Privacy Policy

Who we are

Wey Valley Radio (Alton) Ltd (known as Wey Valley Radio) is a not for profit company limited by guarantee, operated by volunteers and established for the benefit of the local area around Alton in Hampshire.

Our registered company number is 09822128 and our registered office is at 37 High Street, Alton, England GU34 1BD. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration reference ZC132136.

This privacy policy explains how we collect and use information about you when you interact with our project and its services. If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we process your information, please email [email protected]

This privacy policy has been prepared in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, which together form the primary framework for data protection law in the United Kingdom. Our processing of your personal information is governed by these laws, and we are committed to handling your data in a way that is lawful, fair and transparent.

Information we collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with Wey Valley Radio. We have set out below what we collect from each group of people we deal with, why we collect it, and the lawful basis on which we process it.

Visitors to our website

When you visit www.weyvalleyradio.uk, we may collect:

• Technical information such as your IP address, browser type, and device type, gathered automatically through standard web analytics
• Information about pages you visit and how long you spend on them
• Any information you choose to provide if you contact us through the site or sign up to a mailing list

Lawful basis: Legitimate interests (to understand how our website is used and improve it) and, where applicable, consent (for non-essential cookies and mailing list sign-ups).

Listeners who contact the station

When you phone, email, message us on social media, or write to us, we may collect:

• Your name and contact details
• The content of your message and any related correspondence

Lawful basis: Legitimate interests (to respond to your communication and keep a record of station correspondence).

Programme contributors, guests and interviewees

When you appear on or contribute to a Wey Valley Radio programme, we may collect:

• Your name and contact details
• A recording of your contribution
• Background information you provide for the programme

Lawful basis: Consent (for the recording and broadcast of your contribution) and legitimate interests (for keeping a record of contributors).

Donors and supporters

When you make a donation or financially support the station, we may collect:

• Your name and contact details
• The amount and date of your donation
• A record of how the donation was made

Donations are processed by PayPal. When you donate, your payment details are handled directly by PayPal (PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.) under their own privacy terms (https://www.paypal.com/uk/legalhub/privacy-full). We do not receive or store your full card details.

Lawful basis: Legitimate interests (for thanking supporters and maintaining donor records) and, where you tell us how you wish to be contacted in future, consent.

Advertisers and commercial partners

When you advertise with us or work with us commercially, we may collect:

• Business contact details
• Records of the commercial relationship and payments

Lawful basis: Contract (to deliver the agreed services) and legal obligation (for financial and tax records).

Volunteers

When you register as a volunteer with Wey Valley Radio, we collect more detailed information because of our regulatory duties as a licensed broadcaster and our duty of care to volunteers, listeners, and the wider community. We collect:

Basic contact and identification information:

• Full name
• Home postcode
• Email address
• Mobile telephone number

Volunteering information:

• Preferred volunteer role(s)
• Skills, experience and previous broadcasting or related work
• Availability and time commitments

Special category data (collected with explicit consent):

• Health conditions and disabilities relevant to your safety and our ability to make reasonable adjustments
• Personal circumstances we should be aware of

Criminal offence data (collected where lawfully required):

• Information about unspent criminal convictions
• Consent to undertake a DBS check where required for your role

Compliance and consent records:

• Signed declarations confirming you have read our broadcast regulations and station policies
• Specific consents for data processing
• Date of joining and date of any subsequent annual renewals

Lawful bases for volunteer data:

• Legitimate interests — for managing the volunteer relationship and meeting our duties as a broadcaster
• Legal obligation — where we are required to retain certain records to comply with our Ofcom licence
• Explicit consent (Article 9 UK GDPR) — for health and disability information. You may withdraw this consent at any time by contacting our Data Protection Lead, though doing so may affect our ability to ensure your safety in volunteer activities
• Schedule 1, Part 2, paragraph 18 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (Article 10 UK GDPR) — for criminal conviction and DBS information, which we process for safeguarding purposes to protect children and individuals at risk who interact with the station

What do we use your information for?

