Privacy Policy

At Simon Community, we are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in the right way. Personal information means any information that could identify you. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, process and safeguard your information when you visit our website [www.simoncommunity.org], interact with or engage with our services, and your rights to the data we hold.

We take protecting your privacy very seriously and will always take all reasonable steps within our power to make sure your information is safe. We promise we’ll never share or sell your personal data to a third-party organisation for marketing, fundraising or campaigning purposes.

We are a "data controller" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("Data Protection Law"). This means that we are responsible for determining the purpose and means of processing of your personal information.

If you would like more information please contact our Data Protection Officer via

Post: Unit 15, North City Business Park, 2 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast BT15 2GG

Email: dpo@simoncommunity.org

This privacy policy was last updated in September 2024.

We will only collect personal information for reasons relevant to why you have engaged with us.

This information may include:

• Your name and date of birth,
• Contact details including postal address, phone number or email address
• Credit/debit card or bank details (if you are making a donation),
• National Insurance Number
• Case details (as part of housing advice or service provision)
• Donation history and Gift Aid details
• Photos, audio or video recordings
• Information you provide in any communications between us.
• Any other relevant information
  

Special category information

We may need to collect sensitive personal data about health, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, political beliefs, criminal records or other sensitive data. We will only collect or process this data where it is necessary to comply with legal requirements or as part of the support that we provide to you.

We will mainly use this information:

• To provide you with the best support, advice and help that we can.
• To keep a record of your relationship with us.
• To help us understand the support we are providing across our services.
• To address and resolve complaints about Simon Community and our services
• To comply with applicable laws and regulations, and requests from statutory agencies.
• To manage your volunteering activity.
• To process your donations or other payments, to claim Gift Aid on your donations and verify any financial transactions.
• To update you with important administrative messages about your donation, an event or services you have requested.
• To contact you about our work, the impact of your support and how you can further support us.
• To invite you to participate in surveys or research.

We will not pass on your details to anyone else without your explicit consent except in exceptional circumstances (if we are required to do so by law enforcement or regulatory bodies).

Where you have given us your explicit consent that you are happy for us to share your story, then we may publish it on our website or in other media.

Information about Children and Young People

We sometimes receive limited data about children if they decide to fundraise for us, and we will collect data about children for events we organise specifically for young people. Wherever possible, we will ask for consent from parents to collect information about children and young people under the age of 16.

Everything we do is focused on helping people who are experiencing homelessness. We want to make sure you receive the communications that are most relevant to you, be it through visiting our website or receiving emails, post or phone calls. If you are a supporter, we want to make sure you receive the best supporter care when you take part in an event or make a donation (through our secure online donation and payment platforms).

We collect information from you in the following ways:

• When you interact with us directly: This could be if you ask us for help, are referred by an external agency, enquire about our activities, register with us for an event, make a donation, ask a question, complete a survey, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity or otherwise provide us with your personal information. This includes when you phone us, visit our website, or get in touch through the post, or in person.
• When you interact with us through third parties: This could be if you are referred via another provider or provide a donation through a third party such as Just Giving.
• When you visit our website: We gather general information which might include which pages you visit most often and which services, events or information is of most interest to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We also use "cookies" to help our site run effectively. You can read our cookies policy here. We use this information to personalise the way our website is presented when you visit and to ensure we provide the best service and experience for you. Wherever possible we use anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our website.

Legal basis

The law requires us to have a legal basis for collecting and using your personal data. We rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

• Performance of a contract with you: Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Consent: We rely on consent only where we have obtained your active agreement to use your personal data for a specified purpose, for example if you subscribe to an email newsletter.
• Legitimate interests: We may use your personal data where it is necessary to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights (both positive and negative) before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
• Legal obligation: We may use your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.
• Vital Interests: We rely on this basis where it is necessary to protect the vital interest of an individual such as medical information in an emergency.
• Public Task: We may use your data if it necessary in the performance of a task in the public interest.

Simon Community Services and Support

If you are receiving advice or support from us, or if someone else has referred you to us for such a service, we will need to process your data because of your specific relationship with us. We will keep all your relevant personal information – including notes, letters, emails and information given to us about you – in a confidential record that is specific to you. We use an electronic case management system as well as paper records to support our advice, guidance and support provision. This means that we can keep the information you provide us secure and we are able to see the history and relevant details of your case(s). We are then able to provide appropriate and accurate advice or support. We take information security very seriously. We may need to disclose and discuss your personal information with third party individuals or organisations if this is necessary to help support you. We will discuss this with you as we go along, and will only act with your express consent unless one of the other legal bases outlined above applies.

Calls to our emergency helpline are not recorded.

We may use your data for general statistical reports. These statistics will not include any information that could be used to identify you or any other data subject.

Marketing, fundraising and campaigning

For supporters and subscribers, we like to keep you up to date with our latest news, campaigns and events.New subscribers can sign up for updates through our website, where we will obtain your consent to contact you by email.

We will send you marketing by post, on the basis of it being within our legitimate interests to do so, unless you opt out. We may also contact some supporters by phone on this basis (unless they are registered with the Telephone Preference Service or have opted out of receiving marketing communications from Simon Community).

If you would like to change your consent preferences, update your details or unsubscribe at any point, you can do this by contacting us via one of the following methods

• Email: fundraise@simoncommunity.org
• Post: Unit 15, North City Business Park, 2 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast BT15 2GG
• Telephone: (+44) 028 9023 2882

If you make any changes to your consent, we will update your record without undue delay and at the latest within one month of receipt. It can take 30 days for our systems to update and stop any postal communications from being sent to you. Email communications will, however, be stopped immediately. If you unsubscribe from our communications list you may still receive acknowledgement and thank you emails/letters, confirming your donations.

