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Privacy and Data Protection

Introduction

Volunteerscotland.org.uk knows that you care how information about you is used and shared and we appreciate your trust in us to do that carefully and sensibly. The site is managed and maintained by Volunteer Development Scotland on behalf of the Volunteer Centre Network Scotland. This notice describes our privacy policy. By visiting www.volunteerscotland.org.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this privacy notice.

Information Collection and Use Controllers of Personal Information

Any personal information provided or to be gathered by www.volunteerscotland.org.uk is controlled on 2 levels.

  1. By Volunteer Development Scotland, Stirling Enterprise Park, Stirling, FK77RP, Scotland, UK.
  2. The volunteer centre with which a user chooses to register with via this website. The contact details of each volunteer centre of the Volunteer Centre Network can be found here.

Information Collection

The volunteer centre chosen by the user on entry to this website is the sole owner of the information collected on www.volunteerscotland.org.uk. The volunteer centre in question collects information from individuals at registration.

On registering with a chosen volunteer centre a user is required to give certain contact information about his/herself. This information is used to contact the user about available volunteering opportunities that may be of interest to the user. The volunteer centre may also contact the user to request further information that may be pertinent to undertaking a volunteering opportunity.

Demographic information such as age, ethnic background and gender, while asked for is optional.

The information submitted at registration is ultimately stored in 2 locations.

  1. A secure online central database
  2. A secure database located locally at your chosen volunteer centre

See below as to how the information is transferred between each database.

Transfer of Information

Registration information submitted via www.volunteerscotland.org.uk is held in a secure online database. Subsequently the information is transferred to the users chosen volunteer centre over http, all data is encrypted during transfer.

When this data is received by the volunteer centre it is automatically entered into their secure database.

Information Use

Personal Information

The users chosen volunteer centre will primarily use a user’s information to match the user to volunteer opportunities as they become available.

Where the volunteer centre matches an individuals details with an available volunteering opportunity then the volunteer centre may pass on the users name and relevant contact details to the 3rd party organisation that is supplying the volunteering opportunity. The 3rd party organisation may then use this information to contact the user directly in respect of the volunteering opportunity.

Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)

The volunteer centre which holds a users information will use this information to produce aggregated and statistical demographic reports on individuals and organisations. No individual or organisation will be personally identifiable from these reports.

This information will be used for, inter alias, to target volunteering needs within the respective local authority areas.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. [Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site.] We use only session ID cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates.

Log Files

Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Volunteer Development Scotland use a tracking utility called Webtrends from netiQ that uses web log files to analyze site usage and user movement within the site.

Sharing


Legal Disclaimer

Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)

Volunteer Development Scotland share aggregated demographic information with the Scottish Executive to fulfill funding requirements and to help identify areas of need within the volunteering sector.

Volunteer Centres share aggregated demographic information with local authorities and funding bodies to fulfill funding obligations.
This information is not linked to any personally identifiable information.

These are the instances in which we will share users’ personal information:

Where the volunteer centre the user has registered with matches a user’s details with an available volunteering opportunity then the volunteer centre may pass on the users name and relevant contact details to the 3rd party organisation that is supplying the volunteering opportunity in question. The 3rd party organisation may then use this information to contact the user directly in respect of the volunteering opportunity.

These organisations do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Security

Information held online is held on a dedicated secure server regularly updated with security patches as they become available. Our server is protected by a duel firewall and located in a high security facility.

Locally, due to different funding for volunteer centres physical security varies from volunteer centre to volunteer centre. Although all databases are protected by a back-end password and front-end passwords for each member of staff authorised to view the information.

Only volunteer centre employees who require access to the information to perform a specific task are granted access to personally identifiable information.

Links

This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, Volunteer Development Scotland, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Updating/Deleting Personal Information

user may log in to www.volunteerscotland.org.uk using their unique username and password. Once logged in a user may amend their registration details as and when they wish.

It is not possible for a user to delete their details via this website. To do this they must contact the volunteer centre they are registered with either by phone, letter or email.

A member of staff from the volunteer centre will delete your information on request. Subsequently the user’s information shall be deleted from the central online database.

Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

If, however, we are going to use users’ personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

Contact Information

If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:

Voluunteer Scotland Website
Volunteer Development Scotland
Stirling Enterprise Park
Stirling
FK7 7RP
Scotland

Phone: 01786-479593
Fax: 01786-449285