The Ringing World privacy policy

The Ringing World Ltd is both a Limited Company (number 1722963) and a Registered Charity (number 287182). Our charitable objective is to promote and foster the art and science of bellringing to bellringers and the general public, in particular by publishing educational material and historical archives, facilitating communication, encouraging public interest and uniting the ringing community. We publish a weekly newspaper 'The Ringing World' and operate seven websites: the Ringing World website www.ringingworld.co.uk, the Bellboard website http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/, the peals website http://www.peals.co.uk/, the National Youth Competition website http://rwnyc.ringingworld.co.uk/, the Change Ringers mailing list http://lists.ringingworld.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/change-ringers, the Ringing Chat mailing list http://lists.ringingworld.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/ringing-chat and the Ringing Theory mailing list http://lists.ringingworld.co.uk/listinfo/ringing-theory

Our office address is 35A High Street, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 1LJ. Our telephone number is 01264 366620. For general enquiries our email address is admin@ringingworld.co.uk. For editorial matters our email address is editor@ringingworld.co.uk.

What information we collect

The Ringing World holds and processes the following data:

  • Editorial information including articles for publication and other editorial correspondence
  • Performance information on peals, quarters and miscellaneous performances including the names of participants
  • Subscriber / purchaser details comprising name, postal address, email address and phone number for paper and online Ringing World subscribers, and purchasers of notices and merchandise
  • Bank account details for direct debit subscribers
  • Bellboard logins (email address only) for Bellboard users
  • Registered user information (name and email address only) for the Change Ringers, Ringing Chat and Ringing Theory lists
  • Contact details and DBS clearance status for Youth Competition team leaders
  • Name and date of birth for Youth Competition participants, who are always less than 19 years of age
  • Gift Aid information for donors comprising name, address and amount of donation
  • Payroll and HR information for employees
  • Administrative records such as supplier contact details, supplier bank account details (where supplied for electronic payment), accounting records, correspondence files and contact information for bellringers, trade suppliers and others.

The only special category data held by the Ringing World are the DBS status of Youth Competition team leaders, and employee health and absence information.

What we do with the information we hold

Our policy is to comply with all applicable provisions of the Data Protection Acts and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We make all reasonable efforts to keep data secure and up-to-date.

Ringing World editorial activities are carried out in accordance with the IPSO Editors' Code of Practice available at https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/. Compliance with this code requires that we aim for accuracy and fairness in what we report, publish corrections when we make mistakes, and apply a public interest test before publishing sensitive information. Compliance also means we have a moral duty to protect confidential sources of information, and do not have to disclose or erase personal information even if requested to do so.

Information on performances (peals, quarters and other similar performances), including the names of participants, is published in The Ringing World and also online on the Bellboard and peals.co.uk websites. In line with our charitable objectives, we maintain historical and statistical records of performances. We endeavour to ensure the accuracy of the information and routinely act on and publish corrections. In order to maintain the historical record, we do not change or remove information unless it is incorrect.

The Ringing World hosts three chat lists, Change Ringers, Ringing Chat and Ringing Theory. Only registered users can post to the lists. Posts represent the submitter’s own views and are not endorsed by the Ringing World. The lists have moderators. Submitters who post incorrect or offensive information are subject to moderation, and if they persist with inappropriate posts, are banned.

We only use subscriber and purchaser information in connection with delivery of the products and services which have been purchased. We only use Bellboard logins to enable submissions to Bellboard, to allow access to products and services the user has purchased, and allow user-specific settings. We only use Change Ringers, Ringing Chat and Ringing Theory logins to enable access to the corresponding chat list. We do not use any of the subscriber or personal information we hold for promotional or advertising campaigns. Our websites, although they carry advertising, do not target advertising at individuals or groups and we don’t do any automatic profiling.

Subscriber bank account details used for direct debits are passed to the company (RSM2000) who handle direct debit collection on our behalf. We use Paypal for credit and debit card payment processing. Card details are provided direct to Paypal and not held or processed by the Ringing World. With the exception of bank account details for direct debits, no data held by or processed by the Ringing World is passed to any third party. All Ringing World data is held and processed in the UK.

We will comply free of charge with reasonable requests for disclosure of personal data, except for editorial information.

Our websites

All our websites will attempt to place a cookie in your web browser when you access them. In Bellboard this cookie is used to track whether you have logged in to the website and whether you have custom settings. In Change Ringers, Ringing Chat and Ringing Theory the cookie is used to track that a registered user is accessing the site. Operation of the Bellboard, Change Ringers, Ringing Chat and Ringing Theory websites as a logged-in user will not be possible unless your browser accepts cookies. Cookies are not used for marketing, targeting of advertising or collection of personal data.

For the rest of our websites, the cookie is placed in the browser as part of normal website operation (including collecting website statistics) but is not used for marketing, targeting of advertising or collection of personal data. The websites will work correctly with cookies disabled.

Data retention

Our aim is to minimise unnecessary retention of data. We keep accounting and employee records for 7 years, in line with audit and HMRC guidelines, but all other data apart from editorial data is deleted when it is no longer required.

Data typeRetention period
Unpublished editorial information including correspondence Held indefinitely at the Editor’s discretion
Performance information Historical record, maintained indefinitely
Subscriber / purchaser details Deleted within 2 years of cancellation
Bank details for direct debit subscribers Deleted within 2 years of cancellation
Bellboard login information Held indefinitely, but can be deleted on request
Youth competition team leader data Deleted within 2 years of each competition
Youth competition participant data Deleted within 2 years of each competition
Gift aid records 7 years
Employee information 7 years. Information for unsuccessful candidates is deleted within a year of application
Accounting and administrative records 7 years

Version 3a April 2018

BB BellBoard
CC
Central Council of Church Bell Ringers