Website Privacy & Cookies Notice
We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and service users; in this notice we explain how we will handle your personal data. We will ask you to consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this notice when you first visit our website.
In this section we have set out:
- How we collect information from you
- How and why is your information used
- Lawful Processing
Usage Data
We may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data”). The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is our analytics tracking system. This usage data may be processed for the purposes of analysing the use of the website and services. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely monitoring and improving our website and services.
Account Data
We may process your account data (“account data”). The account data may include your name and email address. The source of the account data is you. The account data may be processed for the purposes of operating our website, providing our services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our databases and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.
Profile Data
We may process your information included in your personal profile on our website (“profile data”). The profile data may include your name, address, telephone number, email address, profile pictures, gender, date of birth, and social media ids. The profile data may be processed for the purposes of enabling and monitoring your use of our website and services. The legal basis for this processing is consent.
Service Data
We may process your personal data that are provided in the course of the use of our services (“service data”). The service data may include name, address, email address, details of donations made or items ordered. The source of the service data is you. The service data may be processed for the purposes of operating our website, providing our services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our databases and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business OR the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.
Publication Data
We may process information that you post for publication on our website or through our services (“publication data”). The publication data may be processed for the purposes of enabling such publication and administering our website and services. The legal basis for this processing is consent.
Enquiry Data
We may process information contained in any enquiry you submit to us regarding products and/or services (“enquiry data”). The enquiry data may be processed for the purposes of offering, marketing and selling relevant products and/or services to you. The legal basis for this processing is consent.
Transaction Data
We may process information relating to transactions, including donations or purchases of goods and services, that you enter into with us and/or through our website (“transaction data”). The transaction data may include your contact details, your card details and the transaction details. The transaction data may be processed for the purpose of supplying the purchased goods and services and keeping proper records of those transactions. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract and our legitimate interests, namely our interest in the proper administration of our website and business.
Notification Data
We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (“notification data”). The notification data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications and/or newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is consent.
Correspondence Data
We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us (“correspondence data”). The correspondence data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms. The correspondence data may be processed for the purposes of communicating with you and record-keeping. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and communications with users.
Other
We may process any of your personal data identified in the other provisions of this notice where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.
In addition to the specific purposes for which we may process your personal data set out in this section, we may also process any of your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. Please do not supply any other person’s personal data to us, unless we prompt you to do so.
Who has access to your information?
We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining and maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice and managing legal disputes.
Financial transactions relating to our website and services are handled by our payment services providers, e.g. PayPal. We will share transaction data with our payment services providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds.
Your data may also be available to our website provider to enable us and them to deliver their service to us, carry out analysis and research on demographics, interests and behaviour of our users and supporters to help us gain a better understanding of them to enable us to improve our services. This may include connecting data we receive from you on the website to data available from other sources. Your personally identifiable data will only be used where it is necessary for the analysis required, and where your interests for privacy are not deemed to outweigh their legitimate interests in developing new services for us. In the case of this activity the follow will apply:
- Your data will be made available to our website provider
- The data that may be available to them include any of the data we collect as described above.
- Our website provider will not transfer your data to any other third party, or transfer your data outside of the EEA.
- They will store your data for a maximum of 7 years.
- This processing does not affect your rights
In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data, we may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
How long is your information kept for?
This section sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal data. Personal data that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
We will retain and delete your personal data as follows:
(a) All personal data will be retained for a maximum of (seven years) following the date it was submitted, at the end of which period it will be deleted from our systems, unless requested by users.
Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.
Third party websites
Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites. This privacy notice only governs our websites and we are not responsible for the privacy policies that govern third party websites even where we have provided links to them. If you use any link on our website we recommend you read the privacy notice of that website before sharing any personal or financial data
Social Media
We operate a number of social media pages including Facebook and Youtube. Although this notice covers how we will use any data collected from those pages it does not cover how the providers of social media websites will use your information. Please ensure you read the privacy notice of the social media website before sharing data and make use of the privacy settings and reporting mechanisms to control how your data is used.
Personal data of children
Our website services (e.g. Referral Form) may request children’s data. This data will be requested in order to initiate a referral for potential support to Home-Start service/s and this will be processed and held securely in line with our Data Protection policy. We keep your information for no longer than is necessary.
About cookies
A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
Cookies that we use
We use cookies for the following purposes:
(a) authentication – we use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website (cookies used for this purpose are: (add);
(b) status – we use cookies to help us to determine if you are logged into our website (cookies used for this purpose are (add);
(c) personalisation – we use cookies to store information about your preferences and to personalise the website for you (cookies used for this purpose are: (add))
(d) security – we use cookies as an element of the security measures used to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our website and services generally (cookies used for this purpose are: (add);
(e) advertising – we use cookies to help us to display advertisements that will be relevant to you (cookies used for this purpose are: Facebook, Youtube, Google)
(f) analysis – we use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services, (cookies used for this purpose are Google, Hotjar)
Cookies used by our service providers
Our website service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.
We use Google Analytics and Hotjar to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics and Hotjar gather information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website.
Managing cookies
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:
(a) https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);
(b) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);
(c) http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera);
(d) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
(e) https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and
(f) https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).
Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.
Changes to this notice
Any changes we may make to this notice in the future will be posted on this website so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you are happy with any changes. If we make any significant changes we will make this clear on this website.
Review of this Privacy Notice
We keep this notice under regular review. This notice was last updated in September 2025.
For further information on each of these rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, visit the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public
If you would like to exercise any of the rights, please email, call or write to us using the details in ‘How to contact us’ below, let us have enough information to identify you, let us have proof of your identity and address, and let us know the information to which your request relates.
How to complain
Please report any complaint to the details set out in ‘How to contact us’ below. We hope we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone: 0303 123 1113.
How to contact us
Please contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you at Home-Start Bedfordshire, Delta House, 33 Hockliffe Street, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. LU7 1EZ. Email: office@home-startbedfordshire.org.uk, phone number: 01525 213522.
Our Data Protection Officer/Lead is Linda Johnson.
