Privacy Policy

SCM is committed to safeguarding your privacy. This statement explains how we will collect, use and disclose information. This statement may change from time to time, so please check this page periodically. 

It’s important that you feel completely comfortable and confident that your personal information is in safe hands. Student Christian Movement (SCM) takes protecting your privacy very seriously and takes all reasonable steps to ensure your information is secure. 

The use of your personal information, why we collect it and what we store varies depending on how you interact with SCM, what consent you have given us and what the context is. We have done our best to indicate this throughout the statement. There may be other privacy policies that apply to certain services we provide. We will make these explicit when they apply. Please read them before you subscribe for such services.

What information we collect

We collect and use personal information such as names and address details, as well as other contact information including email addresses and telephone numbers. We also collect details of members’ Christian denomination, subject of study, place of study and graduation date where this is disclosed as part of the membership sign-up process. 

Information about the services you use on our website is also collected by SCM, as well as details of any purchases or financial transactions you make, including bank details if you set up a Direct Debit or Standing Order, and any marketing preferences you give. If you have donated to SCM and kindly agreed to Gift Aid that donation, we must record the fact that you are a UK tax payer, and we have to maintain a record of the amount of Gift Aid we have collected.

We maintain a record of communications that we send to you, and will also log any communications that you send to us. We also maintain a record of event attendance, and if you attend an SCM event it is possible that your photograph may be taken.

Why we collect information

We collect information in order to make our work more effective and ensure that every student can find a vibrant, open and inclusive Christian community where they can explore faith and be inspired to put faith into action.

Whenever you interact or communicate with SCM, we collect personal information. Some examples may include:

  • Processing volunteer and employee applications.  The information you provide to us allows us to communicate with you and assess your suitability for the role.
  • Processing membership applications.  We hold information about you as a member of SCM so that we can effectively support you and stay in touch.
  • Fundraising. We hold information about you if you have donated to SCM, or if we have reasonable grounds to think that you might like to support SCM in the future, for example if you have previously been an SCM member.

We will use the personal details you provide us to communicate with you about the work of SCM,  the services we offer, and how you can support our work. We will always ask for your consent if we want to message you by email or text message. However, we do not normally ask for consent to make calls or to write to you if you are a member, supporter or volunteer because we have a legitimate interest to contact you, provided of course that this does not breach your fundamental rights. 

If you are signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, we will only make telephone calls to you where you have consented to receive them.

When you give us your details we will always tell you what we are going to do with them. If we request your contact details for any reason, you will always have an option to not give them to us or to opt out. It is always your choice and you can change your mind at any time by contacting the SCM office.

Where we collect information from

Examples may include:

  • From you directly, for example, when you fill out a membership form or when you make a donation.
  • From external sources, for example, when you create a JustGiving page or when you interact with us on social media.
  • From other organisations, when you give permission or where your personal data is available publicly. For example, if you have moved to a new house but forgotten to tell us, we may use the Post Office’s National Change of Address database to update our records. By using these sources of information, we can ensure that our letters get to you and that the information you receive from us is relevant.

Another example of this includes measures of affluence. This helps us make appropriate requests to supporters who may be able and willing to give more. It helps us raise funds and work more quickly and cost effectively than we would otherwise be able to. Currently, we do not make use of wealth data providers but if we wish to do so in the future, we will always ask for your explicit consent.

From our websites (www.movement.org.uk and www.christianstudentguide.com) , when you visit these sites. For example, we use software such as Google Analytics to identify which pages on our website are visited most. This information is collected automatically. It does not contain any personal or sensitive information, so browsing is anonymous. For further information please see the section on Cookies below.

Cookies

SCM websites may place and access certain Cookies on your computer. The Student Christian Movement uses Cookies to improve your experience of using the Websites. The Student Christian Movement has carefully chosen these Cookies and has taken steps to ensure that your privacy is protected and respected at all times.  All Cookies used by this Website are used in accordance with current UK and EU Cookie Law.

Before the Website places Cookies on your computer, you will be presented with a pop-up requesting your consent to set those Cookies. By giving your consent to the placing of Cookies, you are enabling The Student Christian Movement to provide a better experience and service to you. You may, if you wish, deny consent to the placing of Cookies; however certain features of the Website may not function fully or as intended.

This Website may place the following Cookies:

  • Analytical/performance cookies which allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

You can choose to enable or disable Cookies in your internet browser. By default, most internet browsers accept Cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser. You can choose to delete Cookies at any time; however you may lose any information that enables you to access the Website more quickly and efficiently including, but not limited to, personalisation settings.  It is recommended that you ensure that your internet browser is up-to-date and that you consult the help and guidance provided by the developer of your internet browser if you are unsure about adjusting your privacy settings.

We collect IP addresses to obtain aggregate information (formed by grouping together sets of data) about the use of this website. An IP address is a number assigned to your computer by a web server while you’re on the web. When you are on our site, we have a server that logs your computer’s IP address. We only use the information we find out from tracking IP addresses in the aggregate, such as how many users entered a specific area of our site, and not to track specific IP addresses to identify an individual user.

Sensitive personal information

Under data protection law, certain categories of personal information are recognised as sensitive, including health information, race, religious beliefs, and political opinions (‘sensitive personal data’). In limited cases, we may collect sensitive personal data about you, for example your religious affiliation.

We would only collect sensitive personal data if there is a clear reason for doing so, as outlined earlier in this policy, such as where we need this information to ensure that we provide appropriate facilities, enable you to participate in an event, or enable us to effectively support you.

At times we’ll collect sensitive personal data for Equal Opportunities monitoring, or to help us evaluate the impact of events that we run, but this is only ever analysed at an aggregate level and is anonymous.

How long we keep your information for

We keep personal information for different lengths of time dependent on the purpose. For example, we would like to keep information about past members so that we can keep in touch about our work, and let you know of ways that you can continue to be involved in, and support, the movement.

We want to ensure that the personal information we collect from you is used to appropriately support our work together and considers any future dealings that you would like to have with us. For example, many people ask to receive references for their work or volunteering at SCM.  In these cases it is important we have the correct personal information on file. You can contact us at any time to ask us to remove or amend your personal information.

Who we share your personal information with

We never sell your personal details with third parties for the purpose of marketing. Sometimes we may need to share your information with external organisations, for example companies that we use to process payments. Whenever we share or transfer your personal information, we comply with the standards set by the GDPR and this privacy statement at a minimum.

If you apply to volunteer or work for SCM, we will use your personal information to assess your suitability for the post and your personal information will only be shared with those people directly involved in the recruitment process.

We may also need to disclose your details if required to by the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisers.

If you become a trustee of the charity we will need to share your personal information with the charity commission of England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and Companies House.

How your information is secure

Sensitive data is held under strict security conditions on a password protected database which is backed up to a secure cloud based system. If you have any reason to believe that any personal information we hold is no longer secure, please contact us immediately.

Further information

The laws that say how your personal information can be used are:

  • The Data Protection Act 1998
  • The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003
  • The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office to find out more about types of personal information, its usage and your rights, or to report a concern.

A full copy of SCM's Data Protection Policy can be downloaded here.

Managing your communications from us

You have the right to know what personal information we have about you, to make changes to how you hear from us, and to ask us to stop processing or to remove your personal information. You also have the right to ask for a copy of the information we have.

You can change your communication preferences at any time; just get in touch with the SCM office team.