Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

INTRODUCTION

This is the privacy and cookies policy (notice) of the Verbal Arts Centre (Northern Ireland) Limited (we, us or our), a registered charity under registration number NIC101482. 

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you interact with us as a customer or beneficiary of any of our programmes, or suppliers (or as an employee or representative of same), visit our premises, or visit and use our website (regardless of where you visit them from), currently https://www.theverbal.co/ (our website) including our Verbal Wellbeing web-based application (our App).  

It applies to all processing of personal data undertaken by us other than processing of personal information in the context of recruitment and employment, which is dealt with under separate internal policies. 

It also informs you how we will look after your personal data, about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. It does not cover any website you have used to access our website or any website that you access from it.

Any data that we collect specifically through our App (other than account administration data) shall be known as the App Data in this notice. 

This Policy also includes a series of disclosures in relation to and which provides more detail on the third-party service providers we partner with, the kinds of personal data they may gain access to, and what they do with it, and our Cookie Policy, available here. https://www.verbalwellbeing.com/cookies-policy/

It is important that you read this notice so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. 

Before using the App, you individually will also need to agree to our end user licence agreement (EULA) available here. [Note: insert URL].

If a third party is paying for your access to the App you must be authorised by or on behalf of a person or entity who has paid for access to the App and has agreed to a commercial licence with us (Commercial Licence or Commercial Licensee).   

  1. WHO WE ARE

    Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation or the EU General Data Protection Regulation (collectively GDPR) and other relevant data protection legislation, we act only as a data controller (i.e., where we make decisions) in relation to your personal data that we collect. We do not act as a data processor (i.e., where we process data in accordance with your instructions). 

    We act as a data controller when we collect personal data and determine the purposes and means of processing that personal data – for example, when we store account information for account registration, administration, services access, or contact information as explained below – we act as a data controller. 

    If you have any questions about this notice, including any requests to exercise any of your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out below. 

    Contact Details

    Our full details are:

    Full Name of Legal Entity: The Verbal Arts Centre (Northern Ireland) Limited, a company incorporated in Northern Ireland under company number NI26500 

    Email Address: info@theverbal.co 

    Postal Address: Verbal Arts Centre, Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop Street Within, Derry/Londonderry, BT48 6PU 

    ICO Registration Number: Z3440607 (this is the number under which we are registered with the ICO as a fee paying controller). 

    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 (www.ico.org.uk). We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so would ask that you please contact us in the first instance. 

    If you would like to make a complaint to the ICO, their contact details are:

    By phone – 0303 123 1113

    Online – https://ico.org.uk/concerns

    Changes to the Privacy Notice and your Duty to Inform us of Changes

    This version three of this Policy was last updated on 20th September 2022 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us. 

    It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

    Third-Party Links

    Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

  2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

     

    Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

    We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as set out below. 

    It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. Where you have registered to use our website you can update your details or delete your account at any time. 

    Data that you Supply to Us

    • General Personal Data – This is personal information about you that you share with us by online forms on our website, including contributions to our Verbal Wellbeing projects, through email, through the post, on the telephone or by any other means.  

    Typically, when you deal with us you may provide information about yourself or your business, including your name, job title, address, business name, personal and/or business email address, telephone and/or mobile phone number and other contact details. You may provide similar information where you contact us or sign up to our newsletter or other marketing emails.

    You may also communicate your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences (including details you provide when you opt-in to receive marketing communications from us).

    • App Data: When you register as a new user of the App you will be required to provide your name and email address, alongside other non-personal details. If you are authorised to use the App by a third party you may need to provide details of the organisation that has subscribed for a licence to the App. We will also ask you to provide feedback or survey data whilst using the App, for example about your interaction with the App, your experience when using it, or other similar details. You may not be personally identifiable to us from such fixed App-based feedback, but may be personally identifiable to the Commercial Licensee who has authorised your use of the App. This feedback will not be free form data. 
    • Feedback Data: If you agree to take part in feedback sessions to improve the user experience when using the App, we may record the session, including your face and voice, and we will ask you to share their screen to record how you are interacting with the App.  In addition, if you put in a suggestion for an event, content, feature, discussion, this will also be shared among the team to feed into our App roadmap, if applicable.
    • Troubleshooting Data: We may also collect personal data when you report any technical or service issues in relation to our websites or the App on an ad hoc basis, including relevant notes about any issues and how we responded to resolve these.  
    • Financial Data: We do not typically collect or hold your financial details save where you are or work for one of our suppliers, or a customer, and have provided us with these in order to facilitate payments. All financial data is kept secure on our SAGE accounting platform and access is password protected and restricted to personnel on our finance team only.
    • Contact Data: Should you contact us regarding any issue, information regarding this request shall also be collected, including relevant notes about this issue and how we responded to resolve the issue.

