Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy sets out details of the Personal Information that the Metropolitan Police Service Greek & Cypriot Association (MPS GCA) collects from you and how we use that Personal Information. We also explain your rights and how to contact us if you have any questions about your Personal Information.

1. About us

This Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Information which the MPS GCA (together “MPS GCA”, “we” or “us”) collects about you when you use our website https://www.mpsgca.org. It also applies to any Personal Information we collect if you visit us at any events we hold or take part in, or otherwise interact with us.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to Personal Information collected by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

2. What Information do we collect?

We collect Personal Information from you when you provide it to us directly and through your use of the MPS GCA website. This information may include:

  • Information you provide to us when you use the MPS GCA website (e.g. Your name, contact details, date of birth and/or age and any information which you add to your profile);
  • Transaction and billing information, if you make any purchases from us or using the MPS GCA website (e.g. a record of your purchases, credit/debit card details and delivery information);
  • Records of your interactions with us (e.g. if you contact us via the website or interact with us on social media); 
  • Information you provide when you attend an event held by us or that we take part in;
  • Information you provide us when you enter a competition or participate in a survey;
  • Information collected automatically, using cookies and other tracking technologies (e.g. which pages you viewed and whether you clicked on a link in one of our email updates). We may also collect information about the device you use to access the MPS GCA website; and
  • Other information necessary to provide the MPS GCA website.

We may combine the information collected via the MPS GCA website with information we collect from you offline, for the purposes of better understanding our members and community and improve our marketing, as well as for security purposes.

3. How do we use Personal Information?

Depending on how you use the MPS GCA website, your interactions with us, and the permissions you give us, the purposes for which we use your Personal Information include:

  • To fulfil your purchase, order or request (for example, when you buy a ticket or any merchandise through the MPS GCA website).
  • To maintain your profile on the MPS GCA website and offer you a personalised experience on the MPS GCA website. 
  • To manage and respond to any queries or complaints to our committee.
  • To improve and maintain the MPS GCA website, and monitor their usage.
  • For market research, e.g. we may contact you for your opinions and comments.
  • To send you marketing messages and show you targeted advertising, where we have your consent or are otherwise permitted to do so.
  • For security purposes, to investigate fraud or abuse, and where necessary to protect ourselves and third parties.
  • To investigate breaches of our contracts, policies or Terms and Conditions.
  • To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We rely on the following legal bases, under data protection law, to process your Personal Information:

  • Because the processing is necessary to perform a contract with you, or take steps prior to entering into a contract with you (e.g. where you have made a purchase with us, we use your Personal Information to process the payment and fulfil your order).
  • Because we have obtained your consent (e.g. where you contact us with a query, where you add optional information to your account profile, or if you consent to receive marketing from us). You are free to withdraw your consent at any time. 
  • Because it is in our legitimate interests in operating our association, for security purposes, to protect our committee, members and reputation, for fraud prevention and to operate and promote the association.

4. How do we use your Personal Information for communication?

As a member or customer, the MPS GCA may use your Personal Information to send you messages by email, phone, SMS or post. Some of these messages may be tailored to you, based on your online profile, your previous browsing or purchase activity, and other information we hold about you.

If you no longer want to receive marketing communications from us (or would like to opt back in!), you can change your preferences at any time by contacting us as detailed below, or by using the ‘unsubscribe’ mechanism in the promotional. If you unsubscribe from marketing, please note we may still contact you with service messages from time to time (e.g. ticket confirmations and information about your legal rights). Once you unsubscribe, you may continue to receive marketing messages for a few days while we action your unsubscribe request.

Social Media

You may also see adverts or news articles for the MPS GCA on third party websites, including on social media. These ads may be tailored to you using cookies (which track your web activity, so enable us to serve ads to customers who have visited the MPS GCA website). Where you see an ad on social media, this may be because we have engaged the social network to show adverts to our customers, or users who match the demographic profile of our customers. In some cases, this may involve sharing your email address with the social network. If you no longer want to see tailored ads you can change your cookie and privacy settings on your browser and these third party websites.

5. Who do we share this Personal Information with?

We share Personal Information with third parties in the following circumstances:

  • With our suppliers and service providers working for us, e.g. payment processors and delivery companies.
  • With third parties engaged in fraud prevention and detection. 
  • With law enforcement or other governmental authorities or regulatory bodies, e.g. to report a fraud or in response to a lawful request.
  • Otherwise where we have your consent or are otherwise legally permitted to do so.

6. Where is your Personal Information stored, and how long is it kept?

Your Personal Information is stored on the MPS GCA website host, BigCommerce, and MPS systems. We will keep your Personal Information for as long as we need it for the purposes set out above, and so this period will vary depending on your interactions with us and the nature of the Personal Information. For example, where you have bought a ticket or merchandise from us, we will keep a record of your purchase for the period necessary for invoicing, tax and warranty purposes. We may also keep a record of correspondence with you (for example if you have made an enquiry) for as long as is necessary. Where we no longer have a need to keep your information, we delete or anonymise the relevant information. Please note that where you unsubscribe from our marketing communications, we will keep a record of your email address and/or phone number (as applicable) to ensure we do not send you marketing emails in future.

7. Children

Our website https://www.mpsgca.org is not intended for users under 13 years. We recommend that parents supervise their children while they are online. There are various control tools available for online services that we advise parents to utilise in order to create a child-friendly online environment for their children.

We are dedicated to the protection of children’s Personal Information and we do not actively market to children under the age of 13. We endeavour to limit the amount of Personal Information which we collect from users who are under 13.

  • Users who are under 13 must always ask their parent or guardian for permission before you:
    apply for membership; 
  • email us, or ask us to email anything to you/another user under 13;
  • send any information to us;
  • post any information on any news article or social media; or
  • offer to agree to buy anything online.

8. How do we protect information?

We take the security of your Personal Information very seriously. Your Personal Information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessed when necessary. A limited number of people have special access rights to such systems and they are required to keep the information confidential. When you place orders or access your Personal Information, we offer the use of a secure server. All credit/debit card information you supply is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our databases to be accessed only as stated above.

Whilst we have used our best efforts to ensure the security of your Personal Information, please be aware that we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet.

9. Monitoring of Telephone Calls

If you contact us by telephone, we may monitor or record the call for security purposes and to improve the quality of services that we provide to you.

10. Third party links

The MPS GCA website may include links to websites operated by third parties. These linked sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content or activities of these linked sites. However, we do seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these linked sites (including if a specific link does not work) by contacting us as detailed below.

11. Your rights regarding your Personal Information

You have certain rights in respect of your Personal Information, including the right to access, correct, restrict, and request the erasure of your Personal Information, and obtain a copy of it in a machine-readable format.

You also have the right to object to your Personal Information being used for certain purposes, including to send you marketing. See section 4 (‘How do we use your Personal Information for communication?‘) for more details of how to opt out of marketing.

We will comply with any requests to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law. Please be aware, however, that there are a number of limitations to these rights, and there may be circumstances where we are not able to comply with your request. To make any requests regarding your Personal Information, or if you have any questions or concerns regarding your Personal Information, you should contact us. You are also entitled to contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you have any concerns.

12. Contact us

If you have any queries on any aspect of our Privacy Policy or wish to exercise any of your rights referred to above, please contact us by email at mpsgca@met.police.uk

13. Changes to our Policy

In order to comply with the law and to meet our changing association requirements, our policies and procedures are constantly under review. From time to time, we may modify, alter or update this Privacy Policy. We will post the revised Privacy Policy on the MPS GCA website, and so we encourage you to check back regularly.

This Privacy Policy was last updated in September 2018.