Privacy & Data policy

The Army Families Federation (AFF) respects the privacy of your personal data. Please read this Privacy Notice carefully as it contains important information about who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. This notice also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

Who we are

Army Families Federation is a charitable incorporated organisation registered in England and Wales with registered charity number 1176393 and a charity registered in Scotland with registered charity number SC048282 having its principal office at IDL 414, Floor 1, Zone 6, Ramillies Building, Marlborough Lines, Monxton Road, Andover SP11 8HJ. We collect, use and are responsible as “controller” for certain personal information about you and are regulated under the Data Protection Act 2018, along with the General Data Protection Regulation (UK, and EU where applicable) and other laws, most of which apply across the European Union and in the United Kingdom.

The personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us from you

• In the course of our activities, and to assist you with your enquiry, we may collect some of the following personal data when you provide it to us, for example: your name, email address and phone number. Some of our specialists may need to ask you for more sensitive information in order to assist you, however only relevant information will be requested and recorded.
• You may give us information about you by filling in forms on our sites (aff.org.uk, www.armyandyou.co.uk) or by corresponding with us by telephone, email, surveys or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you attend one of our events, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our sites, enter a competition, promotion or survey, donate funds to the charity and when you report a problem with our site or services.

Information collected from other sources

With regards to your visits to our website we may automatically collect the following information:

• Browser type and version, time zone setting, country, location and operating platform. We also use analytics to discover which areas of the website are of the most interest to visitors.
• Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse, allowing our web provider to improve our site. Cookies are small data files that may have unique identifiers, and reside, among other places, on your computer or mobile device, in emails we send to you, and on our web pages.
• Cookies may also transmit information about you and your use of the site, such as your browser type, search preferences, and the date and time of your use.

This explanation only covers the AFF and Army&You websites at aff.org.uk and www.armyandyou.co.uk respectively. Links to external websites are not covered by this policy.

Surveys/online forms

We use Survey Monkey to conduct our surveys and create online forms. We use the enhanced security option, SSL. SSL is short for Secure Sockets Layer, and it is a protocol initially developed for transmitting private documents or information via the Internet. It essentially works through a cryptographic system that secures a connection between a client and a server. All our survey links show this by the URL being https:// so any personal details that you have chosen to provide are encrypted. Occasionally IP addresses may be collected purely as an auditing measure and for no other purpose. See Survey Monkey’s Privacy Policy.

E-news

Our email marketing company is Constant Contact. If you sign up to receive our E-news your details are kept private and will not be sold or passed on to any third party. See Constant Contact’s Privacy Policy.

How we use your personal data

We use personal data primarily to ensure that the AFF team is able to efficiently help you with your enquiry. In addition, we use your personal data for purposes described in this policy or disclosed to you on our site. For example, we may use your information:

• Where we have asked for your name and other identifiable data. This data will be stored on a secure database only accessible to our teams for the purpose of helping you as an Army family. It will not be passed to a third party without your prior consent
• If we are using data for research and statistical purposes. Evidence-based reports that are drawing information from our case management database, survey forms or other similar platforms will be anonymised before being analysed. You may be asked to provide personal details to enter a prize draw. However, your details will be used for draw purposes only and not form part of the data used for statistical purposes
• To improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer
• To respond to your comments and questions and provide support to Army families
• As part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure
• To process and deliver competition entries and prizes.

Who we share your personal data with

We will share personal data with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law, otherwise we will not share your personal data with any other third party unless you have expressly given us permission to do so in order that we may assist you with your enquiry. Evidence-based data drawn from our database, survey forms or other similar platforms will be fully anonymised before being shared with a third party.

Reasons we can collect information and whether you have to provide it

The provision of your personal data is legitimately required to enable us to fairly and appropriately assist you with your enquiry. We will inform you at the point of collecting information from you, whether you are required to provide the information to us. The amount of personal data we will require from you will depend on the complexity of your enquiry. We will never ask you for information that is surplus to requirements.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal data as listed above for a period not exceeding six years from the time of your last engagement with AFF. We are obliged by the OISC, the regulatory body that governs our Foreign & Commonwealth work, to maintain such data for six years. In the majority of other instances, we will not hold your personal data for this long and will endeavour to inform you of the time periods as appropriate in the Terms and Conditions for surveys or competitions. In accordance with UK GDPR you also have a right to submit a request ‘to be forgotten’.  Any such request will be dealt with in the appropriate manner.

Where we store your personal data and how we keep it secure

We shall collect, store and use (‘process’) your personal data in a manner that is compatible with the General Data Protection Regulation (UK, and EU where applicable). By submitting your personal data, you agree to the obtaining of this data by AFF for us to store and process.

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

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

AFF follow-up survey

Your participation enables us to better understand the diverse needs of our community and improve the services we offer. The information you provide will be used solely for statistical analysis and to promote AFF’s good work by occasionally using your positive feedback. This information will of course be anonymised.

All information provided will help us to tailor our programmes to better meet your needs and those of others like you. Rest assured that your data will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and in accordance with GDPR and the Data Protection Act.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (UK and EU) you have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, these include rights to:

• fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your personal information
• access to your personal information and to certain other supplementary information that this Privacy Notice is already designed to provide
• require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold
• require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations
• receive the personal information which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit that data to a third party in certain situations
• object at any time to processing of personal data concerning you for direct marketing
• object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you
• object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your data
• otherwise restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

For further information on each of these rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or your national data protection authority (if relating to GDPR EU).

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

• email, call or write to us or contact our Data Lead
• provide us with proof of your identity and address; and
• let us know the information to which your request relates.

If you would like to unsubscribe from any AFF correspondence, you can click on the link which will be displayed on all emails. To unsubscribe from Army&You magazine use the link on the home page http://armyandyou.co.uk/or you can write to us at unsubscribe@aff.org.uk. Please note it may take up to 14 days for your changes to take effect.

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. If we did anything wrong, please tell us: we want to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible – email us on complaints@aff.org.uk. The General Data Protection Regulation (UK and EU, where applicable) also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular with the Information Commissioner within the UK (https://ico.org.uk/concerns/or telephone: 0303 123 1113), or your national Data Protection Authority within the EU https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

Any changes we may make to our Privacy Notice in the future will be reflected in the version held on our web page.

How to contact us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Notice are welcomed and should be addressed to the AFF Data Lead:
Office Manager, Army Families Federation, IDL 414, Floor 1, Zone 6, Ramillies Building, Marlborough Lines, Monxton Road, Andover, Hampshire SP11 8HJ
data@aff.org.uk
01264 554004