Privacy Policy | Projects Abroad

We are Projects Abroad (UK) Ltd, a company registered in the United Kingdom at Telecom House, 125-135 Preston Road, Brighton, BN1 6AF (2478906). In this document Projects Abroad will sometimes be referred to as “we”.

This Privacy Notice is designed to help you understand everything you need to know about the what, why and how’s of our data gathering and processing operations, and what your legal rights are as an individual. It has been updated in response to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We hope you’ll take some time to read this document; we’ve tried to keep it all as simple as possible and we will keep you informed if there are any changes to the way we process your personal data in the future, before making them

Projects Abroad takes its responsibilities to protecting your data very seriously and we do advise you get to know our practices – If there’s anything in this policy you don’t understand or if you want to ask any questions, please feel free to contact us using the details below.

Why do we collect personal data?

The information we collect from volunteers is done for the purpose of arranging your trip. All the data we request helps us match you with the most suitable volunteer placement and to provide you with a safe and secure volunteering experience.

We also hold personal data on “prospects” (potential volunteers) who contact us before booking. This helps us recognise when you re-engage with us so we don’t need to start from scratch each time you contact us.

We also hold data on our “alumni” (former volunteers) so we can request feedback and reviews to help better the experience for future volunteers, and to inform you of other projects we provide, or offers that may interest you.

We shall not process any personal data that is not directly relevant to the above stated purpose.

Where did we obtain your personal data?

If you are a Projects Abroad volunteer, we gathered your personal data from the application form you filled out when you first applied. Our Volunteer Advisors, who are responsible for helping you prepare for your trip, may also request further information from you depending on the requirements of your destination and project.

In order to do all this we may need the following personal data:

Personal contact details such as name, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses
Date of birth
Gender
Next of kin and emergency contact information
Passport and visa details
CV/resume
Medical records
Criminal record check
Bank account details
Educational details
Personal references
Placement preferences
IP address

If you are a prospect, we gathered your personal data from the method or methods of contact that you used to get in touch with us, such as our newsletter and brochure request forms, email, telephone, or live chat.

If you are one of our alumni, we may also have gathered your personal data from feedback surveys or reviews you took part in or correspondence you engaged in for the purposes of arranging promotional activities.

The conditions of use

Contractual Necessity

Projects Abroad is required to process your personal data for the purpose stated above in order to deliver on the terms of a contract between us and yourself, or it may be to deliver on the terms of a contract that is not yet in place but where there is an intention that it soon shall be.

Legal Obligation

Projects Abroad is required to process your personal data for the purpose stated above in accordance with our legal obligations to provide for financial commitments between us and yourself, and to keep your records until the statute of limitation has expired.

Legitimate Interests

Projects Abroad will process your personal data for certain legitimate business interests which include some or all of the following

a) To provide you with the project you have asked us to arrange

b) To improve the quality of the services we offer through feedback and satisfaction surveys,

c) To provide reference information to third party organisations where we place you,

d) To inform you of other projects we provide, or offers that may interest you,

e) To send notifications on subjects you have subscribed to,

f) To recognise when volunteers and prospects re-engage with us,

g) To allow us to understand the scale and range of our customer base,

h) To improve our website so our content is delivered more effectively,

i) To monitor website activity to identify usage trends for the purpose of making online marketing more relevant,

j) Statistical analysis and market research

Where we are processing your data for the above reasons we shall always hold your data rights paramount. You have the right to object to this processing if you wish, more details can be found below on objecting to processing.

If we don’t have it, we can’t work with it…

Providing us with your personal data for the purposes above is a contractual requirement, as such you are obliged to provide this information.

It’s always your choice on whether to provide personal data of course; if you decide that you don’t want to provide us with your personal data then in turn we cannot fulfil our contractual obligations and arrange a project for you.

Where is my data going to be kept?

We know how much data security matters to all our customers. With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it.

We store your data is a secure database using ‘https’ technology and access to your personal data is password-protected. We do not store sensitive data such as payment card information on our database with all payments being processed directly through the card processer.

We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks.

Who will we share your information with?

To achieve the above-stated purposes for which we will process your personal data, we may need to share this information with various third-party organisations such as placement providers, host families, foreign authorities, accountants, advertisers such as Google and Meta, software providers such as HubSpot, travel agents, technical resource providers, and partner institutions like schools and universities.

When opting-in to marketing information via forms on our website, you can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link included in each email. Please contact dataprivacy@projects-abroad.org if you encounter any issues when attempting to unsubscribe.

Projects Abroad will never share your personal data with third-parties that intend to use it for their own purposes like direct marketing.

