Privacy Notice
At Age Scotland, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This policy explains when and why we collect personal information about you, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, how we keep it safe and secure and your rights and choices in relation to your information.
Separate versions of Privacy Notices are issues to our staff.
We are notified as a Data Controller with the Office of the information Commissioner under registration number Z605138X and we are the data controller of any personal data that you provide to us.
Our Data Protection Officer is provided by RGDP LLP and can be contacted at info@rgdp.co.uk.
Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to contact@agescotland.org.uk or in writing to FAO: Age Scotland Data Compliance Officer, Age Scotland, Causewayside House, 160 Causewayside, Edinburgh, EH9 1PR.
Who are we?
We are Age Scotland, an independent charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people in Scotland within a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in Scotland. Registered company number: 153343. Registered charity No: SC010100. The registered address is: Causewayside House, 160 Causewayside, Edinburgh EH9 1PR. Age Scotland is part of the “Age UK Network” which includes the Age UK Group and its National Partners (Age UK, Age NI and Age Cymru). We also work with our local brand partner Age Scotland Orkney.
How do we collect information from you?
We obtain information from you in the following ways:
What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect, store and use might include:
- your name and contact details (including postal address, email address and telephone number)
- your date of birth
- information about your activities on our website and about the device used to access it, for instance your IP address and geographical location
- your bank or credit card details. If you make a donation online or make a purchase, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions
- information as to whether you are a UK taxpayer so we can claim gift aid; and any other personal information shared with us
Data protection laws recognise certain categories of personal information as sensitive and therefore requiring greater protection, for example information about your health, ethnicity and religion.
We do not usually collect sensitive data about you unless there is a clear and valid reason for doing so and data protection laws allow us to. For example, we may ask for your health information if you have contacted our helpline and your health information is relevant to your enquiry; or we may ask all new employees and volunteers to complete a criminal convictions declaration.
Where appropriate, we will make it clear why we are collecting this type of information and what it will be used for.
Calling our Helpline
When you call our Helpline, 0800 12 44 222, we collect information on the phone number you are calling from (unless it is withheld) and the date, time and duration of your call. We use this information to understand the demand for our services and to improve how we operate.
We may also use the number to call you back if you have asked us to do so, if your call drops, or if there is a problem with the line.
We also keep an audio record of your call for training, monitoring and management purposes. Recordings are held for 6 months.
We use a translation service provided by Language Line for clients when English is not their first language. We do not retain call scripts and neither do Language Line. It is processed live for the purposes of translating the call.
We will make a note of your enquiry on our case management system and record the information and advice we have provided to you. This record may be checked by another adviser for quality management purposes
Employment with Age Scotland
We will use the information you provide on your application form to help us assess your suitability for the role you have applied for. We do not collect more information than we need and we do not share your information with third parties.
How and why is your information used?
We may use your information for a number of different purposes, which may include:
- providing you with the services, products or information you asked for
- processing orders that you have submitted
- carrying out our obligations under any contracts entered into between you and us
- keeping a record of your relationship with us
- administering your donation or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid
- responding to, or fulfilling any requests, complaints or queries you make to us
- conducting analysis and market research to better understand how we can improve our services, products or information analysing the number and type of people who have used our services to demonstrate our impact and apply for funding monitoring the interactions we have with our customers, donors and beneficiaries for quality control and compliance purposes
- checking for updated contact details against third party sources so we can stay in touch if you move (see the section on ‘Keeping your information up to date’ below)
- dealing with entries into a competition or draw
- seeking your views or comments on the services we provide
- notifying you of changes to our services
- sending you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, fundraising appeals and activities and promotions of goods and services; and
- checking donations for the purposes of prevention of fraud, other crime or credit risk
- processing grant or job applications
How and when will you hear from us?
We respect your right to privacy, and will only contact you about Age Scotland if you are happy to hear from us or where appropriate to do so.
Fundraising and Marketing Communications
We may use your contact details to provide you with information about the vital work we do for older people, our fundraising appeals and opportunities to support us, as well as the products and services you can buy, if we think it may be of interest to you.
Email/text/Phone
We will only send you marketing and fundraising communications by email, text and telephone if you have explicitly provided your prior consent. You may opt out of our marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the end of our marketing emails.
Post
We may send you marketing and fundraising communications by post that we think may be of interest to you, unless you have told us that you would prefer not to hear from us in this way.
If we contact you by post with marketing and fundraising information, we do so under the lawful basis of legitimate interest.
This means that we send postal communications to achieve our charitable and/or organisational aims and ideals, whilst ensuring that doing so does not impinge on your privacy rights.
We believe that we have a legitimate interest to do this to raise vital funds to sustain our charitable work and to be there for older people who need us most.
