Privacy & Cookies

Hereford Cathedral School maintains this website www.herefordcs.com (”the Site”) and the information on the site (“Content”).

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors; this privacy policy (this “Policy”) sets out how personal information is collected, used and disclosed by Hereford Cathedral School. This Policy applies to visitors and users of Hereford Cathedral School website. By visiting or using the Site to the extent permitted by applicable law, you are consenting to us gathering and processing information about you in accordance with this Policy, although consent may not be required for all of the elements described in this Policy. For particular types of information or processing, we may provide you with choices or request your further consent related to what information we collect and how we may process it. The School’s Privacy Notice is available here

This Policy does not cover third parties or their services and we do not take any responsibility for how such third parties may use any information they collect. For information about third-party privacy practices, please consult with them directly.

1.    What information do we collect?
We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal information:

Personal Information: By visiting or using the Site, we may collect the following categories of personal information you provide to us: name; title; email address; postal address; phone number (including your mobile phone number); children's names and dates of birth; job role; marketing responses; admissions follow-ups; and other information you may provide about yourself to the Site or to which you provide us with access via third-party platforms.

We do not proactively collect personal information considered as sensitive personal information such as health-related or financial information on the Site. However, our Site may include text boxes which are designed for you to provide your choice of certain information about your marketing preferences.

Location Information: When you visit the Site, we may receive generic information on your location, such as the city you are in. We may use and store this information to help us improve the Site and provide relevant content.

Device Information: When you visit the Site or open communications (such as emails), some information is automatically collected from devices (e.g. mobile, computer, laptop, tablet) used to visit or use the Site including, but not limited to, operating system, access times, browser information (e.g., type, language, and history), settings, and other data about your device. We also collect information about your usage and activity on the Site using certain technologies, such as cookies (see ‘Cookies’ below for more details).

2.    Using your personal information
We may use your personal information to provide you with the services and functionality offered through the Site and to fulfil your requests, either via electronic communications (including email, text message or mobile push notifications), by post or by telephone. These uses include, but are not limited to:

1.    enabling your use of the services available on the Site;
2.    communicating with you about your enquiry or use of the Site;
3.    sending you general (non-marketing) commercial communications;
4.    communicating with you about special events and other marketing communications which we believe will be of interest to you (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
5.    sending you email notifications which you have specifically requested;
6.    performing statistical analysis;
7.    operating and improving the Site, services and functionality;
8.    dealing with enquiries, comments and complaints made by or about you relating to the website.
9.    protecting, investigating and deterring fraudulent, unauthorised or illegal activity;
10.    complying with our policies, procedures and legal obligations.

If you do not provide certain information, we may be unable to fulfil the requested purpose of collection, such as responding to your enquiries.

We will retain your information for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Policy and as otherwise required to comply with applicable law and internal company policies. You can inform us at any time if you do not wish for us to retain your information for these purposes.

3.    Sharing your personal information
We will not provide your information to third parties, except as provided in this Policy. 

We may disclose information about you any of our employees, officers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this Policy. In addition, we may disclose your personal information:
1.    to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
2.    in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
3.    in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
4.    to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.

4.    Security of your personal information
We take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction.  

We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password and firewall protected) servers. Data transmission over the internet is however inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet. 

5.    Cookies
Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user’s experience more efficient. A cookie is sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The information is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser.

We may use both “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies on the website. We will use the session cookies to: keep track of you whilst you navigate the website; and remember your website preferences between page requests. We will use the persistent cookies to enable our website to recognise you when you visit.

Session cookies will be deleted from your computer when you close your browser. Persistent cookies will remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach a specified expiry date.

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users' computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google's privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html.

Most browsers allow you to reject all cookies, whilst some browsers allow you to reject just third party cookies. For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector. Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one.

6.    Your rights
You have the right to request:

- Access to the personal data we hold about you, free of charge in most cases.
- The correction of your personal data when incorrect, out of date or incomplete.
- That we stop using your personal data for direct marketing (either through specific channels, or all channels).
- That we stop any consent-based processing of your personal data after you withdraw that consent.

You can contact us to request to exercise these rights at any time using the contact details below.

If we choose not to action your request, we will explain to you the reasons for our refusal.

When you share your personal information with us, you will be asked to expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes. You have the right to change your mind and withdraw this consent at any time by using the contact details below. 

Legitimate interest: In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data.
Direct marketing: You have the right to stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We must always comply with your request.
Keeping your information: We will only use and store your information for as long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. How long it will be stored for depends on the information in question, what it is being used for and, sometimes, statutory legal requirements.

7.    Third party websites
The Site contains links to other third party websites. It may allow you to connect with us on, share on, and use third-party platforms, including those on which Hereford Cathedral School has a presence, such as Facebook and Twitter. Please be mindful of your personal privacy needs and the privacy needs of others as you choose whom to connect with and what to share and make public. We cannot control the privacy or security of information you choose to make public or share with others. Hereford Cathedral School also does not control the privacy practices of third-party platforms. Please contact those sites and services directly to learn about their privacy practices.

8.    Policy amendments
We reserve the right to update this Policy to reflect changes to our information practices by posting a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes. If we make changes to this Policy that materially impacts previously collected information about you, we will obtain your prior express consent. 

9.    Updating information
Please let us know if the personal information which we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

10.    Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal information, please write to us by email to schoolsec@herefordcs.com or by post to Old Deanery, Cathedral Close, Hereford, HR1 2NG.

If you any problems or queries, please contact us in the first instance. You also have the right to contact the Information Commissions Office (ICO) if you have any questions about Data Protection. You can contact them using their helpline on 0303 123 113 or at www.ico.org.uk. 

11.    Data controller
The data controller responsible in respect of the information collected on this website is Hereford Cathedral School.