MANCHESTER AND LANCASHIRE
FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society respects the privacy of its members and realises how important it is that their personal information remains secure. We hope that this policy statement will answer the questions that you may have about how we manage and protect your details, but if you have any questions which are not answered by this statement, please contact us.

Your personal data is protected by UK legislation, specifically the Data Protection Act 1998. We aim to meet our legal obligations by following best practice and reviewing our procedures regularly.

Type of information collected, and how it is obtained and used
Personal information is collected directly from you when you complete and return forms as part of communicating with MLFHS (e.g. joining the Society or renewing membership), or when you provide details to enable bookshop purchases either on-line or via mail order.

We collect this information in order to keep in touch with you and to be able to carry out the regular business activities of the Society. The information that we collect in this way will typically include your name, postal and email addresses, telephone number. If you elect to pay your renewal subscriptions by Bank Standing Order it will also include your bank details.

We do not collect information that the Data Protection Act considers to be ‘sensitive’ (this could include details of ethnicity or religious beliefs).

Data Tracking on Web Site
Visitor information is logged whenever a member or non-member visits the society web site. This information consists of the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the connection from which the visitor accesses the internet and the time and date of the visit. No personal information is collected. Our web site does not use cookies to record visitor details.

Data Tracking on Society E-mail List
Data is recorded relating to members who register as participants in the society e-mail list service. This consists of the member's name, membership number and e-mail address as collected at the time of registration. A list of the e-mail addresses of registered members (but without other personal details) can be obtained by any registered member. Members may individually opt for this information to be concealed. All messages distributed to the list are preserved in an archive which can be searched by any registered member of the list. Individual list members may also retain copies of messages received via the list. The Society is not in a position to police how this information is later used. Individual members should therefore ensure that no information is published to the list which they would not wish to be widely viewed.

Security of information
MLFHS will not give or sell your information to third party organisations, except as specifically described in this paragraph, and we do not share your personal information with third parties for their benefit. Online transactions relating to bookshop purchases and collection of membership fees involve the financial services of a third party organisation. Distribution of The Manchester Genealogist involves passing a copy of members’ names and address to a mailing agency. The Security of member information used in these ways remains our legal responsibility at all times and we ensure that data is treated with the same level of care as if we were handling it directly. We do not retain members Credit Card information after those details have been collected for such purposes as payment of membership fees or mail order purchases. Such information is destroyed or redacted once the transaction has been completed.

Validity and Accessibility of information
We aim to keep member records up-to-date at all times but are reliant upon being informed by members of any change of address, etc. Members may contact the Society at any time to request a copy of the details held about them and we undertake to amend any incorrect information as soon as we are advised.

Retention of information
We will retain your information, for use as described above, for as long as you have an active relationship with MLFHS. If you cease to be a member of the Society we will retain your records for archival purposes only unless you specifically request that such information is redacted to remove, for example, address and telephone number.