Privacy Policy
Effective date: 10 March 2025
The Register of Qualified Genealogists recognises that your privacy is important to you, and that you care about how your information is used and shared both off- and on-line. We respect and value the privacy of all Members, and everyone who visits our website. We will collect and use information only in ways that are useful to you and necessary to us, and in a manner consistent with your rights and our obligations under the law.
GDPR
For users in the European Union, we adhere to the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”). For users in the United Kingdom, we adhere to the GDPR as enshrined in the Data Protection Act 2018.
We will seek also to operate within legal constraints applicable in countries where Members live, to the extent that these are compatible with our primary obligations.
It is our policy to seek to protect data within our control in a manner compliant with the seven principles of the GDPR. These are, in summary, that personal data shall be:
- Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals;
- Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with these purposes;
- Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed;
- Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
- Kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed;
- Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.
- and that the controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate compliance with, the regulation outlined above.
Legal Basis for Processing
We collect and process personal data about users in the EU only when we have a legal basis for doing so under Article 6 of the GDPR.
We rely on the following legal basis to collect and process the personal data of users in the EU:
- Users have provided their consent to the processing of their data for one or more specific purposes.
By using our site users agree that they consent to the conditions set out in this Privacy Policy.
When the legal basis for us processing your personal data is that you have provided your consent to that processing, you may withdraw your consent at any time. If you withdraw your consent, it will not make processing which we completed before you withdrew your consent unlawful.
You can withdraw your consent by contacting the Register of Qualified Genealogists via privacy@qualifiedgenealogists.org
Personal Data We Collect
We only collect data that helps us achieve the purpose set out in this Privacy Policy. We will not collect any additional data beyond the data listed below without notifying you first.
Data Collected in a Non-Automatic Way
We may collect the following data when you send it to us:
- First and last name;
- Email address;
- Phone number;
- Address;
- Business website;
- Details of qualifications achieved or being studied;
- A digital copy of your qualification certificate;
- Consent to notices.
This data may be collected when you send it to us via the following methods:
- Creating an account;
- Sending an enquiry;
- Subscribing to the newsletter.
We may also collect the following:
Information you seek to broadcast
Members may choose to provide information which is included on their Member profile and which is visible to any user of the RQG website. By compiling a Member profile you provide implicit permission for that data to be shared globally through exposure on our website.
Information we collect about you
Some data will be collected automatically each time you visit our site:
- Technical information including IP address, browser type and version, and operating system and platform.
- Information about your visit, such as a list of URLs starting with a referring site, your activity on our site, and the site you exit to.
For further details, please see the section below on Cookies.
How We Use Personal Data
Data collected on our site will only be used for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy or indicated on the relevant pages of our site. We will not use your data beyond what we disclose in this Privacy Policy.
The data we collect may be used for the following purposes:
- Providing and managing your Membership account;
- Providing and managing your access to our site;
- Personalising and tailoring your experience on our site;
- Supplying our services to you;
- Communicating with you on administrative and news-worthy matters;
- Responding to communications from you.
We provide facilities to allow Members to expose personal data of their choice on the website in the form of a personal profile. RQG takes no responsibility for the content of profiles, though reserves the right to moderate over language used and claims made.
We are obliged by the Companies Act to keep registers of Members, copies of which are lodged electronically and available for public inspection in person at the Registered Office. The information provided is the Member’s name, address, date of membership commencing and terminating, and the amount guaranteed (£1). A register of Directors is also kept.
We are required by law to make annual returns to Companies House on our accounts. No personal data is required for that purpose. Financial transactions are reported in summary form. Directors’ details are filed with Companies House.
Who We Share Personal Data With
We may share details of name, e-mail address, postal address, personal business website and social media identifiers that a Member provides to us, with authorised Members for the purpose of communicating on company business. This use is authorised by Members at the time of applying for membership.
We may compile statistics about the use of our site including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales and other information. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying information.
In certain circumstances we may be legally required to share certain data held by us, which may include your personal information, for example, where we are complying with the requirements of legislation, a court order, or a governmental authority. We do not require any further consent from you in order to share your data in such circumstances and will comply as required with any legally binding request that is made of us.
You may access certain areas of our website without providing any data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on our site you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data.
You may restrict your internet browser’s use of cookies. For more information, see below.
