Who we are

Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) is a membership organisation; we represent 26 Mountain Rescue Teams (MRTs) in Scotland.

SMR is a registered charity SC045003, and operates under a constitution and works to represent, facilitate and support member MRTs.

This Privacy Policy describes how and why Scottish Mountain Rescue uses your personal information, how we keep it secure and your rights regarding this information.

We are happy to answer any questions that you may have. For further information about our privacy policies please contact us by:

Writing to Scottish Mountain Rescue, Glenmore Lodge, Glenmore, Aviemore, PH22 1QZ

Calling us on 01479 861370

E-mailing us at info@scottishmountainrescue.org

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Scottish Mountain Rescue is committed to protecting your personal information; so when you contact us (for whatever reason) we want you to be confident about how your personal information will be looked after and used.
The purpose of this policy is to let you know how we will process information we collect from you/about you or that you provide to us.

How we collect information about you

We collect information from you in the following ways:

When you interact with us directly: This could be if you ask us about our activities, register with us for an event, make a donation to us, subscribe to our newsletter, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity or otherwise provide us with your personal information. This includes when you phone us, visit our website, or get in touch through the post, or in person.

When you interact with us through third parties: This could be if you provide a donation through a third party such as JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving or one of the other third parties that we work with and provide your consent for your personal information to be shared with us.

When you visit our website: We gather general information which might include which pages are most visited and which, events or information is of most interest to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We use social media marketing. We also use cookies to help our site run effectively. There are more details below – see ‘Cookies’.

Information we collect and how we use it

Personal information we collect may include details such as your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number and credit/debit card details (if you are making a purchase or donation), as well as information you provide in any communications between us. You will have given us this information whilst making a donation, registering for our newsletter or for an event, or ask us about our activities or  any of the other ways you interact with us.

We will use this information to:

• Provide you with advice, information or product that you have asked for.
• Fulfil a contract.
• Understand how we can improve our services and information.
• Provide you with information about our plans: including fundraising initiatives if you have given consent.
• Keep a record of your relationship with us; keep your information up-to-date and accurate and to ensure we comply with your communication preferences.
• Administer your donation, support your fundraising, process gift aid.
• Send you fundraising updates and appeals we think might be of interest to you if you have given your consent.
• Help us to ensure that our communications to you are relevant.
• Undertake analysis and statistical reporting. Where we undertake this activity the data is usually anonymised unless and except we have advised and confirmed this with you in advance.
• Segment our databases (for example by geographical or demographical information) to help us to target our resources more effectively and to provide an improved experience to people who choose to support us.
• We also gather information from social media companies including Facebook to tailor our social ads and boosted posts to you based on your interests and preferences. On Facebook we use the Facebook ads audience function (including custom audiences) and Pixel.
• To tell you about ways that you can get involved and support SMR and teams through social media marketing

Legal basis for using your information

Where consent is the appropriate legal basis for using your personal information we will use this only once we have your consent for the specific reason you have engaged with us.

There are other lawful reasons that allow us to process your personal information and one of those is called ‘legitimate interests’. This means that the reason that we are processing information is that there is a legitimate interest for Scottish Mountain Rescue to process your information.

Whenever we process your personal information under the ‘legitimate interest’ lawful basis we make sure that we take into account your rights and interests and will not process your personal information if we feel that there is an imbalance.

Some examples of where we have a legitimate interest to process your personal information are where we contact you about our work via post, use your personal information for data analytics, or for conducting research to better understand who our supporters are, improving our services, or for our legal purposes (for example, dealing with complaints and claims).

How we keep your information safe

We ensure that there are appropriate technical, physical and organisational measures in place to protect your personal information both on-line and off-line.

Information that we hold on you will be stored securely and only be kept as long as is reasonable and necessary, and in-line with any statutory obligations placed on Scottish Mountain Rescue. The length of time we keep your information will depend on the reason why we have been or are processing your information.

Who we share your data with

The personal information we collect about you will mainly be used by our staff (and volunteers) at Scottish Mountain Rescue so that they can support you.

We may share your information:

• Where we engage a third party to deliver a service on our behalf (for example mailchimp or survey monkey), only required data will be shared. This will be in line with data protection legislation. They will hold your information securely and retain it for the period we instruct.
• Where you have chosen to share your story to help further our work and you have given your explicit consent we may share sensitive information in materials promoting our services or fundraising work or in specific documents.
• We may be required to share personal data with statutory or regulatory authorities to comply with statutory obligations.
• If you have given us permission to contact you by email or SMS, we may provide your email or phone number to social media companies to build a view of our core audience. This helps us to market ourselves to potential new supporters who are similar to our core supporters via Facebook’s “Lookalike Audience” feature. Any information we share with Facebook will be shared in an encrypted format, will be deleted by Facebook after a short period of time, and not used for any other purpose.
• In circumstances other than those noted above, Scottish Mountain Rescue will not share your information with any other organisation for marketing, market research, fundraising or commercial purposes.

How long we retain your data

We will endeavour to keep your information accurate and up to date and not keep it for longer than is necessary. Once you no longer need our services we are legally required to keep records for a certain amount of time depending on the type of data that we hold. After this time we will securely destroy it according to our records retention and disposal procedures. Please contact us for further information on our retention periods.

What rights you have over your data

You have a right to:

• Request to see the personal information we hold about you (We may require proof of identity before we provide you with this information or make changes).
• Request that inaccurate information about you be corrected.
• Change your ‘opt-in’ preferences.
• Unsubscribe from email communications – if you no longer wish to receive email communications from us. You can do this by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of our email communication.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Additional information

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.