Privacy Policy

Who is Ambient Support?

Ambient Support Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered in England & Wales (Company Number: 07211819) and a Registered UK Charity (Charity Number: 1135353).   We work with people across the country with a broad range of support needs because of the ageing process, disability and mental heath needs.  Website: www.ambient.org.uk and www.ambientteam.org.uk

Amber Housing Limited is a subsidiary of Ambient Support Limited and a Co-operative and Community Benefit Society (Registered Number: 30052R). Website: www.amberhousing.co.uk

The registered office address for all data protection related correspondence is:  Ambient Support Limited, Data Protection, Unit 9, Bourne Court, Unity Trading Estate, Southend Road, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 8HD.

What is the purpose of this Privacy Policy Statement?

Ambient Support Limited is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and this Privacy Policy Statement explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our websites, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

By using our website, you are agreeing to be bound by this Privacy Policy Statement, which may be changed from time-to-time and you will be asked to confirm your acceptance in order to proceed.

Any questions regarding this Privacy Policy Statement and our privacy practices should be sent by email to: dataprotection@ambient.org.uk

You may also contact us by mail by writing to: Ambient Support Limited, Data Protection, Unit 9, Bourne Court, Unity Trading Estate, Southend Road, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 8HD.

How do we collect information from you?

We get information about you when you use our website, for example, when you use a contact form, visit our website to learn about our services, if you make a donation to us, book and pay for a training course with us online or sign up for a digital newsletter.

What type of information do we collect from you?

(a)   Information you voluntarily provide to us: When you send us an email, use a contact form on our websites, sign up for a digital newsletter, book a training course, instigate a ‘live chat’ online or communicate with us in any way, you are voluntarily giving us information that we collect. That information may include your name, physical address, email address, IP address, phone number, as well as details including your location, purchase history, and other demographic information. By giving us this information, you consent to this information being collected, used, as described in this Privacy Policy Statement.

If you make a donation online or purchase a training course from us, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processor, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions, as explained below.

(b) Information we collect automatically: When you use or browse one of our websites, we may collect information about your visit to our websites and your web browsing. That information may include your IP address, your operating system, your browser ID, your browsing activity, and other information about how you interacted with our websites or other websites. We may collect this information as a part of log files as well as through the use of cookies or other tracking technologies. Our use of cookies and other tracking technologies is discussed more below, and in more detail in our Cookie Statement.

(c)  Social Media: When you interact with us on social media platforms such as Facebook, You Tube and Twitter we may obtain information about you (for example, when you publicly tag us in an event photo). The information we receive will depend on the privacy preferences you have set on those types of platforms.

How is this information used?

This information is used to:

• Process a donation that you have made.
• Process a booking on a training course that you have made.
• Carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us.
• Respond to an enquiry you have made about the organisation and its services via our websites.
• Conduct a ‘live chat’ online.
• Send you a digital newsletter.
• Seeking your views or comments about us and the services we provide.
• Notifying you of changes to our services.
• Sending you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, fundraising appeals and activities and promotions of goods and services.
• Checking donations for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.
• Processing job applications.

How long is your information kept for?

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis and have a Data Retention & Disposal Schedule which forms part of our Data Protection policy.  A copy of which may be requested by contacting: dataprotection@ambient.org.uk

We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example the collection of Gift Aid). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

Access to data is only on a ‘need to know’ basis within Ambient Support Limited.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf:  We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process your donations to us). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we require them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. We will not release your information to third parties unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

When you are using our secure online donation pages, your donation is processed by a third party payment processor, who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact: dataprotection@ambient.org.uk

We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our supporters and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Social media platforms and widgets:  Our websites include social media features, such as the Facebook ‘Like’ button. These features may collect information about your IP address and which page you are visiting on our website, and they may set a cookie to make sure the feature functions properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our website. We also maintain presences on social media platforms including Facebook, X, and Linkedin.  Any information, communications or materials you submit to us via a social media platform is done at your own risk without any expectation of privacy. We cannot control the actions of other users of these platforms or the actions of the platforms themselves. Your interactions with those features and platforms are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them.

What are your choices?

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone, post or text message unless you have given your prior consent. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: dataprotection@ambient.org.uk

Your Rights

You have a right to request access to the personal data that we hold about you.

You also have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you, and we will provide you with this unless legal exceptions apply.

If you want to access your information, please send a description of the information you would like to see and proof of your identity by post to the address provided below.

Your right to update your information with us?

We are working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you. In the meantime, if you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: dataprotection@ambient.org.uk

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information Ambient Support Limited holds about you. To process a Subject Access Request the Charity requires Data Subjects to complete the Subject Access Request Form HERE.  

We will give you access to any personal information we hold within one month  of any request for information, starting from when we have received all the information necessary to identify the Data Subject and fulfil the request.  Individuals may request to access, correct, amend or delete information we hold.  Unless it is prohibited by law or other statutory requirements we will remove or update your information. 

We will not normally charge a fee, however, if the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive the Charity may use its discretion to charge a reasonable fee.  If this is the case the Data Subject will be promptly contacted.

Keeping your information safe

Security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information. When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it is treated securely. Any sensitive information is encrypted and protected with 128 Bit encryption on SSL. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the internet and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we will do everything we can to ensure its security on our systems.   

Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Right to restrict use

You have a right to ask us to restrict the processing of some or all of your personal information if there is a disagreement about its accuracy, or we’re not lawfully allowed to use it.

Right of erasure

You may ask us to delete some or all of your personal information and in certain cases, and subject to certain exceptions; we will do so as far as we are required to. In many cases, we will anonymise that information, rather than delete it.

Right for your personal information to be portable

If we are processing your personal information (1) based on your consent, or in order to enter into or carry out a contract with you, and (2) the processing is being done by automated means, you may ask us to provide it to you or another service provider in a machine-readable format.

Right to object

You have the right to object to processing where we are using your personal information (1) based on legitimate interests, (2) for direct marketing or (3) for statistical/research purposes.

If you wish to exercise any of the above rights, which may or may not apply in all circumstances, you can email dataprotection@ambient.org.uk or write to us at Ambient Support Limited, Data Protection, Unit 9, Bourne Court, Unity Trading Estate, Southend Road, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 8HD. For more details about your rights please consult the guidance published by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.

Use of ‘Cookies’

Like many other organisations, Ambient Support Limited websites use Cookies.

Cookies are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. For more information on how to switch off cookies on your computer, visit our full Cookies Policy. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our websites.

Links to other websites

Our websites may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This Privacy Policy Statement applies only to our websites‚ so we encourage you to read the Privacy Policy Statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

16 or Under and those that might be vulnerable

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information. We are committed to protecting those that might be vulnerable supporters, people that use our services and volunteers, and appreciate that additional care may be needed when we use their personal information. In recognition of this, we observe good practice guidelines in our interactions with vulnerable people.

Review & changes to this Privacy Policy Statement

Any changes we may make to this policy in the future will be posted on this website so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re familiar with any changes. If we make any significant changes we’ll make this clear on this website.

We keep this Privacy Policy Statement under regular review – it was last updated in September 2024.