This privacy & GDPR policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about  you when you contact us by phone, email, letter, attend any of our events or when you use  any of our websites/ social media/ mobile numbers listed below: 

www.becomingvisible.co.uk 

www.facebook.com/bvdeaf 

www.instagram.com/becomingvisiblebv/ 

www.twitter.com/deafbv 

Becoming Visible Interpreting and Translation mobile number: 07775 811150 Becoming Visible Training mobile number: 07792 883915 

Becoming Visible Community mobile number: 07930 826918 

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information.  We aim to be clear and open about our data and security practices. 

Where we ask you to provide us with any information by which you can be identified, you can  be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement, and in line with  the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018. 

What information do we collect and store about you?  

 

Personal data relates to information about a living person (a ‘data subject’) who can be  identified from that on its own, or when taken together with other information which is likely  to come into our possession. It includes any expression of opinion about the person and an  indication of the intentions of us or others, in respect of that person. This policy applies to all  personal data whether it is stored electronically, on paper or on other materials. 

We collect information about you when you fill in an online form to: 

• Register for a website account or update your account details
• Sign up for email updates
• Contact us
• Place orders for free or paid products or services
• Apply for membership
• Complete surveys or provide feedback

We collect material that you proactively post or contribute to our sites and any  correspondence you have with us. We also collect information on your website usage  through cookies if your browser accepts them. Some of our websites feature tracking  software – this means that if you’re a logged-in user, have filled an online form or have previously clicked a link in one of our emails, we may link your website usage information  (such as pages visited, IP address, browser and device used) to other information we hold  about you, such as your name and organisation. 

When you contact us by email, letter or on the phone, we may also record this information  on our customer relationship management system to help us process your request  efficiently. 

How do we use your information?  

 

We collect information about you to manage your account, process your requests or fulfil any  contract we have with you. 

We use information collected from your website visits to personalise your future visits and to  improve the experience we provide to our online users. For example, information like the  browser and device you are using helps us to maintain usable and accessible websites for all  our audiences. 

We also use your information to help us develop products and services that you need, and  where we have a lawful basis and permission to contact you, we may use it to help us send  you relevant and timely information about the help and support that we offer. 

Where do we store your information?  

 

Online forms  

The forms on our website are built using a platform hosted in the UK so the information you  provide to us is initially stored there. The contract we have with this provider ensures their  practices comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and we regularly  delete data from this system. 

In the longer term your data is stored in our customer relationship management system,  which is hosted on a secure server in the EU. 

Website accounts  

If you are a registered user of our website(s), the personal data within your account(s) is  stored in secure web servers based in the UK. 

You are responsible for keeping your website account password(s) confidential. We ask you  not to share your password with anyone for your own security. 

Security and encryption  

We take great care to ensure that our websites operate at the highest security levels and that  our suppliers are committed to best practice in digital security. All personal information and  financial data is encrypted in transmission. However, the security of data transmission via the  internet can never be 100% guaranteed, and data transmission is at your own risk.   

Cookies  

 

What are cookies and how do we use them?  

The use of cookies is common practice on modern websites. A cookie is a small text file which  is placed on your computer’s hard drive by a website. When you visit one of our websites,  your browser checks to see if it has any cookies for it and sends the information contained in those cookies back to the site in order to tailor and improve your experience. 

Our cookies record things like whether you are currently logged into your website account, to  ensure you’re given the right access on each page. They make sure the display settings  you’ve selected before (for example, preferred language) – or the settings associated with  your account permissions – are activated correctly. 

We also use third-party cookies to track how our websites are used, as well as to carry out  our advertising and marketing activities. 

Third-party cookies  

When you visit our websites, we allow a number of third parties to set cookies on your device  to help us better understand who our users are and how they use our websites. This  information enables us to: 

• measure our sites’ effectiveness
• improve our content and user experience
• make our websites more useful and relevant to your interests
• promote our services and resources more usefully online
• make adverts you see online more relevant to you
• limit the number of times you see our promotional advertising.

For example, we use Google Analytics cookies to collect anonymous usage and visitor  behaviour information – this includes: 

• IP address
• operating system
• browser type
• pages visited
• links you click on
• services you request

Google Advertising cookies help us understand the demographics and interests of our users  so we can better meet their needs. If you are a user who has signed up to receive marketing  emails from us, you might receive emails containing content that is tailored to your interests,  based on your browsing habits collected by us. Similarly, Facebook and other website cookies  help make our adverts more relevant to you. 

Some of the services on our websites, videos from Vimeo, and sharing functions from  Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, may place cookies on your computer to enable their service  to work properly or to measure usage of their service. 

To find out more about how the third parties referred to above use cookies and how to opt  out of them, please review their privacy policies. 

Email cookies  

Our emails and websites contain cookies to tell us whether emails are opened and verify any  clicks through to links within an email. We use this information to help us understand how an  email campaign has performed, what types of emails and content our users find interesting,  and what actions our users took, so we can improve our email campaigns in the future and  make our emails more relevant to you.  

Can I refuse cookies?  

Yes, you can use your browser settings to disable cookies. Different browsers offer different  levels of control – for example you may be able to accept certain cookies and reject others,  such as third-party cookies. If you refuse cookies please be aware our websites may not work  smoothly for you and there will be certain parts that won’t function correctly. 

You can delete the cookies stored on your computer at any time. 

Email marketing  

 

If you have purchased a service from Becoming Visible or have opted-in to hear about  Becoming Visible’s products and services, we will send you information which may be of  interest to you. You have a right to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes at  any time. All our marketing emails contain unsubscribe links. You can also contact us at any  time to request a change to your marketing preferences. 

How long do we keep your information?  

 

We do not keep your information for longer than necessary. We keep financial information  for seven years due to legal requirements, and we delete all other personal information from  our customer relationship management system if we have had no contact with you for three  years. 

Access to your information  

 

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would  like a copy of some or all of your personal information, you can: 

• email [email protected]
• write to Becoming Visible, Mea House, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8XS

We will not charge you for this service unless the request is ‘manifestly unfounded or  excessive or repetitive’. 

Keeping your information up to date  

 

We want to make sure that any personal information we hold about you is accurate and up  to date. Please contact us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate.

Sharing your information with other organisations  

 

Becoming Visible will not sell your information to any third party. We may share your  information with third parties where we have legal duty to do so or to provide you with a  service you have asked for. For example, we use a third-party supplier to provide  assessments for courses you may purchase from us and we use secure third-party partners to  process financial transactions. We have contracts in place with all third-party suppliers to  ensure they are obligated to treat our customers’ personal data in compliance with the  General Data Protection Regulation 2018. 

Other websites  

 

Our website contain links to other websites not run by Becoming Visible. This privacy policy  only applies to Becoming Visible’s so when you link to other websites you should read their  own privacy policies. 

Changes to our privacy policy  

 

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web  page. This privacy policy was last updated on 6th July 2020. 

Your rights  

 

Data protection regulations give you clear rights over how your data is used by us. You can  find out more detail about your rights by visiting the Information Commissioner’s Office  website’s section. www.ico.org.uk You also have the right to report concerns or complain  about our handling of your data to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Details of how to  do this can be found here. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ 

Who we are and how to contact us  

 

Becoming Visible is registered in England as a charitable company limited by guarantee. 

If you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you, you  can: 

• Email [email protected]
• Write to: Becoming Visible, Mea House, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8XS