We use your personal information to:

• communicate with you about project activities if you have signed-up as a volunteer or supporter
• update you about our project and its work in the community if you have contacted us as a listener
• inform you about events, services and promotions if you have given your express consent
• enable you to log in to your account if you have one
• use third party communication tools
• enable you to enter competitions should we run any

We may also process your personal information if we have a legitimate interest to:

• analyse, measure and improve the services we offer
• help prevent fraud and loss
• train our volunteers subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations being observed
• comply with relevant regulatory obligations

Third-party communication tools

To help us coordinate our volunteer activities and deliver our services, we use a number of third-party communication and collaboration platforms. These platforms may process your personal information on our behalf or under their own terms, as set out below.

WhatsApp — some of our teams use WhatsApp groups for day-to-day communication. If you are added to one of these groups, your name and phone number will be visible to other group members, and your messages will be processed by Meta Platforms Inc. under WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy (available at https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy). We will always ask for your agreement before adding you to a WhatsApp group.

Google Workspace — we may use Google tools such as Gmail, Google Drive or Google Meet to communicate with volunteers and store documents. These services are provided by Google LLC and your information may be processed under Google’s Privacy Policy (available at https://policies.google.com/privacy).

Zoom — we may use Zoom to host volunteer meetings, training sessions or other online events. If you participate in a Zoom call, your name, email address and any information you share during the session will be processed by Zoom Video Communications Inc. under Zoom’s Privacy Policy (available at https://zoom.us/privacy). We will let you know in advance if a session is being recorded, and will ask for your agreement before doing so.

Dropbox — we may use Dropbox to store and share documents and other files relevant to our activities. If you are given access to our Dropbox, your name and email address will be processed by Dropbox Inc. under Dropbox’s Privacy Policy (available at https://www.dropbox.com/privacy). Access is granted only to volunteers who need it for their role and is removed when you leave.

Slack — if you volunteer with us, we may invite you to join a Slack workspace to communicate with other volunteers and coordinate activities. By accepting that invitation, your name and email address will be processed by Slack Technologies LLC under the terms of Slack’s own Privacy Policy (available at https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/privacy-policy). Participation in our Slack workspace is voluntary but may be necessary to fulfil certain volunteer roles effectively.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that any third-party platform we use provides an adequate level of protection for your personal information. However, once your information is processed by these platforms, it is also subject to their own privacy policies and terms of service, which we encourage you to read.

What is our lawful basis for processing your information?

Under UK data protection law, we are required to have a lawful basis for processing your personal information. We rely on the following bases:

Consent — where you have freely given us your permission to do so. We rely on consent when we:

• send you updates about our project and community work (if you have contacted us as a listener)
• inform you about events, services and promotions
• enable you to enter competitions
• share your information with competition sponsors

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at [email protected]. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we carried out before you withdrew it.

Legitimate interests — where we have a genuine and proportionate business or organisational reason to process your information, and that reason is not overridden by your rights and interests. We rely on legitimate interests when we:

• analyse, measure and improve the services we offer
• help prevent fraud and loss
• train our volunteers, subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations

We have assessed that our legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms, taking into account the nature of the information processed and the reasonable expectations of the individuals concerned.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object to that processing. Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to do so.

Legal obligation — where we are required to process your information to comply with the law. We rely on this basis when we share your information with law enforcement agencies, regulators or other governmental bodies where we are legally required to do so.

For some processing we rely on additional bases. Where we collect health or disability information (special category data under Article 9 UK GDPR), we rely on explicit consent. Where we collect criminal record or DBS information (criminal offence data under Article 10 UK GDPR), we rely on the safeguarding condition in Schedule 1, Part 2, paragraph 18 of the Data Protection Act 2018. The “Information we collect” section above sets out which basis applies to which group.

Cookies

Our website generates cookies. A cookie is a small text file that we place on your device when you visit us. Cookies allow us to measure activity on the website and to make it work better for you. We do not use information transferred through cookies for marketing purposes, nor is that information shared with any other organisation.

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand how our website is used. This is a privacy-focused analytics service that does not use cookies, does not track you across websites, and does not collect any personal data that could identify you. No analytics information is shared with any advertising network.

You can set your browser to refuse cookies but parts of the site will not function properly if you do.

Children

We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13 for general use. This threshold reflects the minimum age at which individuals can generally consent to their data being processed online. For volunteer roles, a higher threshold applies — anyone under 18 requires parental or guardian consent before taking part, in line with our safeguarding responsibilities.

We will hold this information together with the information relating to the child under the terms of this policy.

With whom do we share your information?

We may share your information in the following circumstances:

• to enable us to comply with the law if requested or obliged to do so by law enforcement agencies, regulatory or other governmental bodies
• with our legal advisors to enable us to fulfil our legal obligations and protect or defend our legal rights
• if we need to share information with providers who perform services on our behalf subject to a satisfactory sub-processing agreement being signed in advance
• to connect you with project volunteers to help us make our programmes or organise events
• if you enter a competition we may provide your information to competition sponsors if you have given your prior consent. If you win a prize we may share the relevant information with sponsors to enable the prize to be awarded
• in the event that we transfer all or a portion of company assets we reserve the right to transfer the information we have about you

For how long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as it is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Different groups have different retention periods, set out below.

Website analytics

Aggregate website analytics are retained in line with our analytics provider’s standard retention period and contain no information that identifies you.

Correspondence from listeners

Routine correspondence is retained for up to 2 years. Where correspondence relates to a complaint or regulatory matter, it may be retained for longer in line with our complaints procedure.

Programme contributor recordings and records

Recordings and contributor records are retained for the lifetime of the programme archive, or as long as we hold a broadcast licence, whichever is shorter.

Donor records

Donor records are retained for 6 years in line with the statutory limitation period for financial matters and our own accounting needs. After this period, only anonymised donation totals are retained for reporting purposes.

Advertiser and commercial partner records

Commercial records are retained for 7 years to meet financial and tax reporting obligations. After this period, only anonymised summaries are retained for our own records.

Volunteer records

We apply tiered retention to volunteer data, based on the sensitivity of the information and the purpose for which it was collected.

A volunteer is considered to have left when one of the following occurs:

• They submit our Volunteer Leaver’s Form confirming their departure
• They confirm departure by email or in person to a member of management
• They remain Lapsed (failure to renew annual compliance agreement) for six months without re-engagement

From the date of leaving:

Special category and criminal offence data (deleted within 14 days):

• Health and disability information
• Personal circumstances information
• Criminal record and DBS information
• Special category data consents

Standard personal data (deleted within 12 months):

• Contact details (name, postcode, email, mobile)
• Volunteer role, skills, experience, availability records
• Signed compliance declarations

Indefinitely retained (audit trail only):

• The fact that a volunteer was registered with us, and the dates of their compliance renewals
• A record that data has been deleted, with the date of deletion

Exceptions:

• Where a safeguarding concern exists, we retain the relevant records for the period set out in our Safeguarding Policy
• Where we are legally required to retain information for longer (for example for the defence of legal claims), we retain only the specific data needed for that purpose

Where do we hold your information?

We process your information on systems which may store data outside the UK and the EU, such as cloud-based file management or commercial email platforms. We protect data held on all cloud-based systems through multi-factor login and encrypted data transfer.

Where your information is transferred outside the UK, we take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect it, in accordance with our obligations under UK GDPR Article 46. These safeguards may include standard contractual clauses approved by the UK Information Commissioner, or transfers to countries that benefit from an adequacy regulation made by the UK Secretary of State. If you would like more information about the safeguards we rely on, please contact us at [email protected].

External links

Our website contains links to other organisations, such as local councils, the police, the NHS and community event listings. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these external websites.

Your data protection rights

Wey Valley Radio (Alton) Ltd. is a Data Controller under UK data protection legislation, registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration number ZC132136. Our Data Protection Lead is Julie Cottrell, who is a Director of the station.

If you have any questions about how we use your personal information, or wish to exercise any of the rights listed below, you can contact us by:

• Email: [email protected]
• Post: 37 High Street, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 1BD

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing. This means that no decision which significantly affects you will ever be made by an automated system without human involvement.

Under these laws you have the right to:

• request access to the information we hold about you. If you wish to submit a request, please contact [email protected]
• request the restriction of use of your information in certain circumstances
• have your information corrected, erased or moved (if the processing is based on consent)
• object to processing of your information
• request a copy of your information in a structured, machine-readable format (right to portability), where applicable
• withdraw your express consent to processing at any time where such consent is the basis of processing
• make a complaint to the Information Commissioner at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint if you have concerns about how we use or process your information.

Full details of how to raise a data protection complaint with us, and what happens next, are set out in our Data Protection Complaints Procedure.

We hope that you would contact us first so we can deal with any concerns at [email protected]

Updates

We will update this policy from time to time. It was last updated on 18 June 2026.