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Privacy Policy

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Biblical Counselling UK (BCUK) values the individuals who share their details with us. We respect your privacy and are committed to ensuring that your personal data is kept safe and used in a way that you would reasonably expect. 

This privacy policy sets out how BCUK processes and protects the personal information that is given to us. We aim to be clear about how we collect, store and use your data and to let you know your rights, including how to stop receiving communications from us. 

If you have any questions about this policy, please email the Data Protection Lead at , or write to: The Data Protection Lead, Biblical Counselling UK, c/o Christ Church, Christchurch Street, Cambridge, CB1 1HT. 

BCUK is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Our registered charity number is 1164965. Our registered address is Christ Church, Christchurch Street, Cambridge, CB1 1HT. 

How we collect and use your personal data

General Enquiries 

We process personal information from general enquiries (for example, emails requesting information about our courses, events and activities) under the legal basis of legitimate interests. 

Subscribers to our email updates
You can request to join our ‘Resources & General Newsand/or Prayer & Financial News updates via email through our website. We use MailChimp and Beacon to collect and store your name, surname and email address and to document your consent. You can update your contact details at any time, and withdraw your consent either through the “update your preferences” or “unsubscribe” links on the email, or by contacting   

The legal basis under which we send our news updates is consent. We only send fundraising information to those who have requested our ‘Prayer & Financial News’ mailing.

Training
We will collect personal information from you when you apply to register for any of our training courses. This may include uploading a photograph to enable tutors to recognise students and learn their names. We collect this information using an online form on our website which is protected under SSL encryption. 

We process the information you provide on the legal basis of contract. 

We process Special Category (“personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs”) data that you provide under the Article 9 “not-for-profit-bodies” condition of the UK GDPR. 

The information you provide is used to assess your suitability for the training course to which you are applying. It is shared securely with the tutors running the course you apply to and personal information relevant to grading submitted work may also be shared with your Grader(s). We will store the application forms of students who accept a place on any of our Certificate Programme courses for five years in order to facilitate future studies. We will delete the application forms of students earlier than 5 years on request. 

We request from you the contact details of a referee (usually your church pastor) in order to contact them to supply a reference. We will process their contact information and the reference they provide under the legal basis of legitimate interests.  References are retained for five years. 

BCUK will keep a record of your name, email address, seminar attendance record and course grades for the purposes of issuing certificates of completion to students and monitoring standards. Students may request a copy of their course grades by emailing the Course Administrator at  

The following personal information is uploaded to Canvas, the online leaning management platform we use to deliver the training material you purchase when you pay the course fees: 

  • Name and surname 
  • Email address 

Once you complete a course provided via the Canvas platform, your login account will remain active on Canvas on the legal basis of legitimate interests in order to facilitate continuing your studies on BCUK’s Certificate Programme. If you wish your data to be removed, please contact the Course Administrator at  

We will contact students with an invitation to register for future modules of the Certificate Programme using the “soft opt in”. We use MailChimp, and invite students who have finished studying to unsubscribe from that mailing list. 

We may share the following information on the legal basis of contract with third parties who manage the venues for the courses we offer (e.g. so that they can supply you with an electronic access pass; and supply and invoice you for accommodation and food): 

  • Name 
  • Phone number, dietary and access requirements (residential courses only) 
  • Email address (when needed for invoicing purposes) 

If you withdraw from any of our courses and are eligible for a refund via bank transfer, we will process the banking information you provide to us under the legal basis of contract.

Students who took courses prior to September 2021
The following privacy statement applies to Students who took courses prior to September 2021. 

We shared the following personal information with the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation (CCEF)’s School of Biblical Counseling and the online learning management and student records system(s) whose services they use (Canvas and Genius) to provide you with the training material you purchased when you paid the course fees: 

  • Name and surname 
  • Email address 

Your login account will remain active on Canvas on the legal basis of legitimate interests in order to facilitate continuing your studies directly with CCEF’s School of Biblical Counseling.  If you wish your data to be removed, please contact Student Services on . 

BCUK and CCEF are joint data controllers of the information held in CCEF’s Canvas and Genius BCUK sub-accounts. 

Online seminars via Zoom
Online seminars are provided via Zoom. Zoom’s privacy policy is available at https://zoom.us/privacy 

The purpose of seminars is live interaction. However, some information or clarification provided during a seminar may be important to distribute to students who are absent from a seminar. Recordings of seminars may also be used for training and as a resource for BCUK tutors. 

Where seminars provided using Zoom are recorded, BCUK is the data controller and Zoom is the data processor. Students’ personal data is processed under the legal basis of contract. 

Where a seminar is being recorded, the tutor will inform students and this is indicated in the on-screen display in Zoom. Only the main sessions can be recorded. The breakout rooms cannot be recorded. Recordings are stored in the Zoom cloud, and in BCUK’s file storage.

Counselling videos

We obtain video recordings of counselling and related progress notes to use in our training and conferences for the purpose of training students and conference attendees in counselling skills. We also collect and store personal data relating to the counselee. We will collect and process this information on the legal basis of contract, and special category data on the legal basis of consent under the Article 9 “not-for-profit-bodies” condition of the UK GDPR.

Videos will be stored securely on our server and also on VIMEO. VIMEO’s privacy policy is available at https://vimeo.com/privacy. Related progress notes and counselee personal data will be stored securely on our server.

This information is shared securely with BCUK staff using password-protected encrypted file-sharing and will be stored for five years. The video recordings will be observed by students and conference attendees, but not shared with them.

After five years we will contact you to check you continue to give consent for BCUK to store and use your recordings. If we are unable to contact you after 5 years we will assume you no longer give consent and will delete all records we are holding.

Conferences/events
We will collect personal information from you when you book for our conferences/events. We usually collect this information using an online form on our website which is protected by SSL encryption. The information is then stored within Beacon. All debit or credit card details which we receive via our website are passed securely to our payment processing partner which has been audited by a PCI-certified auditor and is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1. 

We process the personal information you provide on the legal basis of contract. The information you provide is used to administer your booking. We will share any dietary or other requirements you provide with the conference centre for the purpose of enabling them to meet your needs. 

We will collect the name and email address of each delegate in order to email information about the conference. 

We will obtain your consent to take photographs at the event which may be used (anonymously) in publicity and/or news to supporters.

Intern Scheme
We collect personal data from you when you apply to the Intern Scheme. We process the information you provide on the legal basis of contract, and special category data you provide is processed on the legal basis of legitimate interests as described under Article 9(2)(d) of the General Data Protection Regulation. We will request and process references about you from your referees on the legal basis of consent. We will store the information of applicants who accept a place on the scheme for the full duration of the programme. We will delete the personal information of applicants who are unsuccessful when the Scheme commences (usually September) as well as the personal information of interns who withdraw from the Scheme part-way through on request. If you accept a place on the Scheme, we will collect further personal data from you as is reasonable and required – full details are available in the Intern Scheme Privacy Policy available from .

Ministry Support Groups – Participants
We will collect personal information from you when you apply to be a Participant in a Ministry Support Group. We collect this information using either an online form on our website (which is protected under SSL encryption) or via email. We process the information you provide on the legal basis of contract. 

We will process your referee’s contact information and the reference they provide under the legal basis of legitimate interests. 

We will process Special Category (“personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs”) data that you provide under the Article 9 “not-for-profit-bodies” condition of the UK GDPR. 

The information you provide is used to assess your suitability for involvement in a Ministry Support Group, and to assign Participants to groups. It is shared securely with the Facilitator of the group you are assigned to. We will store the information of applicants for the full duration of their involvement as a Participator, and for a year afterwards. 

We request from you the contact details of your church pastor in order to contact them to confirm their understanding that responsibility for pastoral care for any cases discussed in the Group remains the responsibility of the leadership of the Participant’s local church. We will process their contact information under the legal basis of legitimate interests. 

Ministry Support Groups – Facilitators
We will collect personal information from you when you apply to be a Facilitator of a Ministry Support Group. We collect this information using either an online form on our website (which is protected under SSL encryption) or via email.  

We process the information you provide on the legal basis of contract. 

We will process Special Category (“personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs”) data that you provide under the Article 9 “not-for-profit-bodies” condition of the UK GDPR. 

The information you provide is used to assess your suitability for involvement in a Consultation Group. We will store the information of applicants for the full duration of their involvement as a Facilitator, and for a year afterwards. 

We request from you the contact details of your church pastor in order to contact them to supply a confidential reference. We will process their contact information and the reference they provide under the legal basis of legitimate interests. 

When you invoice us for your Facilitator’s fee and provide us with your bank account details, we will store your bank account details as a “saved payee” in our online bank account under the legal basis of contract.

Financial supporters
We collect personal information from you when you get in touch to make a donation. You may give us these details by emailing us, filling in forms or through our website. All debit or credit card details which we receive via our website are passed securely to our payment processing partner which has been audited by a PCI-certified auditor and is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1. 

