Privacy Policy

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1.INTRODUCTION

Discovering Old Welsh Houses Group is a voluntary organisation which studies and celebrates the traditional houses of North Wales built between the 1400s and the mid 1700s and the lives of the people who lived in them. Discovering Old Welsh Houses Group is committed to maintaining the privacy and security of your personal data.

This Privacy Statement sets out why and how we collect and use your personal data. This statement applies to you if you visit the Discovering Old Welsh Houses website, or you apply for membership, or you attend an event.

The rules on processing personal data are governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as it applies in the UK under the Data Protection Act 2018.

Our promise to you is to

  • Keep your personal data secure
  • Never share your data unless you confirm we can
  • Use your data to improve our services to you
  • Let you view, update, and delete your data
  • Update this statement when there is any change to what data we collect and how we process it

2. DEFINITIONS

  • Personal Data is information relating to an identified or identifiable person, e.g. a person’s name, home address, national insurance number, passport number, date of birth, or private email address.
  • A Data Subject is the person whose data is being collected and processed. In this statement “you” or “your” is referring to you as the data subject.
  • Sensitive Personal Data specifically includes genetic and biometric data, racial and ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health data, trade union membership, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs.
  • Processing means any operation performed on personal data eg. collection, re-organisation, alteration, erasure or deletion.
  • A Controller determines why and how personal data is processed.
  • A Processor is responsible for processing personal data on behalf of a controller.
  • A Third Party is any person or body other than the data subject, controller or processor that is authorised to process personal by the data controller or the processor.

3. WHO ARE WE?

In this statement, the words we, us, our, Discovering Old Welsh Houses, DOWH or the charity or the Group all refer to the Discovering Old Welsh Houses Group.  The charity is registered with the UK Charity Commission (registration number 1131782) and managed by a Board of voluntary Trustees who are elected from its membership.  We do not have any employees.

Discovering Old Welsh Houses is a data controller which means we decide on what personal data we collect from you and why and how that data is processed. Our named Data Protection Officer for any enquiries on data matters and this statement is our Membership Secretary.

4. WHAT PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

We may collect your:

  • Full name
  • Additional full name (if joint)
  • Home address
  • Personal email
  • Additional personal email (if joint)
  • Contact telephone numbers
  • Branch/interest areas
  • Payment method
  • Gift Aid Declaration (if applicable)
  • A password (this is provided by you when you login to your account with DOWH)
  • Date when you join DOWH and whether you have paid your annual subscription
  • Agreement to receive emails from us

You give us this data when you:

  • apply for and become a Member
  • subscribe to our e-newsletter
  • communicate with us in person, by phone, email, text, letter, social media post or using a website contact form
  • participate in social media on our channels
  • attend a Group organised event

In addition, when you use our website we may use log files, cookies and digital analytics (Google) to automatically collect the following information from your visit:

  • The Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the Internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform.
  • Information about your visit including how you found our website, what pages you visited and for how long, what you searched for and where you went to from our website.

This automatically collected information identifies you as a single user but not as an individual named person. We use this information simply to work out how effective our website and services are and to identify any improvements.

Further information about Cookies and Google Analytics and how you can opt out of some Cookies and disable Google Analytics can be found in our Cookies Policy.

We do not collect any sensitive personal data.

We will never collect personal information about you without your consent. By creating an account on our website, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy by ticking the acceptance box on the registration page. By agreeing to this, you are telling us that you consent to us collecting, processing, and sharing your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Where consent has been given to process your personal information, you can withdraw that consent at any time, and you may request that it be removed altogether. Please note that in certain circumstances, we can override your request where there is a legal obligation to retain the information.

5. WHAT WE DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We only use your personal data on relevant lawful grounds as permitted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as it applies in the UK under the Data Protection Act 2018.

We collect and process personal data from you in the following circumstances:

Members

We collect your personal information in order to manage your membership and provide the membership benefits to you:

  • To authenticate access to your account when you log in to the website
  • To send subscription reminders
  • To send newsletters and to keep you informed of the work of DOWH
  • To respond to your queries
  • To prevent unauthorised access to your account
  • To improve our website and the services we provide.

If you have not renewed your membership after 24 months your account on the website will be made inactive, you will be unable to login and you will no longer receive newsletters. 

If after a further four years, you have still not renewed your membership, the account and your data will be permanently deleted.

If you have paid for your membership on our website, then you enter payment credit or debit details directly into the third party payment system STRIPE and your details will be handled according to their policies.

E newsletter

To receive our newsletter, you provide us with your email, first name and surname and we retain these in a secure database.

