Privacy Policy

Echoes International is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and any subsequent UK legislation covering data protection the Data Controller is Echoes International.

This Policy sets out why we collect personal information about individuals and how we use that information. It explains the legal basis for this and the rights you have over the way your information is used.

This Policy covers Echoes International in relation to the collection and use of the information you give us. We may change this Policy from time to time. If we make any significant changes we will advertise this on the website or contact you directly with the information. Please check this page occasionally to make sure you are happy with any changes.

If you have any questions about this Policy or concerning your personal information please contact the General Director on tel:03300 563334  or by email to [email protected] or by post to Echoes International, 124 Wells Road, Bath, BA2 3AH

What type of personal information we collect

The type and amount of information we collect depends on why you are providing it.

The information we collect when you make an enquiry includes your name, email address, postal address and phone number etc. and the reason for the contact.

If you are a supporter, for example making a donation, volunteering, signing up for an event in addition to asking for your name and contact details (your full address, email address and your phone number) we may also ask you for church contact, financial details, information regarding experience and details pertinent to the reason for holding the information. We may where required process donations or payments and in these circumstances, we will hold bank or credit card details as necessary.

If you are a potential Mission Worker, FirstServer, short termer, volunteer or job applicant the information you are asked to provide is set out in the relevant application form and will be necessary for the purposes of our considering the application.

How we collect information

We may collect information from you whenever you contact us or have any involvement with us for example when you:

  • visit our website
  • donate to or through us
  • enquire about our activities or services
  • sign up to receive news about our activities, prayer list or magazines
  • post content onto our website/social media sites
  • volunteer with us
  • attend a meeting with us and provide us with information
  • take part in our events
  • Ask to serve in cross cultural mission and be included in the Daily Prayer Guide
  • contact us in any way including online, email, phone, SMS, social media or post

Where we collect information from

We collect information:

  • From you when you give it to us directly: You may provide your details when you ask us for information or make a donation, volunteer, attend our events or contact us for any other reason.
  • When you have given other organisations permission to share it: Your information may be provided to us by other organisations if you have given them your permission. This might for example be a charity working with us or might be when you buy a product or service from a third party organisation. The information we receive from other organisations depends on your settings or the option responses you have given them.
  • When you use our website: When you use our website information about you is recorded and stored.
  • When it is available on social media: Depending on your settings or the privacy policies applying for social media and messaging services you use, like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you might give us permission to access information from those accounts or services.

How we use your information

We will use your personal information in a number of ways which reflect the legal basis applying to processing of your data. These may include:

  • providing you with the information or services you have asked for
  • processing donations you make, including processing for Gift Aid purposes
  • processing donations received on your behalf
  • processing Trustee’s allocation on your behalf
  • organising volunteering activity you have told us you want to be involved in.
  • sending you communications with your consent that may be of interest including marketing information about our services and activities, campaigns and promotions for which we seek support
  • when necessary for carrying out your obligations under any contract between us
  • seeking your views on the services or activities we carry on so that we can make improvements
  • maintaining our organisational records and ensuring we know how you prefer to be contacted
  • analysing the operation of our website and analysing your website behaviour to improve the website and its usefulness
  • sending you our magazine,
  • distributing prayer requests
  • sending information in relation to the organisation of conferences and seminars that you are attending
  • processing grant or job applications

Our legal basis for processing your information

The use of your information for the purposes set out above is lawful because one or more of the following applies:

  • Where you have provided information to us for the purposes of requesting information or requesting that we carry out a service for you, we will proceed on the basis that you have given consent to us using the information for that purpose, based on the way that you provided the information to us. You may withdraw consent at any time by emailing us at [email protected]. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing of your information prior to your withdrawal of consent being received and actioned.
  • It is necessary for us to hold and use your information so that we can carry out our obligations under a contract entered into with you or to take steps you ask us to prior to entering into a contract.
  • It is necessary to comply with our legal obligations.
  • Where the purpose of our processing is the provision of information or services to you, we may also rely on the fact that it is necessary for your legitimate interests that we provide the information or service requested, and given that you have made the request, would presume that there is no prejudice to you in our fulfilling your request.
  • We may pass your data to a third party to enable us to fulfil an obligation to you. For instance, we use a third party to mail out our monthly magazines and our weekly prayer requests. It is in our legitimate interest to outsource this mailing because we do not have the resources internally to carry this out.

We use a contractual basis for processing data relating to our magazine distribution, processing of gifts on your behalf, sending books and material purchased, the sending of gifts, listing workers in the Daily Prayer Guide and recording staff details.

