Inform collects and processes a variety of personal data in order to fulfill its aims of providing information about minority religions and sects which is as accurate, up-to-date and as evidence-based as possible.

Personal information collection and use

All staff members have a responsibility to safeguard the confidentiality (i.e. identity and/or identifying characteristics) of enquirers and informants and to record any information received from them accurately.

We use return e-mail addresses to answer the e-mails we receive. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with outside parties. We may take note of phone numbers or addresses as part of an ongoing enquiry. These personal details will only be used to make direct communications with you for the purpose of meeting your ongoing requests and are not shared with outside parties.

All personal information given by enquirers is treated as highly confidential. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent it is necessary to complete your express requests.

We may refer to your personal information to better understand your needs and how we can improve our services. We may use that information to contact you. We will not transfer the personal information you provide at this site to any third party unless otherwise disclosed to you.

Information in our database and public interest archive is used to create anonymised reports and track trends in various minority religious groups over time.

Any use of material from Inform’s database or archive should not, under any circumstances, identify living individuals without 1) their express permission or 2) those identifying details being found in an open source, public document.

All personal information given by enquirers is treated as strictly confidential unless the persons concerned give permission for it to be made available to others. This means that we will not otherwise use or disclose your personal information without your consent except (i) as described in this policy, or (ii) as required by law, court order or as requested by other government or law enforcement authority.

Inform’s confidentiality is not, however, protected by legal privilege. This means that it has no grounds in law for withholding information if it is requested to disclose it by a court of law. Nonetheless, Inform will fight (and has successfully fought) in the courts to preserve the anonymity of its informants.

Inform firmly believes that the law in a democratic country should be implemented, and whenever it learns of allegations of serious criminal activities it informs and assists the appropriate authorities by providing information (whilst observing individual confidentiality, see previous paragraph).

Inform will hold information from enquirers in our public interest archive unless an enquirer expressly asks us to delete or fully anonymise the information. All access to highly confidential information in our archive is strictly controlled and only available to Inform Staff and vetted researchers who sign an agreement to keep all personal information confidential.

Inform is the Data Controller for the personal data that we process and is registered as such with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

As a charity, Inform is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

In the case of joint research projects conducted with researchers from other institutions, there may be different procedures in place for data storage and management; if this is the case you will have been given an information sheet detailing the privacy and data storage procedures relevant for that research project.

Information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers, or on our cloud-based systems which are located within the UK or the EEA. These servers are password-protected and fully encrypted, meeting GDPR legislative requirements.

Physical archives containing highly confidential material are kept in a secure, locked locations accessible only under the direct supervision of Inform Staff.

Contact us

Please direct any queries about this policy or about the way we process your personal information to our Data Protection Officer using the contact details below.

• Email: inform@kcl.ac.uk or warwick.hawkins@kcl.ac.uk
• By post: Inform, c/o Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London, Virginia Woolf Building, 22 Kingsway, London WC2B 6LE

You can update your contact preferences for receiving information about our events and activities by contacting us.

Your Rights

We rely on consent as the legal basis on which we process your personal information and you may withdraw that consent at any time.

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information, which apply in certain circumstances. In order to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in this document. These are described in more detail by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You have the right

• to access the personal information we hold about you and to receive a copy
• to correct inaccuracies in the personal information we hold about you
• to have your data deleted when it is no longer required

In some circumstances, you also have the right

• to limit how we use your personal information,
• to data portability
• to object to the use of your personal information

If you are concerned about the way we have processed your personal information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Please visit the ICO’s website www.ico.org.uk for further details, or you can use their online tool for reporting concerns: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/