Other Disclosures
We will not sell or share your data with other third parties, except in the following cases:
- If the law requires it;
- If it is required for any legal proceeding;
- To prove or protect our legal rights.
We do not require any further consent from you in order to share your data in such circumstances and will comply as required with any legally binding request that is made of us.
How Long We Store Personal Data
User data will be stored until the purpose the data was collected for has been achieved.
Member data will be stored for up to seven years from the date on which they cease to be a Member.
How We Protect Your Personal Data
In order to protect your security, we use browser encryption and store all of our data on servers in secure facilities.
While we take all reasonable precautions to ensure that user data is secure and that users are protected, there always remains the risk of harm. The Internet as a whole can be insecure at times and therefore we are unable to guarantee the security of user data beyond what is reasonably practical.
Your Rights as a User
Under the GDPR, you have the following rights:
- Right to be informed;
- Right of access;
- Right to rectification;
- Right to erasure;
- Right to restrict processing;
- Right to data portability; and
- Right to object.
Children
We do not knowingly collect or use personal data from children under 16 years of age. If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child under 16 years of age, the personal data will be deleted as soon as possible. If a child under 16 years of age has provided us with personal data their parent or guardian may contact our privacy officer.
External links, email facilities and social media platforms
Please note that this Privacy Policy, as it relates to websites, applies only to your use of our website. It does not extend to any websites that are linked to from our website (whether we provide those links or whether they are shared by other users). We have no control over how your data is collected, stored or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using our site immediately.
This Privacy Policy does not cover the use of e-mail facilities and personal e-mail addresses provided to Members by RQG. Member e-mails are provided as a benefit, but their use is not required, other than for any Director or other authorised Member conducting business/performing duties for and on behalf of RQG. E-mails are stored by the providers of e-mail services and are subject to their privacy policies and security measures, over which we have no control.
This Privacy Policy does not cover individual Member’s use of social media channels. These are publicly broadcast media and Members are expected to use discretion in exposing personal details on them. Content is stored by the providers of these services and is subject to their privacy policies and security measures, over which we have no control.
How to Access, Modify, Delete, or Challenge the Data Collected
If you would like to know if we have collected your personal data, how we have used your personal data, if we have disclosed your personal data and to who we disclosed your personal data, if you would like your data to be deleted or modified in any way, or if you would like to exercise any of your other rights under the GDPR, please contact data@qualifiedgenealogists.org
How to Opt-Out of Data Collection, Use or Disclosure
In addition to the method(s) described in the How to Access, Modify, Delete, or Challenge the Data Collected section, we provide the following specific opt-out methods for the forms of collection, use, or disclosure of your personal data specified below:
- You can opt-out of having your personal data in the mailing list for our newsletters by clicking “unsubscribe” on the bottom of the newsletter and managing your subscription on the website.
Cookie Policy
A cookie is a small file, stored on a user’s hard drive by a website. Its purpose is to collect data relating to the user’s browsing habits. You can choose to be notified each time a cookie is transmitted. You can also choose to disable cookies entirely in your internet browser, but this may decrease the quality of your user experience.
We use the following types of cookies on our Site:
- Functional cookies
Functional cookies are used to remember the selections you make on our site so that your selections are saved for your next visits;
- Analytical cookies
Analytical cookies allow us to improve the design and functionality of our site by collecting data on how you access our Site, for example data on the content you access, how long you stay on our Site, etc; and
We do not use third-party/advertising cookies.
Modifications
This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time in order to maintain compliance with the law and to reflect any changes to our data collection process. When we amend this Privacy Policy we will update the “Effective Date” at the top of this Privacy Policy. We recommend that our users periodically review our Privacy Policy to ensure that they are notified of any updates. If necessary, we may notify users by email of changes to this Privacy Policy.
Complaints
If you have any complaints about how we process your personal data, please contact us through the contact methods listed in the Contact Information section so that we can, where possible, resolve the issue. If you feel we have not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner you may contact a supervisory authority. You also have the right to directly make a complaint to a supervisory authority. You can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority by contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Contact Information
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at privacy@qualifiedgenealogists.org
Alternatively, please send a letter addressed to the Data Protection Officer to:
49 Station Road, Polegate, East Sussex, BN26 6EA.