PRIVACY POLICY
Grace Church is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy sets out what personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, and how it will be used. Please read it through carefully and if you have any queries please email to office@gracechurchexeter.org
What information do we collect?
We collect information about you when you complete a connect card, physically or electronically at one of our services or events:
● Join one of our community groups
● Become a member of Grace Church
● Contact us via our website
● Register your children for one of our events
● Apply for, or attend one of our events or activities (paid or free)
● Make a donation to the church
Why do we collect and use your information?
You give us your personal data so that we can efficiently and effectively manage the administration of the church and the events and activities that we do, including providing appropriate pastoral care, monitoring and assessing the quality and effectiveness of the services we provide, and to fulfil our purposes as a church.
Based on your contact preferences we use your details to keep you up to date with the latest information and forthcoming events. You can opt out of this at any time.
How do we use this information?
We use this information:
● to contact you about relevant Grace Church news, activities or events
● to contact you about any volunteering you have agreed to e.g. helping serve refreshments at our services
● to contact you using a church database and management system called ChurchSuite. This enables us to securely store your personal information and contact you about rotas and events. Churchsuite’s commitment to privacy laws and data protection is detailed in their own privacy policy here. Full administrative rights and access to ChurchSuite is limited to a core team at Grace Church
● to contact you using MailChimp to create and issue our weekly emails. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any point by clicking on the link at the bottom of the email.
Consent, limited collection, use, disclosure and retention:
● We only use and store personal information with your permission for the purposes outlined above.
● We will not collect personal information without your consent and we will not mislead you about the reasons for collecting your personal information. The information held will not be shared with third parties without your prior consent.
● We keep your personal information secure as long as is necessary to satisfy the purposes outlined in the ‘how do we use this information?’ section.
● All personal information held is reviewed periodically and any historical data that is no longer needed or used is permanently deleted.
● If there is a breach of data that is likely to have a detrimental effect on individuals (for example, results in discrimination, damage to reputation, financial loss, loss of confidentiality or any other significant economic or social disadvantage), Grace Church will notify the Information Commissioners Office within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach. Any individuals affected will also be notified within this timeframe.
Your rights and your information:
● Access to your information: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.
● Correcting your information: We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date, and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.
● Deletion of your information: You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where you consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained.
Children’s Data
We collect and store data for under 18s who participate in any of our events or activities, which includes Special Category Data. Where possible and when appropriate, we obtain consent from the parent/carer of the child before collecting this data. This information is available to a restricted number of people for whom it is deemed necessary. When the young person reaches 18, consent is sought from the individual.
Accuracy and Safeguarding
We take security seriously and will do everything possible to keep information we hold secure.
We will endeavour to minimise the possibility of using incorrect information.
We will protect your personal information against loss or theft, safeguarding personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, copy, use it modification.
Personal information collected by Grace Church is exclusively and securely stored and managed using ChurchSuite and MailChimp.
Who do we share your information with?
If legally required we may disclose your information to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors. We will only share your data in other circumstances with your consent.
We do not share your information with anyone outside the church except as described in this policy.
If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Openness and Individual Access
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and will place any updates on the webpage.
This privacy policy was updated in Feb 2025.
Please contact us using the below details if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you.
Email: office@gracechurchexeter.org
Telephone: 01392 211331
Address: 140 Cowick Street, Exeter, EX4 1HS