You can contact us at any time if you wish to opt out.
Service communications
We may send you certain communications, without your consent, if we are under a legal obligation to do so, if we feel the communication is in both yours and our best interest or if it would be disadvantageous to you if we didn’t send the communication.
These communications may include:
- ‘Thank you’ emails to confirm receipt of your kind donation
- Registration confirmation, for example when you sign up to one of our events
- Age Scotland publications
How long is your information kept for?
We keep your information for no longer than is necessary for the purposes it was collected for. The length of time we retain your personal information for is determined by operational and legal considerations, as well as best practice. For example, we are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory and regulatory obligations, for example health and safety, and tax and accounting purposes.
Further reasons we may retain personal information include:
- For auditing purposes
- Evidence in defence of a legal claim
- Ensuring you are suppressed from marketing if you prefer never to hear from us in the future
We review our retention periods on a regular basis.
If you would like to know more about how long we hold your personal data for please email us at contact@agescotland.org.uk
Who has access to your information?
We do not sell or rent your information to third parties.
We do not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
However, we may disclose your information to third parties in order to achieve the other purposes set out in this policy or where required by law. These third parties may include:
These third parties may include:
Lawful Processing
Data protection law requires us to rely on one or more lawful grounds to process your personal information. We consider the following grounds to be relevant:
Your choices
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the vital work we do for older people and the exciting products and services you can buy, then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant boxes situated on the form used to collect your information.
We’re committed to putting you in control of your data so you’re free to change your marketing preferences (including to tell us that you don’t want to be contacted for marketing purposes) at any time using: contact@agescotland.org.uk, or by telephone: 0333 32 32 400, or post: FAO: Age Scotland Data Compliance Officer, Age Scotland, Causewayside House, 160 Causewayside, Edinburgh, EH9 1PR.
We will not use your personal information for marketing purposes if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted and will retain your details on a suppression list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you. However, we may still need to contact you for administrative purposes like where we are processing a donation or thanking you for your participation in an event.
Building Profiles
We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can tailor and target our communications in a way that is timely and relevant to you. We may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. This allows us to be more focused, efficient and cost effective with our resources and also reduces the risk of someone receiving information they may find inappropriate or irrelevant.
We’re committed to putting you in control of your data so you’re free to opt out of your information being used in this way at any time by contacting contact@agescotland.org.uk
Your Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have certain rights over the personal information that we hold about you. These are:
If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please email us at contact@agescotland.org.uk or write to FAO: Age Scotland Data Compliance Officer, Age Scotland, Causewayside House, 160 Causewayside, Edinburgh, EH9 1PR. We will endeavour to respond fully to all requests within one month of receipt of your request, however if we are unable to do so we will contact you with reasons for the delay.
Please note that exceptions apply to a number of these rights, and not all rights will be applicable in all circumstances. For more details we recommend you consult the guidance published by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.
Keeping your information safe
When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that appropriate technical and organisational controls are in place to protect it.
Any sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) is encrypted and protected with the following software: 128 Bit encryption on SSL. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Keeping your information up to date
We take reasonable steps to ensure your information is accurate and up to date.
Where possible we use publicly available sources to identify deceased records or whether you have changed address.
We really appreciate it if you let us know when your contact details change.
Use of 'cookies'
Like many other websites, this website uses cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. For example, we may use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to deliver a more personalised service when you browse our website and improves our services.
For more information on the data we collect and how to manage cookies on your computer, visit our full cookies policy. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.
If you use Facebook or our website, Age Scotland may show you content we think you will be interested in seeing, based on your previous online engagement with us. This is done through the use of cookies, which you can find more about in our cookies policy.
We may also use these cookies to build “lookalike” audiences, in order to reach more individuals who might be interested in the work Age Scotland does.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites even if you access those using links from our website.
In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the privacy policy of that third party site.
16 or Under
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.
Vulnerable circumstances
We are committed to protecting vulnerable supporters, customers and volunteers, and appreciate that additional care may be needed when we use their personal information. In recognition of this, we observe good practice guidelines in our interactions with vulnerable people.
Transferring your information outside of Europe
As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EEA. You should be aware that these countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken, adequate levels of protection and appropriate legal safeguards are in place, with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this policy.
If you use our services while you are outside the EEA, your information may be transferred outside the EEA in order to provide you with those services.
We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your info is only accessible by appropriately trained staff, volunteers and contractors.
Changes to this policy
Any changes we may make to this policy in the future will be posted on this website so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you're happy with any changes. If we make any significant changes we'll make this clear on this website.
Review of this Policy
We keep this policy under regular review. This policy was last updated in March 2024.