Privacy policy

How we use and protect your data (our privacy policy)

This policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. While we will keep all of your personal information confidential, we reserve the right to disclose this information in the circumstances as set out within this policy. We confirm that we will keep the information on a secure server and that we will comply fully with all applicable UK data protection legislation and regulations.

We may change this policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this policy.

Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to [email protected].

Who are we?

We are a membership organisation and as a consequence of membership we have a lawful reason to process the data that we hold under Article 6 (1f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you when you apply for membership, attend an event, contact us and visit our website.

What type of information is collected from you?

In running and operating this website, we may collect and process certain data and information relating to you and your use of this site. Your privacy is important to us and we confirm that we will never release your personal details to any third-party for their mailing or marketing purposes. The data that we collect is detailed below:

• Information you provide in order to enter a competition or promotion via the site, complete a survey, or if you report a problem with the site.
• Details of visits to our website and the pages and resources that are accessed, including but not limited to, traffic data, location data and other communication data that may assist us in understanding how visitors use the website. This may also include the resources that you access, and information about where you are on the internet including the domain type, IP address and URL that you came from. This information is collected and used for our internal research purposes and to improve our customer service.
• The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when. This information is recorded and sent to third-party processors for the purposes of data analysis, to improve our marketing efforts and for targeting specific services and products.
• Information you provide to us by sending us a message through our website and information provided to us when you communicate with us electronically for any reason. If you contact us, we may keep a record of your email and other correspondence.
• Information that you provide us as a result of filling in forms on our website, such as registering for membership or further information.

If you make a payment to us, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third-party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.

IP addresses

We may collect information about your computer, including but not limited to (where available), your IP address, operating system and browser type for administration purposes and to produce internal reports. This is statistical data relating to a web user’s browsing actions and patterns and does not specifically identify you as an individual.

How is your information used?

We may use your information:

• To ensure that the content on the site is presented in the most efficient way for you and the computer that you are using.
• To enable you to participate in interactive features of the site.
• To provide you with information relating to our website, product or our services that you request from us.
• To provide you with information on other products that we feel may be of interest to you in line with those you have previously expressed an interest in.
• To meet our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us.
• For dealing with membership.
• To seek your views or comments on the services we provide.
• To notify you about any changes to our website, including improvements, and service or product changes.
• To send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you.
• For our internal purposes including statistical or survey purposes, quality control, site performance and evaluation in order to improve our website.
• To administer this website.
• If you consent, to notify you of products, updates or events that may be of interest to you.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third-parties. We will not share your information with third-parties for marketing purposes.

Third-party service providers working on our behalf

We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process payments and send you emails). However, when we use third-party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third-parties for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

How do I opt out?

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. We will not make contact with you unless you have opted in. If then, you no longer want to receive direct marketing communications from us, then you can change your preferences or completely unsubscribe in one of three ways:

• Edit your communication preferences within your Member Dashboard via your login on our website.
• Click the ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘change preferences’ link at the bottom of marketing emails sent to you.
• Email [email protected] and we will process your request within seven days.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted.

Your rights

The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at [email protected]

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information ALARM holds about you.

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. Any sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) is encrypted and protected with 128 Bit encryption on SSL across the entire website. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear in the address bar of modern web browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.

Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Use of ‘cookies’

Like many other websites, the ALARM website uses 'cookies'. Cookies are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. Cookies are sometimes used to improve the website experience of a visitor to a website. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to pre-fill some information on forms and to enable us to see what people view on the website and for how long. The use of cookies enables us to improve our website, deliver effective marketing and offer a more personalised service.

We may also use the cookies to gather information about your general internet use to further assist us in developing our website. Where used, these cookies are downloaded to your computer automatically. This cookie file is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive and then stored there and transferred to us where appropriate to help us to improve our website and the service that we provide to you.

It is possible to switch off cookies by adjusting your browser preferences or using a dedicated browser extension.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

Third-party processing

ALARM utilises the services of third-party organisations to process your personal data. On behalf of ALARM, the Data Protection Officer, Peter Andrews determines the purposes and means of the processing of your personal data. Where your data is processed by any third-party on behalf of ALARM, that third-party is a processor under the GDPR. We confirm that we take steps in order to ensure that this data is processed lawfully under the law in accordance with each agreement that we have in place with each processor.

If you wish to see all third-party processors, please email [email protected] and we will promptly send you a current list.

Review of this policy

We keep this policy under regular review. This privacy policy is v1.0 and was last updated on 25 April 2018.