Data Protection

Membership Data Protection Policy
This policy was produced to meet the requirements of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force on 25 May 2018. As the Society takes the privacy of its membership seriously, this page serves to outline briefly how it uses, shares, and retains personal data provided by individual members.

Data held
Personal data details held by the Society on its individual members are restricted to the name, address, email address (if provided), membership payment history (this does not include bank details), and Gift Aid preference.

Purpose
As part of its routine operations, the Society uses the membership data:

• to send copies of its journal, Northern Studies, to members.
• to communicate with members on the Society, its events and publications, and information about organisations, events, and publications with similar purposes.
• for membership record verification with OSCR and with HMRC concerning Gift Aid.

Collection, Amendment, and Retention
Membership data will be collected upon registration, will be retained, and may be amended by the member in writing to one of the addresses given below. The Society may occasionally check the accuracy of the data.

The data will be held for as long as the membership of the Society is maintained by payment of the subscription, and for up to six years in the event of a cancelled membership. This is to allow for claiming Gift Aid. Where data is known to be outdated or otherwise incorrect – e.g. when journals, emails, and/or other correspondence are returned to us – reasonable efforts will be made to update, or, if unsuccessful, delete these records.

Access
Access to the data is strictly limited to members of the Committee. The Society will not share the personal data of its members with any other third parties without having received written consent to do so.

Our emails are sent in such a way that each recipient can see only their own address.

Event and publication data
Data collected in relation to booking events, such as registration details and booking forms, or the preparation or sale of publications will be retained only as long as the administration of the event requires.

Facebook
Members and others who have joined the Society’s Facebook group but wish to leave the group, can do so at any time via their Facebook account. Any messages posted in the group will not be deleted as part of this process.

Any queries regarding the above policy should be sent to the Society by email at info@ssns.org.uk or by post to the Scottish Society for Northern Studies, c/o Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Edinburgh, 50 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LH.