Privacy

The Urban and Community Forestry Society maintains a database of professionals in order to stay in touch with our community and keep you updated about news, industry activities, events, careers initiatives, and fundraising activities.

Some of our database (but not all) choose to join our online community by registering on this website and creating an online profile. In both instances (individuals with offline database records and individuals with online profiles), we collect and store personal information (or data) about you. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and this Policy sets out what information we collect about you, where and how we use (process) it.

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we make any significant changes we will advertise this on the website or contact you directly with the information. Please check this page occasionally to make sure you are happy with any changes.

If you have any questions about this Policy or concerning your personal information, please contact us at info@ucfsociety.org

What type of personal information we collect

The information we have about you depends on where we collect it, but may include:

First name
Last name
Email
Address
Employer
Photographs
Gender
Date of birth
Years at organization
Higher education and work details
Participation in our events, emails, competitions, surveys and other activities
Donations made to the Urban Forest Foundation
Geo-location data (your geographical location based on your IP address)
Log-ins and activity on the website
A record of payments made via the website (but we do not store your credit/ debit card details as these are processed securely externally by a third-party payment provider) which could include event tickets, shop purchases or online donations
Consent options and communication preferences
Content (such as announcements, stories, photos, documents, comments, events, jobs) that you post on this website or provide to us by other means
Messages that you send to other community members via the direct messaging system when logged in to this website

Where we collect information from

We collect personal information when you:

join or renew your Urban and Community Forestry Society membership through the International Society of Arboriculture
visit this website
create or update your online profile
post content on to this website or other websites and social media sites managed by the Urban and Community Forestry Society
take part in an event
attend a meeting with us and provide us with information
contact us in any way including online, email, phone, SMS, social media or post
open an email sent from this website
send a message via the direct messaging system on this website
leave Urban and Community Forestry Society and we transfer some basic details about you from the main Urban and Community Forestry Society database in to our archive database

How we use your information

We will use your personal information in a number of ways, always with a legal basis for processing your data. These may include:

providing you with the information or updates that you have asked for
sending you communications (with your consent if required) that may be of interest, including invites to events, newsletters and fundraising campaigns
delivering our obligations under any contract between us
seeking your views on the services or activities we carry out, so that we can make improvements
updating our database records and ensuring we know how you prefer to be contacted
analyzing your engagement with our website and other content to help us improve our services for you
running our mentoring program, other educational offerings, or group activities
displaying your name as a list of potential ‘matches’ when you (or someone with similar details) signs-up for an event, donates, or joins the online community and the system is trying to match your information to an existing record stored in our database

Our legal basis for processing your information

The use of your information for the purposes set out above is lawful because one or more of the following applies:

you have given us your consent for the information to be used
it is necessary for us to hold and use your information to carry out our obligations under a contract entered into with you
it is necessary for our legitimate interests to hold and use your information and we are not impacting your privacy by doing so

Updating your consent preferences

If you have an online profile on this website you can update your consent options by logging-in and clicking on “My Settings” in your profile. Scroll down to find your ‘Consent options’ where you will see a list of consents and the options “opt-in”, “opt-out” and “unspecified”.

Via ‘My Settings’ you can also choose to hide your profile from Google, limit access to your profile so that it’s only viewable to your connections and adjust some of the automatic notifications that you receive from this website. Please note that your name (but not full profile) may appear in various places around the community website, such as a ‘Recent Joiners’ box and in ‘Search’ results irrespective of the privacy settings you have selected.

If we are using consent as our legal basis for processing your data, we must have an explicit “opt-in” from you for this specific type of processing.

If we are using legitimate interests as our legal basis for processing your data, we will process your data responsibly in a way that you would reasonably expect, and you can opt-out at any stage.

If you click ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of one of our emails sent you will be automatically opted-out of these types of email communications in the future.

If you want to contact us about your consent preferences please contact us at info@ucfsociety.org or via the contact form.

How we keep your information safe

We understand the importance of keeping your personal information secure and take appropriate steps to safeguard it.

Your data is stored on a dedicated, secure cloud server hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the EU and managed by our website provider, ToucanTech. Industry standard firewalls, anti-virus, encryption and back-up methods are in place, as well as strict data handling protocols.

We always ensure only authorized persons have access to your information, which means only our approved employees and contractors, and that everyone who has access is appropriately trained in data management.

If you have an online profile for this website you are responsible for keeping your login details (email and password) confidential and we ask that you do not share your password with anyone.

No data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. So, whilst we strive to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you provide online and you do this at your own risk.

When We Share and Who Can Access Your Personal Data

We may share your Personal Data for the purposes described in this Statement of Privacy with:

A member of our group

Partners, suppliers, and subcontractors for the performance of obligations arising from your membership or any other contract we enter into with them or you to provide you with the information, products, and services that you request from us
Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimization of our Site
Trusted third-party companies and individuals to help us provide, analyze, and improve the Site and our membership, including but not limited to data storage, maintenance services, database management, web analytics, and payment processing
A third party as transferred assets in the event that a third party acquires UCFS or substantially all of its assets

We will only transfer your Personal Data to trusted third parties who provide sufficient guarantees in respect to the technical and organizational security measures governing the processing to be carried out and who can demonstrate a commitment to compliance with those measures.

Selling Your Personal Data

UCFS will never sell your personal data.

Use of aggregated data

Where data can be aggregated and anonymized, our website provider (ToucanTech) might use this for research purposes without restriction. For example, they may monitor traffic patterns, site usage, response rates and data trends to help make improvement to the website software. They are entitled to do this because the resulting data will not personal identify you and will therefore no longer constitute personal data for the purposes of data protection laws.

How long we keep your information for

We will store your Personal Data in a form that permits us to identify you for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which the Personal Data is processed. We may retain and use your Personal Data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements and rights, or if it is not technically reasonably feasible to remove. Consistent with these requirements, we will try to delete your Personal Data quickly upon request.

Retention

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active. The Urban and Community Forestry Society may retain data for the duration of the customer’s business relationship with the Urban and Community Forestry Society and for a period of time thereafter to allow customers to recover account information, if they decide to renew, to analyze data for Urban and Community Forestry Society operations, and for historical archiving purposes associated with the Urban and Community Forestry Society. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you service, contact us at info@ucfsociety.org. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We maintain one or more databases to store your Personal Data and may keep such information indefinitely.

Children's Privacy

The Urban and Community Forestry Society Sites are not directed to children under the age of 13. If you are not 13 years or older, do not use our Site. The Urban and Community Forestry Society does not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 13. If we learn that Personal Data of persons less than 13 years of age has been collected through our Site, we will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are the parent or guardian and discover that your child or a minor under the age of 13 has posted, submitted, or otherwise communicated Personal Data to our Site without your consent, then you may alert us at info@ucfsociety.org so that we may take appropriate action to remove the minor’s Personal Data from our systems.

Your rights

You have the right to request details of how we use your personal information through making a subject access request. Such requests have to be made in writing by contacting info@ucfsociety.org.

You also have the following rights:

to request rectification of information that is inaccurate or out of date;
to erasure of your information (the “right to be forgotten”);
to restrict the way in which we are dealing with and using your information;
to request that your information be provided to you in a format that is secure and suitable for re-use (the “right to portability”)

All of these rights are subject to certain safeguards and limits or exemptions. To exercise any of these rights, you should contact us at info@ucfsociety.org.

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This Policy was last updated in December 2024.