data from our other systems).

Log

We maintain a history of interactions between Helping Rhinos and our donors and supporters on our secure database in the UK. These include notes about inbound and outbound communications (i.e. to tell us that we have sent you something, or to tell us that you have written, telephoned or emailed us for any reason).

How long will keep your data?

Whenever we collect or process your personal data, we will only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, which will not exceed 7 years. Our procedures monitor retention periods very carefully. Periodic reviews will ensure that retention schedules are followed. At the end of the retention period, your data will either be deleted completely, put beyond use or anonymised. In some cases, personal data will be kept in perpetuity but will be anonymised.

However, if you have not engaged with us for more than seven years, you will be flagged as inactive and we may contact you to ask whether you want us to keep your data or not. Unless you reply to say ‘yes’, we will delete or anonymise your personal data. However, we assume that past and present supporters and customers might reasonably expect to continue receiving information unless they have indicated otherwise.

Transfers to third countries

We may from time to time transfer your personal data to a country outside of the UK. Normally this will be necessary for the performance of your contract with us. However, sometimes we may transfer for other reasons and we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place at all times.

What rights do you have?

You have the following rights under the UK GDPR:

  • Right to be informed;
  • Right of access (Subject Access Request);
    • You can request a copy of the data we hold in relation to you.
    • To access this, you need to provide a request in writing to our data protection officer on the details below, together with proof of identity. We will usually process your request free of charge and within one month however we reserve the right to charge a reasonable administration fee and to extend the period of time by a further two months if the request is manifestly unfounded or vexatious and/or is very complex. We will disclose to you all the personal data that we hold about you but be aware that sometimes exemptions may apply.
  • Right to rectification;
    • We will do our best to ensure that all data we hold is kept as up to date as possible. If your information changes or you think the information we have is incorrect, please let us know so that we can make the necessary amendments to our records.
  • Right to erasure;
    • You have a right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain cases (details may be found in Article 17 of the GDPR). We will deal with your request free of charge and within one month but reserve the right to refuse to erase information that we are required to retain by law or regulation, or that is required to exercise or defend legal claims . To exercise your right to erasure please contact our data protection office on the details below.
  • Right to restriction of processing;
  • Right to data portability;
  • Right to object ;
  • Rights concerning automated decision making and profiling;
  • Further information about your rights is available on request when you contact [email protected].

Cookies

Our website uses Cookies, which are small text files that are stored on your computer when you visit some websites. We use cookies to help identify your computer so that we can optimise your user experience by helping us to understand which pages you find most interesting.

You can choose to disable any Cookies already stored on your computer. Please be aware that disabling cookies may stop our website from functioning properly.

Using Cookies, our website will track the pages you visit and record other user data such as how long you spend on each page. We can then view a summary that aggregates the data from all of our visitors (but not your individual behaviour) using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics

Through Google Analytics, we can also see how many people are clicking on our Google AdWords advertisements (for which we, as a charity, do not pay) and also the search terms people are using that activate the advert. This allows us to tailor our use of charitable Google Advertising in order to engage with more people for both fundraising and awareness-raising purposes.

If – after clicking on an advert – you go on to make a donation, sign up as a member, or subscribe to our e-newsletter, we will be able to identify you using the information you provide at the time of sign up or donation and can also see that you have arrived on our website via an advert. We will only use this information to provide you with the service you have requested and to better understand what you are interested in so that we can tailor our communications with you.

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by following the guidance provided by Google here.

Social Media

This website will also allow you to share pages with social networks such as Facebook, which you do at your own discretion. Although we will never share

any personal information with third parties beyond what is strictly necessary in order to perform the service you have requested, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the terms and conditions of any social media channels through which you choose to share a story (or engage in some other way with Helping Rhinos) to ensure that you are happy with how they might combine the data they already hold on you with any interactions you have with us.

How we update this Privacy Statement

We may amend this Privacy Statement from time to time in order to reflect changes in the law, best practice or our internal procedures. You can see the last date at which any amendment or addition was made to this Privacy Statement by going to the bottom of this page. Please therefore review this Privacy Statement regularly to ensure you are aware of any changes to it.

Complaints

We are committed to protecting your personal information. If, however, you have a concern about how we have handled your data or about the contents of this Privacy Statement, or if you feel we may have mishandled your personal information, please contact us. We will respond efficiently to any complaints we receive. Our contact details are as follows: [email protected]

Residents of the USA should also refer to the additional provisions set out below

United States of America

We confirm that we take all reasonable steps to comply with US laws and regulations in relation to online privacy.

California – Online Privacy Protection Act 2003

This Act relates to personally identifiable information (PII) collected in relation to residents of California. Details of how we comply with this Act are set out in our above Privacy Statement which sets out the categories of PII we collect and how to request details of the PII we hold. In addition, we confirm that we do not share your PII with any third parties for direct marketing purposes. In relation to “Do Not Track” requests, please see our section on Cookies and Google Analytics above.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act 1998 (COPPA)

Helping Rhinos website is not directed at children under the age of 13 and, as such, Helping Rhinos does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under that age. If Helping Rhinos is made aware that personal information has been obtained from a child (without parental consent) we will take steps to delete that information as quickly as possible. Please contact us if you believe that we may have collected personal information from a child.

Last updated: 16 September 2024