Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

We are the Baptist Missionary Society (“BMS”, “we”, “us”), also known as BMS World Mission, a charitable company registered at Companies House under company number 10849689 and registered with the Charity Commission under charity number 1174364. Our contact details are: 129 Broadway, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 8XD, mail@bmsworldmission.org, 01235 517700.

For the purposes of data protection law, we are the ‘controller’ of the personal data we collect and hold about you and we are therefore responsible for it.

Our Data Protection Officer is the officer of BMS who is responsible for all matters relating to the protection of personal data, and can be contacted at dataprotection@bmsworldmission.org

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) with registration number Z8899170.

2. Information about you

By using our website and completing and returning forms from BMS publications, we may collect the following information about you in the following ways:

2.1 Information which you give us

We collect information about you when you fill in forms on our website or in our publications and when you communicate with us. This includes (but is not limited to) the information you provide us with when you make a donation, sign up to become a Church Partner, sign up to become a BMS 24:7 Partner, sign up to receive information about serving with BMS, sign up to support a mission project, pledge to leave a gift in your Will to BMS, order resources whether free of charge or not, request a BMS speaker, sign up to stay informed, sign up to receive our weekly email, provide feedback or contact us. When you interact with us on places like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, we might gather the information you make available.

This can include your full name, address, email address, phone number, financial and credit card information, employer details for processing a payroll gift, taxpayer status for claiming Gift Aid, which church you are attending and date of birth.

Under data protection law, certain categories of personal information are recognised as sensitive, including health information and information regarding religious beliefs (‘sensitive personal data’). Sometimes we might provide you with the option to consent to sharing the name of your church with us to be able to interact with you on a more personal level or in the course of a role you have in your church. Where you provide us with sensitive personal data, such as where you worship, we will process this using one of the following permitted criteria: with your explicit consent, where you manifestly make this information publicly available, or where you have regular contact with us in connection to your religion or place of worship. If you decide to share with us this sensitive personal data about yourself, we will keep it secure and only for as long as it is necessary.

2.2 Information we collect about you

By visiting and interacting with our site we also collect certain information about you automatically, through Cookies (see section 2.3), specifically Google Analytics. This includes technical information such as your IP address, browser type, time zone setting as well as information about your visit including date and time of your visit, clickstream to, through and from the website, how much time you spend on each webpage, how you interact with the website. Using this data helps us find out if our website is working well and helps us to improve it.

When you make donations using online giving platforms we match the donation to our own database, and record the date, amount and type of donation. When we receive a Will that includes BMS as a beneficiary, we will keep this Will on file as long as needed.

Based on your consent, we collect information from third parties such as event organising platforms (for example Eventbrite) or sites like Just Giving when you fundraise for BMS, or UK Baptist Unions with whom we have a data sharing agreement. Please take a look at their privacy policies to see how they use your data.

2.3 Cookies

Like most other websites, our website uses cookies.

Cookies are small files which websites store on your computer and which contain various types of information about your visit to a website. They are not viruses or malicious software but they are generally aimed at providing you with a good experience when browsing a site by, for example, remembering your preferences so that you do not need to reset them every time you visit the website.

Cookies can record information about how you browse the internet. They can therefore be used by websites to advertise goods and services which, based on your browsing history, are similar to goods and services which you have previously searched online. This is why some users reject or delete cookies.

Cookies normally expire after a length of time which can vary from a few minutes to more than a year. Some cookies are ‘session cookies’ which are deleted when you close your internet browser or after a period of inactivity. Others are ‘persistent cookies’ which remain on your computer until their expiration date.

We do not store cookies on your computer without your consent, unless they have the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of communications or they are strictly necessary for providing an online service.

You may restrict or block cookies which are set by any website through your browser settings. Your browser settings also allow you to clear your browsing history and delete cookies. Information about how you can do this can be found on this link https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies. Mobile devices may have their own settings and you need to refer to the manual of the device.

Please note that restricting or disabling cookies may impact the functioning of parts of our website.

A list of the cookies we use is available within the site’s cookie opt-in settings.

3. Why we collect this information

We take into account and are compliant with all legal requirements set out in the Data Protection Act 2018. Our processing of your personal information as described in this policy is allowed based on one or more lawful grounds.

In this section we list the different purposes for which we collect and use your personal information, as well as the legal grounds on which we rely to justify such data processing.

Where we rely on our legitimate interest to process your data (including contacting you), we only do so after carefully considering how it might impact you and your rights and weighing this up against our need to contact you.

Where we rely on our legitimate interest to process your data (including contacting you), we only do so after carefully considering how it might impact you and your rights and weighing this up against our need to contact you.

We will hold your data securely and only those who need to will be able to see or use this information.

4. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

At times we may share your information with others. The following is a list of who we will or might share your information with:

• Our employees, contractors and volunteers on a need-to-know basis;

• Website developers and administrators;

• Analysts and consultants who might help us improve and optimise our website;

• Marketing and communications agencies;

• Payment service providers;

• Banks;

• HMRC;

• Accountants and financial advisors;

• Legal advisors;

• Service providers who assist us with protecting ourselves from fraud and money-laundering;

• Service providers who assist us with managing our credit;

• Prospective buyers or other acquirers of our assets;

• Law enforcement authorities;

• Organisations which we may have a legal obligation to disclose information to.

5. WHERE WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL DATA

All your personal information covered by this policy is stored in the UK and European Union. We will not transfer your information outside the UK or European Union unless we are permitted to do so by law and we will inform you about such transfer before it is done. We will never sell, share or swap your data with another organisation.

6. RETENTION OF DATA

We will keep your personal information only for as long as required for the relevant activity and in accordance with legal requirements. Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of in a secure manner.

7. YOUR RIGHTS IN RELATION TO YOUR DATA

You have a number of rights under data protection law. These include:

• The right to access your personal data and to obtain certain information about it;

• The right to rectify the data if it is inaccurate;

• In some circumstances, such as when the data is no longer required or if the use of the data has no legal justification, the right to have that data erased;

• In some circumstances, the right to object to our handling of your data;

• In some circumstances, the right to restrict our handling of your data;

• The right to obtain a copy, in a commonly used electronic form, of your data that you have provided to us, if the data is processed by automated means and the processing is based on your consent or contractual necessity.

More details about how these rights apply can be found in our Data Protection Policy (available upon request).

You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time when we rely on consent as a legal ground to justify our handling of your personal data. This would not affect the lawfulness of anything done before consent is withdrawn but it would stop us from continuing to use the relevant information.

You can exercise your rights or obtain more information about them by contacting our  Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@bmsworldmission.org

If you want to make changes to your details or communication preferences, please email supporterservices@bmsworldmission.org, call 01235 517638 or write to BMS.

8. COMPLAINTS TO THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO) about the way in which we collect and handle your personal data. Complaints to the ICO can be made on the ICO’s website https://ico.org.uk/.

9. THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Our website may refer or contain links to other websites. Please note that this privacy policy does not apply to information collected through these websites. These third party websites should have their own privacy policies which describe how they might collect your data and use it.

We are not responsible for these third party websites or the information which they might collect and, therefore, you are encouraged to view their policies before browsing through third party websites or providing them with information about you.

10. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may change this privacy policy in which case we will upload the updated policy on the website.

It is advisable to refer to the privacy policy regularly, particularly before sharing information about you which you consider to be sensitive.

11. CONTACT

Should you have any questions, concerns or requests please contact our Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@bmsworldmission.org