Wales Council of the Blind

Wales Council of the Blind logo Wales Council of the Blind logo

WCB Privacy notice.

How WCB processes your personal data.

Who We Are.

Wales Council of the Blind (WCB) gathers and processes your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and in compliance with the relevant data protection Regulation and law. This notice provides you with the necessary information regarding your rights and obligations, and explains how, why and when we collect and process your personal data.

WCB's registered office is at Unit 2.2, Hastings House, Fitzalan Place, Cardiff CF24 0BL and we are a company registered in England and Wales under company number 02578918.

Information That We Collect.

WCB processes your personal information to meet our charitable objectives and to provide you with impartial advice on the broad range of services and support available across Wales. We will never collect any unnecessary personal data from you and do not process your information in any way, other than already specified in this notice.

The personal data that we may collect from you is:

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Home / business address
  • Position / job title
  • Personal Email
  • Business Email
  • Home Telephone Number
  • Work Telephone Number
  • Mobile Telephone Number
  • Preferred format of communication
  • Preferred language
  • Special Category Data (i.e. health/medical information (such as eye condition), details about religion, sexuality, gender etc)

We collect information in the following ways: Membership forms, subscription forms, trustee application forms, online registration, conference online booking forms and employment applications. We may also gather this information via telephone, email and correspondence. Employee and volunteer data is also held.

How We Use Your Personal Data.

WCB takes your privacy very seriously and will not normally disclose or share your data without your consent, unless required to do so by law. We will never sell your data. Where you have consented to us providing you with Roundup, Sylw or any other products, you are free to withdraw consent at any time by emailing bec@wcb-ccd.org.uk 

The purposes and reasons for processing your personal data are detailed below:

We collect and store your personal data so that we can send newsletters and bulletins in your preferred format.

We collect and store members' personal data so that we can fulfill our charitable objectives, as well as inform you of events in your area.

We collect and store personal / business email addresses so that we can inform you of upcoming conferences and meetings;

Your Rights

You have the right to access any personal information that WCB processes about you and to request information about: -

  • What personal data we hold about you
  • The purposes of the processing
  • The categories of personal data concerned
  • The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed
  • How long we intend to store your personal data for
  • If we did not collect the data directly form you, information about the source

If you believe that we hold any incomplete or inaccurate data about you, you have the right to ask us to correct and/or complete the information and we will strive to update/correct it as quickly as possible; unless there is a valid reason for not doing so, at which point you will be notified.

In certain circumstances, you also have the right to request erasure of your personal data or to restrict processing in accordance with data protection laws, as well as to object to any direct marketing from us, to ask us to correct personal information that we hold about you which is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, and to be informed about any automated decision-making that we use.

If we receive a request from you to exercise any of the above rights, we may ask you to verify your identity before acting on the relevant request; this is to ensure that we are sharing the correct data with you. Requests should be sent to owen@wcb-ccd.org.uk

Sharing and Disclosing Your Personal Information.

We do not share or disclose any of your personal information without your consent, other than for the purposes specified in this notice or where there is a legal requirement. WCB uses a third-party to provide the below services and business functions, however all processors acting on our behalf only process your data in accordance with instructions from us and comply fully with this privacy notice, the data protection laws and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Subscriptions: Mailchimp is the service we use to provide subscribe/unsubscribe functions in our email lists. This includes for our publications and conference bookings.

WCB's Administration Database: This is held in our Office365 cloud service.

Bookkeeping: WCB uses a third party bookkeeping service to do our bookkeeping and tax returns and they act in the capacity of a processor on our behalf. The only information we provide them with is your name, address and order details to meet business and legal requirements. The bookkeeper works from WCB’s registered office and all personal information remains onsite. 

WCB may transfer the personal information you give us to countries outside the Eurpoean Economic Area (EEA), specifically:

Database held in cloud computing specifically Office365 server.

If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, and the country in question has not been deemed by the EU Commission to have adequate data protection laws, we will provide appropriate safeguards and we will be responsible for ensuring your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this notice. ]

Safeguarding Measures.

Wales Council of the Blind takes your privacy seriously and we take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data. We work hard to protect you and your information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have security measures in place, including:

  • Lockable filing cabinets
  • Password protected computers
  • Login data encryption
  • Pseudonymised evaluation forms and questionnaires
  • Password protect computers
  • Electronically secured premises.

Consequences of Not Providing Your Data.

You are not obligated to provide your personal information to WCB, however, as this information is required for us to provide you with independent advice, newsletters, etc., we will only be able to offer signposting and advice over the telephone (when you call in) without it.

How Long We Keep Your Data.

WCB only ever retains personal information for as long as is necessary.

Where you have consented to us using your details to receive publications, we will keep such data until you notify us otherwise and/or withdraw your consent.

Employee data - With employees that have left, we are required to keep your basic personal data (name, address, contact details) for a minimum of 6 years after which time it will be destroyed.

We will keep job applications and interview records of unsuccessful candidates on our files for no longer than 6 months after which time they will be destroyed. 

Special Categories of Personal Data.

WCB signposts people with sight loss to a broad range of services and support within the community. Owing to the information that we gather, WCB sometimes receives special categories of personal information from you in order to refer you to the most appropriate services in relation to your specific sight condition.  Where we collect special categories of personal data, we will only request the information required for the specified purpose and always ask for your explicit consent. You can modify or remove consent at any time, which we will act on immediately. Contact bec@wcb-ccd.org.uk

Lodging a Complaint.

WCB only processes your personal information in compliance with this privacy notice and in accordance with the relevant data protection laws. If, however, you wish to raise a complaint regarding the processing of your personal data or are unsatisfied with how we have handled your information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with Owen Williams, who oversees data protection compliance within WCB, at:

Wales Council of the Blind, Unit 2.2, Hastings House, Fitzalan Place, Cardiff CF24 0BL.

Email: owen@wcb-ccd.org.uk Tel. No.: 029 2047 3954

You can also make a complaint to the Supervisory authority: Information Commissioner’s Office www.ico.org.uk