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Donor Privacy Policy

At the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), we rely on the generosity and support of individual donors, private and public organisations, and governments to fund our work on international law, comparative law and the rule of law.

In managing our donor relationships, we strive to be as transparent as possible about how and why we use your personal details.

This privacy notice tells you about the information we collect from you when you or your organisation make a donation. In collecting data, BIICL acts as a data controller and, by law, we are required to inform you about our organisation, about why and how we use your data, and about the rights you have over your data. We are committed to complying with the requirements of the UK Data Protection Act 1998, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003, and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016.

Who are we?

BIICL is a registered charity (no. 209425) that provides informed, independent and practical legal ideas for a global community. We are located at Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5JP. You can contact us by post at the above address, by email at info@biicl.org  or by telephone on +44 (0)207 862 5151.

We are registered as data controllers with the Information Commissioners' Office under the Data Protection Act 1998 registration number Z8167581

What personal data do we collect?

When you or your organisation make a donation to BIICL, we may ask you for the following personal information:

  • title
  • first and last name
  • postal address including postcode
  • contact telephone number
  • website
  • organisation/employer
  • email address
  • bank or credit card details (paper donation form only)
  • whether you are a UK tax payer - for Gift Aid declarations

You can review and update all of your personal data at any time by contacting us (see Who are we?).

Why do we collect personal data?

We will use your information to:

  • process, acknowledge and record donations;
  • to claim Gift Aid on donations;
  • to comply with the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and follow the recommendations of the official regulator of charities, the Charity Commission, which require us to identify and verify the identity of supporters who make major gifts so we can assess any risks associated with accepting their donations;
  • to keep a record of your relationship with us; and
  • to keep your contact details up-to-date in order to facilitate our communications and reporting.

For the first three points above, there is a lawful basis for holding and using your personal data; this is so that we can process your donation and comply with charity law.

As well relying on a lawful basis, we may also process your personal information where there is a legitimate interest. Here, processing your information will help us to achieve our vision of developing and advancing the understanding of international and comparative law in the UK and around the world, and promoting the rule of law in national and international affairs.

Whenever we rely on a 'legitimate interest' to process your personal information, we take into account your privacy rights and interests, and we will not process your personal information where we feel that there is an imbalance or when you have requested that we do not do so.

As part of our donor relationship management, we would rely on legitimate interest to send you information about our projects and events, and to let you know how you can support us in the future. Our aim is to communicate with you in a way that helps you to see the value and impact of your support. If you would rather not receive information about our work and our fundraising in the form of e-newsletters, for example, please contact us (see Who are we?). You can also opt-out of our newsletters and emails at any time.

We may also wish to include your name or your organisation's name in a list of donors, possibly with an indication of the level of your donation, for example on our website or in our annual report. If you prefer to remain anonymous, please let us know (see Who are we?).

What do we do with your information?

Your information is stored securely in our central database which is located in the UK. We will only use your information within BIICL for the purposes for which it was obtained.

We keep copies of paper donation forms (which may include debit or credit card details or bank account details that you have provided). We use these for the purpose of processing your donation, claiming Gift Aid (where applicable), and sending you relevant communications.

We use third-party payment processors to process online donations: Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and Worldpay. These organisations are based in the UK/EU and are certified to the EU-US Privacy Shield (which requires effective safeguards for your information). CAF and Worldpay will send us confirmation of your payment, which we use to send you a confirmation email or thank you letter. We then use this information to process your online donation.

On occasion, we may need to send your email address to third-party organisations to process our mailing lists and send out our email communications. BIICL will not share or sell your personal data to any third party for its own marketing purposes and you will not receive marketing from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us.

We do not use the information you provide to make any automated decisions that might affect you.

How long do we keep your information for?

If you or your organisation has made a donation, all of your contact information will be kept in our secure database until such time as you wish us to delete it or 'forget' you.

We will keep a record of donations subject to Gift Aid for at least seven years to comply with HMRC rules.

If you have indicated that you wish to leave BIICL a legacy, we may keep data you provide indefinitely, so as to carry out legacy administration and communicate effectively with the families of people leaving us legacies. This also enables us to identify and analyse the source of legacy income we receive.

Your rights over your information

By law, you can ask us what information we hold about you, and you can ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate. For this purpose you can contact us at any time (see Who are we?).

You can also ask us to provide you with a copy of the information we hold and to stop using your information for a period of time if you believe we are not doing so lawfully.

To submit a request by email, post or telephone, please use the contact information provided above (see Who are we?).

Your right to complain

If you have a complaint about our use of your information, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office via their website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/  or write to them at:

Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

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