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Cambridge Philatelic Society
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Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

1. Introduction

Cambridge Philatelic Society (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, store, and safeguard information when you visit our website or interact with us.

The Cambridge Philatelic Society is a voluntary philatelic organisation that meets at Oddfellows Hall, 131 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8HA. We have been bringing together stamp collectors and postal history enthusiasts since 1920 and are affiliated to the Association of British Philatelic Societies.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following information:

  • Contact form submissions: When you use our contact form, we collect your name, email address, subject, and message content. The message is stored on our website and emailed to the Society’s officers who deal with enquiries. It is used solely to respond to your enquiry.
  • Web server logs: Like any website, our web server records each request it receives: your IP address, the page requested, the time, and what your browser reports about itself. We use these logs to keep the website running and secure, and to produce visitor statistics in which the last part of every IP address is removed, so that they cannot identify you. We do not use any analytics service.
  • Cookies: Our public pages set no cookies, as described in the Cookies section below. No tracking or advertising cookies are used.
  • No account registration: Public visitors to our website are not required to create an account or provide any personal information beyond what is voluntarily submitted via the contact form.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect in the following ways:

  • To respond to enquiries and messages submitted via the contact form.
  • To improve the content, functionality, and user experience of our website.
  • To communicate about society events, activities, and news, but only where you have expressly opted in to receive such communications.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), we rely on the following legal bases for processing your personal data:

  • Legitimate interest: We have a legitimate interest in responding to enquiries submitted through our website and in maintaining the effective operation of the society.
  • Consent: Where applicable, we will seek your explicit consent before processing your personal data for purposes beyond responding to your initial enquiry, such as adding you to a mailing list.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected:

  • Contact form submissions: Kept on our website for about 2 years from the date of submission, after which they are deleted automatically.
  • Web server logs: Kept for a short period (a few weeks at most) and then deleted. The visitor statistics made from them contain no complete IP addresses.

Emails sent to the Society’s officers by the contact form are kept in their mailboxes for as long as they need them to deal with your enquiry.

6. Who Else Handles Your Data

Our website is hosted, and its emails are delivered, by service providers who act only on our instructions and do not use your information for their own purposes. They keep it in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, which UK law recognises as protecting personal data to the same standard. We do not sell or share your personal data with anyone else.

7. Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. Our use of cookies is limited to the following:

  • No cookies for visitors: Our public pages do not set any cookies. The only cookie the website uses is strictly necessary for the Society’s own members who maintain its content.
  • No third-party tracking cookies: We do not use any third-party tracking, analytics, or advertising cookies.
  • No advertising cookies: We do not display advertisements and do not use any cookies for advertising purposes.

8. Third-Party Content and Links

Our pages load nothing from other websites: everything you see is served by our own server.

  • Maps: The map of our meeting venue is a picture made from OpenStreetMap data and kept on our own server, so viewing it sends nothing to a map service. The “Open in Google Maps” link under it takes you to Google only if you choose to follow it; Google’s privacy policy then applies.
  • Meeting recordings: We publish recordings of talks given at our Zoom meetings in our archive. If you appear in a recording and would like it edited or removed, please contact us.
  • External links: Our website contains links to external websites, including sponsor sites and philatelic organisations. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external sites, and we encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal information.

9. Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

  • Right of access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
  • Right to rectification: You may request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
  • Right to erasure: You may request that we delete your personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.
  • Right to restriction of processing: You may request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
  • Right to data portability: You may request a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
  • Right to object: You may object to the processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via our contact form or write to us at the address provided in the Contact section below. We will respond to your request within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please tell us first and we will do our best to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK’s independent data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, at ico.org.uk.

10. Data Security

We take the security of your personal data seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it, including:

  • All data transmitted between your browser and our website is encrypted using HTTPS (TLS/SSL).
  • Access to the information held by the website is restricted to authorised people and protected by secure authentication.
  • Our contact form includes anti-spam measures to prevent automated abuse.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Last updated” date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

12. Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy or our handling of your personal data, please get in touch:

  • Use our online contact form
  • Write to us at: Cambridge Philatelic Society, c/o Oddfellows Hall, 131 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8HA