Privacy policy

This is the general privacy notice of Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) (BfR) a registered SCIO, Charity Number SC047302, established April 2017 and having our registered place of business at Glasgow, Scotland UK.

Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) is committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of all people who share information with us.

This privacy notice explains your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It describes how we gather, use and share your personal information that we may hold and includes any personal information we already hold.

Changes to this privacy policy

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. 

Who we are

Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) is a "data controller" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and (from 25 May 2018) the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("Data Protection Law").  This means that we are responsible for, and control the processing of, your personal information.

For further information about our privacy practices, please contact us by:

Why we collect information about you

Everything we do, we do to ensure that we can meet our charitable aim of supporting the resettlement and social inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers (New Scots) through the provision of free bicycles and the transformational power of cycling.

We want to make sure you receive the communications that are most relevant to you, be it through visiting our website or receiving emails, post or phone calls.

We want to make sure you receive the best attention when you register for services that we provide that includes requesting or donating a bike, enquiring about volunteering, making a financial donation, buying a product or booking on an event.

How we collect information about you

  • When you interact with us directly: This could be if you make an enquiry to us, register for our free services, purchase a product from us, book a place at an event, make a donation to us, apply for a job or volunteering opportunity or otherwise provide us with your personal information. This includes when you phone us, visit our website, make a purchase from us, or get in touch through the post or in person.

  • When you interact with us through partners or suppliers working on our behalf: This could be if you access a service which is delivered in partnership with trusted partner organisations working on our behalf and always under our instruction.

  • When you interact with us through third parties: This could be if you provide a donation through a third party such as JustGiving or one of the other third parties that we work with and only if you consent for your personal information to be shared with us.

  • When you visit our website: We gather general information that might include which pages you visit most often and which services, events or information is of most interest to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We also use 'cookies' to help our site run effectively. See our Cookies Policy for more details.

  • From other information that is available to the public: In order to tailor our communications we may collect information from publicly available sources.

Personal information we collect, and why we use it

We may process several categories of personal information depending on the purpose, that may include:

  • contact details, including name, address, telephone number(s), email address(es)

  • information contained in correspondence with us

  • visual images

  • financial details

If we collect personal information from other sources we will inform you.

You will have given us this information while registering for a service that we provide, making a donation, registering for an event, placing an order on our website or any of the other ways you can interact with us.

How we use your data

We process your data for a number of purposes:

  • provide you with services

  • send you information about and/or link you with one or more of our products and services

  • send you information about fundraising activities and events

  • to process your donations or other payments, and to claim Gift Aid on your donations and verify any financial transactions

  • undertaking commercial activities and to provide the services or goods that you have requested

  • to update you with administrative messages about your donation, an event or services or goods you have requested.

  • process an application for paid or voluntary work

  • deliver training services or events

  • if you volunteer with us, to administer the volunteering arrangement.

  • carrying out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us

  • seek your views on our services and refugee issues

  • undertaking consultations and evaluations

  • inform you about the impact we are making with your help

  • to keep a record of your relationship with us

  • sending you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you

  • perform statistical analysis to understand who is using our services

  • to comply with the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and follow the recommendations of the official regulator of charities, the Charity Commission, which require us to identify and verify the identity of supporters who make major gifts so we can assess any risks associated with accepting their donations.

  • notifying you of changes to our services

  • and all activities that we are required to carry out as a controller and as a charity.

What are the consequences if I do not provide the requested personal data?

If you do not provide the requested personal information it is more than likely that the service you wish to use will not be available to you, we will not be able to process your donation, sign you up for a particular event or provide the goods and services you have requested. We try to ensure that we only collect the minimum personal information that is necessary

We may also use your personal information to contact you about our work and how you can support Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) (see the Marketing section below for further information on this).

Sensitive information we collect, and why we use it

Data Protection Law recognises that some categories of personal information are more sensitive than others. These include information about a person’s health, race, ethnic origin, political opinions, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.

Where we collect sensitive personal information, we will only use it for the purposes of dealing with your enquiry, service delivery, or monitoring and evaluating the services we provide.

If you provide us with any sensitive personal information by telephone, email or by other means, we will treat that information with extra care and confidentiality and always in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We will not pass on your details to anyone else without your express permission, except in exceptional circumstances. Examples of this might include anyone reporting serious self-harm or posing a threat to others, and other such safeguarding issues.

We will only pass on sensitive personal information when you have given us your express consent or otherwise clearly indicated to us that you are happy for us to do so. This might happen if you would like us to share your story with the media, other parties or on our blog, in which instance we would advise remaining anonymous.

