Privacy and cookies

Who we are

Prospect Burma began life in 1989, following the pro-democracy uprising of the previous year. When we first started out, our work focussed on supporting refugees who had been forced to flee the country. We began raising funds for books and classes in refugee schools, and we awarded one annual scholarship to an exiled Myanmar student to attend university.

Our work is divided into three core programmes, Access to Learning, Learning to Leadership and Change in the Community. Through these programmes, we support the transformative education of eligible students, regardless of religious or ethnic background. In the short term, each of our beneficiaries’ lives are dramatically transformed by the qualifications they gain with our support, which enables them to find meaningful work and gain valuable qualifications and skills. In the long term, we are helping to build a qualified, internationally-minded population with a passion for changing Myanmar’s future.

How we collect information from you

We collect information from you when you sign up to our newsletter, contact us through the website or email. We also collect information if you register to attend one of our events, or sign up to donate.

The personal information we collect may include your name, address, email address, IP address, and the pages you look at on our website. If you make a donation on our website, buy a ticket to an event, or buy an item from our online shop we do not collect your financial information. Our online payment transactions are processed by our third party payment processor Stripe, which specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you provide us with a cheque donation, standing order form or a gift aid form for processing your donation, we will keep this on record. If you have any questions regarding the processing of your financial information please contact us.

Protecting your personal information

We take looking after your information very seriously. We’ve implemented appropriate measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both on and off-line, from improper access, use, alteration, destruction and loss.

Unfortunately the transmission of information using the internet is not completely secure. Your non-sensitive information, for example your email address, will be received by us through the form which you submit. Although we do our best to protect your personal information sent to us this way, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our site.

We will not share your information with any third party, for marketing purposes or otherwise, unless required to do so by law. Our mailings and payment processing mechanisms are all in house and as such your information will not be shared with any external members (except online card payments which are collected through Stripe).

Where we store your personal data

We do not store any sensitive information, e.g. your debit or credit card details, centrally, as financial transactions are carried out securely through Stripe.

When we have received personal information from you we will strive to ensure is kept as secure as possible. The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our service providers. In order to safeguard your information we will ensure any such transfers are in strict compliance with data protection legislation. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storage or processing. All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers.

How we use your information

Personal information means any information that may be used to identify you, such as your name, title, telephone number, email address, or mailing address.

We may process your personal information for our legitimate business needs. We collect your personal information because we need it to help us fulfil your requests, keep in touch with you, and offer you communications that are relevant to you.

This includes things like:

  • to better understand how people interact with our website;

  • to provide postal communications which we think will be of interest to you;

  • to determine the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and advertising;

  • providing any information or services you have requested;

  • Processing financial transactions such as donations, paid events or setting up a Direct Debit. This includes processing gift aid with HMRC if relevant.

  • Keeping a record of any communications between us and you, for example emails, phone calls, requests for leaflets or attending an event.

  • Managing and improving how we communicate with you – how you prefer to be contacted, and what information you want to receive. We might contact you about our campaigns, events or volunteering opportunities.

  • Researching the interests, behaviours, demographics, and trends of the people who are using our services. We may ask if you wish to take part in more research, such as surveys or focus groups, but this will be on a voluntary basis.

  • Creating a profile of what we think might interest you, so that we can offer you relevant communications. We may use your previous activities or interactions with us to try and predict how you may respond to different activities.

  • Responding to complaints or queries.

Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always keep your personal information rights in mind. You have the right to object to this processing if you wish, and if you wish to do so please contact us.

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

Prospect Burma obtains and processes personal data fairly and lawfully, in an open and transparent manner. We will only do so if at least one of the following conditions applies:

  • We will seek consent to process your personal information, for example to send you marketing and fundraising emails or you have subscribed to our newsletter. Where we do rely on consent, you are entitled to withdraw it at any time.

  • Where we have a contractual relationship with you. If we enter into a contract with you (such as when you purchase something from our online shop) we will process information to administer that contract.

  • Legal obligations. We will sometimes pass on personal information to comply with legal obligations such as providing tax and gift aid information to HMRC.

  • It is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation.

  • It is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another individual.

  • It is in the public interest or where we have official authority vested in us.

How long we keep your information

We only keep it as long as is reasonable and necessary for the relevant activity, which may be to fulfil statutory obligations (for example, the collection of Gift Aid). Once the respective retention period has elapsed, we will anonymise, destroy or erase your data securely.

Keeping you updated

We want to improve how we talk to you and the information we provide through our website, services, products and information. To do this we sometimes use profiling and screening methods so that we can better understand our supporters, your preferences and needs to provide a better experience for you.

We may carry out targeted fundraising activities using profiling techniques based on the information that we hold about you.

We will only contact you about our work and how you can support Prospect Burma by phone, text message, email or letter, if you have agreed for us to contact you in this manner. You can change your preferences at any time by emailing us at information@prospectburma.org or by phoning 020 3667 7883.

We also provide the opportunity to ‘unsubscribe’ in all of our campaigning and fundraising mailings and emails.

Tailoring our communications

To ensure our communications are as relevant and interesting as possible, we often tailor their content based upon our supporters’ characteristics and behaviours. This also enables us to manage our fundraising and marketing activity in the most cost-effective and efficient ways, so we can keep our costs as low as possible. For example, a mailing we send to someone who has given a single donation may differ from one we send to someone who gives regularly by direct debit.

We may sometimes use supplementary information from reputable third parties to help us understand more about our supporters. We may verify existing contact information, to check that it is still up to date. We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud.

Your rights

You retain ultimate control of how we use your personal information. You can always request details and copies of the information we hold about you, including how we acquired such data and the purposes for which it is being used.

You have rights under UK Data Protection legislation with regard to our processing of your data. You can exercise these rights at any time by contacting us in writing at: Prospect Burma, PO Box 8166, London, W1A 2HW.

To exercise this right, you must make your request in writing to the address specified above and include a copy of your passport or driving licence and a recent utility bill to verify your name and address. No fee is required for this service.  Your request will be dealt with as soon as possible and we will respond to you within one month from the date on which your request was received.

You have the right to have inaccurate personal data corrected. If you discover that we hold inaccurate personal data about you, you have the right to instruct us to correct that information.  If you inform us of any changes to your personal information, we will update our records accordingly.

In certain circumstances, you have the ‘Right to be Forgotten’. This means that you can request that Prospect Burma removes any and all references to you from our records and systems. We will comply with all such requests in a timely manner, as required by the General Data Protection Regulation, unless other operational or legal obligations require us to retain such data for a particular purpose or period of time.

You have the right, at all times, to object to the processing of your personal data which you find intrusive, excessive or unwarranted. Prospect Burma will respect your right to do so, but may need to continue such processing where required do to so by law or within the terms of an existing contractual arrangement.

Cookies – What is a cookie?

‘Cookie‘ is a name for a small file, usually of letters and numbers, which is downloaded onto your device, like your computer, mobile phone or tablet when you visit a website.

They let websites recognise your device, so that the sites can work more effectively, and also gather information about how you use the site. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience on our website and also allows us to improve your user experience and retain your user preferences.

What to do if you are not happy

You can contact us if you have a complaint about our use of your personal data, and we will do all we can to try and resolve it. You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you have any concerns about Data Protection using their help line: 0303 123 1113 or visit their website.