Our Visual World is committed to protecting your personal information. We also want to maintain the trust and confidence of every one of our audience members and supporters, as well as each visitor who uses the website.

Our Privacy Policy gives you detailed information on when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it and how we keep it secure.

Registering with Our Visual World has many benefits, not least the opportunity to manage your personal information and receive information about our work. You can register with us at any time on our mailing list section of the website.

1. Contact details for Our Visual World: 

If you have questions regarding your information or its use, please contact us on [email protected]

Although it is not compulsory to provide all of the information listed below, should you choose not to, then Our Visual World may not be able to provide you with the full range of services that we have to offer.

2. How We Collect Your Personal Information

We collect your information when you decide to interact with us. This could include when you sign up to receive emails from us, when you attend an event, apply for an opportunity or support us.

We collect information in a number of ways, if you:

• Complete an online survey or audience data survey
• Attend an event
• Sign up to our mailing list
• Make a purchase from our online store
• Apply to one of our opportunities

3. The Types of Information We Collect

We only collect the information that’s necessary to carry out our business, provide the particular service you’ve requested and to keep you informed. There are occasions when you can choose not to give us certain information, but this for example, may limit the level of personalisation we offer e.g. you may not get to hear about an event you would have loved to have attended.

The type of information we collect depends on where and when it is gathered, as detailed in section 2, and may include:

• Prefix and name
• Gender
• Email address
• Date of Birth
• Contact phone number(s)
• Emergency contact details
• Payment card details. Please note, we will not hold payment information for any longer than it takes to process your transaction.
• Delivery address(es)
• Billing address

If you apply for work as a staff member or volunteer, we will collect personal information from your application forms. We may also then collect information indirectly when we contact your referees or view social media as part of this process.

We may disclose personal information to a third party, for example where we want to take up a reference or obtain a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service, and where appropriate we will let you know first.

We collect this personal information because it is in our legitimate interests to allow us to process your application.

The reasons we collect this information include, but are not limited to:

• in order to process your application and to monitor recruitment statistics;
• for the purposes of administering our contract with you; and
• to contact you regarding the progress of your application

We also collect this information to take steps to enter into a contract with you.

If we offer you employment or a volunteer position, we will use the personal information you provided as part of the application process, as well as your photograph if you supply it to us.

You are required (under the terms of your contract of employment, or in order to enter into your contract of employment) to provide such categories of personal information as detailed above to enable us to pay you, to provide you with your contractual benefits and to administer statutory payments such as statutory sick pay (SSP). If you do not provide this information, we may not be able to provide the services to you or administer your employment contract. We collect this personal information because it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you.

The reasons we collect this information include, but are not limited to the following reasons:

• for pension services if applicable;
• to process BACS payments for your pay;
• to provide your benefits, support and allowances as part of your contract with us, if applicable;
• to maintain accurate employment records;

We collect personal information to fulfil legal obligations we owe to HMRC, and the Disclosure and Barring Service.

4. Why We Collect Your Personal Information and How We Use It /

The information we hold on you will be used in a number of ways, the main ones being; to provide a service you have requested, offer you a personalised experience and understand our audience’s needs better, inform you of events or updates you’ve asked for or contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information (e.g. change of event time). 

5. How We Handle Your Information and Other Organisations

Our Visual World will never share, sell, rent or trade your personal information to any third parties for marketing purposes without your prior consent.

Some of our service providers may have access to your data in order to perform services on our behalf – payment processing is a good example of this. We make sure anyone who provides a service for Our Visual World enters into an agreement with us and meets our standards for data security. They will not use your data for anything other than the clearly defined purpose relating to the service that they are providing.

We may share your details with:

• Service providers who work on behalf of Our Visual World, who we have entered into a contract with them or you, for example payment processing, printers, marketing agencies, database services, website hosting or email delivery service.

Service providers and storage services currently in use:

• Eventbrite, who we use from time to time to allow users to register for free tickets for an event. Under the terms of the Eventbrite Privacy Policy, they participate in and comply with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. Information is not stored on the eventbrite database. Where the user has opted-in to the Our Visual World mailing list, we will use this information as detailed in section 2 above.
• We use WordPress to manage our online shop and donations.
• We use Surecart to process payments through our online shop.
• Where required to do so (for example, if required to do so by the ‘know your donor’ principles under charity law or a court order), or when requested by the police or a regulatory or government authority investigating illegal activities.

Our Visual World is not responsible for the privacy notices and practices of other websites even if accessed using links from www.ourvisualworld.com and recommends that you check the policy of each website you visit and contact its owner or Data Protection Manager if you have any concerns or questions.

Despite all our precautions, no data transmission over the internet is 100% secure. So, we cannot guarantee the security of any information which you disclose to us and so wish to draw your attention to the fact that you do so at your own risk.

6. How We Protect Your Data

Our Visual World is committed to protecting the personal information you entrust to us. We adopt robust and appropriate technologies and policies, so the information we have about you is protected from unauthorised access and improper use e.g. our own network is protected.

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. This includes procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Our staff and data processors who access and are associated with the processing of personal information, only do so in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

As part of the services offered to you through our website, the personal information you provide may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). By way of example, this may happen if any of the computer servers used to host the website are located in a country outside of the EEA. If Our Visual World transfers your personal information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this privacy notice.

Our Visual World may transfer your data to the USA to organisations such as Facebook, Instagram, or Google. The USA has weaker data protection laws than that of the EEA and therefore we will ensure that only organisations who are a part of the EU privacy shield initiative will handle your personal information. More details on this certification can be found at www.privacyshield.gov/welcome

We will keep your information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice and to fulfil our legal obligations, and when we dispose of it we will destroy paper and electronic copies in a secure way. We will only keep information for as long as necessary in order to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf, to show that we have treated you fairly or to keep records required by law. The retention period will vary according to the purpose, for example if purchasing a ticket only, we will typically keep your data for up to ten years from the date of your last transaction.

If you ask us to stop sending direct marketing communications to you, we will keep the minimum amount of information (e.g. name, address or email address) to ensure we adhere with such requests.

7. Your Choices

You should find it easy to access and amend the personal information that we hold on you, or request that we stop contacting you. It’s your data and we want to make sure you feel in control of it.

If you have subscribed to our mailing list, you can amend your personal details and email contact preferences at any time. Simply click on the link at the bottom of our announcement emails or on our website.

Every email we send to you will include details on how to change your communications preferences or unsubscribe from future communications.

You can also request full details of personal information we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998, or after 25 May 2018, The General Data Protection Regulation, by contacting the Data Protection Manager. Please send a description of the information you would like to see, together with proof of your identity to [email protected]

At any time you have the right to ask Our Visual World to amend or stop how it uses your personal information including for marketing purposes. You can do this by clicking on the mailing list button on our website, or by contacting us by email.

You have the right to get information held about you by us corrected. If you have any concern about the accuracy of your personal data, please let us know using the below contact details.If you would like us to remove the personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the below contact details.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, The Information Commissioner’s Office – the link to their website can be found below:

The Information Commissioner’s Office 

8. Updates or Changes to the Privacy Policy and Further Information

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on this page. It may be updated to take into account changes at Our Visual World or for example to reflect changes to regulation or legislation. Please check back from time to time. We may also inform you of any changes where we hold an appropriate email address for you.

Further information on data protection regulations and laws can be found at the link below:

Data Protection July 2025