Privacy Policy

 

EFFECTIVE DATE: THURSDAY 29 MAY 2025

Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the www.archives.org.uk website (the “Service”).

This page informs you of our cookies and privacy policy regarding the collection and use. As well as the disclosure of personal data when you use our Service. And the choices you have associated with that data.

We use your data to provide and improve the Service. Therefore, by using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.

TYPES OF DATA COLLECTED

PERSONAL DATA

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Therefore, personally, identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Email address

  • First name and last name

  • Phone number

  • Cookies and Usage Data

The legal basis for collecting and processing information is the consent of the individual.

USAGE DATA

We may also collect information about how the Service is accessed and used (“Usage Data”). As a result, this Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version. As well as the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages. And also, the unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

TRACKING & COOKIES DATA

As well as the above, we use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information.

Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. And cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyse our Service.

Although you can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.

EXAMPLES OF COOKIES WE USE:

Session Cookies. We use Session Cookies to operate our Service.

Security Cookies. We use Security Cookies for security purposes.

USE OF DATA

Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) uses the collected data for various purposes:

  • To provide and maintain the Service

  • To notify you about changes to our Service

  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so

  • To provide customer care and support

  • To provide analysis or valuable information so that we can improve the Service

  • To monitor the usage of the Service

  • To detect, prevent and address technical issues

MEMBERSHIP DATA

When joining as a member of ARA, we will collect the following information:

  • Name

  • Date of Birth

  • Contact information including email address and home address

  • Employment information, including salary details

  • Payment information

If you are joining on a student membership, we will also collect details regarding course, university/college and stage of study.

We will also ask you to provide the following information, however it is not mandatory and if you don’t provide it, it will not affect your membership:

  • Telephone number

  • Qualifications

We use the collected information held for the following:

  • Administration of your membership

  • Administration of all ARA events including conference

  • ARA Publications and websites

  • Used in a mailing list by the Association’s publishers to distribute ARC magazine and Archives and Records journal

The legal basis for collecting the membership data is explicit consent, which is given when completing the membership form.

Data Protection, please contact the ARA Office on 01823 327077.

RETENTION OF DATA

We will only keep your information for as long as we need it to manage the relationship we have with you, based on the parameters of that relationship, or for as long as we are legally required to.

We have retention schedules that set out how long we keep information. When we dispose of your data it will be done securely.

TRANSFER OF DATA

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. This data will only be transferred and accessed within the United Kingdom by the ARA team.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. And no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organisation or a country unless there are adequate controls in place. Therefore, including the security of your data and other personal information.

For more information about Squarespace data storage, please visit this article.

DISCLOSURE OF DATA

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

Our business, Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland), may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary:

  • To comply with a legal obligation

  • To protect and defend the rights or property of Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland)

  • To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service

  • To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public

  • To protect against legal liability

SECURITY OF DATA

The security of your data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analysing how our Service is used.

These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

Consequentially, we have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites or services.

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”).

We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. therefore, if you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children have provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. And if we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.

DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS

Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights:

  • Right to be informed - This notice provides you with information in relation to how your data is processed. This ensures that we are transparent about what we will do with the information you supply to us.

  • Right of access – Also known as a Subject Access Request, you have the right to ask us to provide you with a copy of the information we hold about you. This right is subject to some exemptions and so you may not always receive all the information we process.  

  • Right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

  • Right to erasure (or “right to be forgotten”) - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

  • Right to data portability - This only applies to information you have given us. You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another or give it to you.

  • Right to object - You have the right to object to processing if we are able to process your information because it is in our legitimate interests. You can also unsubscribe from our mailings and remove your details at any time. 

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact our DPO John Chambers at John.Chambers@archives.org.uk.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective. And will also update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

CONTACT US

ARA is committed to processing personal data fairly and lawfully. If you have queries or concerns, please contact us at John.Chambers@archives.org.uk and we’ll respond.

If you remain dissatisfied, you can make a complaint about the way we process your personal information to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). Please follow this link to the ICO website for more information https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. Or contact them at ico.org.uk or

Information Commissioner’s Office 

Wycliffe House                 

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF