Privacy Policy & Cookies

Privacy Policy

Merton Voluntary Association for the Blind trading as MertonVision (“we” or “us”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

For the purpose of the Data protection Act 1998 (the Act), The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and any applicable replacement legislation, the data controller is Merton Voluntary Association for the Blind (Registered Charity No. 1075388) whose registered office is at the Guardian Centre, 67 Clarendon road, Colliers Wood, London, SW19 2DX.

This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting www.mertonvision.org.uk (our site) or providing us with your data by other means you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

We are committed to safeguarding your personal data and are legally obliged to use your personal data in line with all laws concerning the protection of personal data, including the Act and the GDPR.

Information we may collect from you.

We may collect and process the following personal information about you.

  • personal information you give us, by filling in forms on our site or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you request information from us, apply for membership, sign up to our newsletter, make a donation, inform us that you are considering or intend to leave a legacy, volunteer with us, complete a survey for research purposes, place an order with us, participate in any of our social media functions and if you report a problem with our site. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, details of any eye condition you may have and financial or credit card information.

Service User, Member and Newsletter:

The personal information we collect about you as a service user or a member or for receiving our newsletters might include your names and address and possibly some sensitive information, ethnic origin, gender, email, phone numbers, date of birth, next of kin contact, photo or video image and financial information such as bank and credit card details. We would only hold your information for as long as is appropriate.

Volunteering with us:

If you volunteer with us we will collect your name and contact details. We would only hold this information for as long as you remain a Volunteer.

Working for us:

If you apply for or take a job with us, we will store your contact information, bank details, and keep records of your employment history.

We would only hold information for as long as is appropriate.

Fundraising and playing our Lottery:

The personal information we collect about you for the purposes of our fundraising and lottery activities might include your names and address, email, phone numbers, date of birth, photo or video image and financial information such as credit card details. We would only hold information for as long as is appropriate.

Children’s Data:

Some of the Services we deliver are aimed specifically at children and young people. To deliver certain services it is necessary for MertonVision to collect data and store it on our database. Before we collect any data on anyone under 16 we will always require Parental consent or consent from a legal guardian. We would collect personal information such as name, address, age, gender, Parents name, address and contact details. We would only hold information for as long as is appropriate.

Information we collect about you

  • personal information we receive from other sources, including Google Analytics. We also work with third parties including, Health Care services, for example Hospitals and Social Services and other Voluntary Organisations in relation to referrals.

Cookies

Our site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our site and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our cookie policy.

Uses made of the information

We use personal information you give us in the following ways:

  • To carry out our obligations arising from your membership or any other contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with any information and services that you request from us;
  • To deal with your enquires and provide you with any support or information you have requested from us;
  • To provide reservation or booking services;
  • To provide you with information about our services if you have agreed to receive this information;
  • to communicate with you using the articles for the blind free postal service if you are eligible for it and have given us permission to use this (you may ask us to stop using this service at any time);
  • To inform you about medical research that we think may interest you or that you may wish to participate in;
  • To provide you with information about our aims and ideals, fundraising opportunities and volunteering opportunities if you have agreed to receive this information;
  • To send you an acknowledgement if you make a donation;
  • To conduct market research;
  • To notify you about changes to your membership, our services or our Privacy Policy and Website Privacy Notice;
  • To comply with our legal and regulatory requirements;
  • To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

We use personal information we collect about you from other sources in the following ways:

  • To administer our site and for internal operations, including contact management, troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • To improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
  • To allow you to participate in any interactive features of our site, if you choose to do so;
  • As part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
  • To measure or understand the effectiveness of our site and which services you may be interested in; and
  • To make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about services or resources that may interest you or them.

We may combine information you give to us and information we collect about you for the purposes set out above.

We will retain the information we hold about you for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed above.

Disclosure of your personal data

We may share your personal data with such of our staff and volunteers that need to know it to fulfil our obligations to you and their other business responsibilities.

We may also share your personal data with selected third parties including:

  1. Allware Limited; sub- contractors in technical and delivery services. Allware Limited will only have access to personal information when working on MertonVision’s computers both on-site and remotely when problem solving Information Technology issues or when transferring data to new systems as necessary.
  2. MHR Consultancy hold personal data on MertonVision’s staff for payroll purposes and will only retain this information until MertonVision instruct them otherwise.
  3. NEST Pensions, MertonVision’s workplace pension provider, hold personal data on MertonVision staff and will only retain this information until the staff member or MertonVision instruct them otherwise.
  4. A. K. Accountancy may have temporary short –term access to personal data when carrying out annual Auditing.
  • Our suppliers and sub-contractors (including IT support, pay roll, pension providers, storage and printing services) for the performance of any contract we enter into with you; and
  • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site; and
  • Raffle and/or lottery organizers.

We may disclose your personal data to third parties:

  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce any contract with you or to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Where we store your personal data

We store the data that we collect from you on our servers in the UK. Your data will not however be transferred to, and stored at or processed by staff operating outside the European Economic Area (EEA) if we share your data with third parties as set out above. By submitting your data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. We will do our best to protect your data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your data, we will use appropriate, technical and organised measures, procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access to it.

Your rights

You have the right to withdraw your consent to us processing your data at any time. This includes consent for marketing purposes for example receiving communications from us relating to our aims and ideals and our fundraising. We will inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes.

We will only send you marketing communication if you have given your consent by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data or by telling the person collecting your data if this is over the phone.

You can also exercise your right to withdraw consent at any time by contacting our Office manager at info@mertonvision.org.uk or by writing to MertonVision, The Guardian Centre, 67 Clarendon Road, Colliers Wood, London, SW19 2DX. Members can also change their marketing preferences at any time by contacting the Office Manager at info@mertonvision.org.uk

We will deal with all opt out requests as soon as we reasonably can, but please note that you may receive communications that had already been sent at the time we received your request.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of other third parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any data to these websites.

Access to information

You have the right to access personal information held about you (commonly known as a ”Data Subject Access Request”. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Correcting Personal Information:

You have the right to ask us to correct personal information that we hold about you which is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate.

Erasure:

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information from our files and systems where there is no good reason for us continuing to hold it.

Objection:

You can object to us using your personal information to further our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) or where we are using your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

Restriction:

You have the right to ask us to restrict or suspend the use of your personal information, for example, if you want us to establish its accuracy or our reason for using it.

Data Portability:

You have the right to ask us to transfer your personal information to another person or organisation in certain circumstances.

Automated Decision Making:

You have rights in relation to automated decision making which have a legal effect or otherwise significantly affects you. However, we do not carry out any automated decision making which produces significant legal effects concerning you.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights you should contact our Office manager straight away at info@mertonvision.org.uk or by writing to MertonVision, The Guardian Centre, 67 Clarendon Road, Colliers Wood, London, SW19 2DX.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may amend our privacy policy from time to time. Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Every time you wish to use our site, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms which apply at that time. These terms were most recently updated on 27 March 2018. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to Manager, MertonVision, The Guardian Centre, 67 Clarendon Road, Colliers Wood, SW19 2DX,

020 8540 5446, info@mertonvision.org.uk .

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), the supervisory authority for Data Protection issues.

Cookie policy

Cookies and how we use them.

We operate an implied consent policy. This means that we assume that if you visit the website with your browser set to accept cookies that you are happy with their usage. If you are not happy you should not use the site or delete these cookies at the end of your visit.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are transferred by a website to your browser directory. They help the website identify your browser/device. They perform different tasks on a website, and certain aspects of the website will not function correctly without them. To find out more about cookies visit www.allaboutcookies.org

The cookies used on a website are:

Google Analytics

This gathers information about users, how they found and navigated the site as well as facts about which browsers they have used. The data gathered by this cookie is anonymous and is used to enhance the usability of the website. Further information is available from: www.google.com/intl/None/policies/privacy/faq

Session cookies

Session cookies are used to remember you when you log in and also for the shopping cart. Disabling these cookies will stop this functionality working.

Further information about session cookies is available from: www.allaboutcookies.org/cookies/session-cookies-used-for.html