Privacy Policy

Ulster Wildlife is a local charity that champions native wildlife. We work with local people to secure space for nature in our countryside, towns, coastlines and seas. Our vision is of a healthy, well cared for natural environment which contributes to enjoyment, quality of life, prosperity, health & well-being.

Ulster Wildlife is the operating name of Ulster Wildlife Trust, registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC101848 and is a ‘not for profit’ company incorporated in Northern Ireland limited by guarantee NI 12711.

Ulster Wildlife is part of a network of Wildlife Trusts across the UK collectively known as The Wildlife Trusts but is an independent local charity.

Ulster Wildlife is defined as the ‘Data Controller’ - We are a "data controller" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 and (from 25 May 2018) the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 ("Data Protection Law"). This means that we are responsible for, and control the processing of, your personal information.

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

• used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
• collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
• relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;
• accurate and kept up to date;
• kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about; 
• kept securely.

All of the personal data we process is processed by our staff in Northern Ireland. Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information (using both physical and electronic means). Our staff receives data protection trainingand we have a set of detailed data protection procedures which personnel are required to follow when handling personal data.

We will never sell your information and will never share your information with third parties for the purposes of marketing. We provide a limited number of suppliers/contractors with your information to allow them to perform services on our behalf. We have contracts in place with all these third-party service providers. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us unless we give them our consent. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct. Ulster Wildlife does not transfer any personal data related to you outside of the EU.

We only keep your information as long as is reasonable and necessary for the relevant activity, which may be to fulfil statutory obligations.

As a data controller, we have to have a lawful basis or bases for processing your personal data and have to inform you of the fact that your data is being processed. We collect your personal data principally for our management and administrative use only.

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

• where we need to perform a ‘contract’ or agreement we have entered into with you;
• where we need to comply with a legal obligation;
• 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;
• where we have gained your specific consent.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rarer:

• where we need to protect your interests (or someone else's interests); and
• where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

We respect your right to control your data. Your rights include:

The right to be informed
This privacy notice outlines how we capture, store and use your data. If you have any questions about any elements of this policy, please contact us.

The right of access
If you wish to obtain a record of the personal data we hold about you, through a Subject Access Request, we will respond within one month.

The right to rectification
If we have captured information about you that is inaccurate or incomplete, we will update it.

The right to erase
You can ask us to remove or randomise your personal details from our records.

The right to restrict processing
You can ask us to stop using your personal data.

The right to data portability
You can ask to obtain your personal data from us for your own purposes.

The right to object
You can ask to be excluded from marketing activity and processing based on our legitimate interests.

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling
We respect your right not to be subject to a decision that is based on automated processing.

You also have the right to complain about how your data is being processed which can be done directly to Ulster Wildlife’s Data Protection Officer, Dawn Miskelly or you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

See here for link to Ulster Wildlife’s Complaints Policy and Procedure.

Ulster Wildlife uses cookies to improve your experience when using our website. By continuing to browse this site, we presume that you agree to their use.

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites.

Our cookies help us:

• Make our website work as you'd expect
• Remember your settings during and between visits
• Improve the speed/security of the site
• Allow you to share pages with social networks like Facebook
• Continuously improve our website for you

We do NOT use cookies to:

• Collect any personally identifiable information (without your express permission)
• Collect any sensitive information (without your express permission)
• Pass personally identifiable data to third parties
• Pay sales commissions
• You can learn more about all the cookies we use below

There are two types of cookie you may encounter when using this site:

First party cookies: these are our own cookies, controlled by us and used to provide information about usage of our site.

Third party cookies: these are cookies found in other companies’ internet tools which we are using to enhance our site.

First party cookies

This site uses cookies in several places – we’ve listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last. 

Cookies set by this website

Third party cookies

We use a number of suppliers who may also set cookies on their websites’ on its behalf. This site does not control the dissemination of these cookies. You should check the third party websites for more information about these.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. This privacy policy only applies to this website, so when you click on a link to another website, you should be aware of their own privacy policies.

If at any time you want to update or amend your personal data or contact preferences please us on 028 90454094 or email us on seadeep@ulsterwildlife.org 

If you have subscribed to our free project eNewsletter, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the Unsubscribe button in a current edition. Alternatively, let us know on the contact details above and we will manually unsubscribe you.

