This policy sets out how the Newcomen Society uses and safeguards your personal data.  We update our Policy from time to time so please review it regularly. For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 our Data Controller is the Administrator.

If you have any questions in relation to this privacy policy or how we use your personal data they should be sent to office@ newcomen.com or addressed to the Newcomen Society Administrator, Science Museum, South Kensington SW7 2DD.

Members of the Newcomen Society

As a member of the Newcomen Society will collect your personal data (e.g. name, address, email address, telephone number) to enable us to provide the services to which you are entitled as a member. This can be provided by letter, telephone call or filling in a membership form on our website.

To enable you to receive your Journal and Links, we share this data with our publishers and printers for the sole purpose of sending you these publications through the post. Neither our publishers or printers are permitted to send you marketing communications on their or anyone else’s behalf or sell or loan your data to any other organisation.

If you agreed to support the Society by Gift-Aiding your subscription we may share your data with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

To manage the operation of our website and membership database, we allow our approved contractors to have controlled access to your personal data. The contractors are not permitted to send you marketing communications on their or anyone else’s behalf or sell or loan your data to any other organisation or person  or to copy or to retain your data beyond any period necessary to undertake their contracted work.  They agree not to make any changes to your data and to return any data to the Society when they cease to be contractors.

If you have provided your email address, we will use this to inform you of our lecture and event programme, which is a key aspect of your membership. You can at any time request not to receive any further electronic communication from us, although if you remain a member, we will retain your data to enable you to receive your postal copies of the Journal and/or Links.

We will also use financial information (payment information such as credit or debit card or direct debit details, and whether donations are Gift-Aided) provided by you to pay your subscription. Unless you pay your subscription by cheque, your financial details will be used in an external secure payment system such as PayPal. If you buy membership as a gift, we will record your details and those of the recipient.

Use of the Newcomen Society Website

In operating our website, we may collect and process the following data about you:

• Details of your visits to our website and the resources you access including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data.
• Information provided by you when you fill in forms on our website, such as registering for information or buying a product or tickets for events.
• Information you give us when you communicate with us for any reason.

We may occasionally gather information about your computer or about your general internet use by using a cookie file. Where used, these cookies are downloaded to your computer automatically. Your computer has the ability to decline cookies when you activate the relevant setting on your browser. However, if you decline cookies, you may be unable to access particular parts of our website. You will not be identified personally nor will any personal details of any kind be identified.

We may use geo-location on our website. If you let your device share this information with us, we may use it to send you details of Society events happening in your area.

You will find links to related organisations on our website. These websites will have their own Privacy Policy which you should check. Newcomen does not accept responsibility or liability for these policies as it has no control over them.

Where you have a password for accessing certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the security of data sent to us electronically and so transmission of such data is entirely at your own risk.

Other information

If you have agreed to receive it, we will occasionally send you details of activities by other organisations that we believe may be of interest, such as lectures and visits by societies with similar aims to ourselves. As with similar publications, details of events and activities by other organisations will continue to appear in Links.  We do not pass your data to these organisations.

Personal data that does not relate to membership

Personal data can be created by guests at our lectures, events or the Summer meeting. This could include details of the activity in which you engaged, photographs taken at the activity, and payment details if it was a paid event. We will remind you that we will collect details of your personal data at the time you are asked to provide it or at an event where video or photographs may be taken.  If you purchase an item from us, or make a donation, we will normally create a record which contains personal data.

Surveys and comments   

From time to time we will conduct research to establish the needs and opinions of members about their Society or particular aspects of the services that we provide to members.  We will retain this data only as long as it is required for the activity in question.

How we use your personal data

We will retain and manage your personal data in the ways allowed by the EU General Data Protection Regulation from 25 May 2018. We will collect your personal data to help us service your membership or provide other requested services and help us to deliver our charitable objectives. To do this we may share your data with other organisations. If you have given us permission, we may disclose your personal information to any member of the Newcomen Society. We will never sell your personal data. We may also disclose your personal information to third parties where we are legally required to disclose the information we hold about you or to assist in the prevention of fraud and to minimise credit risk.

As a learned society, we wish to continue to retain documents and data to record the history of the Society. This will include the names of previous members, correspondence from members, paper records, and photographs of attendees at events, lectures and Summer Meetings.

We will set out how we collect and process your personal data at the time that you provide it or as a link to this policy. You may ask us at any time to inform you about the personal data which we hold on you.

Use of our website

If you use our website, we will use your data to improve our website and our services to you, provide you with information you request from us, meet our contractual commitments to you and to notify you about changes to our website which may affect our service to you.

Providing your membership benefits including the Journal and Links

When you become a member, you provide personal data which we use to service your membership. This includes sending renewal information to members by post and/ or email, direct debit or PayPal confirmations, sending details of lectures, events and activities, posting the Journal and Links and sending details of Society events in which you can participate as part of your membership. We will keep and process your details securely, and to provide the Journal and Links, we will share these details securely with our publishers and printers.

For some Society visits, the hosts may request the personal details of those planning to attend for security or other reasons. We will inform you if we are asked to  provide your details, and you can refuse to let the Society pass on your details, but it would then be unlikely that you could attend the visit.  Hosts in such cases will have been asked to commit not retain your data after the visit or pass it on to any other organisation or person.

Contact with you which is not directly related to your membership 

You may choose whether we may contact you about matters other than those which relate to your membership and in what way we may contact you.

If you have agreed to receive such information, we will occasionally send you details of activities by other organisations that we believe may be of interest, such as lectures and visits by societies with similar aims to ourselves.

If you purchase an item through our website or office, we will send confirmation of your purchase.

Recruitment and employment 

To comply with our contractual obligations and other responsibilities, we process personal data from job applicants and employees. We also have to transfer the data about employees to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and any pension providers.

Revised November 2018