The Scottish Green Party believe you have the right to have your data stored securely and only used for the purpose you intended. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect your personal data, what we use it for and who has access to your data
Personal data means any information from which you can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to your physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.
This policy is written in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018. It refers to this website and other Scottish Green Party services. The Scottish Green Party is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This privacy policy was updated on 22nd September 2020
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy, or our processing of your personal information, please contact us:
Email: data.controller@scottishgreens.org.uk
or write to us at the following address:
The Data Controller,
Scottish Green Party
19b Graham Street
Edinburgh
EH6 5QN
It is important that you understand who is responsible for keeping your data safe. We are the "controller" of all personal data collected and used by the Scottish Green Party for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. This means that we are responsible for deciding how and why your data is used and for ensuring that your data is handled legally and safely.
We will only collect information that is required to provide you with information or services that you have requested or that we think may be of interest to you, or that is required to ensure that we comply with electoral law. The data that we collect will depend on how you interact with us.
When you join as a member of the party, we collect all the details you provide including contact details and any other details that are voluntarily provided. We also collect your payment details where necessary to process your membership subscriptions and donations. This data may include
- Name,
- Email,
- Telephone number,
- Address (home, work or other),
- Communication preferences,
- Payment details*,
- Payments,
- Campaign interests,
- Social Media handles
- Attendance at events,
- Your date of birth,
- Gender
*To maximise security, we use third party suppliers to process credit cards and direct debits. We do not store your payment details.
We will store details of payments to ensure your membership, and/or record, is up-to-date, and to ensure we can comply with electoral legislation.
We only collect sensitive information where absolutely necessary, and with your explicit consent. An example would be if you wish to stand for election and are required to undergo vetting.
To keep you up to date with relevant information and to ensure that your membership is accurate we may match your details to publicly available information such as Holyrood and Westminster constituencies, and your local council ward.
We are a registered political party and may process special category data such as data relating to political beliefs. This may include canvassing your opinions and using your data to help us plan and implement campaigns.
If you request to be kept up to date by email with any campaign, we collect and store the details you submit to us. This will include any consent you have given and whether you wish to be kept updated on party activities or related issues. We consider this to be an expression of consent which can revoked at any time.
We also collect information that you voluntarily provide to us when you respond to petitions or surveys including your responses to any questions they might ask.
If you interact with us online, we may collect your IP address and details of the device and operating system you are using if your browser is set to accept/provide this information.
The Scottish Greens are composed of a number of branches. We may obtain data that has been collected by the branch directly relating to any relationship or communications you have with a branch including meetings, events, local campaigns and correspondence.
As a political party we and our Local Parties are provided with access to the electoral register for the purposes of canvassing and promotion.
We also collect anonymised publicly available information from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, for example likes, shares, tweets and posts about the Scottish Greens and its activities and campaigns. This information is provided to us by the third party, social media platform.
The Scottish Green Party may use your personal information in a number of ways which include:
We will communicate with you in line with your preferences and information. For example, we may send you information on campaigns that are relevant to your specific election area, or on a campaign area that you have shown interest in in the past, or that we think would be of interest to you. You can opt out of communications at any time.
In order to hold and process your data we are obliged to identify the lawful basis upon which we do so. The lawful basis is different for the different purposes identified above.
Lawful Basis: Public task
To communicate effectively with actual and potential supporters of the Scottish Green Party and its campaigns we process their personal data. This ensures that we can continue to represent supporter’s views in a democratic way and to help us generate revenue to fund our political activities. This processing is considered to be fundamental to our role in promoting democracy in the public interest.
Lawful Basis: Public task.
We process your membership and personal data with respect to your membership position in line with the constitution of the Party and your agreed participation. As a membership organisation we require that we be able to communicate with members about constitutional issues (such as leadership elections, conference and changes to the constitution) this is considered to be a fundamental part of our role in promoting democracy in the public interest.
Lawful basis: Public task.
We may from time to time contact you directly asking for donations to help fund the work of the Party. Without funding it would be impossible to function as a Political Party and therefore such communication is considered to be a fundamental part of our role in promoting democracy in the public interest.
Lawful Basis: Public task.
