Privacy Policy
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) respects your privacy.
We are a registered charity number 213962
We understand that your personal information and privacy is important to you. We undertake to ensure that the information you share with us is recorded accurately, retained securely and used only according to your wishes. We do not sell or trade our mailing list data with external organisations. We comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018.
Information we collect about you
We may collect and process information that you choose to provide by filling in forms on the website or by any other method, including post and email. Personal information we collect may include:
- your full name and title, date of birth
- your postal address, postcode, email address and phone number
We will also collect and hold information about any contact you have with us as a ticket buyer, visitor, donor or supporter of the RSL, and may include details of:
- ticket purchases and attendance
- membership and donor status, including payment details where applicable
- retail purchases
- contact preferences
- gift information, including payment details where applicable
- Gift Aid status
- details of correspondence sent to you, or received from you
- any other information provided by yourself at the request of the RSL to process a transaction.
How we use this information
We may use your information to contact you by email (if you have given us your consent or are a business contact) or post with news and information about us including, but not limited to, our activities, events and fundraising efforts, our website and its contents, and on any topics which we think may interest you. We will not use your personal information in this way if you have opted out, unsubscribed or otherwise indicated that you do not wish to be contacted for such marketing purposes. We will ensure that we only keep your information for as long as is necessary.
Becoming a member or passholder of the RSL
Joining the RSL requires you to provide certain basic information. We will need this to enable us to administer the website and, if necessary, to contact you. However, we will not pass on this information to any unauthorised party. By joining, we assume you wish to receive the benefits of membership including our e-mail newsletter, annual magazine, events programmes and invitations to events. Passholders will be subscribed to the e-mail newsletter and kept up to date with upcoming events via email.
Security
The security of your information is important to us. The personal information you provide is stored in a secure location, is accessible only by designated staff, and is used only for the purposes for which you provide that information. We maintain appropriate administrative technical and physical safeguards to protect your information against accidental or unlawful destruction, accidental loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access, use and all other unlawful forms of processing of the personal data in our possession.
We will not transfer any of your information to destinations outside of the European Economic Area.
Third party links
You might find links to third parties (e.g. external creative organisations and suppliers) on our Website. These websites should have their own privacy policies, which you should check. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies whatsoever as we have no control over them. In cases when we use external websites provided by other organisations such as Twitter, YouTube or Facebook, then we would ask you to consult their privacy policies.
Mailing List
We use a third-party provider MailChimp to deliver our newsletter. We use MailChimp software to help gather statistics on opening rates and clicks on links which help us monitor and improve our communications. Individuals can unsubscribe at any time from newsletters by clicking the unsubscribe link on each e-newsletter. You can view MailChimp’s privacy notice here.
Cookies and Analytics
Cookies are small pieces of information stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. We do not use any of our own cookies on the Site.
We also work with Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information about details of our users’ visits to the Site (including IP addresses) and the resources they access on it. Google Analytics provides us with reports based on this information in order to help us understand how visitors engage with the Site. Google Analytics will not transfer the information it collects to any third party except where required to do so by law. Please note that we will not use Google Analytics to collect any information from which you can be personally identified, and we will not associate the information provided to us by Google Analytics with Your Information.
More information about Google Analytics.
You may refuse to accept Google Analytics cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. Alternatively, you can install the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On, which is available for download here:
Download the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On.
Unless you do this, Google Analytics cookies will be issued when you use our Site, but you can delete them via your browser at any time. If you decide that you no longer want to allow Google Analytics’ cookies, you can delete them via your browser. If you do not accept Google Analytics’ cookies, or decide to delete them, you will still be able to access the Site.
Google Analytics cookies will remain on your computer for between thirty minutes and two years from being set / updated, unless you delete them before they expire.
If you want to know more about cookies and how they work, please refer to the following websites: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.com.
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices. This includes a device’s IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.
For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site
Access, correction and unsubscribing
We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate using the contact details below.
This privacy notice is intended to be brief and clear. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of the RSL’s collection and use of personal information, but we are happy to provide you with any additional information or explanation. If you wish to find out more about how your information is used, to exercise your right to removal of data or to request a copy of the information we hold about you please email [email protected] or write to us at Royal Society of Literature, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA. You can also unsubscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of an email.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you believe your data has been processed in a way that does not comply with data protection. You can do so by calling the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113 or via their website.
Changes to Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
We are constantly looking for ways to improve the Site. We may amend the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy from time to time, in which case any changes will be published on this page. By continuing to use the Site, you shall be deemed to agree to be bound by those changes and revised terms. You also acknowledge that you agree to our collecting information from you and using it as described here.
This privacy notice was last updated: 17 June 2022
