How to Use the Buzz website

On this page we have some important information on how to use the Buzz website.

We want you to have a great time on the Buzz, but we also want you to be safe, so we have important rules you need to follow. Please take a moment to read them so you know what you should and shouldn't do on the site.

Do you have some feedback about the National Deaf Children’s Society, if so, please email youngmember@ndcs.org.uk to inform us and we will respond to your feedback.

Do you have a complaint about the National Deaf Children’s Society, if so, please email your complaint to HaveYourSay@ndcs.org.uk to inform us and we will investigate.

We take your privacy very seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information.

This privacy policy explains how we collect information, use this information and your rights.

Please read this carefully before you start to use the Buzz. By using the Buzz, you agree to these terms of use. If you do not agree to these terms of use or are unsure, please either discuss with your parents or email youngmember@ndcs.org.uk to let us know what your concerns are.

Our Ground Rules

ALWAYS talk to your parents. It is a good idea to involve your parents or guardians in all your online activities and show them your favourite sites. If you are ever uncomfortable with something that happens online, do not be afraid to let them know.! If you don’t want to talk to your parents, you can talk to us through sending an email youngmember@ndcs.org.uk.

Staying Safe on the Buzz

It is easy to stay safe when you are using the Buzz. Have a look at our safety tips below and find out about keeping safe when you are using other websites too.

Remember that if you are on any website that allows messaging with others the person you are talking to might only be pretending to be a friend.

Do not arrange to meet someone you have made friends with online. But, if you really must, tell an adult and take someone with you. Meet in a public place.

On any website asking for a password make your password hard to guess. Use a mixture of letters and numbers.

If you ever get a nasty email or see bad or abusive language, tell someone but do not reply to the message.

Your Concerns

If you have any concerns about material which appears on the Buzz, please contact youngmember@ndcs.org.uk.

Accessing the Buzz Website

If you are under 16 please check with your parent or guardian before using the Buzz.

Your Personal Information - our top tip for playing it safe online is below:

• Do not give away personal details like your home address, your school, your mobile telephone number or your email address

How we collect information

We may collect information about you whenever you interact with us, for example when you:

• Enquire about, sign-up for or access one of our activities or services or register on our website 
• Sign up to receive updates on a campaign or our activities
• Post content to our website/social media sites (including Facebook)
• Volunteer for us
• Attend a meeting with us and provide us with information about yourself
• Take part in one of our events
• Fundraise on our behalf
• Contact us through any channel, including online, email, phone, SMS, social media or post

How we will use your personal information

We use the information listed above either because:

• We have asked you and you or your parent or guardian have agreed;
• To provide you with a service that you have asked for;
• If you have made a request via The Buzz website;

Our use of cookies

'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enable the server to collect information from the browser. Essentially, a cookie takes the form of a small text file deposited on your computer's hard drive.

Google Analytics Codes

Codes used _ga; _gat & _gid

"Google Analytics is Google’s analytics tool that helps website and app owners to understand how their visitors engage with their properties. It may use a set of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. The main cookie used by Google Analytics is the ‘__ga’ cookie.”

To find out how to delete existing cookies or prevent future cookies being stored on your hard drive, please visit www.aboutcookies.org where you can follow clear instructions on how to delete and control cookies using various internet browsers.

How we keep your data safe and who has access to it

We place great importance on the security of your personal information and will always take appropriate precautions to protect it.

We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details. For example, we use encryption technology on our websites and carry out regular security reviews on our network.

We always ensure only authorised personnel (for example our staff or volunteers) have access to your information, and that they are appropriately trained to manage your data.

All our online forms are protected by encryption. We take appropriate measures to ensure that the personal information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date and kept only for the purposes for which it was collected.

When you post on The Buzz using the Post Something functionality, this is all moderated to ensure that it complies with The Buzz ground rules.

How long we keep your information for

We will only keep your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purposes outlined in this statement, and in any case within limits set out by law. However, where it is possible, we may anonymise information so that it cannot be linked back to an individual, in which case it may be kept for longer.