We use legitimate interests for:

  • Collecting in prayer requests and distributing these requests. It is in the legitimate interest of Echoes International to support individuals through prayer and to extend this support through our wider community.  We must assume that if you have provided a third party’s details in a prayer request that you have asked the permission of that individual.
  • carrying out any administration regarding processing donations towards supporting Echoes International mission workers & other 3rd parties, including thanking you for those donations. It is in the legitimate interest of Echoes International to receive donations for our own and others missionary work.
  • This will also cover subscriptions, for the Daily Prayer Guide and the monthly Mission Magazine

We use consent for all the marketing material delivered by any of the activities and programmes run by Echoes International. Every email newsletter you receive will also provide a clear opportunity for you to opt-out of/unsubscribe from future email newsletters.

We use compliance with a legal obligation as the basis for processing any legally required activities such as Gift Aid returns to HMRC etc.

We use the soft opt-in exemption to contact you in a way that you might reasonably expect about similar events to ones you have attended and similar resources to ones you have recently bought. You will have been given an option to opt-out of these and will do so on each subsequent communication relating to those similar goods or services.

If you want to contact us about your marketing preferences please contact by tel:03300 563334 or by email to [email protected] or by post to Echoes International, 124 Wells Road, Bath, BA2 3AH

How we keep your information safe

We understand the importance of security of your personal information and take appropriate steps to safeguard it.

All our data is held on the cloud servers provided by our IT specialist. The data is encrypted, and access is only available through 2 factor authentication. The data is backed up daily & monitored real time for any potential virus attacks.

We always ensure only authorised persons have access to your information, which means only our staff, volunteers and contractors, and that everyone who has access is appropriately trained to manage your information.

No data transmission over the internet can however be guaranteed to be 100% secure. So while we strive to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you provide online and you do this at your own risk.

Who has access to your information?

  • Third parties who provide services for us, for example; collecting or processing data, sending mailings and processing donations. We select our third-party service providers with care. We provide these third parties with the information that is necessary to provide the service and we will have an agreement in place that requires them to operate with the same care over data protection as we do.
  • Analytics and search engine providers that help us to improve our website and its use.
  • Third parties in connection with restructuring or reorganisation of our operations, for example if we merge with another charity. In such event we will take steps to ensure your privacy rights will be protected by the third party.

Owing to matters such as financial or technical considerations the information you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), which are not subject to the same data protection regulations as apply in the UK. We meet our obligations under GDPR by ensuring that the information has equivalent protection as if it were being held within the EEA. We do this by ensuring that any third parties processing your data outside the EEA either benefits from an adequacy determination for GDPR purposes and/or, where appropriate, we have entered into a Data Processing Agreement which contains model EU clauses.

We may also disclose your personal information if we are required to do so under any legal obligation and may use external data for the purposes of fraud prevention and credit risk reduction, or where doing so would not infringe your rights, but is necessary and in the public interest.

Other than this, we will not share your information with other organisations without your consent.

Keeping your information up to date

We really appreciate it if you let us know if your contact details change. You can do so by contacting us at tel:03300 563334  or by email to [email protected] or by post to Echoes International, 124 Wells Road, Bath, BA2 3AH

Our use of “cookies”

“Cookies” are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enable the server to collect information from the browser. They are stored on your hard drive to allow our website to recognise you when you visit. Please read our cookies policy on our website here.

Children’s Information

We appreciate that our supporters are of all ages. Where appropriate we will ask for consent from a parent or guardian to collect information about children (under 16s).

How long we keep your information for

We will hold your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the relevant activity. By way of example, we hold records of donations you make for at least six years so we can fulfil our statutory obligations for tax purposes. Please see our Records Retention Policy which is held on our website

Where we rely on your consent to contact you for direct marketing purposes, we will treat your consent as lasting only for as long as it is reasonable to do so. This will usually be 3 years. We may periodically ask you to renew your consent.

If you ask us to stop contacting you with marketing or fundraising materials, we will keep a record of your contact details and limited information needed to ensure we comply with your request.

Your rights

You have the right to request details of the processing activities that we carry out with your personal information through making a Subject Access Request.  Such requests have to be made in writing. More details about how to make a request, and the procedure to be followed, can be found in our Data Protection Policy. To make a request contact us by tel:03300 563334 or by email to [email protected] or by post to Echoes International, 124 Wells Road, Bath, BA2 3AH

You also have the following rights:

  • the right to request rectification of information that is inaccurate or out of date;
  • the right to erasure of your information (known as the “right to be forgotten”);
  • the right to restrict the way in which we are dealing with and using your information; and
  • the right to request that your information be provided to you in a format that is secure and suitable for re-use (known as the “right to portability”);
  • rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling including profiling for marketing purposes.

All of these rights are subject to certain safeguards and limits or exemptions, further details of which can be found in our Data Protection Policy.  To exercise any of these rights, you should contact the Operations Director at the above address.

If you are not happy with the way in which we have processed or dealt with your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.  Further details about how to complain can be found here.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Policy may be changed from time to time. If we make any significant changes we will advertise this on our website or contact you directly with the information.

Do please check this Policy each time you consider giving your personal information to us.