The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the result of four years of work by the EU to bring data protection legislation into line with new, previously unforeseen ways that data is now used.
Currently, the UK relies on the Data Protection Act 1998, which was enacted following the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive, but this will be superseded by new legislation on 25th May 2018. It introduces tougher fines for non-compliance and breaches, and gives people more say over what organisations can do with their data. It also makes data protection rules more or less identical throughout the EU.
This new regulation means that we can process your personal data only as part of a “legitimate interest”, or if we have obtained your explicit consent: consent that is “freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, given by clear affirmative action”. We believe that all the ways we process personal data are covered by the church’s “legitimate interests.”
Personal data is information about a living individual (the “data subject”) who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. Note that your data may be able on a computer as well as in paper or photographic records.
The Data Controllers are the bodies that determine the purposes and means of processing personal data. At St. John’s there are two Data Controllers:
Why are there two? Because the PCC and the incumbent are two separate legal entities.
The PCC of St. John the Baptist, Burscough complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. We use your personal data for the following purposes (these are our “legitimate interests”):
We can legally process personal data:
The third major point is the principal basis upon which we may legally process personal data; there is therefore no requirement for us to obtain consent at the moment.
Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to perform a “legitimate interest” (see above). We will only share your data with third parties beyond the parish with your consent.
We keep data in accordance with the guidance set out in the guide “Keep or Bin: Care of Your Parish Records” which is available from the Church of England website .
Specifically, we retain electoral roll data while it is still current; gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; and parish registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals) permanently.
Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.
In order to provide essential statistics regarding visitors to our site, we use Google Analytics. For information regarding the ability to opt-out of Google Analytics tracking, please visit the Google Analytics Opt-out for details of available browser plug-ins.
We also use cookies for the MyStJohns section of the website to be able to know which user is logged in.
To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact
You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
This privacy policy can be downloaded from here.