We value your trust and take our responsibility for your personal data very seriously. This policy is based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective 25 May 2018, and sets out how we manage, store, and use personal information within the Martham Local History Group (MLHG). It is published here for both our members and the wider public to read.
Day-to-day administration of this policy is handled by our Treasurer / Membership Officer. Broader oversight and development sits with the MLHG Committee, and we review it regularly as a standing item on every committee meeting and AGM agenda.
MLHG operates on the clear and lawful basis of consent. For members joining on or after 25 May 2018, we ask for your permission on the Membership Application Form to use your personal data for the purposes set out in that form and in section 3 below. You can be confident that we will always be open with you about how your information is used.
For members who joined before 25 May 2018, we take your long-standing support as affirmation of your continued consent. We will, however, draw your attention to this updated policy (particularly section 5) so that you remain fully informed of your rights.
We keep things simple and ask only for what we genuinely need to support your membership. The membership application form requests just this information:
- Forename & Surname
- Postal Address
- Email Address
- Telephone Number
Your personal data is used only to support your membership and our shared interests in local history, specifically for these purposes:
- Managing MLHG membership and keeping the group running smoothly.
- Sharing news, event details, and information so that you can take a full part in our activities.
- Letting you know about other local history events and opportunities that we believe will be of genuine interest to you.
We take great care to protect your privacy at every turn. Your personal data will never be passed to any other person, group, or organisation. When we email the full membership or any group of members, we always use BCC (blind carbon copy) so that individual email addresses stay private.
Your data is stored on secure, access-restricted electronic databases. We also take care with printed working documents that contain personal data—these are stored securely within our flexible working environment and are destroyed as soon as they are no longer needed.
When a member leaves MLHG, we delete all their personal data from our storage systems in a timely manner.
We want you to feel in control of your information. Every member has the right to see the personal data we hold about them, and to request changes—whether that means corrections, additions, or deletions. To do this, simply contact the MLHG Secretary and we will be happy to help.
We love sharing images of our community, our events, and the rich heritage of Martham. At the same time, we understand that privacy matters, and we are committed to using photographs responsibly and in line with UK law.
6.1 Copyright and public-domain images
We make every effort to ensure that all images on our website and in our materials are used lawfully. We respect the work of photographers, artists, and creators. Where we source images from the public domain, we do so only after carefully checking that copyright has expired (usually 70 years after the creator's death, under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) or that the image is made available under an open licence. We never set out to infringe copyright. If you believe we have overlooked something, please let us know—we will look into it promptly and, if needed, remove or credit the image.
6.2 Personal data and privacy (UK GDPR)
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, photographs that clearly show identifiable living individuals are treated as personal data. This means we handle them with the same care and respect we give to your name, address, or email.
6.3 Our lawful basis for using images
For general group activities, events, and promotional purposes, we rely on Legitimate Interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR) to share photographs of our members and attendees. We believe this helps us celebrate our community, promote local history, and document the work we do together. We always weigh this against your rights and will never use an image in a way that feels unfair, intrusive, or distressing. For anything more prominent or sensitive—such as press releases or large-scale publicity—we will ask for your explicit consent separately.
6.4 Your rights regarding your image
You are always in control. If you see a photograph of yourself on our website or in our materials and would rather we didn't use it, just tell us. You have the right to object to its use, and you can ask us to delete it at any time. Simply contact the Secretary, and we will remove or obscure the image as soon as we reasonably can (and normally within 30 days).
6.5 Takedown procedure
To make a request, please email or write to our Secretary with the following details:
• The exact location of the image (for example, the webpage address).
• A clear description of the image and your reason for requesting its removal.
• If you are a copyright holder, please provide proof of your ownership.
We will respond to every request promptly and in good faith.