Should you wish to find out more about the information we hold about you, or about our privacy notice, please contact us on:

Dawn Miskelly
Operations Director, Ulster Wildlife
Telephone 028 9045 4094
Email: info@ulsterwildlife.org
McClelland House, 10 Heron Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT3 9LE

Our office hours are: Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm.

This policy holds the latest information regarding our Privacy Policy and we will refer to it every time we ask you for your information or consent. This page will be updated from time to time to reflect current practices.

The kind of information we hold about you and how we collect it:

When you complete any form on our website your data is captured in a secure webform.  Examples could be when you submit a comment on a page or when you complete an event booking form or submit a tagging record, or if you sign up for our e-newsletter.

What we use your information for:

Our website uses ‘cookies’ to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites.

Our cookies help us:

• Make our website work as you'd expect
• Remember your settings during and between visits
• Improve the speed/security of the site
• Allow you to share pages with social networks like Facebook
• Continuously improve our website for you

See our Cookies Policy above. By continuing to browse this site, we presume that you agree to their use.

We will never sell your information and will never share your information with third parties for the purposes of marketing. We do use some third parties to process your data which are highlighted below. The third parties we work with at no point ‘own’ your data, so you will never hear from them independently.

Google Analytics
When someone visits www.seadeepni.org we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be upfront about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

E-Newsletter
We use a third-party provider to deliver our E-Newsletter: Mailchimp. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter.

What are the legal grounds for our processing of your personal information:

We use ‘legitimate interest’, ‘contract’ and ‘consent’ as the lawful bases for processing your data on our website. This means it is either in our charity’s legitimate interest or it is to deliver a service you have requested or if you have consented to receive information from us.

How we retain your personal information:

We store all your information securely, we restrict access to only those who need it and we train our staff in handling information securely. All electronic Ulster Wildlife forms that request financial data will use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers. Your information will only be retained for as long as necessary.

The kind of information we hold/process about you:

When you make a booking to attend one of our events we will collect your first name and surname and also possibly the names of any other attendees including children. We will also collect a contact number for you so we can get in touch if there are changes to the event eg if it is called off due to bad weather or the venue changes. If you are booking online we will collect your email address in order to send you a booking confirmation. We may also collect feedback from event attendees on their experiences of our events or have attendees fill in an attendees’ sign–in sheet.

Sensitive personal data
We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health) about event attendees. However, we may collect sensitive personal data if you have an accident at one of our events. This information will be retained for legal reasons, for safeguarding purposes and to protect us (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim). If this does occur, we’ll take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected.

In line with Data Protection Law, we will not collect, store or process personal details of children if they are under 13 years of age; unless we have the express permission from their parent or guardian to do so.

How we collect this information:

This information is usually collected either over the phone, through an online webform or by filling in an event booking form or at the event itself.

What we use information about you for:

We will only ever collect, store and use your personal data when we have an identified purpose and reason to do so. The ICO refers to this as a ‘lawful basis’.

The lawful basis for processing your personal data in relation to events are:

1. For the performance of a contract: We process data relating to your name and contact details in order to administer your event booking with us. We will also process payment details where there is a charge for events.
2. In order to comply with legal obligations: We may process your data where we have to disclose information required by law, e.g. for health and safety compliance, insurance purposes or otherwise where disclosure is mandatory.
3. For the protection of our legitimate interests: We process your personal data to ensure that our legitimate interests in running our operations in an efficient manner including feedback from events and data to establish, present and defend any legal claims.
4. Where it is necessary to protect vital interests: We keep and process data on emergency contact details and any particular medical conditions of event attendees in order to ensure that your vital interests are protected in the event of an emergency.
5. We process data on the basis of consent: Where you agree to it, for example, if you agree to provide consent to receive further information on our work or to be registered for our e-newsletter or for taking photographs.

Sharing and Storing your Information:

We will never sell your information and will never share your information with third parties for the purposes of marketing.   We store all your information securely, we restrict access to only those who need it and we train our staff in handling information securely. All electronic Ulster Wildlife forms that request financial data will use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers. Your information will only be retained for as long as necessary.

How long we retain your personal information:

We will keep personal information in relation to events in line with standard recommendations and our retention policy. This means that information relating to event attendees will be retained for three years from the date of the event. If you have an accident at one of our events we keep the record for three years unless the accident involves a child in which case the accident report will be kept until the child is 21 years old.

The kind of information we hold/process about you:

When you make a booking to attend one of our events we will collect your first name and surname. We will also collect a contact number and email address for you so we can get in touch if there are changes to the course eg if it is called off due to bad weather or the venue changes.  At the course, we will ask you to complete a sign-in sheet and a Tagging Scheme Registration Form which will also capture your name, contact preferences, any relevant license details and vessel name.

