ERCS Privacy Notice
Introduction
The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland is committed to processing your personal information securely and transparently in line with data protection legislation in the UK.
This Privacy Notice explains why and how we collect and use personal information during and after you contact us or access our services.
About Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO SC050257) and we provide legal advice and representation through a company limited by guarantee, ERCS Legal Ltd (SC834081). This firm has been authorised to act as solicitors by the Law Society of Scotland from 10 September 2025 (Registered No 70331).
Data Controller and Data Protection Officer
Both the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (SCIO) and ERCS Legal Ltd are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk) as Data Controllers.
Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (SCIO) reference number on the UK Data Protection Register is ZA776371, Tier 1.
ERCS Legal Ltd reference number on the UK Data Protection Register is ZB925868, Tier 1.
Our Data Protection Officer is the Chief Officer Shivali Fifield who you can contact at chiefofficer@ercs.scot.
Your personal information
When we record and use your personal information we:
- only access it when we have a good reason
- only share what is necessary and relevant
- never release or sell it to anyone.
The type of personal information we collect
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. For example: name, address, email address and telephone numbers.
We only process special categories of personal data (such as information about your race, ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or information about your health) in limited circumstances and where we have obtained your explicit written consent.
Who the information is about
We process personal information about:
- members, volunteers and subscribers
- donors
- enquirers and clients to our law service
- individuals and organisations signing up to an e-action/petition
- anyone who may contact us or supply their personal information to us (e.g. via email, our website, phone, social media)
- event attendees
- representatives of other organisations, including funders
- those from whom we obtain goods and services.
How we get the personal information and why we have it
Most of the personal information we collect is provided directly by you from the following sources:
- personal details (name, address, email address, telephone numbers) that you provide to us directly or by filling in forms on our website
- communication with you either via email, mail, or telephone
- any information you choose to send us via email or social networking tools such as LinkedIn, Blusky, or Instagram
- membership or mailing list details you give us
- business details such as job title, email address and organisation details
- financial details through donations or transactions of goods and services
- visual images when permission is given to take photographs at meetings or events.
We also receive personal information indirectly from the following sources:
- details of your visits to our website including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs, and the resources that you access (see the Cookies section below for more information on this).
Our lawful bases for processing your personal information
We will only process your personal information where we have a lawful basis to do so. We will only use personal information for one of the following reasons:
- administer the details of e-action/petition participants, those signed up to our mailing list and members with consent*
- provide you with legal advice, assistance and representation as part of our contractual obligation* with you
- improve our services and pursue our Charitable Purposes to advance the human right to live in a healthy environment as part of our legitimate interests*
- fundraise and promote the interests of the charity, including using anonymised data for research and advocacy as part of our legitimate interests*
- manage our employees and volunteers as part of our contractual obligation*
- maintain our own accounts and records of the transaction of goods and services and other business information as part of our legitimate interests* and any legal obligations*.
*These are the lawful bases on which we are processing your data.
How we collect and store your personal information
Any member of the ERCS staff team may collect your personal data during the course of their work and via interactions with members, subscribers to our mailing list, enquirers, events attendees, representatives of other organisations and suppliers of goods and services.
All personal information we process and retain is securely stored on our cloud services as noted below. Each of these services has a personal log-in, password, and, where available, two-factor authentication for each staff member. Access to each service is restricted so that only relevant information can be accessed by staff. We regularly review our third-party services to ensure they meet a satisfactory level of data security, ethics, and integrity when processing any data we have provided.
Cloud services we use to process data
How long we keep your personal information
We will not keep your personal data for any longer than is reasonably necessary, or as long as we are required to do so by law. We have a Data Retention Policy that sets out the periods for retaining and reviewing all information, which is available on request. All data will be securely destroyed or disposed of once it is no longer needed.
How we use your information
We may use information held on you in the following ways:
- to contact you to provide you with information or services that you request from us
- to process any accessibility information provided to ensure adequate facilities and services are provided for individuals
- to send you our regular e-newsletters and other electronic communications
- to ask for your opinion or input into various pieces of ERCS’s work
- to ensure the content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for your computer
- ERCS members only – to ask you to nominate and/or vote on constitutional issues, seek financial contributions, participate in ERCS’s surveys.
Enquiries to our Law Service
As part of our Law Service, we ask for your permission to collect and use your personal information to help solve your enquiry and improve our services.
We only ask for the information we need. We will always let you decide what you are comfortable telling us, explain why we need it, and always treat it as confidential.
- ERCS Legal Ltd’s Terms of Business provides the details of the agreement between you and the Law Service. You are able to remove your permission at any time by contacting the Legal Director Ben Christman by emailing advice@ercs.scot.
ERCS mailing list
If you have signed up to receive regular e-updates from us, your name and email address may be processed via Mailchimp and/or Beacon in order to manage your details on our mailing list. Your information will not be used for any other purposes and will not be shared with any external organisations.
You can unsubscribe from our mailing list or update your information whenever you wish by clicking an unsubscribe link in any of our emails or by emailing admin@ercs.scot.
Disclosing your information
We will never disclose your personal information to anyone outside of ERCS except where we have your consent*, when it is necessary to perform a contractual service* or administer our relationship with you, or to fulfil a legal obligation*.
ERCS website
When you visit our website we use ‘cookies’ to help us understand more about how our site is used by visitors, and to develop our services. A ‘cookie’ is a bit of information kept on your computer. It allows us to monitor how the site is being used.
We use implied consent to use cookies on our website. Our cookies are not used to identify you personally and you can delete or manage them in your browser. We use Matomo Analytics to collect information about how people use our site. We anonymise data and IP addresses and do not store your personal information (e.g. your name or address).
Our cookies are used to identify:
- unique visitors to our site and the number of visits
- what information is downloaded
- the type of referral used by each visitor to arrive at our site (e.g. via a search engine or email).
- They are also used to track aspects of user visits, including the length of a user’s visit, their browser, geographic location and the use of the search facility on our website.
The ERCS website provides a cookie notice at the bottom of each web page to inform users that we use cookies. Clicking OK will hide this message for one month by setting a cookie ‘cookie_notice_accepted’ on your computer/device.
Opting out of analytic cookies
The box below allows you to opt out of Matomo Analytic cookies. If you use an ad blocker or cookie blocker the box may be empty as you are already automatically opted out.
Third party sites
Our website may provide links to other websites out with our control. Our Privacy Policy only applies to our website: www.ercs.scot. We are not responsible for the privacy policies of third party sites and do not accept responsibility for any content or links on these websites.
Your data protection rights
Your rights in relation to your personal data include:
- the right to be informed – we must tell you how we use your data and this is the purpose of this Privacy Notice
- the right of access – you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information we hold on you
- the right to rectification – you have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate and/or to complete information you think is incomplete
- the right to erasure – you have the right to ask us to erase personal information.
Contacting us
Please contact us if you have any questions or wish to exercise these rights by emailing chiefofficer@ercs.scot.
Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcome and can be emailed to chiefofficer@ercs.scot, or you can telephone us on 0131 358 0038 or 0800 861 1738.
How to complain
If you are unhappy with how we have used your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://www.ico.org.uk or https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
We will keep our Privacy Policy under review. This Privacy Policy replaces all previous versions and was last updated December 2025.