We may use the third-party supplier Mailchimp to distribute the e-newsletter to you. The distribution list we send to MailChimp contains your e-mail address only, is transferred to the U.S.A. and is Privacy Framework USA-EU compliant. By agreeing to receive the newsletter, you are agreeing to your data being processed by Mailchimp and to their Privacy Statement with regard to handling Contacts’ data. 

You may opt out from receiving our newsletter at any time by choosing Unsubscribe on any newsletter you have received. If you opt out, then we will be notified and your details will be removed from our database. It is your responsibility to opt out if you do not want to receive the newsletter.

Communication in person, by phone, email, text, letter, social media post or using a website contact form

We may collect your name, address, email, and contact phone numbers in order to handle and respond to your enquiry. We will retain these details for a maximum period of 12 months after your last communication with us, after which time your details will be permanently deleted.

Participate in social media on our channels

For your safety and security, you must NEVER include personal data such as your address, phone number, email, or other personal information in a post on our social channels as your comments are visible to all.

Attend an event

If you attend an event with us then we may ask you for your name, address and contact details in order to send you membership joining information and/or our E-newsletter.

Images in which people can be identified are a form of personal data. We will always ask your permission before we take your photograph or film you at any event and will tell you how we intend to use any images. We will always seek written permission of the parent or guardian for a child under 13. If images are not used for the purpose we intended, and within a reasonable timescale, then they will be permanently deleted.

6. DISCLOSING AND SHARING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We do not sell or share your personal information for other organisations to use.

Personal data collected and processed by us may be shared with the following:

  • Designated officers who manage memberships or arrange events or answer your queries using the Contact Us form and any other means of communication.
  • Third party cloud hosting companies for databases and website hosting
  • IT support providers to our data network and website
  • HMRC where the member has chosen to Gift Aid
  • Third party E-newsletter platform provider - Mailchimp
  • Payment collection services - Stripe
  • DOWH bankers (NatWest Bank), when membership subscriptions and donations are made by cheque or a standing order.
  • Should you contact any of the Group’s Officers requesting help with researching a house, then your details may be passed onto fellow members, who would have more knowledge regarding your query.

We may also disclose your personal information to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data to comply with any legal obligation or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use or cookie policy and other agreements. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection.

7. STORAGE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We keep all personal information safe and only hold it for as long is necessary.

We store all personal information securely to protect against inappropriate access, loss, or misuse of data. While we cannot guarantee that this will not happen, we regularly review our security practices, updating them as necessary to help ensure the safety of your information.

To help protect against your personal information from being misused or accessed, it is important that you use a strong password for your membership account that you have not used elsewhere. The UK Government’s CyberAware Campaign has some good advice on choosing passwords.

The charity is based in the UK. Data you provide to us directly is stored on the Microsoft data centres all of which are located in the UK.

Data that you enter into third-party systems via our website such as the STRIPE payment system may be held outside the UK.

8. YOUR RIGHTS AND YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the right to:

  • be informed about the collection and use of your personal data
  • access your personal data by requesting a copy of the data we hold about you
  • request that we rectify any personal data we hold or have passed to third parties if it is incorrect
  • request erasure where it is no longer necessary for us to hold your personal data
  • withdraw consent to the processing at any time, where consent was the lawful basis for processing your personal data
  • data portability, i.e. for you to obtain and use your data by requesting its direct transfer to another data controller
  • request restriction on any further processing where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data
  • object to the processing of personal data where applicable, eg for direct marketing or statistical research.

9. SUBJECT ACCESS REQUESTS AND COMPLAINTS

If you have any concerns or feel that there may be a problem about the way that we hold your information, we hope that you will approach us first so that we can resolve any issues.

If at any time you wish to know what information we hold about you, update your details or change your communication preferences please contact the Membership Secretary. You may also update your personal data on the members area of our website.

If you wish to exercise your rights and make a subject access request, and/or have a complaint to make about our handling of your data, please contact the Membership Secretary. You will be asked what personal information you want to access, where it is likely to be held and the date range. We will need you to confirm your identity before we accept the request. If we hold personal information about you, we will give you a copy of the information in an understandable format together with an explanation of why we hold and use it within one month after your request.

You also have the right to contact the Information Commissions Office (ICO) using their help line 0303 123 113 or at www.ico.org.uk.

10. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT

We will review and update this Privacy Statement when there are any changes to what personal data we collect, how and why we use your personal data and when there are any new legal requirements. The current version will always be posted on our website.

This privacy statement was approved at the Trustee Meeting on 27th April 2026.