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At Sense Scotland, your information is important to us and we are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice sets out how we collect, manage, use and protect your personal data.
This policy aims to give you information on how Sense Scotland collects and processes your personal data including:
It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.
Sense Scotland was formalised as a charity in 1985. It grew quickly, from its beginnings as a small group of families pressing for services for their children, who were affected by deafblindness and today it supports thousands of disabled people and their families, in many services and projects right across Scotland.
We are a registered charity (SC022097) and a company limited by guarantee (147570). For full organisational details please refer to the end of this policy.
Sense Scotland is the controller and responsible for your personal data, referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ in this privacy notice.
We collect personal information about you when you interact with us by completing forms which can be hard copies; or by filling in forms on our website; or by corresponding with us via letter, phone and email; or by providing information in a meeting with us.
This includes personal information you provide when you make contact with us about a service or if you seek support and advice; submit an enquiry; when you start a service with us; when you register with us online; when you participate in an event; make a donation and/or complete a direct debit mandate with us; buy from our shops; register for Gift Aid with us; volunteer with us or apply to volunteer with us; provide us with feedback or submit a complaint; as a supplier of goods and services to Sense Scotland; or as someone who commissions Sense Scotland to provide a service. Employees, workers or candidates for employment or work should refer to our employee and candidate privacy notice.
This is not an exhaustive list and covers the use of social media platforms should you provide us with your personal information through these channels.
We may also receive information about you that is collected from third parties that work with us, for example: HMRC, DWP or JustGiving. These independent parties will only share this information if you have given them consent and/or indicated you wish to share information and/or support Sense Scotland. On occasion, your information may be collected by an organisation working for us, but we continue to hold responsibility for your data at all times.
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).The information you give us may include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone numbers and other details that enable us to identify you. We also collect financial and credit card information, date of birth information and specific information relating to you as a person we support. We collect this for a variety of reasons, including:
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
If you give us personal information about a third party (for example if you are asking for advice about a family member), we will confirm that you have their consent to do so or that you have the legal authority to do so.
We will retain your information for as long as you have an active relationship with us, unless you contact us and ask us to delete your information.
Sense Scotland may also retain certain information if we have a legitimate business interest and/or legal requirement to do so. For example we are required to retain financial records for a set number of years. For further information about this please contact us at yourdata@sensescotland.org.uk.
We may also collect sensitive personal information relating to you and your circumstances if you have a Sense Scotland service or ask us for very detailed advice We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We have in place an appropriate policy document and safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:
Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.
For example, this might be information about your medical condition(s). We usually request your explicit consent to hold and use this information. If we request such information, we will always explain the purpose of our request and how we intend to use it.
We collect and hold sensitive and special category personal data on the children we support, mainly primarily health data. We define anyone under the age of 18 as a child. We will seek consent from a parent or guardian before collecting information about children.
We also collect and manage information from children and aim to use it in a manner that is appropriate to the child and the purpose for which it is provided. We usually collect information from children who use our services and attend our events.
We may receive information about a child direct from a local authority and the local authority will either have consent from you to share that information with us or may use a statutory duty to share this information with us.
In our work with children and families, we recognise and promote the rights of children as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
As noted above, we may receive information about you that is collected from third parties that work with us: for example, HMRC, DWP or JustGiving. These independent parties will only share your information with us if you have indicated that your information can be shared with us and where you have consented to them doing so. To fully understand how these organisations will process your data, it is important to check their Privacy Notices.
We may use selected companies to provide services and process your personal data on our behalf. We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.
This could include postal mail; follow up telephone calls to our new donors; making telephone calls to our supporters; processing credit card payments; carrying out research on our behalf; and analysing data. We will only ever provide those companies with the information they need to deliver the specific service requested and we ensure that these third-party companies adhere to security standards that guarantee your information is protected and, where appropriate, destroyed after use.
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at any time.
We may need to share personal data with the Police, Regulatory Bodies or Legal Advisers if we are required to do so by law. We will usually share date in these circumstances where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests or where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
Our websites use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies. Cookies are small files stored on your computer’s hard drive which are used to collect your personal viewing preferences.
You can obtain more details on the cookies we use and how to manage them from our “Cookie Policy”
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of our websites. We use cookies to improve user experience. The information collected allows us to evaluate and improve the accessibility and content of our websites.
All information that you provide through forms submitted online is stored securely and is only accessed by the appropriate staff. This also applies to forms submitted via third parties working on our behalf including, for example, monthly donations and donor campaign forms.