    If you provide personal information verbally (including in person or over the phone) that you give us consent to use, you will have such consent confirmed back to you in writing. 

    • Third Party Personal Data: Where you are sharing personal data that does not directly relate to you (e.g. your representatives that legally act on your behalf), or any contributions that include personal data relating to third parties identified in those contributions (including for our Reading Rooms project), you must ensure you have the consent to do so and have shared this notice with that person/those people, including where you are acting to register other individuals on their behalf. 
    • Marketing Data: You may also communicate your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences (including details you provide when you opt-in to receive marketing communications from us, e.g. email address).
    • Verbal Information: If you provide  personal information verbally that you give us consent to use you will have such consent confirmed back to you in writing. 

    Data that we collect

    • Telephone Recordings – Telephone conversations may be recorded to improve training, to ensure a high level of consistent customer service, or otherwise as required in our legitimate interests or to process contracts we have with you or your business.
    • CCTV Footage – We may use CCTV cameras on our premises and may record footage of you where you attend our premises in person, and use such footage as required in our legitimate interests, including to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff.
    • Cookie Data and Other Technical Data – A Cookie is a small text file that is added to your device’s hard drive by a web server within our domain. Cookies cannot used to run software programs or add a virus to your device. They are unique to you and avoid you having to input the same information and preferences each time you visit our web site(s). 

    We may use cookies and similar technical services to gather technical data using the means specified and of the nature specified in our Cookies Policy which is available here. [Note: insert URL]

    This information would typically include details relating to your device and your visits to our websites such as your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and pages viewed, and any transactions, including purchases of goods and services, that you enter into with us and/or through our website. You are not personally identifiable from any of the technical data we collect using such services, unless you have logged in to use the App at the time such technical data is collected. Further details of the cookies we use are set out in the Cookies Policy. 

    Information we receive from third-parties

    • Device Data – analytics providers such as Google Analytics based inside the UK or EU (as specified in the Cookies Policy). 
    • Commercial Licensee – when a Commercial Licensee signs up for a Commercial Licence to use our App (and you are not the Commercial Licensee in your own personal capacity) we may receive personal data about you from them, for example, if and when they send us lists of any authorised users who have registered under their Commercial Licence. 
    • Social Media – where you have responded to a promotional item or offer from us through social media facilities such as Facebook (if applicable), we may receive profile information about you which can include your name, address, telephone number(s) and/or your business contact details. This information would be used to respond to your interest, to fulfil a request from you and/or to send you future information and offers, where you have given clear consent to do so.
    • Publicly Available Information – we may collect personal information about you from publicly available sources. This can include your name, address and other publicly available information. As far as passible, we ensure that where any third-parties are involved in suppling such information, that they are compliant to do so. This may include credit reference agencies such as Experian, public registers such as the Companies House registry or the Electoral Register.
    • Other – from time to time, we may receive personal information from other sources. We will always endeavour to ensure such information is provided from reputable sources, who are GDPR compliant to provide us with that information.

    DATA WE DO NOT COLLECT

    • Special Categories of Personal Data: We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal data or special category data about you (including details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, medical information, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, genetic and biometric data or information on your criminal convictions and offences). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. Whilst we collect indicative data regarding your feelings or experiences whilst using the App, we do not regard this as medical information, and from a Verbal perspective, you are not personally identifiable from such feedback (although as noted above, it may be seen by the Commercial Licensee). 

    If you fail to provide personal data

    Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with products). In this case, we may not be able to fulfil any order you place with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time. 

