ERCS Privacy Notice

The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) is committed to processing and protecting personal information securely and transparently in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This Privacy Notice explains how and why we collect and use personal information during and after you contact us or access our services.

ERCS is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk). Our reference number on the UK Data Protection Register is ZA776371, Tier 1. The Chief Officer (see below for contact details) is the Data Protection Officer.

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.

Who the information is about

We process personal information about:

members and subscribers
enquirers to our advice 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)
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 Twitter
membership or subscriber 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 meets 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 our members with consent*
provide you with 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, enquirers, events attendees, representatives of other organisations and suppliers of goods and services.

All personal information we retain is securely stored on the cloud using Office 365 and/or our WordPress website with personalised log-in and password protection for each staff member. Both our WordPress website hosted by GreenNet (see https://www.greennet.org.uk/internet-services/web) and Office 365 store their files within data servers in the UK.

Where you have provided consent* to use your personal data, you also have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by emailing admin@ercs.scot.

Please be aware that data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

How long we keep your personal information

We will not keep your personal data for any longer than is reasonably necessary. 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.

ERCS mailing list

If you have signed up to receive regular e-updates from us, your name and email address may be processed via Sendinblue (https://www.sendinblue.com/legal/termsofuse/) in order to maintain your subscription 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.

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-bulletins 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 advice service

As part of our advice 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’s Terms of Advice Service provides the details of the agreement between you and the Advice Service. You are able to remove your permission at any time by contacting the in-house solicitor or by emailing advice@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*.

Cookies when accessing the ERCS website

When you visit our website we collect ‘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 Analytics 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: https://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

Please contact us if you wish to make a request by emailing admin@ercs.scot. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We will keep our Privacy Policy under review. This Privacy Policy replaces all previous versions and is correct as of 20 February 2023.

Contacting us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed and should be emailed to admin@ercs.scot.

Or you can write to:

Chief Officer
Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
c/o Scottish Environment LINK
Dolphin House
4 Hunter Square
Edinburgh EH11 1QW

If you are unhappy with how we have used your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk.