Updated April 2025

Policy Statement

Walsall Operatic Society takes the privacy of its members and supporters most seriously. This Privacy Policy details the information we hold about you and explains how we collect, use and protect your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (2016) and Data Protection Act (2018).

 If you have any queries regarding the use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer (whose contact information is at the bottom of this document).

We will never sell or trade your data and nor will our third-party service providers.

How do we collect information?

To provide our members and supporters with the best service we can, we collect certain personal information. This is dependent upon your role. This includes when you:

Supporters

• Sign up to our e-mail list.
• Contact us on one of our online platforms.
• Contact us by telephone, electronically, post or in person.
• Interact with us on social media.
• Browse our website.

Members (In addition to the above)

• Audition or sign up to be in one of our productions.
• Join our society.

What information do we collect?

 
Personal Data

Personal data may include your contact details such as name, address and telephone number; your contact preferences and how you could like us to contact you; details of communications with you; details of your payment transactions related to your purchases and details of your access requirements. This information enables us to conduct business with you, provide you with the best service possible and to keep you informed about Walsall Operatic Society’s productions and services.

Special Category Data

In certain instances, special category data may be asked for, including ethnicity, gender identity, medical information and next of kin. This information is available to a restricted number of senior committee members for whom it is deemed necessary and is only used in case of an emergency.

Children’s Data

We may collect and store data for under 16’s who participate in certain productions. This may include special category data. Where possible and appropriate, we will attempt to obtain consent from the parent/carer of this child before collecting this data. This information is available to a restricted number of senior committee members for who it is deemed necessary.

How do we process your information?

How we process your data information will depend on the purposes for which it was collected.

Administration of a purchase

Tickets to most of our productions will be sold directly through the official box office of our venue. For more details of their privacy policies, please contact the venue directly.

For smaller events, tickets may be sold directly by Walsall Operatic Society, either online, in person or via telephone. When this is the case, we need to collect information about you to process the transaction and fulfil your order. This may include, but is not limited to, details such as your name, your address and your payment details.

We may need to process your data to contact you about a cancelled event, or an amendment to your ticket order.

If you have registered for an accessible ticket, we store Personal Data and Special Category Data you give us about your health and your requirements and needs while you are at our venues to ensure we can make your visit as enjoyable as possible and fulfil your ticketing requirements when booking.

Marketing and communication

We consider ourselves to have a legitimate interest in furthering the charitable aims of Walsall Operatic Society, nurturing a passion of the performing arts for our members and supporters.

To do so, we need to be able to advertise our productions and services (both on and off the stage) and to raise funds through ticket sales, donations and sponsorships.

From time to time, where there is a legitimate interest to do so, we may contact you about events, news and offers which we think will be of interest to you based on your recent purchase history.  We define recent as a purchase made in the last five years.

We will never contact you if you have asked us not to.  We do not share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes without your permission and we will never sell or trade your data.

Our Website

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect technical information about your session including the Internet Protocol (IP) address that connects your device to the internet, the type of device you use, your browser, operating system, whether you made a purchase and from where you have arrived at our site. We do not link this information to anything that identifies individuals.  This information enables us to analyse how the website is used and where improvements can be made.

We use essential and non-essential cookies on our website.  A cookie is a small text file of letters and numbers that gets put onto your computer when you visit a website. This allows the site to distinguish you from other users. Essential cookies are required to login or to purchase items from our website. Non-essential cookies are used to track how you use and interact with our website and for analytical purposes and to monitor the efficacy of digital advertising. Cookies are not normally linked to information that allows us to identify individuals.

Member/Performer Safety

During our entire production process, the safety of our members, performers and entire company (both on and off the stage) is paramount.

As such, we have a legitimate interest in being able to cater for any medical requirements and provide full support and necessary care in the event of an emergency.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your personal information in accordance with data protection law for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, archival or reporting requirements.

Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of, deleted or cached in a secure manner.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of the information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
 

Keeping Your Information Safe

In addition to processing data, Walsall Operatic Society contracts external companies to supply services or process data on our behalf such as our e-mail newsletter.

These organisations only hold the data for the reason contracted by Walsall Operatic Society and do not sell, share or use your data for any other purpose. We take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (2016) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (2003).

While most of our suppliers store data at a destination within the European Economic Area (EEA), it may be transferred outside the EEA. We, and our contractors, use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access to your data.

We have processes in place and carry out regular reviews of who has access to data to ensure that your information is only accessible to senior committee members. Special Category Data is only accessible to staff for whom it is deemed necessary.

Paper files with Personal and Special Category Data are kept to a minimum and are stored securely when not in use.

If legally required we may disclose your information to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors. We will only share your data in other circumstances with your consent. 

Giving you control

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing information at any time by logging into your online account, by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us any time. Our contact details are at the bottom of this page.

Where you opt out of receiving marketing information, this will not apply to personal data provided to us when you purchase a ticket or other service from us. We may still have a legitimate interest to contact you about the administration of a booking, for example if an event is cancelled. 

If you opt out, it may be that we cannot provide you with certain services such as offers connected with your membership, or priority booking information.

If you wish to amend your data, or to ask us to stop using your Personal and Special Category Data for reasons other than processing your transaction, or to erase your Personal and/or Special Category Data please contact admin@walsalloperatic.com

You have a right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. To request this please send an email to admin@walsalloperatic.com

We will respond to requests within 30 days in compliance with GDPR requirements. 

For your convenience, a printable copy of the above policy can be found here.