  3. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

    We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

    • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you, to keep internal records for administration purposes related to such contracts, for the purposes contemplated in any separate terms of use for our website that you have entered into, including for the purposes set out in the “Our Standard Business Operations” section below.
    • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
    • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

    Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other as set out below in relation to sending marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

    We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data. 

    Our Standard Business Operations:

    • To provide the services that we contract to do so with you;
    • To provide you with information that you request from us;
    • To confirm your identity as a natural living person; and
    • As part of our billing, payments and recovery processes.  

    We may also use contact information to notify you of any office closure, and how you may contact us should an emergency arise during the closure period.

    Marketing 

    We may use your data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing). 

    You will only receive marketing communications from us if you have opted to receive it. This includes where you have consented to being contacted by us by email or telephone. You can opt in over the phone, by email, or online. 

    We strive to provide you with choices regarding personal data uses for marketing and advertising and currently use to manage our email correspondence. You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us, as appropriate, at any time. 

    Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product or service purchase or other transactions.

    We will never sell your personal data to any third party (as noted below). 

    Testimonials 

    We may post testimonials and comments on our websites or other platforms, which may contain personal data. We obtain each individual’s consent via email prior to posting their name and testimonial.

    Change of Purpose 

    We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. 

    If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

    Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

    Legal Requirements 

    We will keep and use your data in terms of any legal or regulatory requirements that we have and can use your data to protect our legal position, if legal action is required, including the recovery of any outstanding debts.

    By way of further example, we will share your personal data with the relevant agencies and without notice, where we are requested to or suspect fraudulent activities, money laundering, terrorist related activities. 

    Enhancing our Services

    We may use personal data (other than that comprised in private personal data) for the purposes of providing, enhancing, or improving our site, App and/or services.

    Website Administration and Customisation

    We may use the information we collect about you for a variety of website administration and customisation purposes. For example, we use your information to provide you with services and communications that you have requested, send you email updates and other communications, customise features and advertising that appear on our websites, deliver our websites content to you, measure website traffic, measure user interests and traffic patterns, and improve our websites and the services and features offered via our websites.

    Children Under Thirteen

    Our website, App and services are not intended to be used by children under 13 years old. We will never knowingly collect data from children below 13 years old. If you become aware of such a child (or another person) supplying data to us, please contact us.

    If we learn or have reason to suspect that you are a user who meets these criteria, we will unfortunately have to close your account. Please see our EULA for information about individual account closure. 

    For clarity, whilst our App is intended for use by children and parents together, we require parents to create an account for the App and control its use, we and our App have no direct interaction with children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under relevant ages. 

    We will take care when processing such data and only do so where one of the legal grounds set out above applies. 

    Aggregated or Non-Identifying Data 

    We may also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature, or engaging with particular content through the App. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

    Non-identifying Data includes information collected from or about you that does not personally identify you – including aggregated information. We treat IP addresses, log file information, anonymised feedback, user agent strings, computer IDs, and related information as non-identifying information, except if applicable law suggest us to do otherwise. We may use non-identifying information for any purpose. 

    Certain jurisdictions, including the European Union, may deem IP addresses and/or Unique IDs, to be personal data. Accordingly, for persons in such jurisdictions, our use of Non-Identifying Data as described in this policy should be assumed to include IP address and Unique ID data.

  4. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA –

    We may have to share your personal data with the categories of data processors or data controllers set out below for the purposes set out in in paragraph 3 above or otherwise below: 

