Privacy Notice

Introduction

This privacy policy explains when, how and why Pars collects or uses personal information, how it is shared, how we protect privacy when doing so, and your rights and choices regarding this information. We are committed to respect any personal information which is under our control and to keep it safe.  We aim to be clear about when we collect personal information and what we will do with it.

This privacy policy applies to all those who engage with us including:

  • Students
  • Employees or volunteers
  • Financial supporters
  • Prayer supporters
  • Visitors or users of one of our websites

This privacy policy is effective from 25th May 2018.

 

Who Pars is

Pars Theological Centre is a Christian ministry that promotes Christian faith by providing theological education and leadership training for Persian speaking Christians around the globe. In this privacy policy,  “Pars Theological Centre”, “Pars”, “we”, or “our” refers to:

Multimedia Theological Training Limited a registered charity (no. 1144746) and a company limited by guarantee (no. 07693753) in England and Wales, which trades as “Pars Theological Centre”.  Our registered office address is:

Brook House, 54A Cowley Mill Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 2QE, Telephone: +44 (0)1895 540973, Email: info@parstheology.com

 

What type of information is collected from you?

Pars only collects information you agree to sharing. This encompasses personal information that can be used to identify you, including:

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Postal address
  • ID Photo
  • Telephone number
  • marital status
  • Bank account or payment card details
  • IP address
  • Pages accessed on our website(s)
  • Files downloaded on our websites)
  • Student, employee and volunteer data such as qualifications, languages,  experience and references.

 

Sensitive information

Certain types of personal information are in a special category under data protection laws, as they are considered to be more sensitive.  Examples of this type of sensitive data would be information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, or religious or philosophical beliefs.

We only collect this type of information about you to the extent that there is a clear reason for us to do so, for example prospective students’ enrollment in one of our programmes where we need this information to ensure suitability, security and care. We will only use this information for the specific purpose for which you gave permission and where it is within our legitimate interests to process or where we have other legal grounds to do so.

Wherever it is practical for us to do so, we will make clear why we are collecting this type of information and what it will be used for.

 

Children

We are concerned and committed 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.

 

How do we collect personal information from you?

Personal data is collected each time you are in contact with us, for example, when you:

  • apply to enroll into one of our courses of study;
  • visit the website (see the Cookies Policy);
  • make a donation;
  • register for one of our conferences or events;
  • apply for a job or volunteer at our offices or events;
  • provide your contact details, in writing or orally, to our staff or volunteers;
  • contact us by means such as email, text, letter, telephone;
  • have face to face meetings with staff and volunteers;

 

How is your personal information used?

Your personal information will be dealt with in accordance with the Law. It is never sold, nor given away. It is only shared with others where you have given consent or where it is permitted or required either contractually or legally.

Generally, uses of your personal information based on our legitimate charitable interests and on your consent, may include:

  • to keep you informed as to Pars’ activities, events, resources and conferences;
  • to promote the interests of Pars, its Christian mission and its charitable objectives;
  • to manage students, employees and volunteers;
  • to fundraise and process donations and related statutory rights and obligations;
  • to establish and maintain your involvement with us by keeping records of
    • events you have attended;
    • areas and activities of Pars you have supported;
    • donations you have made;
    • products or services you have requested;
  • to use for administration purposes;
  • to notify you about changes to our services;
  • to answer an inquiry or request for further information or complaint about us, our services, activities and events;
  • to register you for courses, events, conferences and provide the services requested;
  • to improve our website and communications.

 

Use of student personal data

If you become a student on one of our programmes you will have provided a lot of personal information on your application form. Below are some examples of why we need this information:

  • To assess your suitability to study
  • To enable us to tailor necessary support to ensure you succeed in your studies
  • As the basis for how we communicate with you during your studies
  • To register you with Pars Theological Centre
  • To comply with Higher Education Institution requirements for submission of generic and anonymised statistics relating to our students.

 

Pars’ websites and cookies

Website usage information is collected using cookies. This helps us to see how many people use our websites, how many people visit on a regular basis, and how frequently visited individual pages are. Cookies are also essential to our websites running correctly and delivering goods and services to users. For more information, please see our cookies policy.

Cookies policy

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed onto your computer’s hard drive. The file is added and the cookie helps examine web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site.

Essentially, cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie does NOT give us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Although most web browsers automatically accept cookies, you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies to your preference. However, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website.

We use cookies on our website and we assume you are ok with this otherwise please disable cookies in your browser or navigate away and clear cookies set by the website.

Cookies on this website are used for:

  • Analytical/performance purposes – this allows us to recognise and calculate the number of visitors and to see how visitors navigate around the website when they are using it. Therefore helping us improve the way our website functionality for example, by ensuring that users can find what they are looking for easily.
  • Functionality purposes – to help us recognise you when you return to our website. This allows us to personalise our content for you and remember your preferences and settings (e.g. your choice of language or region).
  • Sharing purposes – this allows you to share pages with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

If you have any questions regarding our cookie policy then please contact us.

 

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics and other services to collect information about how our websites are used. These help us to know how often users visit our websites, what pages they visit when they do so, and how they use our content online.

