Privacy policy

At Autism East Midlands we are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy has been written in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR).

If you have any questions regarding our management of your personal data, or wish to lodge a complaint about how we use your personal data, please contact: Data Protection Officer, Autism East Midlands, Unit 31, Crags Industrial Estate, Morven Street, Creswell, Worksop S80 4AJ. Email: dataprotection@aem.org.uk

How do we collect information?

  • When you interact with us. We collect personal information from you when you submit a form, register with our website, make a purchase, make a donation, or otherwise provide us with personal information, whether online, on the phone or via post.
  • When you interact with third parties. We may also receive information about you from third parties, for example when you are referred to us by a local authority or you sign up to fundraise for Autism East Midlands using a third party, such as JustGiving. Where we obtain your details from a third party, we will process the data to the standards set out in this policy.
  • When you visit our website. We may gather information to help us improve your online experience. This includes learning about what pages and topics you are interested in. We also occasionally use personalisation, which changes the way some users may see the website, based on previous visits and online behaviour.
  • We may also use the information we gather on the website to serve relevant adverts to you on third party websites like Facebook. Like most websites, we use cookies to help us do these activities, but wherever possible, we use aggregated or anonymous information that does not identify individuals. To find out more information about the cookies we use or how to opt-out of tracking, please see our cookies policy.

What information do we collect?

The types of information collected might include: your name, date of birth, e-mail address, full postal address and telephone number. We will also collect, and securely hold, data you supply us related to a financial donation or Direct Debit mandate. We do not keep on record data related to social media usage or accounts.

How do we use this information?

We will use your personal information to provide you with the services, products or information you have requested, for administration purposes – such as processing a donation - and, if you allow it, to further our charitable aims, including contacting you about our fundraising and campaigning activities.

To enable us to communicate with you effectively, we may sometimes use your data for the purposes of analysis, based on information that you have provided to Autism East Midlands. We only ever share your data for these purposes with trusted, contracted suppliers. The data is shared securely and subject to safe disposal agreements. This type of activity is solely designed to help us provide you with a tailored service and to meet our charitable aims. We will not use your personal data for any other purpose without your consent and we will contact you according to your stated preferences.

We hold your data on a secure database and in usable format only for as long as is required and determined by how current your interactions with us are, or for as long as we are required to do so by law (for example, we may need to keep a record of any financial transactions for a pre-determined period of time).

We do not pass on your data to any other third party without your express permission, or unless required to do so by law. We may need to share your information with our contracted service providers and associate organisations – such as fundraising services suppliers, fulfilment partners, and data, digital or IT service agents - to help us carry out our charitable activities, meet our organisational aims, and to ensure that our records are kept up-to-date.

We only use your personal information for direct marketing purposes if we have your consent (for electronic communications) and/or where we already have an existing relationship with you (for postal or telephone communications). If you no longer want to hear from us, please let us know by emailing dataprotection@aem.org.uk or calling 01909 506678.

How do we protect personal information?

We use secure servers for storing all information about you. We also take appropriate measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date and kept only for so long as is necessary.

Your consent

By providing us with your personal data, including sensitive personal data, you consent to the collection and use of any information you provide in accordance with the above purposes and this privacy statement.

Withdrawing consent

You can change or withdraw your consent for us to hold or to use your personal data for the purposes set out above by emailing dataprotection@aem.org.uk or calling 01909 506678. Alternatively, you can write to the Data Protection Officer at the address above.

We try to ensure that any changes to your personal data are enacted as soon as the request is processed, which is usually within two working days. Please note, however, that due to the way our communications are prepared this can take up to four weeks to come into effect. We hope this delay won’t cause you any inconvenience. Please also note that withdrawal of consent will not stop us from sending you administrative communications where necessary (for example, to deliver you information about any service you receive from us).

Right of access

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies in your personal details corrected. You can also request that we remove your records from our database or provide you with a copy of the information we hold about you. You can also ask us to stop using your data for a specific purpose. We will aim to acknowledge receipt of all such requests within three working days and fully respond within one month. You can exercise any or all of these rights by emailing dataprotection@aem.org.uk, calling 01909 506678, or writing to the Data Protection Officer.

Changes to personal details If your personal details change, please help us to keep your information up to date by notifying us. You can do this by:

  • emailing dataprotection@aem.org.uk
  • posting your changes to Autism East Midland’s Data Protection Officer.

We reserve the right to amend this privacy statement so please do check back from time to time. If we do so, we will post notice of the change on our website and make every effort to inform you of any material changes to the policy. This policy will have been provided to you – either in full or via hyperlink – at the time your data was submitted to Autism East Midlands.