This policy outlines how Bliss collects and processes information relating to you, which can be used to personally identify you (either directly or indirectly) (known as “Personal Information”). The policy outlines your rights over that information, and how we keep it safe. We are proud of the values that underpin everything we do at Bliss to improve the lives of babies born premature or sick – including how we make use of your Personal Information. We are:

Trusted
Supportive
Ambitious

These values are the backbone of this policy which, together with our Supporter Promise aim to demonstrate that we will only ever use your Personal Information for the purposes set out in this policy. Our goal as a charity is to support every baby born premature or sick in the UK.

This privacy policy describes how we collect and use your Personal Information and your rights in relation to that Personal Information, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”).

Firstly, who are “we” in this policy?

We are:

Bliss, a charity registered in England and Wales (1002973)
Bliss Scotland, a charity registered in Scotland (SC040878)
Bliss Sales, a company limited by guarantee (2609219)

We operate as one organisation in most of what we do, but there are different regulators that govern various activities that we take part in. For the purposes of this document when we say “we”, “us” or “Bliss”, we mean all of these registered bodies.

Bliss is a “controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use Personal Information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

Our primary address is Bliss, 1st Floor North, 10-18 Union Street, London, SE1 1SZ and our email address is [email protected]. Our full contact details can be found on our website.

What types of Personal Information do we collect?

We may collect, store and/or use the following types of Personal Information, depending on how you interact with Bliss:

Personal contract details such as your name, address(es), phone number(s) or email address(es).
Your date of birth.
Your gender.
Your bank or payment information, such as when you make a donation or buy something from us.
Information about where you work, such as if you work for a particular neonatal unit or are doing some fundraising at work.
Information about whether you are a UK taxpayer to help us with claiming Gift Aid.
If you have left us a gift in your will, we might need information about your next of kin or your lawyer.
We may also collect and process technical information about how you are using our website, your computer, including (where available) your Internet Protocol address, login information, operating system and browser type and version, for system administration purposes and to report aggregate information to other organisations (including our funders). When reporting to other organisations, this is statistical data about the browsing actions and patterns of usage of our sites and does not (of itself) identify any individual by name. For more information on this please refer to our Cookies Policy.

We may also collect, store and/or use the following Personal Information, which could include special categories of Personal Information:

Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and/or political opinions, such as where we want to make sure we are offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of their background.
Information about your health, including any medical conditions and/or health and sickness records. We may ask for this if you register to take part in one of our events, or an event on our behalf (like the London Marathon).
We will sometimes ask for information about your baby and their experiences while in neonatal care. We will only use this to make sure that the service we offer is the best it can be, or to ensure that we’re communicating with you in the right way. If, for example, you shared with us that you had lost your baby, we might use that information to make sure we are speaking to you in the most appropriate and sensitive way.
If you submit a case study or support any of our work by sharing your personal experiences with neonatal care, this may sometimes contain sensitive Personal Information. We will only use this information for the purpose you gave it to us, and will never use this information for profiling or marketing to you.

Bliss doesn’t collect the information above routinely and, if we do, then we make sure we have a good reason for doing so. (See further information below.)

In some cases, Bliss may process information about your work history and/or details of any criminal convictions or offences. We may ask for this if you apply to be a volunteer or to work for us.

Our lawful bases for processing

We will only use your Personal Information when the law allows us to. Some examples of our lawful bases for processing are set out here:

We may need to process some or all of the categories of information in the list above to allow us to pursue our legitimate interests, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
We may ask for your consent to process your Personal Information, such as when we may use it to contact you for marketing purposes. You can always withdraw consent at any time.
Sometimes we have to use your Personal Information to comply with a law. Most commonly, this will mean financial information for auditing purposes, but it could be anything to do with the Fundraising Regulator, the Charity Commission, the Information Commissioner or another regulatory body.
We may need to process your Personal Information for the performance of a contract, for example where you buy a place in an event like the London Marathon.
When it is in your vital interests that we process your Personal Information. If there is a situation where life or health is at risk, this might compel us to use your Personal Information. This could be your emergency contact details if you’re at one of our events or a safeguarding issue at a hospital that we’re working with.

If we process sensitive Personal Information about you, we will do so: (1) in limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent; (2) where we need to do so to give effect to our legal obligations; or (3) for reasons of substantial public interest (such as for equal opportunities monitoring).

If we process Personal Information relating to criminal convictions or offences, we will only do so when the processing is authorised under UK law providing for appropriate safeguards.

