Privacy Policy

Who we are

We are Tay Valley Family History Society, registered as a Charity in Scotland, No. SC 016560.

Our website address is: https://tayvalleyfhs.org.uk and our office and research centre is at 179-181 Princes Street, Dundee, DD4 6DQ.

The Data Protection Act 2018 controls how personal information is used by organisations, including registered charities such as Tay Valley Family History Society.

Details of this act and a full printable guide are available at https://www.gov.uk/data-protection.

Purpose of this Notice

This Privacy Notice outlines the way in which the Society will use personal information provided to us. Personal information includes any information that identifies you personally, such as your name, address, email address or telephone number.

The Society recognises the importance of your privacy and personal information and we have therefore outlined below how we use, disclose and protect this information. The Council of the Society is the data controller who decide how your data is processed and for what purpose. Contact details for us are provided above.

The Society may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy has been updated in line with the requirements of The UK Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and is effective from 26 October 2026.

What information we collect

We may collect the following information:

• Your name
• Your postal address and, optionally, your telephone number.
• For memberships created online, or for all e-Memberships, we require your e-mail address.
• We only collect information pertaining to a user's membership of the Society.

Controlling your personal information

• We will use your personal information only for the purpose of administering your Society membership. We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to any third parties. You as an individual can review and edit the information that we hold by logging in to your membership account and clicking on My Details.
• If you believe that any details we hold on you are incorrect or incomplete, please write to us at the above address (or e-mail our membership team as soon as possible). We undertake to promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
• If you cease your membership, we archive your details. You may request that we permanently delete your membership record. To do this please contact our membership team.

Where we send your data

Personal details are held on the secure servers of our website host, Internet Creation. This enables you to adjust your information directly (e.g. changing postal address, email address, etc. as necessary) so giving you control over your data. You do this by logging into your secure profile page on this website.

Disclosure of information

The Society will only share your personal information where this is necessary for the purposes set out above. Information will not be shared with any third party without your consent unless we are obliged or permitted to do so by law.

Basis for processing personal information

The Society processes your information in the course of its legitimate activities, with appropriate safeguards in place, as a not-for-profit body and on the basis that our processing relates solely to members, former members or people who have regular contact with us, and that this information is not disclosed to any third party without your consent.

We also process information where this is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations; where processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests and such interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms; and where you have given consent to the processing of your information for a particular purpose.

Storage and security of personal information

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.
The security measures we use include, but are not limited to:

• We do not retain any payment card or bank account details on file.
• The Society will strive to ensure that personal information is accurate and held in a secure and confidential environment. We will keep your personal information for as long as you are a member or so long as we are obliged to keep it by law or may need it in order to respond to any questions or complaints or to show that we treated you fairly. We may also keep it for statistical purposes but if so we will only use it for that purpose.
• When the information is no longer needed it will be securely destroyed or permanently rendered anonymous.

Please note that Society Journals often contain personal details of individuals, in the form of membership details e.g. contributors name and article content information. This refers to hardcopy and digital copies of all Journals. Society Journals are in our members’ password protected section and are not accessible to casual visitors.

How we use cookies

• This website only uses cookies that are necessary for us to track your logged-in status. If you disable cookies, our website may not function correctly. We do not store user information in cookies. We do not use third-party cookies. Please see attached Cookie Policy.

Links to other websites

• Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites; and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Contact us

179-181 Princes Street, Dundee DD4 6DQ

Phone - 01382 461845

tvfhs@tayvalleyfhs.org.uk

How to complain

If you are unhappy with the way the Society has handled your personal information you can complain.

Make your complaint -   In person, by phone, in writing or by email Chair@tayvalleyfhs.org.uk. We will always try to deal with your complaint quickly.  We are legally required to acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receipt and without undue delay. We must take appropriate action to respond to your complaint, in writing, including making appropriate enquiries. We will keep you informed of our progress. If it is clear from the start that the matter will need a detailed investigation, we will tell you and keep you updated on our progress.

Investigation - We will appoint a small sub-group of Trustees to investigate your complaint.

Outcome - We will advise you of the outcome of our investigation in writing (or email). If you disagree with our decision, the Trustees may, where appropriate, choose to review the outcome. We will advise you of any change in the decision, in writing.

Information Commissioner’s Office - Should you choose to, you can register your complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office by calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113, or by writing to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. You have the right to complain to the ICO in the event that you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation. You can find more information by looking at their website. https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public

Appendix 1

Cookie policy

Like other societies, the website of Tay Valley Family History Society (‘The Society’, ‘us’, ‘we’, or ‘our’) uses cookies. By continuing o use the website, you consent to the use of essential cookies.

This Cookies Policy explains what cookies are, how we use cookies, your choices regarding cookies and further information about cookies. For more detail about cookies, please visit https://allaboutcookies.org/.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of text sent to your web browser by a website you visit. A cookie file is stored in the web browser directory of the device you are using, and allows the Service or a third-party to recognize you and make your next visit easier and the Service more useful to you.

There are both‘persistent’and‘session’ cookies. Persistent cookies retain information such as your user preferences, for instance for site layouts or themes, making the site easier to navigate for the user. Session cookies enable your browser to ‘remember’ what you have done on the website during a single session when you are using the site, and they then expire. In your browser preferences, you should be able to set the amount of time for which cookies persist.

How Tay Valley FHS uses cookies

When you use and access the website, we may place a number of cookies (small text files) in your web browser.

We use cookies for the following purposes: to enable certain functions of the website, to provide analytics, to store your preferences. We use both session and persistent cookies and we use different types of cookies to run the Service.

Essential (or mandatory) cookies enable you to move around in the website; they also enable the website to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts.

Third-party cookies

We do not use third-party cookies.

Your choices regarding cookies

If you’d like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, please visit the help pages of your web browser.

Please note, however, that if you delete cookies or refuse to accept them, you might not be able to use all of the features we offer, you may not be able to store your preferences, and some of our pages might not display properly.

Tay Valley Family History Society reserve the right to add/ amend/ delete any information contained within this policy as needs arise.