    • with other members of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy;
    • with HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances;
    • with users of our site (and App), where your data has been disclosed to us for the purposes of a public advertising of a testimonial on our website, on the basis outlined above; 
    • with third party purchasers, if we buy, sell or merge any business or assets of our business and are required to share data as part of the buying, selling or merger agreement. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice;
    • with third party purchasers, if our assets are acquired by a third-party, and data is transferred as part of the purchased assets;
    • with professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the European Union or United Kingdom who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services, where they have a need to know same for any of the purposes set out above; 
    • with relevant Commercial Licensee through whom you have been granted or authorised to access to the App, where they have agreed to a Commercial Licence with us, and who will be able to see all data you input whilst using the App; 
    • with reputable and trusted third-parties where we have asked them to contact you on our behalf, where you have given us consent, it is part of our contractual agreement, is a legal requirement or there is clear legitimate interest between us (these services may include sending you email, calling you by telephone, sending you information through the post etc.);
    • with selected third parties for performance of our contracts with you, details of whom are available on request, who will be provided with personal data in order to deliver content, products and services to you;  
    • with specific selected third parties, determined by us, if you breach any agreement with us, including so as to enforce our rights against you, including credit-reference agencies, debt-collection firms or service providers, solicitors or barristers and law enforcement agencies (if applicable);
    • with service providers acting as processors based in the European Union or United Kingdom who provide IT and system administration services, as set out below:
      • with our customer relationship management software provider, which stores all customer details (these are held on a secure server only accessible with an authorised username and password); 
      • with analytical service providers in order to analyse our website’ traffic to improve products and services; and
      • with processors offering software tools, or EU or UK based external servers (including externally provided original and backup servers), that are used to store personal information provided by you on our behalf (our current servers are maintained by Raising IT, whose privacy policies are available at https://www.raisingit.com/privacy-and-cookies-policy. 
      • We may use a booking platform, such as Bookeo, to manage bookings for our services and events made through our website. This service may collection information from you for the purpose of booking an event or service with us. 

    We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process the minimal personal data required for the specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

    In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this Section, we may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

    Third-party Marketing 

    We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside of our own for marketing purposes. 

  5. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

    The data you provide to us will be securely stored and backed up within the EEA and/or the UK. We do not transfer your personal data outside the EEA and/or the UK. 

  6. DATA SECURITY –

    We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

    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.

    Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will take all reasonable measures to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee its security. Any transmission is at your own risk.

  7. DATA RETENTION

    How long will you use my Personal Data for?

    We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.  

    To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider 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 and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

    We will keep your data for the term you have consented to, the contracted term between us where there is a legitimate interest for us to remain in contact with you, or for the legally required period, whichever is the longest.

    By law we have to keep basic information about any of our customers (including contact, identity, financial and transaction data) for six years after you cease being a customer for tax purposes. For the purposes of contract administration, we will also store all data as long as the contract you have placed through us endures and for the six year limitation period thereafter in case you raise any claims in relation to any products you have purchased from us.

    Generally however personal data will be retained for two years following your transaction on our website, at the end of which period it will be deleted from our systems. 

    In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. 

    CHANGING THE INFORMATION HELD

    Registered members of our App can update their information, change settings or cancel their membership at any time to ensure that such information is accurate and kept up-to-date.

    In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Section 8 below for further information.

    In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. 

  8. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

    Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. 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 we are lawfully processing it.

    Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data 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 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 required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. 

    Please note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, 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) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

    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 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 you 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. Note that 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. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

    If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us. 

    You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

    Where you exercise one of your rights, we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to exercise such rights. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

    We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

  9. HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO COMPELLED DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS? 

    We may disclose personal data or other information we collect about you to law enforcement in response to a valid subpoena, court order, warrant, or similar governmental order, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect our property or rights, or those of third parties or the public at large.

    In complying with court orders and similar legal processes, we strive for transparency. When permitted, we will make a reasonable effort to notify users of any disclosure of their information, unless we are prohibited by law or court order from doing so, or in rare, exigent circumstances.

  10. LEGAL

    Changes to this Notice

    We may change this notice from time to time. Any material changes to this notice will be notified to you.

    Choice of Law and Jurisdiction 

    This notice shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Northern Ireland and you irrevocably agree that the courts of Northern Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute which may arise out of, under, or in connection with this notice.

GLOSSARY

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation – means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to

Personal Data – means any personal information we hold on you;

Performance of a Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract; 

EEA – means European Economic Area;

GDPR – has the meaning given in Section 1;

ICO – means the Information Commissioner’s Office – the UK data protection regulatory body;

Legitimate Interest – means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law); 

Third party(ies) – refers to external suppliers who your personal data may be shared with;

We, us, our – means Verbal Arts Centre (Northern Ireland) Limited;

You, your, data subject, – relates to you as a natural living person; and

Your representative – means someone or some people who legally acting on your behalf.