The Forces Pension Society (‘we’) is a not for profit membership organisation whose primary functions are to act as a watchdog on pensions–related matters on behalf of the whole Armed Forces community and to provides technical advice to our own members on their Armed forces pension entitlements, so as to allow them to make informed decisions. These functions underpin the Society’s privacy policy.
The Society is committed to protecting and maintaining your privacy.
The Society processes personal data under the following lawful bases:
Contract. This is the primary basis on which we collect and store personal data. Society members pay a fee to join the Society and in return we are contracted to provide certain services to them. These include providing pension advice and regular copies of our membership magazine, Pennant and our newsletter, as well as negotiating particular deals on their behalf and drawing these to their attention. We therefore process data in order to allow us to fulfil the contract.
Legitimate Interest. As a campaigning organisation we have regular correspondence with members and non-members concerning our campaigning activities and maintain records of concerns raised and by who, both to further and informs our activities. We also pass on information to our members which we believe it will be of use to them.
Legal Obligation. We have certain legal obligations that we are under a duty to fulfil (such as providing pay details of staff to HMRC) and we process data accordingly. This activity does not generally affect the public at large.
Consent. The Society also processes data by consent. Given that we maintain a strict policy of not passing personal data on to external third parties, this heading is important concerning any personal data collected from visitors to our website (in the form of cookies) or if there is a compelling reason to want to share personal data (eg because a member wants us to intercede on their behalf to resolve a complaint against a third party – like the MOD or one of our affiliates), in which case we would always seek specific permission to do so.
This policy, together with our website terms of use and any other documents referred to on it, sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting https://forcespensionsociety.org you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.
This policy has been updated so as to comply with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which came into force on 25 May 2018. For the purposes of this legislation the data controller is The Forces Pension Society at 68 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL. Our nominated representative for data protection matters is the Membership Secretary.
We may collect and process the following data about you:
Information you give us
You may give us information about you by filling in forms on our site forcespensionsociety.org (our site) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you join as a member of the Society, or if you make contact with us following joining, including if you report a problem with our site. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, financial and credit card information, personal description including details of your military service, and any other information we may seek in order to enrol you as a member and allow us to answer your enquiries.
We will use this information:
- to provide you with the information, products and services that we have contracted to provide;
- to notify you about changes to our service;
- to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
- To inform our campaigning and membership activities; identify trends and particular pensions issues being encountered by members
Information we may collect from you
With regard to each of your visits to our website we may automatically collect technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform; information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); what you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs).
We will use this information:
- to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes (eg most visited site headings, number of new site users)
- to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
- to allow you to participate in any interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
- as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure.
Information we receive from other sources
We may receive information about you if you use any of the other media channels we operate [In this case we will have informed you when we collected that data that it may be shared internally and combined with data collected on this site]. We also work closely with third parties (including, for example, Armed Forces charities, business partners, sub-contractors, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers) and may receive information about you from them.
We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may us this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).
Cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to monitor how visitors use the site and to provide you with a better service when you browse our website. It also allows us to improve our site. For information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie policy.
Disclosure of your information
We will not disclose your personal information to others except in the circumstances set out below:
- When we have your permission to do so in order to provide information or services to you.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation.
- To prevent or detect crime.
- To those contractors who facilitate our service to members (eg maintain our website, database and distribute Pennant magazine) who are under a strict duty of confidentiality and who have written contracts with us.
Where we store your personal data
The data that we collect from you is currently stored on a cloud based secure IT system within the United Kingdom and backed in encrypted format on site. The processing of your payment details and the provision of support services is provided by in house staff only. All payment transactions are encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
Technical support for our secure systems is provided by a contractor, which may require access to your details from time to time to ensure the smooth running of our site. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Your rights
We do not use your data for marketing purposes. If we did wish to do so we would have to ask your permission and you would have an absolute right to refuse. You can exercise this right at any time, but given our current policy, this should not be necessary.
Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Access to information
The Data Protection regulations give you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the regulations.
Changes to our privacy policy
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.
Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to memsec@forpen.co.uk