Privacy Policy

Policy Last Updated: 19th April 2022

Preserving your privacy is important to Understanding Dementia and we are committed to letting you know how we use your personal information and to making only responsible use of your data.

The following statement describes how Understanding Dementia collects and uses information about people who visit our website or interact with us in other ways. We aim to be clear when we collect your information about what we will do with it.

  • Who we are

1.1       Understanding Dementia exists to provide information about and awareness of the condition and training in its effective management.

1.2       References to “we”, “us”, or “our” in this privacy policy are references to Understanding Dementia, registered charity number 238331.

1.3       If you have any queries about this statement please contact chair@understandingdementia.co.uk, Suite 181, 266 Banbury Road, Summertown, Oxford, OX2 7DL.

  • What data we collect and how we use it

2.1       We will collect personal information from you when you or your organisation enquire about our activities, join our database, offer to volunteer, or subscribe to one of our services.

2.2       If you support us, for example by attending an event, enrolling on a training course, donating, signing up to Gift Aid, or signing up to a campaign, we will usually collect your name, contact details, and whether and how you would like to be contacted. If you volunteer with us or enquire about volunteering or employment opportunities, we may request such further information as is necessary to ensure that you can effectively perform the task that you have volunteered to undertake to further our aims and objectives. If appropriate we may also ask to collect your date of birth, details of your academic or professional qualifications, financial details, Gift Aid eligibility, reasons for support and/or attending training course, and responses to our campaigns.

2.3       We collect these data for administration purposes and so we can keep you up to date with information you have requested or may be interested in; ensure that training provided meets your needs; ask for more support to run our fundraising or other events and campaigns; fulfil our legal responsibilities for financial and Gift Aid supporting.

2.4       We will keep your data only for as long as necessary. If you have kindly donated to us we are required to keep this information for seven years. If you have not donated to us, we will only keep your data for three years. We will keep data collected from volunteers for two years after you stop volunteering with us.

2.5       Some of our supporters kindly tell us stories about their experiences or allow us to use photographs to help us in our campaigns. Your data will remain anonymous unless you consent to it being attributed. We will record the details of the story and contact details to enable us to get updated approval to use the story. We will keep this information for three years after you give it to us and will always contact you each time we wish to use it.

2.6       Part of the work that we do may involve carrying out research. If you agree to take part, we will record responses to questions that you answer and your personal details. The data will be used to fulfil our research objectives and may be shared with other relevant projects or incorporated into our training courses. Your data will remain anonymous unless you consent to it being attributed. The data we collect will be kept for five years.

  • How we store your personal information

 3.1       All personal information is securely stored in our central IT database / document storage. It is wiped from the storage if no longer required and within the given time frame given in part 2), unless you request otherwise.

3.2       Any hard copy of personal information that is collected is securely stored or transferred to our central IT database. Hard copies are destroyed by shredding when no longer required or within the given time frame outlined in part 2).

  • Complaints

4.1       Should you wish to register a complaint we will collect your name, contact details and details about the complaint to enable us to respond, monitor and improve our organisation.

4.2    The data will be shared with anyone who is involved in resolving the complaint, for example, agencies that we have partnered with.

4.3       We will hold these data for five years.

4.4         If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at chair@understandingdementia.co.uk, Suite 181, 266 Banbury Road, Summertown, Oxford, OX2 7DL.

4.5       You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:           

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

  • Legal Compliance

5.1       Understanding Dementia may disclose your information if required to so by law or in response to a court order.

  • Consent

6.1       By providing us with your personal information you consent to the collection and use of that information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

  • Links

7.1       Our website may contain links to websites run by other organisations. Understanding Dementia is not responsible for the privacy practices of other organisations’ websites so you should read their privacy policies carefully.

  • Data Protection (Rights of Access)

 8.1 Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing – You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

8.2       You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

8.3       Please contact us at chair@understandingdementia.co.uk, 48 Rosamund Road, Wolvercote, Oxford, OX2 8NU if you wish to make a request.

Understanding Dementia will keep this privacy policy up to date by amending it as and when necessary. The most up to date version will always be available on our website so please check from time to time. By continuing to use our website you will be deemed to have accepted any changes.