Privacy & Cookies Policy

Who we are

This is the website for the Different Strokes Glasgow support group — a local branch of the national charity Different Strokes, serving younger stroke survivors, their families, and supporters in Glasgow.

The Glasgow group is responsible for the personal information you give us through this website — that is, when you join our mailing list or send us an enquiry through the contact us form. If you become a member of Different Strokes, or share information with the charity in any other way, that information is held by the national charity under their own privacy policy.

Information we collect, and why

Our mailing list

If you join our mailing list, we collect your email address and, if you choose to give it, your name. We also record where you signed up (for example, the footer of this site) so we can understand how people find us. We use this information only to send you news and updates from the Glasgow group. Our lawful basis for this is your consent.

We use a double opt-in process: after you sign up we send you a confirmation email, and we won’t send you anything else until you click the link to confirm. We do not track whether you open our emails or click the links inside them.

Contact enquiries

When you use our contact us form we collect your name, email address, your message, and how you describe yourself (for example, a stroke survivor or a carer). You can optionally give us a phone number and postal address so we can reply in the way that suits you. We also record the IP address and browser information of the device used to submit the form, to help us prevent spam and keep the site secure.

We use this information to respond to your enquiry. Our lawful basis is your consent in contacting us, together with our legitimate interest in protecting the site from abuse.

Website statistics

We use Fathom Analytics to understand how the website is used — for example, which pages are visited and how often. Fathom is privacy-respecting and cookieless: it does not use cookies, does not track you across other websites, and the statistics we see are aggregated. You remain anonymous to us.

Who we share your information with

We do not sell or rent your information, and we don’t share it with anyone except the service providers who help us run this site. These act on our instructions as our data processors:

• DigitalOcean — hosts the website and its database.
• Amazon Web Services, via SnapShooter — stores encrypted off-site backups.
• Mailgun — delivers our mailing list and contact emails.
• Sentry — monitors the site for technical errors, which may occasionally include personal data contained in an error report.

We choose providers that store data in the United Kingdom or European Economic Area. We may also disclose information if we are required to do so by law.

How we protect your information

• Personal information in our mailing list and contact enquiries is encrypted at rest.
• The site is served over HTTPS only, with HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) and a Content Security Policy in place.
• Access to the information is limited to the volunteers who run the Glasgow group.
• The site is hosted on servers in the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, with encrypted off-site backups.

How long we keep it

• Contact enquiries are automatically deleted 28 days after they are submitted.
• Mailing list details are kept until you unsubscribe. When you unsubscribe we keep a minimal record of your request so that we can honour it and make sure we don’t email you again by mistake.

Cookies

This site uses a single essential cookie that keeps your session secure while you browse. Our analytics (Fathom) is cookieless, and we do not use any advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Because of this, we don’t need to show you a cookie consent banner.

You can set your browser to warn you about cookies or to refuse them. Since each browser is a little different, look at your browser’s Help menu to learn how. Turning off the essential cookie may stop parts of the site working properly.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or out of date;
• ask us to delete your information;
• ask us to restrict or object to how we use it;
• ask us to provide it in a portable format; and
• withdraw your consent at any time.

To exercise any of these rights please use our contact us form.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

Managing your mailing list subscription

Every email we send includes a link to unsubscribe, and supports one-click unsubscribe in email apps that offer it. You can also change the email address you are subscribed with using the link in any of our emails — we’ll send a confirmation to the new address before making the change.

Links to other websites

This site links to other websites, including the national Different Strokes charity and other resources we think may be helpful. We have no control over those sites and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices — they have their own privacy policies.

Children

This site is intended for a general audience and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page, and the date it was last updated is shown at the foot of the page.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy or your information, please get in touch:

• Please use our contact us form
• Write to:
  Different Strokes
  9 Canon Harnett Court
  Wolverton Mill
  Milton Keynes
  MK12 5NF
  United Kingdom