Legal bases for processing personal information

Each category of personal information collected and processed by Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) accords to at least one of the legal grounds listed in the Data Protection Act (2018).  We use the following bases:

1.    Consent

You have given clear consent for Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) to process your personal information for a specific purpose, for example when a user visits our website and provides their contact details to receive the Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) newsletter regularly.  Consent can be withdrawn by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of the newsletter or by contacting Bikes for Refugees (Scotland).  

2.    Contract

The processing is necessary for Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) to perform a contract to which you are a party or because you have asked Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) to take specific steps before entering in to a contract.

3.    Legal Obligation

The processing is necessary for Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) to comply with the law.  An example might be checking your identity documents to ensure you have the right to work in the UK before making a job offer.

4.    Vital Interests

The processing is necessary for Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) to protect someone’s life, such as contacting emergency services in exceptional circumstances if staff consider there to be a risk of serious harm to self or another person.

5.    Legitimate Interests

The processing is necessary for your or Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third-party, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal information which overrides those legitimate interests. 

Please note, some of these rights only apply in certain circumstances and we may not be able to fulfil every request. 

Children / Young People

If you are under 16 years old you should speak to a parent or carer before sending us any personal information.  We only hold personal information from persons under 16 years of age to process their application for a bike (which is only permitted with permission of their parent/guardian). No part of the website is directed to persons under 16 years of age. If you are under 16 years of age, then please do not use or access the website at any time or in any manner without the guidance and permission of a parent or carer.

Marketing

We will only contact you about our work and how you can support Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) by phone, email or text message if you have agreed for us to contact you in this manner.

However, if you have provided us with your postal address we may send you information about our work and how you can support Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) by mail unless you have told us that you would prefer not to hear from us in that way.

You can update your choices or stop us sending you these communications at any time by emailing admin@bikesforrefugees.scot or clicking the opt out link at the bottom of the relevant communication.

If you have given us permission to receive email communications from us, we sometimes upload your email address (in an encrypted format) to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Those platforms will then show our digital advertising campaigns to you as well as identifying audiences with similar interests to yours.

Retaining personal information

Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) keeps your personal information in most cases, for no longer than is necessary for the purposes it was collected.  Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) may need to retain some personal information for legal or regulatory reasons including, but not limited to, financial and legal documents. This will never exceed 6 years.

We regularly and securely delete information that goes out of date or if it is no longer needed.

Sharing personal information

The personal information we collect about you will mainly be used by our staff and volunteers at Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) so that they can support you. 

Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) works with partner organisations and may need to share some personal information with them, so that we can work together to provide services to you.  Some examples of where we may share your information are with our fulfilment  partners who help to create and send information to you regarding your purchases or registration, or with platforms that we use to process donations and claim Gift Aid. We may need to share your personal information with a government or regulatory body in accordance with the law, for example in relation to a complaint or incident.

Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) will never sell or share your personal information with organisations so that they can contact you for any marketing activities. Nor do we sell any information about your web browsing activity. All partner organisations we work with have a privacy policy.  You can ask us not to share your personal information, but this may mean that we and partners are unable to provide you with services.   

Protecting personal information

Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) takes looking after and protecting your information very seriously. We have adopted multiple safeguards to protect personal information. All staff and volunteers are expected to fully familiarise themselves with this policy during their induction and will receive data protection support and training as appropriate to peoples roles. We've implemented appropriate physical, technical, IT and organisational measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both on- and off-line, from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss. Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) is exempt from compulsory registration with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). In the interests of good practice and transparency we have however voluntarily registered the organisation with the ICO where we have access to guidance on information standards, resources and practice.

Our websites may contain links to other sites. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites. Please be aware that other websites may collect personally identifiable information about you. This privacy statement does not cover the information practices of those websites.

Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) works with organisations that adopt equivalent data protection measures. 

Any debit or credit card details which we receive on our website are processed directly by our payment processing partners, currently Stripe and PayPal, who operate in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standards.

Although we do our upmost to protect your personal information sent to us via our website and digitally, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted. If a breach of security is identified we will do everything possible to rectify the matter and to report if necessary. If a serious data breach occurs, Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) will follow the guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office and conduct risk assessments according to internal policies. 

What are my rights?

Under certain circumstances, you have the right to:

  • request access to the personal information we hold about you (known as a ‘subject access request’). You can make a request for access free of charge. Please make all requests for access in writing, and provide us with evidence of your identity.

  • request that your personal information be corrected or updated if you believe it is inaccurate or incomplete

  • request your personal information be deleted

  • ask us to stop processing your personal information

  • ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information

  • ask us for the personal information that we hold about you to reuse it for your own purposes

  • make a complaint

If you wish to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, you can do so by contacting at admin@bikesforrefugees.scot You can also make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner's Office. Read more about your rights on the ICO website.