Projects Abroad will transfer your personal data to the destination(s) you have chosen to volunteer and they may also share relevant data with your selected project.

No third party we employ who must have access to our data in order to perform their function will be allowed to use any of that data for any purpose unrelated to the purposes stated above.

Data Transfers outside EU by Controller

Projects Abroad will as a part of its standard business practices transfer your personal data to our offices in the following countries based outside of the EEA:

Argentina, Australia, Belize, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Samoa, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, United States, UAE, Vietnam.

Where transfers of data to third countries take place Projects Abroad has applied the following safeguards to ensure that appropriate security measures are in place:

a) Personal data is transferred through our secure password protected database

b) Only Projects Abroad staff have access to this database

Data Transfers outside EU by Third Party

Projects Abroad uses the products and services of third party organisations that transfer personal data outside the list of countries approved by the EU Commission as having appropriate safeguards for data transfers. The following safeguards are in place to ensure that any third party data controller or data processer engaged by Projects Abroad has appropriate security measures in place:

a) We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.

b) They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract with them.

c) We work closely with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected at all times.

d) If we stop using their services, any of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous.

How long will we keep your data for?

Contractual Necessity

Where the lawful basis of our processing is based on a contractual necessity, Projects Abroad will retain your personal data until the statute of limitation expires. Once the statute of limitation expires, your data will either be deleted completely or anonymised, for example by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning.

Legal Obligation

Where the lawful basis of our processing is based on a legal obligation, Projects Abroad will retain your personal data until the statute of limitation expires.

Legitimate Interests

Where the lawful basis of our processing is based on legitimate interests Projects Abroad will retain your personal data until the purposes for which the data is used have become irrelevant or until it has been requested to be deleted.

Your Rights, Our Responsibility

There are several rights granted to you immediately upon providing us with your personal information; we’d like you to know that at Projects Abroad we take your rights as a Natural Person seriously and will always conduct ourselves in a way that is considerate of our responsibility to serve your legal rights.

You have the right to request:

a) Access to the personal data we hold about you,

b) The correction of your personal data when incorrect, out of date or incomplete.

c) That we stop using your personal data for direct marketing (either through specific channels, or all channels).

d) That we stop any consent-based processing of your personal data after you withdraw that consent.

You can contact us to request to exercise these rights at any time as follows:

To ask for your information or for it to be amended please contact The Data Protection Officer, Projects Abroad, Telecom House,125-135 Preston Road, Brighton, BN1 6AF, UK or email dataprivacy@projects-abroad.org

The Right of Access

This grants you the right to confirm whether or not your personal data is being processed, and to be provided with all the relevant details of what those processing operations are.

If you would like access to the personal data we have about you, we ask that you contact us by emailing dataprivacy@projects-abroad.org

The Right of Erasure (‘Right to be Forgotten’)

You have the right to request that we erase all personal data we have about you, and we must respond to that request without undue delay. There are some conditions that apply with this right, but we will make every attempt to respond to a ‘Right to be Forgotten’ request within 30 days or receiving it.

The Right to Rectification

This one is fairly straight forward; if you notice that the data we have about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you may request we rectify the mistake. We will make every effort to respond to requests of this type immediately.

The Right to Restriction

You have the right to have us restrict the processing of your personal data and ensure that processing only takes place with your consent or for legal purposes.

The Right to Objection

The right to object is a basic freedom all democracies enjoy. If you wish to object to the way we use, or have used, your personal data you may do so freely.

The Right to Portability

This is a legal right afforded to you that basically states that if you request it, we must pass on all of the details you have given to us to another provider of your choosing.

The Right to Complain

We will always try to maintain the highest standards and encourage the confidence our customers have in us as an organisation. In order that we can achieve this we do request that any complaints be first brought to our attention so we can properly investigate matters; if however you would like to complain about Projects Abroad to a supervisory authority you may do so by contacting the Information Commissioners Office on +44 (0)303 123 1113, or anyone of the other reporting methods listed on their website - https://ico.org.uk/concerns

Our contact details

If you wish to get in touch with Projects Abroad to speak with our Data Protection Officer, please use do so with any of the below contact details:

Projects Abroad

Telecom House

125-135 Preston Road

Brighton

BN1 6AF, UK

T: 01273 007 230

@: dataprivacy@projects-abroad.org

Disclaimer

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This website is intended to provide general information. Users should seek appropriate legal advice before taking or refraining from taking any action in reliance on any information contained in this website. Projects Abroad (UK) Ltd is not responsible for any loss which may arise from accessing, using or reliance on any such information.

Links to other sites from the pages on this website are for information only and Projects Abroad (UK) Ltd accepts no responsibility for any material on any website which is linked from or to this website.