Less of a juicy Palace blog this time, but hopefully one that will help you feel more in the know about how organisations can use your personal data after the Data Protection Regulations come into play. Here's a breakdown of what the jargon really means, and why it should make your life a little bit better…
1. It’s the biggest change to UK data privacy law in 20 years
The law needed updating to better protect people because the amount of personal data being generated every day is rapidly increasing. As part of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) all companies have to review how they manage all personal data and ensure they are in line with the new changes by 25th May 2018.
2. It will give you more control over your personal data
GDPR came into play in order to give you more control on how your personal data is used. You’ll have greater visibility and control over the personal data organisations hold about you. This means you can have confidence that information about you is accurate, up-to-date and properly managed.
3. Choose who contacts you, and how
Over the coming months you should notice organisations asking for your consent so they can contact you about offers, products or services they think you’ll find useful or interesting. To comply with GDPR, these requests must be really clear and straightforward. You get to choose who contacts you and how, such as by email, social media or phone.
4. You can also change your mind at any time
If you give an organisation permission to contact you, it doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind in the future. Under the new rules, it should be easier to update your preferences on what you want to receive and how.
5. Your data will be better protected
GDPR also aims to make sure that all organisations holding personal data have the correct processes in place to protect it. Organisations who put customer data at risk will face hefty penalties.
What happens next? As a Fulham Palace volunteer, we’ve been asking you to choose how you‘d like to receive updates from us on: 1. Events at the Palace and our 2. Restoration Project. If you didn't manage to sign up at the Volunteer Start of Season meetings in March, then please drop Rachel a line to let her know if you'd like to receive updates on either of these topics. As a regular volunteer you'll stay on our Active Volunteers mailing list, meaning you receive a monthly email from Rachel, as this is essential to keeping you in the loop about the volunteering programme at Fulham Palace.
At Fulham Palace we're taking the new regulations very seriously, as we know how important the security and use of your personal data is. We have a working group who meet with the Sian Harrington, CEO, every couple of months, and have been attending external training about the regulations since early Autumn 2017. You can have every confidence that how your data is dealt with at Fulham Palace is done so according to best practice GDPR recommendations.