As a political party we require an understanding of the political opinions of the UK electorate both nationally and on local campaigns and issues. This understanding is considered to be a fundamental part of our role in promoting democracy in the public interest. Political opinions are classed as ‘special category’ data under data privacy legislation and our processing of this data is in accordance with Article 9 (g) of the General Data Protection Regulation.
We will never sell your personal information to other organisations for their direct marketing or commercial use.
We may use third party suppliers to carry out data processing, for example the running of online ballots in internal elections and candidate selections. We require all third-party suppliers to sign contracts that demonstrate they have the same commitment to protecting your data, that they will use the data for no other purpose and will comply with all relevant data protection legislation.
We may be required to include your details in submissions to the Electoral Commission in relation to donations to political parties. This will be made clear on the donation page, further guidance is available on the Electoral Commission website; https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/financial-reporting/donations-and-loans .
From time to time we may need to share some of your data with third party data processors (such as technology providers, website hosts, online systems). Where we do so we will have a data processing agreement with the third party, and where they are located outside the United Kingdom we will ensure that they provide enough security and privacy to enable us to meet our legal obligations to you.
An example of this would be where we use a third-party email provider to deliver our emails to you. We would need to share your email address with the supplier to carry out this function, but their processing of your data would be in line with a data processing agreement we would have with them.
Where you join as a member of the Party your data will be held for as long as you maintain your membership. If you leave the party your data will be held for a minimum period of 5 years to ensure we can comply with financial regulations.
Where you have identified you as a supporter of the Scottish Greens your data will be held until such time as you unsubscribe from receiving communications from the party.
Where you have donated to the Party or one of its campaigns the related data will be held for a minimum period of 5 years to ensure we can comply with financial regulations.
You have a number of rights under data protection law. Some of these rights and how you can exercise them are set out in this section, more information can be found from the Information Commissioners office (https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/ ).
We will normally need to ask you for proof of your identity before we can respond to a request to exercise any of the rights in this section and we may need to ask you for more information, for example to help us to locate the personal data that your request relates to.
You have the right to be informed regarding our use of your data and under what lawful basis we carry out any processing. Our privacy policy sets out this information however if you need further information you can email; data.controller@scottishgreens.org.uk
You have the right to ask us to send you a copy of all personal data that we hold about you. If this request includes data held on Scottish Greens emails, then a date range will be requested. A request to exercise this right is called a "subject access request" and can be made by email to: data.controller@scottishgreens.org.uk or in writing to: Data Controller, Scottish Green Party, 17b Graham Street, Edinburgh, EH6 5QN.
You have the right to ask us to send you any personal data you have provided to us in an electronic format. A request to exercise this right is called a "data portability request" and can be made by email to: data.controller@scottishgreens.org.uk or in writing to: Data Controller, Scottish Green Party, 17b Graham Street, Edinburgh, EH6 5QN.
You have a right to object to us processing any personal data where we are relying on legitimate interests as the legal basis of our processing. You also have the right to withdraw your consent from our processing where consent is required (such as our email communications). Every communication will have an option for you to withdraw your consent directly, or you can email data.controller@scottishgreens.org.uk at any time to exercise this right.
However, the right to object is not an absolute right and we may continue to process your data if there is a legal or other statutory obligation for processing your data (for example reporting donations to the electoral commission).
You have the right to opt-out of any marketing or personally addressed direct mailings we send to you. If the communication is electronic it will include simple links and instructions to ‘unsubscribe’. For other media please email data.controller@scottishgreens.org.uk or make the request by writing to: Data Controller, Scottish Green Party, 17b Graham Street, Edinburgh, EH6 5QN.
You have a right to ask us to correct inaccurate data that we hold about you. If we are satisfied that the new data you have provided is accurate, we will correct your personal data as soon as possible.
You have a right to ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances, for example if we have processed your data unlawfully or if we no longer need the data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
You can ask us to restrict processing of your personal data in some circumstances, for example if you think the personal data is inaccurate and we need to verify its accuracy, or if we no longer need the data but you require us to keep it so that you can exercise your own legal rights. Restricting your personal data means that we only store your personal data and don't carry out any further processing on it unless you consent, or we need to process the data to exercise a legal claim or to protect a third party or the public.
To exercise any of the rights above please email data.controller@scottishgreens.org.uk or in writing to: Data Controller, Scottish Green Party, 19b Graham Street, Edinburgh, EH6 5QN.
To further understand your rights please visit the website of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk