Know Christ, Grow in Christ and Show Christ @ Light House

Data Privacy Policy

Light House takes your personal privacy seriously. You can read our data privacy policy below. Light House has adopted this Privacy Policy as we recognise the right of people to keep their personal information private.

Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The type of data we collect could be names, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers.

Who are we?

Light House is the data controller. This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

How do we process your personal data?

Light House complies with its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (or “GDPR”) by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. We are absolutely committed to protecting your privacy.

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • To provide a service where email is used to communicate with the users (i.e. news, events, activities, fund raising)
  • To administer membership records
  • To fundraise and promote the interests of the charity
  • To manage our employees and volunteers
  • To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications, track attendance
  • To offer pastoral care

What is ‘Church Suite’ and what information does it hold?

Church Suite is a Church Management System. Light House uses this system to help connect with you and minister to your needs. All data that you provide to us is kept in an encrypted database. Everyone’s connection to that database is also encrypted.

Church Suite holds personal details that you provide including name, address, phone numbers and a photograph if you have chosen to provide one. No data is collected that is not provided freely by yourself. You can login to ‘My Church Suite’ to update your data to ensure that they are correct.

Who will have access to your information?

Access to your data is provided to the ministry team (pastors, leadership and staff) to help support and encourage you in your spiritual life. You have the right to view any information recorded in your user profile. You will have access to your user profile to correct your personal information.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Explicit consent of the data subject is the legal basis for Light House collecting data. This means that we keep data to help keep you informed about news, events, rotas, activities and services. The processing relates only to members, former members and those who wish to have regular contact with the church.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for purposes connected with the church. In addition to Church Suite, we will occasionally need to share your data with third party services such as: Google Suite, and WhatsApp.

How long do we keep your personal data?

Light House has a policy for reviewing personal data and deleting personal data which is no longer necessary. Specifically, we retain gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 8 years after the calendar year to which they relate. Church registers (such as for marriages and funerals) are kept permanently.

Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  • The right of access: you may request a copy of your personal data which Light House holds about you.
  • The right to rectification: GDPR includes a right for individuals to have inaccurate personal data rectified, or completed if it is incomplete.
  • The right to erasure: also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’. The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for Light House to retain such data.
  • The right to restrict processing: individuals have the right to request the restriction or suppression of their personal data. The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing.
  • The right to data portability: this right allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.
  • The right to object: to the processing of personal data, (where applicable). Only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Our website

By viewing our website your IP address, browser details, times of visits, etc. may be logged and used for statistical purposes, network security and fraud prevention. This helps us to monitor how effectively the site is working. Be assured that we never profile normal visitors to the site or invasively monitor them. The statistical data will be used by ourselves and may also be used by our website provider to help provide the service. The legal basis for processing this information is Legitimate Interest.

Changes to this policy

Light House may amend this privacy policy from time to time to ensure compliance with changes or amendments to UK law. Any amended version will be available on our website at www.light-house.church. Please visit the website to regularly to keep up to date with any changes.

Contact details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact Light House, Kingsmoor Christian Centre, Parndon Wood Road, Harlow, Essex, CM17 4SE, 0330 122 1329 or via email mail@light-house.church