1. Who we are
The United Bible Societies (UBS) is a world-wide fellowship of Bible Societies operating in over 240 countries and territories to make sure that everyone who wants to can access and engage with the Bible. The United Bible Societies Association (UBSA) is the charity, legally registered in the United Kingdom, that delivers services and support to the global network of Bible Societies.
United Bible Societies Association
Company No. 02264875
Charity no. 800058
UBSA is also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a Data Controller (registration number Z3390859).
This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
We may need to change or update this Privacy Policy from time to time and if we do so, we will post the changes here. Where the changes are significant, we will inform individuals.
Dated: December 2020
2. What we do with personal data
The personal data that we may collect about you, the reason why we collect it and what we do with it will depend on your relationship with us.
a. What personal data is collected and why do we collect it?
We collect the following personal data from you when you visit our websites or engage with our smartphone apps:
- Website and smartphone app interaction data such as IP addresses, details of web pages visited, files downloaded
We collect details of your digital interaction with our websites and smartphone apps to help us improve your experience and to protect us from fraud and malicious activity. - Contact details such as your title, name, email address, telephone number, postal address
To help provide the right information at the right time, we analyse the personal information we collect and use publicly available information to aid our understanding of those engaging with our websites and platforms. Information provided may also be used to allow us to better respond to enquiries received. - User Generated Content
By creating or uploading user content, you grant us an unconditional, non-exclusive, fully transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide licence to use, store, archive, syndicate, publish, transmit, adapt, edit, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works from, display, perform, and sub-licence your user content for the purposes of operating and promoting our websites and smartphone apps
Other information may be gathered, but it will be specifically requested and entered by you. We will explain why it is needed at that point.
b. Do you collect any special category data?
We do not specifically collect any special category data, however, as a Bible based organisation, your association with us may infer your religious beliefs.
c. How do you collect my data from me?
- IP addresses are collected automatically by our servers
- Other data will only be collected by direct input by you
d. Do you share my data with any other organisations?
We may share your personal information with our service providers/data processors so that they can carry out work on our behalf.
- Server hosting provider
- Google analytics, for country identification and analysis to improve our websites/platforms
- Payment gateways, such as Stripe
We also contract with third party service providers and suppliers to deliver certain services. A list is available on request that details the third parties that may have access to your personal information detailing how it is processed. Some of these entities may also be data controllers under Data Protection Law. However, in the first instance, you should contact us using the contact details on this page if you have any queries.
Except as provided above, we will not share personal information with any other third parties without informing you beforehand, unless required by, or in connection with, law and/or regulatory requirements.
We will not sell, trade, or lease your personal information to others.
e. How long do we keep your information?
We only keep your data for as long as it is required for the purposes outlined above, which varies depending on the purpose.
- Server data for security purposes – 3 months
- Google analytics – 26 months
- Payment information – 7 years, to comply with accounting requirements
We have a data retention and destruction policy to ensure that we review the requirements, timescales and other reasons for keeping personal information and processes are in place for erasing personal information from our records that we no longer require.
3. Your rights
You have various legal rights in relation to the information you give us, or which we collect about you, as follows: –
- The right to access your information and obtain confirmation that we are processing your personal information (see below our Subject Access Request process);
- The right to have your personal information rectified if it is incomplete or inaccurate;
- The right to have your personal information removed or deleted in certain circumstances, for example when you have withdrawn consent to it being processed and we have no other basis for processing it;
- The right to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
- The right to object to certain processing including the right to not be subject to automated decision-making and the right to object where we are processing your information on the basis of our legitimate interest;
- The right to require us not to send you marketing communications; and
- Where you have provided your consent to the processing, the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your data (without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal).
Please note that not all of the above rights are absolute and requests may be refused where exceptions apply. For a more detailed explanation of these rights, please see the Information Commissioner’s guidance.
Subject Access Request
You can ask us to confirm if we are keeping any personal information about you and you can also request to receive a copy of that personal information – this is called a Subject Access Request (SAR).
To make a SAR, you may be asked to provide adequate proof of identity such as a copy of your passport, birth certificate, or driving license before your request can be processed.
Please try to be as clear as possible about the information you are seeking, as this will help us respond to your request more efficiently. Once we have received your SAR and any necessary proof of identity, you will receive a response from us within a month unless circumstances permit us to extend that deadline.
If you would like to submit a SAR or exercise any of the other rights referred to above, please email us on info@biblesocieties.org or write to Data Protection, United Bible Societies, Stonehill Green, Swindon, SN5 7PJ, UK.
If you are not happy with how we handle any of your requests, queries, or concerns, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk), which oversees the protection of personal information in the UK.
Updating your communication preferences
We will respect your email privacy. This means we carefully manage the communications we send you to ensure that we are contacting you in the most relevant way. You will only receive communications from us that you have requested, or on the basis of your role within the Fellowship. This means you will not receive unsolicited mail from the Charity unless you have agreed to receive communications from us. You can change your email preferences or unsubscribe at any time by: –
- clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the end of any emails you receive from us; or
- by contacting info@biblesocieties.org
Alternatively, you can unsubscribe from other email communications by replying to the sender. Please note that we may embed links to third party websites or pages that are not managed by us. If you follow any of these links, please note that they have their own privacy policies. Please check those third-party policies before you submit any personal information to those websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.
4. How do we keep your information secure?
We take appropriate security measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction. When sharing your data with third parties, we do so securely, including taking the following safeguards: –
- Methods of disposal. Paper documents are disposed of by shredding in a manner that ensures confidentiality.
- Firewalls and encryption. We use industry-standard and up-to-date firewall and encryption technology.
- Secure data transfers. When transferring your data we ensure it is protected by using a secure data transfer site.
- Restricted access. Access to personal and financial data is permitted to authorised staff only.
- Secure storage. Our data storage is assessed through a secure physical and electronic process.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our websites/platforms and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal information, we will use adequate procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Whenever we engage a third party to act on our behalf we ensure that the contract we enter into with them requires them to comply with UK data protection laws, to process your information only for the purposes we specify and to make sure they have the appropriate controls in place to protect the security of your information.
5. Contact us
You can contact us at any time to change your communication preferences or let us know when something changes. If you have any queries about our Privacy Policy or want to raise a concern about how we process the information we hold about you, please email info@biblesocieties.org or write to Data Protection, United Bible Societies, Stonehill Green, Swindon, SN5 7PJ, UK.