Introduction 

Green Pastures, The People’s Church Ltd (Green Pastures) is a registered charity (NI062702) whose registered office is 1 Faith Avenue Ballymena.  Green Pastures are the data controller. This means we decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

As part of our due care and diligence and in order to comply with our responsibilities under the General Data Protection Regulations 2016, we have an obligation to ensure we are clear with how your data is handled while in our possession.

This policy provides details on what information and data we collect from our members, volunteers and adherents in relation to our pastoral care and general church activities, why we need it, what we do with it, what we wont do with it and your rights in relation to our processing of this information.

1.Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data.  Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).

2. How do we process your personal data?

We comply with our obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for the following purposes: -

• Day to day administration of the Church and Ministries including all aspects of pastoral care, preparation of ministry rotas, maintaining financial records of giving for audit and tax purposes; 

• To manage our employees and volunteers; 

• To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);

• To help manage all financial giving including tithes, offerings & general fundraising;

• To gather vital information to gain a better understanding of church demographics, community needs and help shape policy, development and growth;

• To inform you of Church news, events, activities, services and job openings.

3. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Is dependent upon the data subject (individual) and the purpose of the data processing.  For example: the data processing for an employee in terms of what data is collected and how it is further processed is different from that of a member or adherent of our Church.  Legal basis we rely on will primarily consist of one or more of the following:

• Processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by us or a third party except where such interests are overridden by the interests, rights or freedoms of the data subject. This is where we need to use your data to engage in our normal day to day activities e.g. keeping a record of your name and address on our members list etc;

• Processing is carried out by us in our capacity as a not-for-profit body with a religious aim provided: -

• The processing relates only to members, adherents or former members (or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes); and 

• There is no disclosure to a third party without consent. 

An example of this may be where a record of sensitive data may need to be kept by us so that effective pastoral care may be provided to members;

• Explicit consent of the data subject. An example of this would be your consent to joining a mailing list so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and process your gift aid donations;

• Processing is necessary for us to comply with the law. Examples of this could be our legal obligations to maintain certain records so that we may carry out our obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement; and

• Processing is necessary for us to protect the vital interests of a data subject that cannot physically or legally give consent. An example of this may be for us to run special needs activities.

4. Sharing your personal data
Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with relevant Staff and Ministry/Lifegroup Leaders of the Church in order to carry out pastoral care or for purposes connected with the Church. This includes sharing your data with our partner charities Connect Ministries and Compassion Ministries where relevant.  We will not normally share your personal data with any third party apart from appropriate external regulators and authorities (such as HMRC , HSE etc) and will only share your data with other third parties with your consent.

5. How long do we keep your personal data?
This can vary, we retain members’ & adherents data while it is still current. 

As a church, we have statutory and legal obligations to keep certain information for a period of time after it has been used, for example gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate.  We will not keep any information after it has been used that we are not required to keep under these obligations.

Once information is no longer required for legal reasons or for the provision of our services to you it will be erased from our systems in a controlled and secure manner.

6. Your rights and your personal data  

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: -

• The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you; 

• The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;  

• The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data;

• The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time

• The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller

• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;

• The right to object to the processing of personal data.

• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

7. Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing. 

8. Social media 

Social media refers to a variety of online internet applications that enable users to create their own content and interact with other users. Examples of social media providers are Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube and TikTok.

We are a user of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and interact with other users by:

• creating a public profile which includes information on our current activities;

• sharing our photos, videos and posts;

• sharing links to content you are interested in which can be produced by third-parties (such as sharing a news article);

• connecting you with our events, services and other information

If you post on our social media pages or send us a private or direct message via social media, we will assume you give permission for us to respond.

Messages posted on our social media pages are publicly available. We may use messages posted on our social media pages to better understand our audiences. If we seek to use attributable quotes from people using our social media pages, we will always seek their permission first.

We will respond to publicly available social media posts relevant to our services/functions and/or associated issues where appropriate and within the permissions of the social media providers.

We do not interact with third-party applications. We do not micro target ie: track your browsing habits, likes and social interactions across our social media pages in order to build up a profile about you. We are not responsible for micro targeting by social media providers and third parties operating on social media.

You must take your own precautions to protect your personal data whilst using social media. We have no control and/or responsibility over the processing of your personal data by social media providers. When signing-up for and using social media, you should carefully consider the personal data you share on social media and with social media providers as well as reviewing the privacy policy, the terms of use of that social media service and information provided about cookies. In particular, the privacy policy and cookies information available on the service should inform you how that social media service is using your personal data and for what purpose(s).

9. Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact our Data Protection Leads at J.forsythe@gpastures.co.uk. estelle@gpastures.co.uk

Supervisory Authority:

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF