Marine Connection takes your privacy extremely seriously. We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully. This policy is intended to give you an understanding of how and why we use the information you give us.

Who we are
Marine Connection (the data controller) is committed to protecting your personal data, whether you are a supporter, volunteer, or shopper. Please read this policy carefully to understand how we collect, use and store your personal data.  Marine Connection is incorporated in England and Wales as a ‘not for profit’ company, limited by guarantee (Company No. 3348710).  We are a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity No. 1062222).

Notification of change of privacy 
We reserve the right to amend this privacy statement at any time without notice to you. You are strongly advised to visit this website section periodically in order to keep up to date with the changes in our privacy policy.

When and how do we collect information?
We may collect information about you whenever you interact with us in the following ways:
– when you contact us regarding our campaigns or activities
– when you engage with our social media
– when you make or pledge to make a donation to us
– when you contact us in relation to becoming a volunteer or volunteer for us
– when you contact us in relation to fundraising for us (taking part in/attending an event)
– when you purchase something from our online store

Information we receive from other sources
Your information may be shared with us by third parties, for example; Virgin Money, Charity Challenges, Give as You Live and Give A Car.  They will do so pursuant to their own policies on data protection and privacy. It’s a good idea to check their privacy policy when you provide your information to them to fully understand how they will process your data and may share it with others.

What information do we collect?
When you interact with us, we may collect:
– names, addresses, email addresses
– financial information such as payments/donations made via our PayPal account
– records of correspondence with us, if you have contacted us
– details of your visit to our website, including your IP address

How do we use your information?
Marine Connection will never rent, swap or sell your personal information to other organisations for them to use in their own marketing activities.

Marine Connection may use your information in a number of ways and for a number of purposes including:
– to provide you with information, products or services that you have requested from us or that we feel may be of interest to you where you have consented to being contacted
– to provide you with information about our work or our activities where you have agreed to receive communications from us
– to process donations that we receive from you
– to fundraise in accordance with our internal policies and procedures
– for administrative purposes (for example, we may contact you regarding an event for which you have registered, to provide information requested from us or with a query regarding a donation you may have made to us
– for internal record keeping relating to any donations, feedback or complaints;

How long we keep your information
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, and meet any legal or regulatory requirement. This is so that we can provide the services, products or information you have requested, to administer your relationship with us, to ensure we don’t communicate with you if you’ve asked us not to and to comply with the law

Consent
In most circumstances we will seek consent to process your data at the point we collect it; however, in some cases, we may process data without consent where we are legally allowed to do so, and where we have legitimate reasons for doing so (e.g. to process a donation you have made), provided we respect your legal rights.

You can update or change any of your information at any time by emailing info@marineconnection.org
You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time
You can contact us with any queries in relation to the information we hold

Service providers
We use MailChimp as our newsletter automation platform. By opting in to receive our enewsletter you acknowledge that the information you provide will be accessible to MailChimp for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms.

How we protect your personal information
We take appropriate physical, electronic and managerial measures to ensure that we keep your information secure, accurate and up to date, and we only keep it as long as is reasonable and necessary.  Although we use appropriate security measures once we have received your personal information, the transmission of information over the internet is never completely secure. We do our best to protect personal information, but we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted to our website, so any transmission is at the user’s own risk. However, any payment card details (such as credit or debit cards) we receive via our website are processed via our secure PayPal service provider.

Your credit or debit card information
If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us, buy something or make a booking online, we pass your card details securely to our payment processing partner (PayPal) as part of the payment process.

Confidentiality
Marine Connection cannot be held responsible for the privacy of data collected by websites not owned or managed by the charity, including those linked through our website.

Emails – terms of use
Emails are not always secure, and they may be intercepted or changed after they have been sent. Marine Connection cannot accept liability if this happens. The contents of emails reflect the author’s views and are not necessarily the views of Marine Connection.

Please do not send International Marine Connection any sensitive or financial data by email.

The information in emails is confidential; if you have received an email in error, please notify us immediately and delete it without copying, using or sharing its contents with anyone.

Making a complaint
We welcome feedback as it helps us to develop as a charity and gives us the valuable opportunity to monitor and improve our services. We set ourselves a high standard of customer care and if this is not met we want to hear about it.

If you would like to make a complaint or discuss any questions or problems, please contact us