We may collect the following information volunteered by you: 

  • Name 
  • Contact information including email address, home address (or postal address, if different) and phone number 
  • Gift Aid status 
  • Church attended 
  • Name of spouse 
  • Previous contact with us (e.g, attended a conference, Certificate Programme student) 

We may also upload a photograph provided by you, or taken by us at a conference (with your consent), to enable staff to recognise you and learn your name. This would be uploaded to Beacon, our Customer Relationship Management software. 

Please let us know if you move house, your Gift Aid status changes, or if there are any other changes to this information we hold about you, by emailing . 

We will use this information to send you publications, e-newsletters and other communications about our work. You can contact us at any time to opt out of any communications from us. 

We will also use your details to record and process your donation(s), send acknowledgement letters and claim Gift Aid, if applicable. From time to time, we will include information about upcoming events and our latest resources in our acknowledgement letters. We will also keep records of communications with us, including enquiries and complaints. If you make a significant donation to our work, we may contact you to discuss your interests and specific areas of our work. 

We may also ask you to complete a supporter survey which will help us to get feedback on our communications and supporter care, enabling us to improve these in the future. 

We will never trade or sell your personal information to third parties. 

In the course of carrying out our fundraising activities we may analyse our records internally to review categories such as donation amounts and giving history. This helps us to personalise our contact with supporters and send appropriate communications to the right people, ensuring that we are stewarding our resources well.

Fundraising 
We collect personal information from publicly available sources to help identify individuals that may be interested in the work of BCUK and want to financially support it. We do not purchase contact details or personal information from third party organisations.  

Publicly available sources of information may include public records databases, archives from media outlets, archived press releases, and other reputable websites. The information collected may include financial data, other giving information (including donations made to other organisations), photographs available on reputable websites such as their current workplace, career history, extra-curricular interests, church attended, and other life achievements. We use this publicly available information to assess an individual’s inclination to provide financial and non-financial support, their areas of philanthropic interest, and to enable the formulation of an approach which the individual finds attractive. A photograph may be stored to enable us to recognise the individual and learn their name to facilitate the building of a relationship with them.  

We do not store emails or phone numbers from publicly available sources, or from third parties, unless explicit consent is given by the individual within one month of that information being processed by BCUK. We will always obtain consent for using emails or phone numbers for any directing marketing, including letting people know about our financial needs or inviting them to fundraising events. Occasionally we will contact individuals using their postal address, if it is publicly available.  

We process this information on the basis of legitimate interest. At all times we seek to balance the legitimate interest against the interests and fundamental rights of the individual to prevent any disproportionate impact on the individual. Where a person can be excluded from further processing we will delete their information from our systems.   

Individuals can object to the processing of this information relating to them, and ask for this information to be erased at any point, by emailing .

We will only keep your data as long as is reasonable and necessary, and in accordance with our retention policy. We will use it for the designated purposes or to fulfil statutory obligations. We will hold financial data for at least six complete tax years.

We are committed to holding your information securely. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place a number of administrative and technological safeguards. These include use of passwords, restricted access, technical and physical security. The only people who access your data are those who have been nominated and trained. 

All our online forms are always transmitted over encrypted links.

We use cookies to enable you to use our website, including applying for courses or booking for conferences. We do not use cookies for advertising. You can view our full cookie policy here.

From time to time, we may include links to third party webpages on our website. Please note that once you leave our website we are not responsible for any data you share on these sites. Please read each organisation’s privacy policy before submitting your personal data on its website.

You have a range of rights over your data, which include the following: 

  • You have the right to know what data BCUK holds on you and how it is used. 
  • Where data processing is based on consent, you may revoke this consent at any time and we will make it as easy as possible for you to do this (for example by putting ‘unsubscribe’ links at the bottom of our marketing emails). 
  • You have the right to ask for rectification and/or deletion of your information. 
  • You have the right of access to your information. 
  • You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner if you feel your rights have been infringed. 

A full summary of your legal rights over your data can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website here: https://ico.org.uk/  

If you would like to access the rights listed above please get in touch with us. Email the Data Protection Lead at , or write to: The Data Protection Lead, BCUK, c/o Christ Church, Christchurch Street, Cambridge, CB1 1HT. 

If you have any concerns about the data we hold or how we process it, please contact us at the above email or address. If your issue is not resolved you can contact the Fundraising Regulator or the Information Commissioner.