Privacy Policy

Organisation: Community Info Source (Registered Scottish Charity No. SC049135)

Effective Date: June 25, 2026

Community Info Source ("we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit our digital platforms, contact us, make a donation, or interact with our community initiatives.

This policy applies directly to our website, infosource.org.uk

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, Community Info Source acts as the "Data Controller" for the personal data processed through these channels.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect and process personal information from you in several ways depending on your interaction with our charity:

• Voluntary Information: This includes your name, email address, telephone number, mailing address, and any specific details or personal histories you choose to share when filling out web contact forms, applying to volunteer, requesting support, or emailing/calling our staff directly.

• Donation & Financial Information: When you make an online donation, we collect your name, billing address, contact details, and donation amount. If you opt-in to Gift Aid, we also explicitly collect and record your UK tax payer status and confirmation of your home address to satisfy legal requirements.

• Automated Information: When you browse our websites, certain technical data is captured automatically via cookies and similar protocols. This includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, operating system, referring URLs, device characteristics, and general analytical data detailing how you move through and interact with our web pages.

Note on Payment Card Data: To protect your financial security, we do not directly collect, view, or store your credit/debit card numbers or bank account details on our website servers. All online donations are securely captured and processed by our third-party payment gateway providers.

2. How We Use Your Information

We process your data purely to advance our charitable mission and deliver reliable assistance to our community. Specifically, your data is used to:

• Respond directly to your inquiries, phone calls, support requests, and emails.

• Process and acknowledge your online donations, issue transaction receipts, and manage our supporter records.

• Submit formal claims to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for Gift Aid reimbursement where you have authorised us to do so.

• Operate, manage, optimise, and maintain our digital infrastructure and staging platforms.

• Process, evaluate, and manage volunteer or program applications.

• Analyse website traffic and user engagement patterns to identify technical glitches, enhance accessibility, and improve user experiences.

• Fulfil legal, financial, and regulatory obligations required of a registered Scottish charity.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

In strict accordance with the UK GDPR, we only process your personal data under recognised lawful grounds:

• Consent: You have provided clear, affirmative consent for us to process your data for a distinct purpose, such as submitting an online inquiry or checking a box to receive updates.

• Legitimate Interests: Processing is required for our core, everyday operational activities as a grassroots community charity (such as thanking our donors or analysing digital traffic), provided that these activities do not override your fundamental privacy rights and freedoms.

• Legal Obligation: Processing is mandatory to comply with UK statutory regulations, structural financial auditing, or reporting requirements mandated by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) or HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for the administration of Gift Aid claims.

4. Sharing Your Data

We deeply respect the trust you place in us. We do not sell, rent, trade, or commercially exploit your personal data under any circumstances. Your data is only shared with third parties under the following strict conditions:

• With trusted third-party contractors, payment processors (e.g., Stripe), and infrastructure vendors who work directly on our behalf to host our platforms, process communications, or safely handle financial transactions. These entities are bound by rigorous data processing agreements to keep your data secure and confidential.

• With HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) specifically to validate and process your Gift Aid declarations.

• When legally compelled to do so by law enforcement, court order, or statutory regulatory bodies such as OSCR or the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

5. Website Hosting and Data Location

Our websites, databases, and the personal information captured via our online platforms are securely hosted utilising the infrastructure of Cloudways Ltd.

• Hosting Location & Sovereignty: All of our active web servers and storage instances are physically located within the United Kingdom. This directly ensures that your personal data remains safely inside the UK legal territory and benefits from the robust protections, legal mechanisms, and compliance guarantees set out by the UK GDPR.

• Data Processor Status: Cloudways operates strictly as a technical "Data Processor" on our behalf. They handle web data solely to ensure our platform remains secure, stable, and performing efficiently. They possess absolutely no right or authority to access, use, disclose, or market your personal information for their own commercial or independent purposes.

6. Gift Aid and Financial Data Retention

• Gift Aid Auditing: In compliance with UK tax law (HMRC guidelines), we are legally required to retain records of all donation details, Gift Aid declarations, and associated donor addresses for a minimum of 6 years from the end of the financial year in which the donation was made.

• Erasure Exceptions: Please note that while you have the "right to be forgotten" under the UK GDPR, this right does not override our statutory legal obligation to maintain financial and Gift Aid transaction records for HMRC audit trails. We cannot delete records of your donation or Gift Aid declarations until this mandatory legal retention period has passed.

7. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our web services use cookies (minuscule text files stored locally on your device) to preserve user preferences, facilitate core system functionalities, and collect anonymised analytics. You retain complete freedom to accept or reject cookies via your browser settings. Please note that choosing to block all cookies may restrict access to specific structural features or interactive portions of our websites (including donation checkout forms).

8. Data Security and Retention

We employ proportional technical, administrative, and organisational safeguards designed to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, destruction, accidental loss, or alteration. Aside from financial records governed by HMRC retention periods, we only retain personal records for as long as functionally necessary to fulfil the operational purposes for which they were collected, or to satisfy specific legal, regulatory, accounting, or internal reporting requirements.

9. Your Data Protection Rights

Under the provisions of UK data protection legislation, you hold comprehensive rights regarding your personal information. You have the right to:

• Access: Request clear, legible copies of all personal data we hold about you.

• Rectification: Demand the immediate correction or completion of inaccurate or incomplete records.

• Erasure: Request the deletion of your personal data ("the right to be forgotten") under specific statutory conditions (subject to the financial data exemptions outlined in Section 6).

• Restriction & Objection: Object to or request that we temporarily restrict the active processing of your data.

• Data Portability: Request that your structural data be safely transferred to another controller or directly to you in a machine-readable format.

10. External Third-Party Links

Our web platforms may feature informational links to external, third-party sites (such as local authorities, partner organisations, and support networks). We do not control, oversee, or accept liability for the individual privacy practices, tracking methods, or structural content maintained by external entities. We highly encourage you to review their specific privacy documentation upon leaving our site.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to revise, update, or amend this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect operational modifications or statutory shifts in UK law. Any updates will be pushed directly to this URL with a corrected "Effective Date". We recommend reviewing this document periodically to stay informed of our data security practices.

12. Contact Us and Regulatory Complaints

If you have any questions regarding this policy, wish to exercise your legal data protection rights, or want to discuss how your information is handled, please reach out directly to our Key Contact:

• Organisation: Community Info Source

• Charity Number: Scottish Charity No. SC049135

• Key Contact: Stuart Radose

• Phone: 0141 258 2773

• Email: info@infosource.org.uk

• Address: Suite 1.1, Tontine, 20 Trongate, Glasgow, G1 5ES

If you remain dissatisfied with our responses or believe we are processing your personal details unlawfully, you maintain the legal right to file a formal complaint with the UK's independent supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), via their official web portal at https://ico.org.uk/.