We use a customer relationship management system (CRM) to support our marketing. This means that we keep the information you provide to us, and are able to see the relevant details of your history as a Simon Community supporter.

If you sign up to our newsletter, or if you agree to be contacted via email, your information i.e. email address, first and last name will also be stored within our email marketing platforms. You can unsubscribe from our email list at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link that appears in all of our marketing or newsletter emails.

We also use a third-party company to facilitate mailings for fundraising appeals and general communications. The information provided to this third-party company is transferred securely and shared via a Data Protection Agreement.

We may use profiling and database segmentation techniques to analyse your personal information and create a profile of your interests, preferences, and ability to donate. This allows us to ensure communications are relevant and timely to provide an improved experience for our supporters. It also helps us understand the background of our supporters so that we can make appropriate requests to people who may be able to increase their donations or leave a gift in their will. This enables us to raise funds quickly and in the most cost-effective way.

We are legally required to carry out checks on individuals who give us large donations to comply with our duties under anti-money laundering legislation and the prevention of fraud.

Social media and digital

You may receive targeted advertisements through our use of social media audience tools. This depends on your settings or the privacy policies for social media platforms - like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Toc, and Google.

We may provide your data (including your name and email address) to the social media platforms. This is to check if you have an account and to create a ‘lookalike’ audience. Our adverts may then appear when you use the social media platform. We only work with social media platforms that provide a facility for secure and encrypted upload of data, and immediately delete any records not matching with their own user base.

For more information, or to manage your social media ad preferences, please see:

• Facebook Custom Audiences guides
• Facebook Data Policy (also applies to Instagram)
• X (Twitter) Privacy Notice
• Google Privacy Notice

Applying for a job at Simon Community

When you apply for a position at Simon Community, we collect and process personal data relevant to your application, including your name, contact details, and any additional information you provide. Applications may be submitted via external online recruitment platform, which operates under its own privacy policy.

We use the information collected to assess your qualifications, communicate with you about your application, and meet legal or regulatory requirements. In Northern Ireland, this includes compliance with equality legislation and completing monitoring returns to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Your recruitment information will be retained according to our data retention and disposal schedule. If you are offered a position, your recruitment data will be kept for the duration of your employment and you will receive information about employee data privacy as part of your onboarding process. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data with care. For any questions about our recruitment data handling practices or to exercise your data protection rights, please contact recruitment@simoncommunity.org.

We take the storage of your personal data very seriously. Transmission of your personal information over the internet can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure however we will take every step we can to minimise the risk. We will never sell your personal data to a third party organisation and will only share this information with third-party organisations or companies where:

• The transfer is to a secure data processor, which carries out data processing operations on our behalf i.e. fundraising campaign mailings.
• We have a Data Sharing Agreement with partner organisations who work with us to deliver our services.
• We are required to do so by law enforcement or regulatory bodies where this is required or allowed under the relevant legislation.
• It is necessary to protect the vital interests of an individual.
• We have obtained your consent.

Appropriate technical, organisational and administrative security measures to safeguard personal data are in place. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees and third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Our Data Protection Officer has specific responsibility for data protection, covering all aspects within the scope of the Data Protection and Confidentiality policy.

Whatever your relationship with us, we will only store your information for a specified amount of time, as set out in our internal data retention policy or as required by law.

Simon Community is required to retain certain records for operational and administrative purposes and to demonstrate compliance with statutory or regulatory requirements.

Once the retention period has expired, the information will be confidentially disposed of, permanently deleted or anonymised.

Retention periods are subject to review and may be extended if required by law or regulation.

Disposal of records is conducted in a secure and recognised manner approved by Simon Community NI and in line with Data Protection and Confidentiality Procedures.

You have various rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you – these are set out below.

• Access to your personal information: You have the right to request access to a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, along with information on what personal information we use, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it for and whether it has been used for any automated decision making. You can make a request for access free of charge. Please make all requests for access in writing and provide us with evidence of your identity.
• Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Please contact us as noted above, providing details of your objection.
• Consent: If you have given us your consent to use personal information (for example, for marketing), you can withdraw your consent at any time.
• Rectification: You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you.
• Erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, or you have withdrawn consent, or where we have no lawful basis for keeping it.
• Portability: You can ask us to provide you or a third party with some of the personal information that we hold about you in a structured, commonly used, electronic form, so it can be easily transferred.
• Restriction: You can ask us to restrict the personal information we use about you where you have asked for it to be erased or where you have objected to our use of it.
• No automated decision making: Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. You have the right not to be subject to automated decisions that will create legal effects or have a similar significant impact on you, unless you have given us your consent, it is necessary for a contract between you and us or is otherwise permitted by law. You also have certain rights to challenge decisions made about you. We do not currently carry out any automated decision-making.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, you can do so by contacting us using the details below. You can also make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner's Office, ico.org.uk. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please consider contacting us in the first instance.

If you have any questions about this policy, would like more information, or want to exercise any of the rights set out in the 'Your rights' section above, you can get in touch with us in the following ways

• Email: dpo@simoncommunity.org
• Post: Data Protection Officer, Unit 15, North City Business Park, 2 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast, BT15 2GG
• Telephone: (+44) 028 9023 2882