Who we share your information with

We have people who help us to carry out our charitable business. These people help us to run our website and understand how it is being used, advertise to you (e.g. social media platforms such as Facebook) and provide our newsletters.

We may legally be required to disclose your details if required to by the police or for regulatory reasons. We will only ever share your data in other circumstances if we have your consent to do so.

We also use social media monitoring tools like Sprout Social. In practice, it is the social channels (such as Facebook) sharing the data directly with Sprout Social and the data is not provided by us. This will be covered by the channels’ own privacy policies.

If you would like to receive further information about our safeguards, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@ndcs.org.uk. 

Your rights to the information we hold about you

You have the right at any time:

1. To find out what information we hold about you;
   
2. To ask us to stop sending any newsletters and to delete any information (like your email address) that we hold for that purpose;
3. To ask us to stop doing anything with the personal information we hold about you;
4. To request a detailed summary of the information we hold about you;
5. Complain about us to the person who protects your privacy rights in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk);
6. Change your mind about our holding your information;
7. Let us know if you think our use of your personal information is unfair; and;
8. Ask us to correct, delete, limit or stop using any of your personal information.

Typeform

We sometimes use online software such as Typeform to conduct surveys. If you click through to Typeform or similar websites, they may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. See Typeform for more information.

Our legal basis for processing your information

We ensure that we have a lawful basis to collect and use your personal data. 

In many cases we will seek explicit consent to process your personal and special category data. We will also often process personal data for the performance of a contract. In some instances, we may process your information where it is in our legitimate interests to do so and where we are confident that such processing is not likely to unduly prejudice your interests, rights and freedoms.

The law allows for six grounds for processing people’s personal data, of which four are relevant for our activities:

• we process your information on the basis of your consent
• we process your information on the basis of a contractual relationship
• we process your information on the basis of having legitimate interest to do so 
• we process your information on the basis of having a legal requirement to do so e.g. employee data

Consent:

We will process your data if you have provided consent: this will include contacting you for marketing and fundraising purposes by e-mail, phone and SMS.

Contractual relationship:

The vast majority of our relationships with our supporters and members are voluntary as opposed to contractual, but there may be occasions where we have agreed to send you information in exchange for payment or a commitment to raise funds on our behalf – in which case we will do so unless you have told us you do not wish to receive it.

Legitimate Interests:

In some cases, we will make a balanced judgement on whether we have a legitimate interest for storing and processing your data and using it to contact you without having gathered your explicit consent. The law allows for us to collect and use your data if it is necessary for a legitimate business interest, if we use it in a fair and balanced way that does not unduly prejudice your rights. 

Our Legitimate Interests for processing personal data include:

• Responding to an enquiry from The Buzz website

You retain control of how we use your data and you have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal information, which we will do, see section 12 above. In some circumstances, we may legally be required to retain your personal information for audit or other legal purposes. However, this will be discussed with you depending on your requirements. Please contact dataprotection@ndcs.org.uk.

Information About Us

The Buzz website is operated by the National Deaf Children's Society who are the leading charity dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people.

We are registered with the Charity Commission under registration number Charity No. 1016532 and with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator under number SC040779. We are a company limited by guarantee (Company number 2752456).

NDCS Ltd. is a Company limited by shares and registered in England Reg. No. 0893232. NDCS Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Deaf Children’s Society and exists to support our fundraising and promotional activities. 100% of the profits from NDCS Ltd go to support our charitable work with deaf children.

‘The National Deaf Children’s Society’, within the context of this Privacy Statement, refers to both the National Deaf Children's Society and NDCS Ltd and to our overseas development arm, Deaf Child Worldwide.

Our Data Protection Officer is Colin Cherry.

If you have any questions regarding our Privacy Policy, please write to:

The Data Protection Officer
National Deaf Children’s Society
Castle House
37 - 45 Paul Street
London
EC2A 4LS 

Email: dataprotection@ndcs.org.uk

Changes to this privacy policy

This policy may change from time to time. If we make any significant changes to this policy, we will publicise these changes clearly on our website or contact you directly with more information.

Please revisit this policy each time you consider giving your personal information to the National Deaf Children’s Society.

This privacy statement was last updated on 16 March 2021.