Privacy Policy

This policy explains the way that we collect, use, and protect your data to support Wearing a Mask

We’ve tried to be as clear as we can be and to avoid unnecessary jargon while including all the relevant information but please do contact us at admin@wearing-a-mask.co.uk so if anything doesn’t make sense or needs expanding on.

Our aims and duty of care

Your data – what we store and why

Posting on Rejoice, Praise, Salvation

Your permissions and choices

How long is your data held

Where is your data stored

Exceptional circumstances – safeguarding and official investigations

Complying with the law and best practice around data

If our data is compromised

Updates

Our aims and duty of care

We recognise our duty of care with regards to your data and will always endeavour to do the right thing with the personal data you choose to share with us, including not compromising your anonymity; protecting your privacy; storing your data securely, and giving you control over your own data.

Our mission at Wearing a Mask is to help make your lives easier. We believe that securing your data, preserving your anonymity, protecting your privacy, and giving you control over your data are an important aspect of that mission.

We believe that employing data and data analytics appropriately can improve the user experience on Wearing a Mask . Data you give us when filling in forms (when registering, for example, or when using the site) helps us show you more relevant things.

Your data – what we store and why

We store the IP address, cookies, your device’s unique ID, page browsing history, approximate location, and any inquiries you’ve made. For registered members we also store username, password and email address; discussions you may have with Wearing a Mask site moderators; and a summary of decisions we’ve taken if we’ve reviewed your use of Wearing a Mask for any reason. Registered members may also have given us more data on sign up, such as the age of their children.

We store your email address to register you and contact you (if you have asked for email newsletters) and we store things such as IP address, cookies, and device ID so that our systems recognise you if you return to Wearing a Mask. We store things such as your device’s reading habits to show you things we think may be of interest to you (eg content). When we look at this information across large numbers of users, it helps us see which parts of Rejoice, Praise, Salvation are well-used and which aren’t, and this helps us to decide what sort of content and features might be useful to develop. Subject to the permissions you have given us (as described in your permissions and choices below).

We don’t require your name or email address when you view Wearing a Mask content or register with the site.

Subject to your permissions and choices, we collect, store, and process the data listed in this section. We believe we provide a useful service, and therefore have a legitimate interest in processing your data which benefits bothWearing a Mask and you as a member.

We store the following data for all users, whether registered or not:

IP address, cookies, device ID to identify your web browser and device.

Page browsing information to enable us to show you more relevant things and to understand how people use Wearing a Mask, so we can improve it.

Within our user database, we assign your internet browser and device a unique ‘Identity Number’. Against this identity number, we record the topic of the content that your device is viewing or creating in other words, your device’s ‘reading habits’. This helps us understand what you may be interested in so that we can show you things we think may be relevant to you (such as other Wearing a Mask content). When we look at this information from all users, we can see what is popular and less popular, helping us to develop Wearing a Mask over time.

We also use Google Analytics to report on page views in aggregate to help us understand usage trends. We do not pass your personal data to Google and your IP address is anonymised before we share this information with Google Analytics. Google uses cookies and can learn about your browsing on Wearing a Mask and other Google services, as explained here: https://policies.google.com/privacy/partners

We store the following information for registered members:

Username, password, email address so that you can log in. If you choose to register to use Wearing a Mask we ask for your email address so that we can create an account for you and check you’re a real person (to prevent ‘bots’ signing up). We won’t send you newsletters or mass email communications that you haven’t asked for, and we don’t sell your email address to anyone else.

Discussions that take place over email or via Private Messages between you and Rejoice, Praise, Salvation moderators so that we have a record.

A summary of any actions we may have taken with regard to your use of Wearing a Mask (usually in response to reported posts or comments) so that we have a record and can moderate fairly.

We also store the following optional data for registered members:

Registration data: facts about you that you choose to provide in the sign-up process, such as your date of birth, gender, whether you have children, their ages, and genders. We do not share this information with anyone else. The provision of this data is optional; you can skip this stage.

Permissions to email you.

Private Messages that you choose to send other users.

Posting on Wearing a Mask

Of your registration data, only your Wearing a Mask username is displayed on screen for other users to see but posts on Wearing a Mask are visible to anyone on the internet. So when posting, you should bear in mind that any personally identifying details you include in the text or pictures you post could be seen by anyone.

Registered members of Wearing a Mask can start discussions and add comments, pictures, and videos to existing discussions within Wearing a Mask under our Terms of Use. This is optional in the sense that it’s up to you whether you post on Wearing a Mask or not; if you do post we always store the contents of those posts. These posts are public, but of your registration data, only your username is displayed on-screen. Your username is picked by you when you post on Wearing a Mask and you can change it at any time.

Wearing a Mask is visible to search engines. This means that any personal information users choose to share in their posts on Wearing a Mask can be seen widely. We cannot control who sees these posts.

In all your posts across Wearing a Mask, in personal messages to other users, and in choosing your username, you should be mindful about the possibility that information you choose to disclose could lead to someone working out who you are in ‘real-life’. For example, anything that references your real-life name, your children’s real names, where you live, or your date of birth could make it easy for someone to work out who you are.

Wearing a Mask is for adults and we believe that our users are adults who can decide for themselves what information they choose to share on Wearing a Mask. That said if you’re ever worried that you’ve said too much, hit ‘report’ on one of your posts and explain the problem to our moderation team; they will be happy to help if they can.

