This page explains what information we may collect about you, how and why we may keep and process this information, including circumstances in which we may share it with third parties, and how you can ask us to amend or remove from our records any information we hold about you. This page also relates to circumstances in which we may receive personal data about you from third parties.

What This Covers

The National Centre for Writing is committed to protecting all personal information you may share with us as:

• ticket buyer
• workshop participant
• job applicant
• registered with us to receive one of our newsletters
• working with us as a freelance artist
• commercial hirer

Who We Are

The National Centre for Writing’s mission is to put literature at the heart of contemporary culture. Through pioneering and collaborative projects we explore the artistic and social power of creative writing and literary translation. The National Centre for Writing (previously known as Writers’ Centre Norwich) is a registered UK charity number 1110725. We are also a registered company limited by guarantee in England and Wales, registration number 05242876.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information is any data which can be used to identify an individual. It may include your name, address, email address, phone numbers (landline and mobile), banking details, purchasing history, correspondence (including records of telephone conversations and text messages), photos, video footage, podcasts, press briefings, CCTV records. It does not include information which has been anonymised.

Why We Hold and Process Personal Information

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets out six headings under which organisations are entitled to store and process personal information. Processing information means the way we use it. These are:

• Consent: when you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose. Consent will not be assumed from a failure to opt out but only on the basis of positively opting in, for example to receive our newsletters or be included on our mailing list for events.
• Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because we need to take specific steps before entering into a contract with you. This may include an agreement to purchase tickets for an event, to enter into a hire agreement for the hall or a freelance contract for services such as teaching.
• Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations). This might include keeping employment records for the minimum periods of time required by employment or health and safety legislation.
• Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life.
• Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
• Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for the legitimate interests of our business, or the legitimate interests of a third party unless there is a good reason to protect your data which overrides those legitimate interests. This could include statistical reporting to our funders or sharing information with previous employers to obtain references.

Where Do We Collect Personal Information From?

Information you give to us:

• When you apply for tickets or workshop places
• When you request to join our mailing lists
• When you email or text message us
• When we speak to you on the phone
• When you complete feedback surveys and give us your contact details
• When you use our website, we automatically collect information from your browser. This information includes your IP address, your browser type and language, access times, the contents of any undeleted cookies* that your browser previously accepted from us and the referring website.
• When you apply to us for a job or enter into a freelance contract with us

Data we collect from carefully chosen third parties:

• Social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Please note that information shared on social media is covered by the privacy policies of those platforms and not by ours.
• Teachable, the virtual learning environment (VLE) which hosts our online courses. This includes information such as which online courses you have taken. The Teachable-specific privacy policy can be found here, which only applies if you are enrolling on an online course.
• Partnership organisations, including Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Norwich Theatre Royal, Arts Council England, the British Council, the University of East Anglia.
• Our website contains links to various third party websites. If you click on a third party link, please note you are then covered by their privacy notices.

How Do We Use Your Personal Information?

• To deliver the products and services you have requested
• To manage your account and provide you with customer support
• To carry out research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our products and services
• To communicate with you by email, postal mail, telephone and/or mobile devices
• With your explicit consent, we may send you information about our own products and services, or those of third parties we think may be of interest to you. If you do not consent to such contact, we will not undertake it.
• To develop and display content and advertising tailored to your interests on our site and other sites. Advertising content will only be delivered with your explicit consent.
• To pursue our legitimate business interests
• To carry out a contract we have entered into with you
• For statutory purposes
• For your vital interests

What Personal Information Do We Share?

We may share any personal data necessary to fulfil our legal and contractual obligations and to protect your health and safety. This may include sharing information with statutory bodies, health services, our funders and other organisations we work with. If the information we hold about you is not required for legal or contractual purposes, or for your health and safety, we will not share it without your explicit consent to do so.

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that any third parties with whom we share your information store and process that data in accordance with the GDPR. However, you should be aware that, when they are processing your data, their own policies and procedures apply rather than ours.

How Do We Protect Your Information?

• Information required for legal or contractual purposes may be kept either as a soft copy on our secure server and/or as a hard copy filed in our office in locked filing cabinets. Soft copy files are password protected and access to filing cabinets only granted to those staff members who have a legitimate reason to process your data.
• Personal information about your health will be secured in the same way, unless it relates to an accident which takes place on our premises, in which case some details must be recorded in our Accident Book, which must be accessible to anyone reporting an accident. Health information will be shared, where necessary for your protection, with people external to the organisation such as freelance tutors but we will always consult with you about this where possible.
• Our ticketing and sales are processed by Spektrix (ticketed events and courses) or Stripe (Writer’s Toolkit Online courses), both of which are very established and widely used. Both use high levels of security to protect your information.
• Financial information you share with us when purchasing our services is not stored by us but is processed by our agents, Worldpay, in accordance with Payment Card Data Security Compliance (PCI DSS). Detailed information about this is available here https://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/faq/
• While we cannot guarantee the security of the internet, our website has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information you provide to us through it. However, you should bear in mind that the security of information you share with us via social media is the responsibility of the relevant social media organisations rather than ourselves.

Cookies*

When you visit our website, we may assign your computer one or more cookies, to facilitate access to our site and to personalise your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able to sign in or use some of the interactive features offered on our website.

Your Rights

Under the GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access to your personal information
• Request updates or alterations to information which is incorrect
• Request the partial or complete removal of the information we hold on you, though you should be aware that this may not always be possible in the case of data we hold for contractual or statutory purposes, or in the legitimate interests of our business

If you wish to make an access request, or request that your personal information be updated or removed from our records, or if you have any queries about the way we process your data, please contact us at info@nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk and we will respond to your request within seven days. Alternatively, you can call us on 01603 877177 or write to us at: National Centre for Writing, Dragon Hall, 115-123 King Street, Norwich NR1 1QE

Changes to This Notice

The National Centre for Writing may update this Privacy Notice at any time, without prior notice. The latest version will always be available on our website.