How do we use your Personal Information?

Everything we do is to help us with our aim of supporting every baby born premature or sick in the UK. We will always have the best interests of babies, families, and Bliss supporters whenever we make a decision about Personal Information.

Here are some of the things we may use your Personal Information for:

Providing you with the services, products or information you have asked for.
Administering your donation or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid.
Keeping a record of your relationship with us.
Responding to or fulfilling any requests, complaints or queries you make to us.
Understanding how we can improve our services, products or information by conducting analysis and market research.
Managing our events, including managing any public health and safety requirements.
Checking for updated contact details against third party sources so that we can keep your Personal Information up-to-date and stay in touch if you move.
Sending you correspondence and communicating with you, such as when we send you marketing information by email telling you how you can support Bliss, but only if you have opted-in to such communications. We sometimes send appeals by post and may also contact you by telephone or SMS if you have told us that you are happy to be contacted in this way.
Administering our websites and to troubleshoot, perform data analysis, research, generate statistics and surveys related to our technical systems.
Testing our technical systems to make sure they are working as expected.
Displaying content to you in a way appropriate to the device you are using (for example if you are viewing content on a mobile device or a computer – see our Cookies Policy for more information).
When you have signed up for the Bliss Baby Charter, we will send you information related to your application, including support tips, resources and any other information that’s necessary for you to become fully accredited.
If you are fundraising for us and we want to support you.
Generating reports on our work, services and events to ensure that we are effectively monitoring and evaluating everything we do.
Safeguarding our staff and volunteers and conducting due diligence or ethical screening.
When we conduct analysis and targeting, so we can make our fundraising as effective and efficient as possible.
Processing your application for a job or volunteering position.
Conducting training and quality control for our activities.
Auditing and administering our financial accounts.
Meeting our legal obligations, for instance to perform contracts between you and us, or our obligations to regulators, government and/or law enforcement bodies.
Carrying out fraud prevention and money laundering checks.
Establishing, defending or enforcing legal claims.
Undertaking credit risk reduction activities.
Furthering our charitable objectives.

If you have any questions about this, or you would like to object to any processing of your Personal Information, please contact [email protected]

How do we collect information about you?

We collect Personal Information from you in many different ways. For example if you participate in our service user research, make a donation, sign a petition, become a volunteer, or join an event. We might collect your Personal Information online (for example via a form or our website), or offline (for example via a paper sponsorship form).

When you use our website, we may also collect Personal Information using “cookies”. You can find out more about this in our Cookies Policy.

You may give us your Personal Information indirectly, too. Examples of how we might get your information from a third party include:

Fundraising websites like JustGiving.
Financial processing services like PayPal or your own bank.
Job sites like CharityJob.
Social media sites like Facebook.
If you work in neonatal care and attended a Bliss training event, for example, your network or unit manager might have supplied us with your details.

We may also sometimes supplement the information we have on you with information that is available publicly, but we will only do that when we have a clear reason to do so that would be in the spirit of our values and this policy.

Bliss Champions and our email support service

When you speak to one of our Bliss Champions or contact our email support service, the information you provide is treated confidentially and is only used to provide you with the support that you have requested. We may keep emails on file for training purposes or to make sure we have dealt with your query properly, but this information will never be used for marketing in any way. More information can be found in our privacy statement for [email protected].

What are your rights with respect to data protection, and how do we uphold them?

The law states that you have a number of rights over the Personal Information we hold about you. We take this very seriously, so here is a bit of information about the rights you are entitled to:

