Privacy and Cookies Policy

1. Who are we?

1.1 We are The Society of St. Columban for Foreign Missions known as the "Columban Missionaries". For privacy queries, you can contact us at yourprivacy@columbans.co.uk. Other contact details are on our Website Terms of Use.


2. What's the point of this policy?

2.1 It tells you what to expect when we collect your personal information via our website or otherwise. Please only use our service if you are completely happy with this policy.

2.2 Generally, the policy covers only information provided to us. If you give personal information to other people, such as payment providers or other websites, please check their privacy policies.


3. Might the policy change?

3.1 Yes. Please check it whenever you visit our website. We will assume you agree to the new version of the policy if you use the site after its effective date. We may also notify you of any changes by email.


4. What do we collect?

4.1 Information which you upload to our service or otherwise give us such as:

  • information you provide when you enter a competition such as your full name, email address, age, school and information about your submission;

  • for winners: your bank details in case we need to send you cash prizes and photos, videos and other information which you provide to us or take part in;

  • contact or other information which you give or allow us to use for newsletters or other marketing; and

  • information that you include in communications with us.

4.2 Automated information about your use of our service such as: the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the internet, connection information such as browser type and version, information about your device including device-type and device identifier, operating system and platform, mobile network data, a unique reference number linked to the data you enter on our system, login details, the site from which you arrived at our service, details of your activity with date / time stamps including pages you visited and your searches / transactions.


5. What's our reason / legal basis for collecting the information?

5.1 Because it's in our "legitimate interests" in using the data we collect about you to run our competitions and to manage and improve our service including tracking usage patterns and preventing or detecting fraud or abuse. This applies to competition entry information that you supply to us and automated usage data.

5.2 When entering a competition on this site, you give us your consent (via a tick box) to use contact and other information you provide for newsletters or other marketing. You can withdraw permission at any time as explained when you give your consent or by emailing us at the above email address.

5.3 Because it's necessary to comply with legal or regulatory obligations.


6. How long do we keep personal information?

6.1 Until competition winners are announced (if you haven't won) or until two years after the competition ends (if you are a winner) or, if we have posted the information on our website or social media (and it is within our control) until you ask us to remove it (which you can do by emailing us at the above email address) or, you otherwise exercise your right to deletion of personal data we hold.

6.2 We will keep your information which we use only for newsletters or other marketing until you tell us to stop sending you such messages though we may delete it sooner.

6.3 We will generally keep automated browsing information for up to 6 months.

6.4 We may hold on to some (or all) of your information for longer (typically up to six years) if reasonably needed for legal, regulatory or tax reasons, deal with disputes, prevent fraud or abuse and/or enforce our terms and conditions.


7. To whom do we send or make available your personal information?

7.1 To other people who supply us with a service, e.g., website hosts, content delivery networks and businesses which help us send communications or monitor our website and which provide us with e-commerce, analytics, security and other IT services.

7.2 To organisers and judges, if you have entered a competition on our site. The entry title/content is shared with judges.

7.3 To the public generally; when entering a competition on this site you agree that we can display and adapt the following information on our website, social media, print media and elsewhere to promote our charity and activities: your submission, your full name, your school, any photo you provide, any photos/videos of you taken at our winner's day.

7.4 To regulators, the police and other law enforcement authorities to help deal with fraud and abuse and/or comply with legal requirements.

7.5 To insurers and professional advisers in connection with our insurance cover or to deal with legal claims.


8. Do we send your information outside the UK?

8.1 Your personal information (e.g., name, email address, IP address, browsing information) is transferred to companies outside the UK (generally to the US) that provide us with the services mentioned above (see: To whom do we send or make available your personal information?). Where this happens, we will ensure that there is a legal basis to do so, for example under contracts with standard contractual clauses sanctioned by the Information Commissioner that are designed to provide adequate safeguards for your personal information.


9. What rights do you have?

9.1 If the legal requirements are met: To ask us for access to your personal information, to rectify it if there are mistakes, to delete it or restrict its use in certain circumstances or to "data portability" or to withdraw any consent you've given (e.g., marketing).

9.2 You may also have the right to object to use of your personal information in certain circumstances.

9.3 If you have a complaint about how we are dealing with your personal information, please contact us via the email address above. If you are not happy with our response or think we are not handling your personal information in accordance with the law, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

9.4 For more information about your rights, visit the ICO's website: www.ico.org.uk.


10. What about cookies?

10.1 We and/or other companies use cookies and other tracking technologies on our website. A cookie is an identifier (a small file of letters and numbers) that is sent to your web browser. Cookies are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the website owner or others. Some are session temporary "session" cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser only until your browser is closed. Whereas persistent cookies stay for longer (depending on the lifetime of the specific cookie). For further information on cookies, including how to use your browser to block them and how to delete existing cookies, visit: www.allaboutcookies.org. Our site's functionality will be limited if you configure your browser to reject cookies.

10.2 We ourselves don't currently place cookies.


Version number: 1.4

Effective date: 7 October 2024