Privacy Policy

At Dialogue Matters we’ve always stood for transparency and fairness: things are no different when it comes to handling your personal data.

The information we collect

For our mailing list we only collect and store people’s names and email addresses. This information is gathered when people subscribe to our list online, when they verbally agree to join the mailing list, or if they have agreed to be on our list with a confirmation email or have handed over their business card for this purpose. We use this contact information to send subscribers our newsletter and occasional updates about our services and products – the data will never be shared with any third parties or used for any other purpose.

For bookings on our course we collect people’s names, the name and address of their organisation, email address, phone number and special dietary or other requirements. When conducting work with clients, aside from any information needed to fulfil our contractual obligations, we may obtain the name, phone number, email address and/or postal address of stakeholders in relation to a project – this would either be collected by us or provided by the client and will never be shared with any other individual or organisation without prior consent.

How we store our data

Since 2018, Dialogue Matters has been using MailChimp to process and store its mailing list. All those on the list have either subscribed online or given their written consent via email (a record of the latter is held on a Microsoft cloud server). For those who give verbal consent, we will make a written note and store it in our email file server.

For course bookings and contracts with clients, we will hold the information electronically until delivery of the course or project. We will then keep it for up to six months after the event before destroying.

Access to your personal details

If you have any questions about our privacy policy or the information we hold about you, you can contact us by email, write to us at The Old Harness Room, Penstock Hall Farm, Canterbury Road, Brabourne, Ashford TN25 5LL or call us on 01233 813875.
You can unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ tab found at the bottom of any email. Mailchimp also has its own data protection policy.

The use of cookies on our website

The only cookies used on our website site are analytical cookies, which allow us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its use. We use Google Analytics, which records the URLs of the pages people have viewed. HTTP cookies are then used to remember people’s interactions with the website. For the technically-minded among you, gtag.js and analytics.js set the following cookies:

These cookies can be disabled by changing your browser preferences.
We will regularly review our privacy policy; this policy was last updated on June 25, 2019.

FOR PROCEDURES MANUAL

Our mailing list

Subscribers should only be manually added to our mailing list when they have given explicit consent, either by email or verbally (in which case a record of the date must be kept). To have given their consent, they must also have been made aware of the terms and what they were subscribing to (e.g. you are subscribing to receive our newsletter and we will only contact you with information you might find relevant, which includes occasional advertising for our own services, but never by any third party. You have the opportunity to unsubscribe from our list at any time by following the link at the bottom of any email you receive from us.)

Course bookings

It is necessary to collect certain information for participants in order for us to book their accommodation and provide appropriate meals/facilities. This information is all collected on the booking form which will be sent to us as PDFs or on paper.
Stakeholder and client contact details
When conducting work with clients we will need to store certain contact details for us to fulfil our contractual obligations for a project; as a minimum we are likely to require a name, contact details (phone number, email address and/or postal address) and their position in the organisation. We may also require the details of stakeholders in relation to a project so that we can communicate the details of an event – their details would either be collected by us or provided by the client.

Staff and associates’ details

Files are kept on each staff member, which may contain details of their pay, National Insurance number, pension contributions, CV, appraisals and other personal information. Limited details such as a photocopy of a passport for travel bookings may also be kept on the file server. Staff are responsible for ensuring that:

• any personal data held, whether on paper or digitally, is kept securely
• computer screens are kept clear of documents and not left unattended
• computers are ‘signed out’ when leaving the office for any period of time
• personal information is not disclosed, either verbally or in writing, accidentally or otherwise, to any unauthorized third party
• items marked personal, private or confidential, or appear to be of a personal nature, are opened by the addressee only
• they do not use the work address for matters that are not work related
• personal or confidential paperwork is not left unattended and kept securely when away from the officeStorage of data

Any emails sent to us which consent to subscribing to our newsletter should all be stored in the ‘Consent for email contact’ folder in Lindsay’s email archive.

Staff files are stored in the office, while data held on the file server is securely stored and backed-up to a separate server by Dialogue Matters. No other individuals have access to the server.

For course attendees, a paper copy of the booking form should be kept in the current training folder. Participants’ names should also be added to the participant’s sheet and sign-in sheet in the relevant training folder.

Client and stakeholder details should be kept in the relevant project folder.

Removal of data

Aside from our Mailchimp email list, where contacts remain until they unsubscribe, there should be a regular six-month review of personal data held by Dialogue Matters for staff, former staff, clients, stakeholders and course participants, as the GDPR demands that data is not held for longer than is necessary.

To clarify, we should not hold onto course booking forms for more than three months unless specifically requested by a participant or with prior approval from them. Client details should be kept with the project folder and archived when necessary (this is permitted if it’s in the public interest). Records of former staff should be destroyed after three months (or sooner if requested by them). All paper data should be shredded; all electronic data needs to be removed from the system and from the trash can.

Reviewing our policy and procedures

This should be done at least once a year – other than destroying data that is no longer required, we should check if there have been any changes/additions to the website which might affect our privacy notice (particularly our use of cookies), ensure storage of data is secure, and also bear in mind that when we employ more staff we might want to be more rigorous about the storage and security of people’s personal data.