Privacy Policy

Our promise to you: 

We will always respect your preferences and you can change them at any time, simply call us on 020 8329 0010 or email admin@csw.org.uk. We will only use your data in line with current GDPR laws and never pass on or sell your details to any other organisations.

Who are we?

As Christians, CSW stands with everyone facing discrimination because of their religion or belief. We work in over 20 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America to further our vision of a world where everyone is free to choose their beliefs – to hold and practise any religion they like, or none at all.

What is a privacy policy?

We’re committed to guaranteeing your privacy and making sure that all the personal data you send us is kept safe. Personal data can mean your telephone number, email address, or bank details. This policy explains how we collect that data, what we use it for, where we store information and what that means for you. 

If you have any further questions, please email us at admin@csw.org.uk or call us on 020 8329 0010. You can also contact our Data Protection Officer at janebave@csw.org.uk

Please read the following carefully: it will help you understand how we collect your personal information and what we do with it.  By using our website or providing us with your personal information you agree to your personal information being used and stored in the manner set out in this policy. 

How do we collect personal information?

• Directly
  
• Through donation forms 
  
• Through petitions
  
• When you sign up to receive an email, e.g. the weekly prayer email
  
• We also collect non-personal data such as IP addresses, details of pages visited and how often, and files downloaded.
  
• Staff and volunteer application forms (P&C)

Other sources

• Donations collected via JustGiving (You can find their privacy policy at https://www.justgiving.com/info/privacy-policy-versions/privacy-policy-v20
  
• Donations collected via Stripe (You can find their privacy policy at Privacy Policy stripe.com)
  
• Campaign actions (petitions, MP emails etc) taken through Engaging Networks

What information do we collect?

• Title
  
• Name
  
• Address
  
• Date of birth
  
• Nationality (P&C)
  
• National Insurance Number (P&C)
  
• Bank details
  
• Whether or not you are a UK taxpayer
  
• Demographic information such as age, gender, church
  
• Non-personal data on website usage via cookies such as IP addresses, details of pages visited and how often, and files downloaded.

What do we do with this information, and for how long?

We use the information you give us for different purposes, including:

• Keeping you up to date on our latest news and prayer needs
  
• Letting you know how you can stand with others for religious freedom through campaigning and prayer
  
• Processing donations to us, as well as applying for gift aid on those donations
  
• Acknowledging your donations to us by letter or by email
  
• Providing you with free resources, including our quarterly Response newsletter and Prayer Diary
  
• Classifying our supporters by location, e.g. Scotland, so that you are contacted about the events that best suit you
  

As part of our fundraising we will analyse our records to track progress on donations and giving history and to help us personalise communications where we can. If you make a significant donation to CSW, we may contact you to discuss this and future support of our work. 

Legal basis for processing personal data

Data protection laws require us to have a legal basis for processing your personal data. We will process your personal information on one or more of the following grounds:

Consent

In many cases we will ask for your clear consent to process your personal data, such as to send you marketing and fundraising information such as our magazine and appeals. You can update your preferences or opt out of CSW communications at any time.

Contract

We will use your personal information if we enter into a contractual agreement with you to conduct research or deliver services, for example a partnership agreement.

Applications for Job vacancies 

If you apply for a vacancy at CSW we may ask you to fill out an application form that will include personal details. This information will be held securely for 3 months and then destroyed.  If we offer you a role at CSW we will keep that information securely for 6 years after you have left CSW.

Volunteer applications

If you apply to volunteer for CSW we may ask you to fill out a volunteer application form that will include personal details. This information will be held securely for 3 months and then destroyed.  If we offer you some volunteer tasks we will keep that information securely for 1 year after you have stopped volunteering.  

Legal obligation

We will process your personal information to fulfil legal obligations such as to claim gift aid if you have given us consent to do this.

Vital interests

Public task

Legitimate interest

We will process your information under ‘legitimate interest’ if we conclude that there has been a demonstrable interest in our work (e.g. you have made a donation in the last two years or attended an event in the last 12 months). We will consider any impact it may have on you and ensure that it doesn’t override your rights under data protection laws. Examples of where we may use legitimate interest include sending marketing and fundraising information and communicating about an upcoming event. You can update your preferences or opt out of CSW communications at any time.

Sensitive data

In some instances, and particularly as part of our international research and advocacy work, we may need to process sensitive personal data such as religious beliefs and biometric information. If we need to do this, we will ensure we receive your explicit consent.

We generally don’t collect special category information from supporters.

How long will we keep your data?

We will only keep your data for as long as we require it and in accordance with data law and best practice. When your information is no longer required, we will dispose of it in a secure manner or delete it from our servers.

Sharing your information with other organisations

We will never sell or trade your personal information to third parties. 

We use third parties to help us in our communications and gift processing (for example, to fulfil mailings and process Direct Debits) and we will share your information with them. We will ensure that they have the relevant data protection policies in place and that they follow data protection regulations and best practice whilst processing your personal data. While we may review information about individuals online through a basic Google search, for example, we do not use third parties to carry out prospect research.

Credit card and payment information and security

When you make a donation to CSW, your bank details are processed securely by RBS Worldpay. You can read their privacy policy at https://www.worldpay.com/uk/privacy-policy

Marketing permissions

We never want to send you emails or letters that you don’t want to receive. You can edit your contact preferences at any time.

Right to access your information 

You have the right to access your own personal information and supplementary data, and to be aware of and verify the lawfulness of the way that data is processed. You can read more about your rights at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/right-of-access/

What are cookies and how do we use them?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by the sites that you visit. CSW uses cookies to enable our website to function effectively, to improve your experience and to determine and improve the effectiveness of our website and marketing campaigns. 

Here is a brief overview of the types of cookies we use, which consist of three categories:

Cookies to improve your experience – we use a small number of cookies on our website to help you get the best experience. We use websites like YouTube and Vimeo to embed videos, and they may also send you cookies. We don’t control the setting of these cookies, so check those websites for more information.

Google Analytics cookies collect information about how visitors use a website and help us to continually improve our website. For instance, which pages visitors go to most often and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies you. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you don’t want Google to include you in this information, you can install the Google Analytics Opt Out Tool. 

Paid advertising (Google and Facebook) – we use cookies from third parties to measure the effectiveness of paid advertising to ensure the money we spend is used effectively. They also enable us to either service advertisements to or exclude people who have visited our websites. Cookies from Google and Facebook allow us to track traffic to our website to tell us if our marketing campaigns are successful, and ensure we are spending our advertising budgets as efficiently as possible. If you don’t want to see adverts from us based on that information, you can use Google's Ad Personalisation Tool. 

We may display internet-based ads to you when you are using Facebook through a tool offered by Facebook called Custom Audience Tool. This tool allows us to personalise our ads based on your interaction with us to ensure we are spending our advertising budgets as efficiently as possible. We do not share any of your personal information with Facebook. This tool lets CSW convert your email address to a unique number that Facebook uses to match the unique numbers Facebook generates from email addresses of its users. 

You can also visit the Digital Advertising Alliance to personalise your advertising preferences. 

For more information about cookies and how to delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Changes to CSW’s privacy policy

We regularly review and update our privacy policy in response to the latest data protection laws, industry guidelines and supporter feedback. This policy was last reviewed in September 2024.