Sense Scotland takes online payments and donations through our websites. All online payment details go through the secure servers of our third party payment provider Worldpay. All online donations are processed securely by JustGiving. These organisations will receive your credit card number and contact information to process the transaction. We do not retain any credit or debit card details from these transactions.
We may receive information from your social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. Permission of access to such information depends on your settings or the privacy policy of the specific social media platform you use. If in doubt, you should check the privacy policy and privacy settings of any social media platform that you use.
The type and quantity of information we collect depends on why you are providing it. We use your personal information for a multitude of purposes, including:
Your information is only used for the purpose(s) you provide it for and in line with any consent you have given us unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law. We will only usually hold your personal data for as long as you have an active relationship with us.
We do not sell your personal information to any third party and we will not disclose any of your personal information without your consent. However, under certain circumstances we have to share your personal information. This only happens on occasions when:
We may need to share personal data with a small number of trusted companies who work with us on specific projects or the delivery of a specific service.
We will only share personal information with these companies if they have signed a contract that ensures that they will abide by the requirements of data protection laws.
We are committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure in accordance with current data protection legislation.
We have implemented appropriate security policies and technical controls to ensure your information is protected from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. For example, we have secure servers, firewalls and SSL encryption that are routinely monitored. We follow payment card industry (PCI) security compliance guidelines when processing credit card payments and personal information transferred between locations will be encrypted and password protected.
We continue to undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff and, where appropriate, volunteers and approved contractors.
We may use external companies to collect or process personal data on our behalf. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We do comprehensive checks on these companies before we work with them and then work closely with them for the duration of our working relationship. This process is carried out so we can certify that these companies reach our data management expectations and requirements.
If you use one of our services; respond to a fundraising appeal; take part in a fundraising event; support one of our campaigns; apply to volunteer with us; express an interest in our work or one of our fundraising activities, we may also hold your personal information in paper files. We will also collect and retain your information if you send feedback about our services or make a complaint. Any personal information stored in hard copies will be securely stored and only relevant staff members will be given access to it.
We do not transfer your personal data outside of the UK.
It is important that we keep your personal information and communication preferences up to date. You can contact us at any time if your personal information or circumstances change or if you wish to change your preferences for receiving information from us.
Every time we contact you, whether it is providing you with a newsletter; inviting you to take part in a fundraising appeal; or to notify you of an event or a meeting, we will ask you if we have the correct contact details for you.
You have a right to ask us to stop processing your personal data and, if it is no longer necessary nor required for the purpose you provided it to us, we will do so.
With your consent, we will contact you to let you know about current events; the progress we are making; to seek your feedback and views; or to ask for donations and/or other support. We provide clear preference questions within our marketing appeals to make it easy for you to change how you want us to communicate with you. This will include an option on how to ‘opt out’ of our marketing information. If you would like to change these preferences immediately please contact us at: yourdata@sensescotland.org.uk.
In addition, you have a right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. If you want a copy of your personal data, send a description of the information you want to see and proof of your identity by post to: Data Protection Officer, Sense Scotland, 43 Middlesex St, Glasgow G41 1EE. If there are any discrepancies in the information we provide, please let us know and we will correct them.
If you have any questions regarding your information or your communication preferences please send these to: yourdata@sensescotland.org.uk.
You have the following individual rights under Data Protection Law:
If you would like to discuss any of these rights in more detail please contact us at yourdata@sensescotland.org.uk.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
If you are concerned that we have used your personal data for fundraising purposes when you have not given us consent to do so then you can contact the Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel who can advise how to make a complaint: www.goodfundraising.scot or on 0808 164 2520.
If you do not think that we have processed your data in accordance with this Privacy Notice or would like to make a complaint, please contact us in the first instance at:
By Email: yourdata@sensescotland.org.uk
By Post: Data Protection Officer, Sense Scotland, 43 Middlesex Street,
Glasgow, G41 1EE
By Phone: 0300 330 9292
If you are not satisfied with our response you may then wish to contact:
Email: Scotland@ico.org.uk
By Post: The Information Commissioner’s Office – Scotland
45 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7HL
By Phone: 0303 123 1115
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available on request.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see the section on Your Rights above for further information.
In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
This Privacy Notice was last updated in October 2025.
It may be necessary for Sense Scotland to change this privacy notice from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information, we will make this clear on the Sense Scotland website or, if appropriate, by contacting you directly.
Please do check the Sense Scotland website from time to time for the latest version and let us know if you ever have any questions or concerns.
