Perthshire Society of Natural Science (Photographic Section) / Perthshire Photographic Society Data Protection and GDPR
Privacy Policy Statement
Background
On 25 May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU Regulation 2016/79, comes into force. The Regulation confers upon charities the obligation to be explicit about their retention of personal information and, under normal circumstances, prohibits charities from holding and using individuals’ personal information without their explicit and freely given consent.
Individual Rights under the GDPR
The Regulation confirms the following rights for individuals:
1) The right to be informed
2) The right of access
3) The right to rectification
4) The right to erasure
5) The right not to be subject to automated decision-making, including profiling.
The Perthshire Society of Natural Science and personal information of members
The Perthshire Society of Natural Science (hereafter the Society), including its Sections (currently Archaeological and Historical, Botanical, Ornithological, and Photographic), is a registered Scottish Charity, SC012718. It collects and stores the personal information of its members. For this purpose ‘Members’ includes (a) those individuals that have a current paid-up full or student membership of the Society; (b) honorary members of the Society; (c) individuals who have previously been members of the Society in the last seven years but are not current members; (d) individuals who have previously been members of the Society and who have at some point in that membership signed a Gift Aid form on the Society’s behalf. ‘Personal information’ means the member’s name and contact details (postal address, telephone number and email address), type of membership held, and in the case of Gift Aid forms, whether at the time of signing the form he/she was liable to UK income tax.
Perthshire Photographic Society (PPS) extends the PSNS’s definition of ‘personal information’ to include include a member ID number and photographic images of persons, either in attendance at a Society event, or submitted as an internal or external competition entry, or submitted for display in an exhibition hosted or organized by the Society.
Collection of information
This information is collected through completed membership forms, through the provision of the same information in other written form or verbal communication to officers of the Society or its Sections. A member ID number is allocated at the time of joining the Society. Explicit consent will henceforth be required at the point of completion of the provision of information, for example by a clause in the membership form, to be signed by the individual.
In addition, both the web-server and website engine of the Society’s website, www.psns.org.uk, and of the Photographic Section (Perthshire Photographic Society)’s website, www.perthshirephotographicsociety.org.uk, log all incoming requests including timestamp, Internet Protocol (IP) Address and resource requested by any and all visitors as low-level access data. The low-level access data on these websites is automatically collected as part of the running of a web-server.
Photographs will be taken for the purposes of documenting and promoting the work of the Society, most notably at lectures and at events run by the various Sections.
Photographs with identifiable persons take the forms of portraits (one or two key players in lectures or other events) or wide audience scenes.
Photographs of members may be taken at Society events, both indirectly (e.g. general views of an audience) and directly (e.g. fellow members during a portrait workshop or speakers at events).
Additionally photographs of natural humans, members or external to the Society, may be processed by the PPS as part of internal or external competitions in the portraiture genre, or displayed at exhibitions organized by the Society.
Storage of information
The personal information of all Society members is held as paper and/or digital records by the Secretary and Treasurer and of the Society. In addition, the personal information of members of the Sections is held by the Secretary and Treasurer of the appropriate Section. Some information will be held by other officers and/or members of the Council of the Society or the Committees of the appropriate Sections, when it is relevant to the execution of Council or Section Committee duties. Copies of correspondence, including emails, will also be retained, usually by the officer contacted, and officers may also share correspondence when the duties of their offices dictate. The Society will also keep a record of membership for historical purposes, except where ex-members request deletion.
The Member ID number is valid for one season (October to March).
Low-level access data is generated on the websites continuously and stored for a period of at least a year. The websites are also used for storing information and emailing members.
Photographs of PSNS and PPS functions are stored on our website and social media (Facebook) pages.
The PPS stores such photographs as it needs for documenting and promoting the work of the Society.
The PPS temporarily stores photographs, including portrait genre, for use in competitions, both digital and print media.
Photographs taken at PPS events may be stored on our website and social media (Facebook) pages.
Competition entries are returned to their owner after the competition.
Exhibition entries are returned to their owner after the competition.
Use of information
The personal information of members will be used to (a) maintain the membership list; (b) inform members of forthcoming Society or appropriate Section events and make other announcements of direct relevance to Society or Section activities; (c) make other notifications to members where the Council of the Society or the Committee of a Section deem it necessary either in the interests of individual members or to the wellbeing of the Society; (d) maintain accurate records relating to the financial and other activities of the Society or appropriate Section.
The member ID number is used for the pseudonymous identification of a member for the purpose of running competitions.
Photographs of PSNS functions are used to promote the interests of the charity and to enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public.