The right to be informed – This is what we are doing by providing this privacy policy. Any communication we send you and any time we collect information about you there will be a link to this page.
The right to access the information we hold – You can ask us for the Personal Information we hold on you at any time. The easiest way to do this is via this form, but you can do so by emailing [email protected] or writing to us at Bliss, 1st Floor North, 10-18 Union Street, London, SE1 1SZ.
The right to get your information corrected – If you notice that something is wrong about the information we hold about you, if we spelled your name wrong or you have moved house for example, just let us know and we will update it right away.
The right to ask us to delete your information – If you don’t want us to use your information at all you can ask us to delete you from our systems. There are some reasons we might not be able to delete everything though. Examples include: if you’ve given us a donation, we might need to keep some information for tax or audit purposes so that we comply with the proper regulations; if you’re volunteering for us, we’ll have to keep your details for safeguarding reasons; or if another exception in data protection law applies.
The right to object to how we use your information – As with asking to be deleted, you can tell us you don’t want us to use your Personal Information in a certain way. You can always opt out of communications from us, for example, by clicking the unsubscribe link in an email or by contacting someone at Bliss directly. You can also ask us not to use your information for any of the things outlined in the “How we use your information section” but, as with the right to be deleted, exceptions may apply in certain cases.
The right to restrict how we use your information – If you believe something is wrong with the information we hold about you, or you think we’re using it in an incorrect way, you can ask us to restrict how we use it. This is subject to some exceptions; for example, if you consent to certain processing, it is for a legal claim, it is for the protection of the rights of another data subject or due to an important public interest.
The right for your Personal Information to be portable – If we are processing your information because you have given it to us, or to fulfil a contract, then you can ask us to send your Personal Information in a digital format so that you can pass it on to another organisation. This only applies to digital information.

The right to know about any automated decisions not made by a person – We don’t undertake solely automated decision making. However, it is still important for you to know that this is one of your rights when it comes to protecting your Personal Information.

These rights may be exercised in certain circumstances, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, just email [email protected] or write to us at Bliss, 1st Floor North, 10-18 Union Street, London, SE1 1SZ.

How long do we keep your information for?

We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which such information is processed. Your data rights are important to us and, as with everything we do, we use our core values when deciding how long we should keep your information for. Here are some examples:

If you applied to work for us but were not successful, we will only keep your information long enough to give you feedback, then we will destroy it.
If you donate to us, we will keep your information on our database so that we have an accurate record of your past support.
If you provided your details to consent to marketing, we will keep these on our database so that we can keep in contact with you. If you opt out, we will keep your details so that we have a record that you do not want to receive communications from us.
If you have told us you work in a neonatal unit, we will keep your information for a reasonable period of time so that we can keep you updated on what we’re doing to improve neonatal care unless you inform us that you do not wish to receive such information.
If you are fully accredited for the Baby Bliss Charter. We will keep your information on record for seven years after accreditation.

How do we keep your information up to date?

We will always aim to update your information as quickly as possible if you tell us any of it has changed. Sometimes we will also check your details against public information, such as the Post Office database, to ensure that our information is up to date.

Do we share your Personal Information with other organisations?

We never share or sell your Personal Information for marketing to any other organisation. From time to time, we may need to share your Personal Information with third party organisations to fulfil a service that you have opted into. For example, we may share your Personal Information with a third party to send a fundraising pack in the post, or to administer your direct debit donation. We take this very seriously and always make sure that we only share your Personal Information with organisations we have carefully vetted. Some other examples include:

If you interact with us on social media, those companies can sometimes also access your Personal Information, so it is a good idea to check your privacy settings directly with social media platforms.
For our fundraising campaigns, we might sometimes use a fundraising agency. This might include data and profiling experts, for example, so that we make the most of our fundraising investment.
When you visit our website, we use Google Analytics to optimise our site so that we can provide the best experience possible.
The companies who provide our IT services and support also have access to the data we hold.

Some of our suppliers run their operations outside the UK and/or European Economic Area (EEA), which means that they might not be subject to the same data laws as us. In these cases, we will only use their services if they are the best or only way to provide that benefit to our operations (like Google Analytics or SurveyMonkey), and we will always carry out rigorous checks before we start using them.

We may also share your Personal Information if compelled to do so by the police or the various regulatory bodies who monitor charity activity.

International transfers

We may transfer your Personal Information outside of the UK. If we do so, it will only be to jurisdictions which the UK Government has determined provide an adequate level of data protection or in circumstances in which appropriate safeguards are in place.

Complaints

If you are not happy with any of the ways we are using your Personal Information, we would like to hear about it. There are a few different ways of getting in touch outlined in this policy (see ‘Contact us’ below), plus you can make a formal complaint using our complaints procedure.

You can also lodge a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner if you prefer to seek assistance outside of Bliss.

Changes to this policy

We may change this policy if how we process your Personal Information changes for any reason. If we do, we will make it very clear on our website or by contacting you directly.

Contact us

We can be contacted at:

Address: 1st Floor North, 10-18 Union Street, London, SE1 1SZ

Email address: [email protected].

Please feel free to contact us at any time if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. Our full contact details are also on our website.

See more

Bliss' Cookies Policy

Bliss' privacy statement for [email protected]

This privacy policy was last updated in September 2024.

Privacy policy