Sensitive personal data
We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health) about course attendees. However, we may collect sensitive personal data if you have an accident at one of our events. This information will be retained for legal reasons, for safeguarding purposes and to protect us (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim). If this does occur, we’ll take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected.

How we collect this information:

This information is usually collected either over the phone, through an online webform or by filling in a form at the training course itself.

What we use information about you for:

We will only ever collect, store and use your personal data when we have an identified purpose and reason to do so. The ICO refers to this as a ‘lawful basis’.

The lawful basis for processing your personal data in relation to events are:

1. For the performance of a contract: We process data relating to your name and contact details in order to administer your training booking with us. We will also process payment details where there is a charge for the course.
2. In order to comply with legal obligations: We may process your data where we have to disclose information required by law, e.g. for health and safety compliance, insurance purposes or otherwise where disclosure is mandatory.
3. For the protection of our legitimate interests: We process your personal data to ensure that our legitimate interests in running our operations in an efficient manner including feedback from training courses and data to establish, present and defend any legal claims.
4. We process data on the basis of consent: Where you agree to it, for example, if you agree to provide consent to receive further information on our work or to be registered for our e-newsletter or for taking photographs.

Sharing and Storing your Information:

We will never sell your information and will never share your information with third parties for the purposes of marketing.   We store all your information securely, we restrict access to only those who need it and we train our staff in handling information securely. All electronic Ulster Wildlife forms that request financial data will use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers.

The Department of Agriculture Environment & Rural Affairs (DAERA) is the competent authority for the designation of marine management and protection measures around Northern Ireland. If you apply for a Wildlife Order licence to target Common Skate, DAERA will contact us to confirm whether you have attended the Sea Deep tagging training course (a requirement for the licence). In this instance, we will share your attendance record only with DAERA.

How long we retain your personal information:

We will keep personal information in relation to training for the lifetime of the tagging scheme.  We’ll also keep your contact preferences for the lifetime of the scheme. If you have an accident at one of our courses we keep the record for three years.

The kind of information we hold/process about you:

When you submit a shark or skate tagging record we will record:

• Your name
• Vessel name (if applicable)
• Your email address
• Your phone number
• Your licence number (if you are targeting Common Skate)

How we collect this information:

This could either be submitted by you through our online webform or be submitting through email or on a hard copy recording sheet.

What we use information about you for:

We will only ever collect, store and use your personal data when we have an identified purpose and reason to do so. The ICO refers to this as a ‘lawful basis’.

The lawful basis for processing your personal data in relation to events are:

1. For the performance of a contract: We process data relating to your name and contact details in order to administer your tagging record submission with us.
2. In order to comply with legal obligations: We may process your data where we have to disclose information required by law, e.g. for health and safety compliance, insurance purposes or otherwise where disclosure is mandatory.
3. For the protection of our legitimate interests: We process your personal data to ensure that our legitimate interests in running our operations in an efficient manner including feedback and evaluation purposes.
4. We process data on the basis of consent: Where you agree to it, for example, if you agree to provide consent to receive further information on our work or to be registered for our e-newsletter or for taking photographs.

Sharing and Storing your Information:

We will never sell your information and will never share your information with third parties for the purposes of marketing.   We store all your information securely, we restrict access to only those who need it and we train our staff in handling information securely. All electronic Ulster Wildlife forms that request financial data will use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers.

The Department of Agriculture Environment & Rural Affairs (DAERA) is the competent authority for the designation of marine management and protection measures around NI inshore waters (to 12nm). Information from your tag records relating to the fish that was tagged (i.e. date, location, species, length, tag number, etc.) will be shared with DAERA for the process of decision-making regarding the management and protection of shark, skate and ray species.

We will not share your personal information with DAERA unless you have received a Wildlife Order license to tag a protected species (i.e. species listed on Schedule 5 of the Wildlife Order, including Common Skate and any shark, skate or ray species which may be added in the future).

Tag data will also be shared with CEDaR (the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording), which is the Local Records Centre for Northern Ireland, as well as organisations involved with fisheries management and marine research, including the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and Queen’s University Belfast. No personal information will be shared with these organisations.

How long we retain your personal information:

The tagging record will be kept permanently as an environmental record and your name will be associated with this record as the recorder.