You should be aware that the moderation team and a small number of other members of staff at Wearing a Mask have access to your posts and can see that content in combination with your registration data. We restrict the number of staff who have access to this data to the minimum and we constantly review this. You can check your registration data.

Your permissions and choices

You can change your registration data and your email preferences on Wearing a Mask at any time. You can delete your account.

Your registration data

You can change the information that you provided when you registered, including your email address and Rejoice, Praise, Salvation username.

If you still wish to post on Wearing a Mask, you’ll then need to register a username and password via the Registration page.

Your posts

If you’re ever worried that you’ve said too much, hit ‘report’ on one of your posts and explain the problem to our site moderation team; they will be happy to help if they can. You can request a retrospective name change this means that all your previous posts will appear under a different username.

Your cookies

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. A cookie is a small, temporary file which a web server sends to your web browser to be stored. Cookies allow Wearing a Mask to identify your web browser and device if we see it again.

Cookies do not contain your name or other personal details and there are some benefits to you and Wearing a Mask:

‘Information storage and access’ cookies allow you to perform certain functions like logging into Wearing a Mask. Cookies improve your experience of the site. For example, they allow you to log in and post, and allow us to show you discussions you’ve already read in a different colour, and to display them top-down or bottom-up according to your preference.

Cookies also help us to show you more relevant content. These are formally known as ‘Personalisation’ cookies, ‘Ad selection, delivery, reporting’ cookies, and ‘Content selection, delivery, reporting’ cookies.

‘Measurement’ cookies allow us to gather information about how many people visit Wearing a Mask, how often, and what they look at while on the site (a process called ‘analytics’). If you visit multiple pages or come back to Wearing a Mask after a break, cookies mean we do not count you as a new visitor. Using cookies like this allows us to compile aggregate statistics about how many users  Wearing a Mask has and how long people use the site for, on average.

Deleting your Wearing a Mask Account

You can delete your account, your Wearing a Mask posts won’t be deleted, but there will no longer be any personal information associated with them.

Data requests

If you’d like you can ask us to provide details of the personal information we hold about you, under the 2018 EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To request this information, please email us at admin@wearing-a-mask.co.uk

How long is your data held

Any personal data you give us, or that we collect when you use Wearing a Mask will be retained by us for as long as it’s needed to perform its function. Registration data is held permanently unless you deregister. There’s no one-size-fits-all time limit, but we regularly review the data we hold to ensure it is still necessary.

Private Messages are stored until you delete them. If you delete your account, your messages will also be deleted.

We regularly review the data held and delete information that is no longer needed. All the data we hold is stored securely and only accessible to authorised staff members, who have regular data training.

Where is your data stored

Your data is stored by our web hosting company.

Your data is stored by our web server hosting providers.

Exceptional circumstances – safeguarding and official investigations

If there are obvious safeguarding reasons, or if we are contacted by the police about a possible breach of the law, we may share your personal information with public authorities without your permission. If we are compelled to do so by court order, we will share your personal data to the extent specified in the order.

If there are compelling safeguarding considerations, we may share your data with public authorities without your permission. We understand ‘compelling safeguarding considerations’ to mean credible evidence of imminent risk of serious harm, especially to a child or vulnerable person.

In such circumstances, on the judgment of a senior person within Wearing a Mask and in consultation with the Data Protection Officer, we may proactively contact relevant authorities (the police or ambulance service, for example) and share any relevant data we have, such as location data, relevant posts, private messages, details of any children who might be at risk, and descriptions of the situation.

If contacted by the police about possible breaches of the law disclosed in posts, we may sometimes on the judgement of a senior person within Wearing a Mask and in consultation with the Data Protection Officer share your personal information with them. We will share your personal information if compelled to do so by court order, for example under Section 5 of the 2013 Defamation Act.

Complying with the law and bst practice around data

The way we store and process data is compliant with the UK 1998 Data Protection Act, the 2018 EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and other relevant pieces of legislation. We always aim to comply both with the spirit as well as the letter of the law and to be responsible for your data.

The way that we store and process data is compliant with the following legislation:

UK Data Protection Act 1988 (DPA)
EU Data Protection Directive 1995 (DPD)
EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR)
ePrivacy Directive 2002 (amended 2009)

As well as keeping up-to-date with laws about data, we aim to make sensible decisions based

If our data is compromised

If our security is breached, our data is compromised or if we fail to comply with the law, we will tell affected users as soon as we become aware of the failure. We will report any data breach to the Information Commissioner and, if appropriate, the police, in a timely fashion.

Used appropriately, we strongly believe using data improves the user experience across all Wearing a Mask and supports our aim of making members’ lives easier. Data you give us when filling in forms on site (when joining, for example) or when you’re using the site helps us show you more relevant things and improve Wearing a Mask for everyone.

If via human error, or via a breach of our security, we fail to comply with the law, we will let affected users know as soon as we are aware of it. We will report any data breach to the Information Commissioner in the UK and, depending on the circumstances, the Police.

Wearing a Mask uses best practice, multi-tier web application security for our servers including Denial of Service protection and Web Application Firewall at the network edge. For staff access to all administrative systems, we enforce 2-step verification and IP-based access restrictions. Regular security updates keep staff informed of the latest security threats.

Data

We only collect personal data necessary to run our skill this is your due date. We do not share this with anyone outside of Wearing a Mask.

Changes

Our skills or parts of them may change or be updated at any time. Further, this Privacy Policy might change.

Updates

Further updates will be noted here as and when they are made.