At Sheffield Insight Meditation (SIM) we respect your privacy and understand how important it is that your personal information remains secure. We will not reveal information we collect about you without your permission unless we are required to do so for legal reasons. We hope that this statement answers any questions you may have regarding our care of your information but if you have any further questions please contact:

Privacy Co-ordinator
privacy@sheffieldinsightmeditation.org.uk
07748 271470

1. What information does SIM collect about me?

In order to complete your booking for a retreat, course or other event we may ask for the following information from you:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Email address
• The event or events for which you are booking
• The amount you have paid (if relevant)

In addition for residential retreats we may also ask you:

• Whether you have any specific needs relating to a disability or health condition
• Your gender identity
• Your previous retreat experience
• Contact details for someone we can get in touch with in the event of an emergency

We need this information in order to process your booking and communicate with you about it. And in the case of residential retreats to help with room allocation, the smooth running of the event and to ensure we can fulfil our duty of care to you.

When you book online, your information will be collected by our payment processing system which sends us your name and email address. We do not have access to your debit or credit card details – the payment processing service is provided by GoCardless.

During retreats and courses we may ask for written feedback to help us improve what we are able to offer. This is done anonymously unless you wish to add your name.

We do not routinely ask for any additional information about you. For certain events such as courses or residential retreats we may invite you to provide additional information regarding your meditation experience, practice-related needs, or other matters. We will manage any additional information you choose to provide in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

2. Your consent to SIM collecting your information and who at SIM has access to it.

Event booking information

When you choose to book onto events, retreats or courses with SIM you consent for us to use your information to facilitate the booking and running of the event. The information we store on our booking system is accessed by members of our retreat teams as required as part of their duties.
In addition, information you choose to provide that is relevant to your meditation experience and practice-related needs may also be accessed by the teachers running the events for which you have provided details.

Other members of staff may retrieve information from the booking system as part of their duties, for example to access numbers of bookings and for future programme planning. A printed list of people who have booked for each event is used to register and record attendance at those events. These paper / printed copies are shredded and securely disposed of at the end of each event.

All of our staff are aware of the importance of confidentiality and your right to privacy. You can withdraw your consent for SIM to use your information at any time by contacting the Privacy Co-ordinator, privacy@sheffieldinsightmeditation.org.uk or calling 07748 271470

3. How do you use my information to keep me up-to-date with SIM’s news and activities?

Information for communication

If you are receiving communications about our news and activities you have either “opted in” to our mailing list or we have informed you on retreat, via verbal or email communication that we will add your email to our list, unless you wish not to be added.
Our communications consist of regular emails about our annual programme and communications about our activities and those run by similar organisations all of which are sent by email.

What if I want to change my communications preferences at a later date?

Every email message we send you will include a link to opt out of receiving future emails and to amend your contact details.
You can unsubscribe to general mailings at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails or contacting our office

4 Do you ever share my information with third parties?

We will not at any time sell or share your information.
We use other companies to provide services on our behalf. The third parties that we currently use are:

• To distribute our emails we use Mailchimp
• To handle and store online booking information we use our website database hosted by WordPress.
• To create booking lists and spreadsheets for retreats and courses and other SIM administration we use cloud storage, the access to this is limited to members of the administration team at SIM. Payments are taken via GoCardless.
• In addition to the organisations named in this policy we may from time to time engage IT consultants and other service providers to assist us in connection with our charitable purposes, and we may give such providers access to your information. We will permit these providers access only to such information as they need to deliver the required service.

5. How secure is the information I give you?

SIM takes the care of your data seriously and undertakes to protect your personal information by putting in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the data we collect. Where we use other parties to handle your data (as named in this document), we chose well-known and widely-used organisations.
In today’s cyber environment it is unfortunately not possible to completely guarantee against loss, misuse or alteration of data, for example in the event of a successful cyber-attack. However, should this scenario arise, we will contact you as soon as possible giving full details of any data that has been compromised.
Where printed or paper copies containing personal information have been made, such as during residential retreats, these are held securely and only for as long as is necessary. At the end of the retreat they are shredded and disposed of.

6. How long will you keep my booking information?

The information you disclose in relation to your booking is held to assist with your current booking and any future bookings. Building up historic information on the events you have attended helps us fulfil our duty of care to you and make your experience more enjoyable.

7. The right to be forgotten

You have the right to be ‘forgotten’, which means that if you request us to, we will remove all the data that we hold on you from our systems. Complete removal of information from our systems will result in the loss of all historic booking data. If you decide to come back to SIM at a later date, we will re-start the booking process and, if necessary, ask you to provide us with relevant information again.

8. How can I see what information you hold on me?

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (which will be effective from May 2018) you can request a report detailing the information we hold about you. To obtain a report, please contact us via email at: privacy@sheffieldinsightmeditation.org.uk

We aim to issue an initial response to all enquiries within fifteen working days, and will offer a full response to all information access requests within a month. If we require additional time we will keep you informed.

The following information will be required before your access request is granted:

• Your full name and contact details
• Your relationship to SIM
• A copy of your passport or national ID card

Reports will be sent by email or post. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable administrative fee for additional copies of the same information.

9. Cookies on the SIM website

Our website uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your device to provide you with a better user experience when using our site. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymous tracking data to third party applications such as Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better.
However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this and other sites. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. Consult the Help section of your browser [or take a look at the All about Cookies website] which offers guidance for managing cookies.

10. Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within our website or emails linking to other websites. Those sites are not governed by this Privacy Statement, and if you have questions about how a site uses your information, you will need to check that site’s privacy statement.

11. Who can I contact for further information?

Our processing of data is overseen by the Admin Team of SIM. Regarding day-to-day data protection issues please contact privacy@sheffieldinsightmeditation.org.uk or phone 07748 271470

If you are unhappy with our organisation’s data practices and do not feel that we have addressed your concerns, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office or call the helpline on 0303 123 1113.

This statement is correct as of March 2019.
 Any alterations to our statement on the collection or use of data will be posted on this website.