Photographs of PPS functions are used to promote the interests of the Society and to enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public.
Perthshire Society of Natural Science Communication with Members
Communication with members will normally be by email where an email address has been provided, otherwise by post or telephone.
In atypical circumstances, where such communication is through VoIP or a video communication platform, members are encouraged to review that service’s own privacy policy.Members’ Statement of Consent
Paragraph 32 of the Regulation states:
Consent should be given by a clear affirmative act establishing a freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her, such as by a written statement, including by electronic means, or an oral statement.
Article 6 of the Regulation, ‘Lawfulness of processing’, states:
1. Processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies:
(a) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;
(b) processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract;
Since it is not possible for the Society or its Sections to fulfil its or their obligations to members without the members’ addresses and information on whether or not subscriptions have been paid, it is deemed that Article 6.1.(b) applies. In order to comply with Paragraph 32, current members are asked to sign the consent form and return it to the Treasurer of the Society.
If members wish to withdraw their consent, they may do so by application to the Treasurer, but members should note that the granting of consent is a condition of membership of the Society and that failure to give consent or subsequent withdrawal of that consent, constitutes resignation of membership of the Society.
The PSNS requires explicit consent to store and process portrait photographs of individual persons.
Photographs illustrating an event audience for publicity and promoting the Society are deemed legitimate interests of the charity.
The PPS requires explicit consent to store and process portrait photographs of individual members attending the Society.
Photographs illustrating an event audience for publicity and promoting the Society are deemed legitimate interests of the Society.
The process of associating of a Member ID number with a competition entry is deemed necessary to fulfil the contract of handling competition entries as part of the individual’s membership of the Society.
The processing of Portrait photographs entered for competitions is deemed a legitimate interest of the Society.
The processing of Portrait photographs entered in exhibitions is deemed a legitimate interest of the Society.
Member Control of Personal Information
Members have the right to ask at any time for a copy to be provided to them of the personal information that the Society holds for them, and they have the right to correct this information. The Treasurer will comply with any member’s request for rectification or deletion of or access to personal data of this kind within one calendar month.
The responsibility for a model release when submitting portrait photographs for competitions or exhibition lies with the member. Members are encouraged to establish the need for a model release and use one where necessary.
Protection of Information from Third Parties
The Society will not share members’ personal data with third parties except (a) when the independent examiner of the Society’s or Section’s accounts makes a request for information that is directly relevant to the prudent exercise of that role; (b) HMRC requires a record of names, address and subscription for a claim for Gift Aid; (c) a list of members attending a Society/Section event is requested by the staff of an institution or venue hosting that event on security or safety grounds; (d) in the event of the Society being in receipt of a court order or warrant to cooperate with an official investigation by the police or a like body.
Photographs made may be shared on our website and social media (Facebook page). The Society shares copyright with the photographer. Photographs will be assigned the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC-nc-nd-4.0) copyright licence by default, which in summary permits reuse as long as that reuse attributes the source of the images, without alteration, for non-commercial use. As such, photographs of notable events may be shared with Perth and Kinross Council or Culture Perth & Kinross.
Photographs, including portraits of either Society members or third parties, submitted for entry to a competition will be shared with the designated judge or the Scottish Photographic Federation (SPF) accordingly, by an appropriate transfer mechanism.
Photographs shared with a judge remain pseudonymous – associated with the member ID number for tracking.
Photographs shared with the SPF will be accompanied by the member’s name for identification.
Prints will be returned after use.
Subject to the copyright holder’s permission, photographs entered to competitions or made at events may be shared on our website and social media (Facebook page).
Photographs entered for exhibitions run or organized by the Society will be displayed at the exhibition location.
At all times copyright remains with the photographer.
Live-streaming As science-communication is a core function of the Parent Body / Society, certain lectures (notably Curious Minds) or presentations (by the various sections) may be live-streamed to our social media pages. As with photography, permission will be requested from individuals and small groups (eg anyone on stage); the only personal data from the audience is any contribution to the audio stream (eg by participating in a Q&A session); members of the audience agree that this is in the legitimate interest of the society.Questions and Complaints
Complaints or queries about data handling or breaches of privacy should be directed in the first instance to the Treasurer of the Society.
References
This document is based substantially on the Perthshire Society of Natural Science (PSNS)’s Privacy Policy, published at http://www.psns.org.uk/privacy-policy-gdpr/, with modifications for the Photographic Society (the Society).
The Scottish Photographic Federation publishes guidance on their website: http://www.scottish-photographic-federation.org/