Privacy Notice

How Citygate Church (“we”) use your information

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when we collects personal information. It applies to information we collect about:

• Visitors to our website

• ChurchSuite users

• People who fill in a paper Connect Card on a Sunday

• People who fill in our electronic forms (Google, ChurchSuite, Squarespace, JotForm)

• People who email us

• People who contact us via social media

• People who subscribe to our E-bulletin

• People who sign up for events run by Citygate Church

• People who register their kids for Citygate Kids and Youth work

• People who give financially to Citygate Church

• Job applicants and our current and former employees

• Complainants and other individuals in relation to a data protection or subject access request or enquiry

• CCTV

Your privacy is important to us. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of your information. We do all that we can to ensure that the data we hold is accurate, adequate, relevant and not excessive.

Citygate Church is the Data Controller for any personal data you provide to us. This notice also details how we store your data as well as how you can request to see it.

We have a lawful basis for processing this personal information under Legitimate Interests.

Cookies and session tracking

Like many websites, Citygate Church uses tiny computer files called ‘cookies’ to aid your browsing experience and to carry out statistical analysis of page use and interactions. We do not identify you through the use of cookies or information sent by your computer, except where you have asked us to remember your details. You can read more about how we use cookies in our Cookie Notice.

Visitors to our ChurchSuite website

We use a third party service, ChurchSuite.com to facilitate much of our church management. We use ChurchSuite as our main contact database for people who are connected with us. People who engage with Citygate Church will also receive a login to ChurchSuite where they can view and update the personal information we hold about them. ChurchSuite use various cookies, their privacy policy can be viewed here.

If you receive text message updates or rota reminders from us then these will be processed by Textlocal, their privacy notice can be viewed here.

People who fill in a Connect Card on a Sunday

The paper card is held securely until it can be transferred to our digital system (ChurchSuite, their privacy policy can be viewed here), usually the next day, the paper copy is then shredded. We will use the information you have provided to contact you and connect you in with relevant/appropriate activities in Citygate.

People who fill in our electronic forms

We use third party services to process various forms.

• Squarespace - View Squarespace’s privacy notice here.

• Google Forms - View Google’s privacy policy here.

• JotForm - View Jotform's privacy notice here.

• ChurchSuite - View ChurchSuite’s privacy notice here.

Although JotForm have servers around the world we have an agreement in place such that our data is only stored on servers based in the EEA.

Form data may also be transmitted by email, stored in spreadsheets and/or transferred to our ChurchSuite account.

People who email us

We use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt and protect email traffic. If your email service does not support TLS, you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit.

We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

People who contact us via social media and messaging platforms

We use Instagram, Facebook, Meta Business Suite, WhatApp, Slack, YouTube and Twitter to manage our social media interactions. If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will not be stored outside of the host organisation’s server (i.e. Instagram/Facebook/Twitter) and will not be shared with any other organisations.

People who subscribe to our weekly email bulletin

As Citygate Church is a charity committed to good stewardship we are constantly looking for ways to use the resources we have more effectively. E-mail is a very effective way of communicating with our supporters. We send out a weekly email bulletin for which specific consent is given at the point of subscription. We gather statistics around email opens and clicks using industry standard technologies. You can unsubscribe from our emails at any time; directions on how to do this will be contained within the email. We use a third party provider, Squarespace, to deliver our weekly bulletin. For more information, please see Squarespace’s privacy notice.

People who sign up for events run by Citygate Church

For events we run which require guests to sign up/purchase tickets, this will usually be done using ChurchSuite (see above). If you are already a supporter of Citygate Church then this event sign up will be logged against your profile in ChurchSuite. New contacts will be saved in ChurchSuite but kept separate from our general contact book. Any payments will be handled by a third party provider (usually Stripe, but potentially also PayPal), Citygate Church does not store or process any payment details.

People who register their kids for Citygate Kids and Youth work

(including Sunday kids work, Little Acorns toddler group, Friday and Sunday youth work)

The data is stored securely by ChurchSuite and only accessed by staff and approved volunteers. We will only hold on to your data for eight weeks from your last visit to Citygate - unless you choose to be added to the address book.

Visitors: As a visitor your data is kept separate from our address book and will be used only for the purposes of the check in system (this may include follow up contact). We ask for: date of birth so they can be placed in the correct group; a mobile phone number so that, if needed, we can contact you ASAP during the meeting; medical info so that snacks, drinks etc are appropriate; and any additional needs to help us better look after your child.

Regulars: For regulars to Citygate Church there is the option to add your children’s details into our Children’s address book in ChurchSuite. This gives you more control over your children’s data (including the ability to edit it) and allows us to more easily contact you in relation to children’s work activities.

People who give financially to Citygate Church

Unless you give cash (and don’t use a Gift Aid envelope), we will store records of your transaction in order to comply with financial regulations.

Your information will be processed by HSBC (our bank, their privacy notice), Xero (our finance management software, their privacy notice), ChurchSuite (view their privacy notice here).

If you give by debit/credit card using our onsite card payment machines then your details will be processed by Dona (view their privacy notice here).

Citygate Church does not process or store any payment details.

Anyone can view the annual report and audited accounts of Citygate Church via the Charity Commission website.

Job applicants, current and former Citygate employees

Citygate is the data controller for the information you provide during the recruitment process unless otherwise stated. If you have any queries about the process or how we handle your information please contact us at hr@citygate.church.

People who make a complaint to us

Citygate tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures. We are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below. When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint. We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle. Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

CCTV

Some of our locations and properties have Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and you may be recorded when you visit them.

CCTV is used to provide security and protect both our staff and visitors. CCTV will only be viewed when necessary (for example, to detect or prevent crime) and footage is stored for a set period of time, after which it is recorded over. We will comply with the Information Commissioner’s Office CCTV Code of Practice and we put up notices so you know when CCTV is used.

Storing your data

We hold your data for varying lengths of time depending on the type of information in question but in doing so we always comply with Data Protection legislation.

Who do we share your information with?

We will not share your information with third parties without your consent unless the law requires us to do so.

Requesting access to your personal data

We try to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the Data Protection Act 2018. If we do hold information about you we will:

• give you a description of it;

• tell you why we are holding it;

• tell you who it could be disclosed to;

• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

To make a request to Citygate for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing to the addresses provided below or call 01202 299628 to discuss further. If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone.

You also have the right to:

• object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress;

• prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing;

• object to decisions being taken by automated means;

• in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed;

• claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.

You can also get further information on:

• agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information;

• circumstances where we can pass on personal data without consent for example, to prevent and detect crime;

• our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete personal data;

• how we check that the information we hold is accurate and up to date.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Data accuracy

If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by contacting our Data Protection Officer or by giving us a call on 01202 299628.

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 14th March 2023.

How to contact us

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Phone us on 01202 299628.

Or write to:

Citygate Church
138a Holdenhurst Road,
Bournemouth,
BH8 8AS