 

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites belonging to third parties and we sometimes choose to participate in social networking websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud amongst others. We may also include content from third parties such as these on our website. However, we do not have any control over their privacy practices. Please ensure that you have read and understood their privacy policy in addition to ours.

 

Do we share your personal information with others?

We never sell or lease your personal information to other external parties to use for their own purposes. There are scenarios where we may share your personal information with an external party. These include:

  • Where we run an event in collaboration with another external party, your personal information may need to be shared with them and those who provide services to help us deliver the event. Where we are required to do so, we will make it clear what will happen to your personal information when you register.
  • Where we employ a third party to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and email, removing repetitive information from customer lists, evaluating data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. We will give them access to the personal information needed to perform their functions, but they may not use it for other purposes. We require them to comply strictly with our instructions and data protection laws and will make sure that appropriate controls are in place.
  • Where we are under a duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies), or in order to enforce or apply our rights (including in relation to our website or other applicable terms and conditions) or to protect us (for example in cases of suspected fraud or defamation).

Pars’ legal basis for processing your personal information

In line with the General Data Protection Regulation, we ensure that the collection and processing of your personal information has a “legal basis”.  The legal basis will be one of the following:

 

Consent

Broadly, we have a basis to use your personal information where we ask you if we can use your information in a certain way, and you agree to this. More specifically:

  • Consent as a student

When you apply to become a student on one of our courses, you provide information to us on the basis that it is used to give you access to our online learning platform, maintain contact with you and provide support throughout the duration of your studies.

  • Consent as a supporter

If you are a supporter we will process your personal data on the basis of the consent you provided us with. You are free to change your preferences at any time by contacting us by telephone, post or email as shown in the ‘contact’ section below.

 

Legal obligation

We have a basis to use your personal information where we need to do so to comply with one of our legal or regulatory obligations such as claiming Gift Aid on donations in the UK.

Legitimate interests

We have a basis to store and use your personal information if it is reasonably necessary for us to do so and in our “legitimate interests” in fulfilling our educational and charitable objectives (provided that what the information is used for is fair and does not unduly impact your rights).

We consider our legitimate interests to include all of the day-to-day activities Pars carries out with personal information.  Some examples not mentioned under the other bases above where we are relying on legitimate interests are:

  • analysis and profiling of our supporters using personal information we already hold;
  • use of personal information when we are monitoring use of our website or apps for technical purposes;
  • use of personal information to administer, review and keep an internal record of the people we work with, including students, supporters, employees and volunteers.

If you have any questions about the lawful bases upon which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the details provided in the ‘contact’ section below.

 

How we keep your information safe

We place great importance on the security of your personal information. We have strict procedures and security features in place to protect your personal information and prevent unapproved access, disclosure, use and modification although we need to remind you that despite all our efforts, the internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and that you submit data at your own risk.

Personal information, held electronically, is stored in a secure server or secure files, whilst those held physically are stored in locked cabinets.

We ensure that access to personal data is restricted only to those staff members or volunteers whose job roles require such access and that suitable training is provided for these staff members and volunteers.

Where we have given you, or where you have chosen security codes (username, password, memorable word or PIN), which enable you to use any online service, you are responsible for keeping these security details confidential.

 

How long we keep your information for

Pars retains personal information it collects from you where there is a need to do so (e.g. to maintain our relationship with you, provide you with the products, services or information you requested). Where this is not the case, Pars will either delete or anonymise it or, if this is not immediately possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then Pars will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

 

Your rights regarding your personal information

For personal information that we have about you:

Delete Data: You can ask us to erase or delete all or some of your personal information (e.g., if it is no longer necessary to provide services to you or we are not legally obliged to retain it).

  • Change or Correct Data: You can edit some of your personal information through your account. You can also ask us to change, update or fix your data in certain cases, particularly if it is inaccurate.
  • Object to, or Limit or Restrict, Use of Data: You can ask us to stop using all or some of your personal data (e.g., if we have no legal right to keep using it) or to limit our use of it (e.g., if your personal data is inaccurate or unlawfully held).
  • Right to Access and/or Take Your Data: You can ask us for a copy in machine readable format of your personal data.

Direct Marketing

We will not use your information for marketing or fundraising purposes if you have asked us not to or we are not legally allowed to use it for these purposes. (In certain circumstances we must obtain your permission before we contact you for marketing or fundraising purposes.) However, we will retain your basic details on a suppression list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you.

Email communications

If you are registered to receive our email newsletters, you will be given a clear opportunity to opt out of/unsubscribe from future email communications.

Additional rights

You may also have additional rights, depending on where you live. For example, if you live in the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you may ask us to explain any automated processing we carry out and the impact of this on you, or you may raise a concern or complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about the way your personal information is being used. For more information, visit www.ico.org.uk.

 

Complaints or comments

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we are using your personal information we’d like to hear about it. We appreciate the opportunity this feedback gives us to learn and improve. You can get in touch with us using the details shown in the ‘contact’ section below.

 

Changes to the privacy notice

Pars may amend this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in best practice, security and control and to ensure compliance with any changes or amendments to the Law or other applicable legislation. Any amended version will be available on the website. We suggest you visit regularly to keep up to date with any changes.

 

Contact

Address: P.O.Box 66099, London, W4 9FE, UK

Email: info@parstheology.com

Phone: (+44) 189-5540-973