Data Protection Policy

Data handling within Woking Photographic Society (hereon “the Society”) is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). Under this, the Society is regarded as a “data controller” due to the collection, storage and use of personal information relating to both members and non-members involved in Society activities. Relevant information may include but is not limited to names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, similar information relating to guests at Society events, the titles, content and associated meta-data of uploaded media files, bank account information, photographs taken at Society events and IP addresses used for all forms of upload via the Society website. This personal information is hereon referred to as “the Data”.

Purpose: The Data collected is used exclusively for the administration and operation of the Society, including all aspects of membership, internal, external and inter-club competitions, publicity and event organisation. This also includes operation of the Society website and any supporting systems. The Society does not use the Data for the purposes of marketing and does not sell the Data as a commodity.

Consent: The GDPR requires organisations to protect certain rights of the individual relating to the use of their personal data; this includes gaining consent to collect, retain and process data, and making provision for the subsequent removal of consent if desired. Joining the Society or taking part in its activities, is voluntary and by choosing to become a member, or otherwise to continue or renew membership, or to participate in Society activities and events, you consent to the appropriate use of the Data for the purposes of operating the Society and to the retention of this data for periods as described within this document. Individuals are free to withdraw all consent however for members this will result in immediate termination of membership, and no refund of annual fees will take place. It should also be noted that after removal of consent it may be necessary to continue to retain some or all of the Data for the valid purposes of operating the Society. Most Society activities that require data collection are also voluntary, for example the entering of competitions, and if you choose to do so you similarly consent to the use and retention of the data; withdrawal of consent, or other restriction on processing, would result in exclusion from the activity in question. The Society may seek separate consent where appropriate e.g. where transfer of the Data to another data controller is necessary, and whether to display uploaded images on the Society website and Social Media platforms.

Transfer: The data collected is primarily used by the Society Committee, however limited data may be transferred to an external “data processor” (e.g. an external judge for pre-assessment of images, or a local restaurant for the Society Christmas Dinner) or to a different data controller (e.g. the organisers of an external competition, or to 3rd party operators of systems used to aid in the operation of the Society; this includes population of a member-contact list on MailChimp systems). For additional transfers to other data controllers, additional consent will be obtained (this will usually be within the electronic form or circumstance that the data collection occurs).

Retention: the Data will be stored for the purpose of operating the Society; this will include maintaining a club history and media archive. The Data will be kept as follows:

Item Retention Period
Data relating to membership, potential members and parties who contact the society. One full Society operating year beyond the point that the membership does not commence, lapses or is otherwise terminated
Transferred media content, titles, author details, media meta-data Indefinitely for historical and publicity purposes including but not limited to inscriptions on trophies, yearbook and programme entries, website/social media platforms where approval is given, press reports and the historic image archive.
Financial information e.g. bank account identifiers This will kept for the durations as required by law.
Judge and lecturer feedback No more than 3 years

Data Amendment: requests for data amendment should be sent to the appropriate Committee representative as defined within the website Members Area, Committee Contact Details, or to the Secretary. External parties needing to amend competition data should contact extcompsec @ wokingps.org.uk or the email address of the representative you have been dealing with. Note that certain changes cannot be made in the case of competitions – e.g. it is not possible to amend an image beyond the submission closing date, however an image may be withdrawn instead if practicalities permit.

Erasure: the Data will be kept in accordance with the retention policies defined within this document, and requests for Erasure will treated on a case-by-case basis. However it should be noted that current members are not able to request erasure of membership data without termination of the membership. It should also be noted that items of the Data may be retained indefinitely irrespective of request for Erasure e.g. trophy inscriptions and any item that is required for the operation of the Society historic records, or any item that is unreasonable or impractical to remove.

Other Rights: other rights of the individual e.g. restriction on automated processing decisions, do not generally apply to Data held by the Society. However, any queries or concerns in respect of these should be addressed to the Secretary.

Special Considerations.

Transfer of media files:
Image and A/V sequence files may contain meta-data including personal information; this may include the author name and associated details, plus information such as camera serial number and the GPS coordinates of the location where the photograph was taken. Additionally, the media files themselves may contain the likeness of living individuals. In transferring media files to the Society, via the website, email or other means, you consent to the storage and publication (where granted) of this information along with the image content, and you agree to remove any personal information prior to transfer if it desired that this should not be stored with the files or made onwardly available. Furthermore, you agree to obtain any required consent from photographic subjects prior to transfer to the Society, particularly if images may be displayed on the Society website, Social Media, used in external competitions or reproduced in the press. The submitter must make the Society Committee aware immediately if their use of an image is at any time contested. You agree that all consent and permissions granted by you during the submission process apply to the media file, its graphical contents and associated metadata.

For certain competitions and events, other clubs and societies may transfer media files to the Society via the website, email or other means. In cases where you are a representative of the 3rd party and you are transferring files on behalf of other members of your organisation, you further agree that you have obtained all necessary consents from the authors of the works being submitted.

Contacts and Communications: except where otherwise specified, all communications with respect to the collection, storage and use of the Data should be directed to the Society Secretary via email on secretary @ wokingps.org.uk. In participating as a member, you agree to receive ad hoc communications via email where these are required for the operation of the Society. In choosing to receive the Society Newsletter and mailings, you consent to basic data being stored on 3rd party servers for the valid purposes of operating this facility, and to receive regular and ad hoc communications from the Society. You are free to unsubscribe from this service at any time using the links provided in the mails.

(VERSION 1.3)