Privacy Policy

Last updated: 23.05.18 

The Acorn Theatre is committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold about you. It’s your information and we respect that. We also want to maintain the trust and confidence of every one of our audience members and supporters, as well as each visitor who uses the Acorn Theatre website. Using personal information allows us to develop a better understanding of our patrons and in turn to provide you with relevant and timely information about the work that we do – both on and off stage. As a charity, it also helps us to engage with potential donors and supporters. The purpose of this policy is to give you a clear explanation about how we collect your personal information from you directly and from third parties, how we use it and how we keep it secure. We use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information.

This policy explains:

• How we may collect information about you
• What information we may collect about you
• How and why we may use that information
• In what situations we may disclose your details to third parties
• Information about how we keep your personal information secure
• Information about how long we maintain it for
• Information about your rights to be able to access it

If you have any queries about this policy, please email: [email protected]

Who are we?

Acorn Community Theatre is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your information when you interact with us. This could include booking tickets online, by phone, or in person, hiring the venue, or when you sign up to receive updates from us by email and other digital channels.

We collect personal information when you:

• Visit www.acorntheatre.org or www.ticketsource.com which allows you to: Book tickets Make a donation or Sign up to receive e-newsletters
• Contact us by phone in order to: Book tickets, make a donation, sign up to receive e-newsletters Give us your access requirements
• Contact us in person in order to: Book tickets Make a donation Sign up to receive e-newsletters Give us your access requirements
• Contact us by post in order to: Make a donation or volunteer application
• Email us with details relevant to your booking, including: Access requirements Dietary requirements for fundraising events Feedback on your visit to the Acorn Theatre
• Email us to: apply as a volunteer at the Acorn Theatre or make other enquiries.
• Visit our website: Through your IP address given to us by your browser Through cookies – see our Cookies Policy below for further information
• Purchase tickets to our shows via a third party Via Social Media: We may collect some personal data (name, address, phone number, booking details) when you enter competitions or give us booking details for customer support via social media. We also collect and track anonymised data about our social media audiences to better understand the ‘groups’ of people who engage with us online. We use this to ensure we engage with audiences and groups of people who are new to us. 
• Sign up to receive emails from us 
• Attend an event by invitation

What types of information do we collect and where from?

We only collect information that’s necessary to carry out our business, provide the particular service you’ve requested and to keep you informed. There are occasions when you can choose not to give us certain information, but this for example, may limit the level of personalisation we offer e.g. you may not get to hear about an event you would have loved to have attended. The type of information we collect depends on where and when it is gathered:

Information we obtain directly from you

When you purchase tickets from us online, by post or phone we need to collect information from you in order to provide the service you are requesting. We may collect:

Prefix and full name

Gender

Email address

Date of Birth

Contact phone number(s)

Payment card details. Please note, we will not hold payment information for any longer than it takes to process your transaction.

Delivery address(es)

Billing address

Bank details for direct debit instructions

Access requirements

Contact preferences

Home address (for project participants only)

Job and work experience information

This is not an exhaustive list and we may retain different types of information for different individuals based on the service we are providing. We also keep a record of your interactions with us in our database, such as what shows or events you have purchased tickets to, when you have had an active membership, any projects you may have participated in or supported, and whether you have received, opened or clicked through any emails we may have sent.

When visiting our website we may collect the following information:

Automatically populated IP address: a public IP address is a unique number which allows a computer, group of computers or other internet connected device to browse the internet. The log file records the time and date of your visit, the pages that were requested, the referring website (if provided) and your internet browser version. This information is collected to help diagnose and manage the website, to audit the geographical make-up of users, and to establish how they have arrived at the website. Cookies: for further information about Cookies and how the Acorn Theatre uses them, please read our Cookie Policy

If you contact us with feedback online, by email, by phone or in person we may keep a record of the correspondence on our database to help us improve customer service

Third Party Organizations

Your information may be shared with us by independent organisations, for example other arts organisations and co-producers that the Acorn Theatre has worked with. These organisations should not pass on your data to us without your knowledge and only if it is required in the performance of a contract. The third party will require your permission in order to share your data with us for marketing purposes and we will always notify you within 30 days of receipt of your data.  You should check their Privacy Policy when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process and safeguard your data.

Social Media

Depending on your settings and/or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, you may give us permission to access information from those accounts or services. The majority of this behaviour is anonymised. 

Information available publicly

We may collect information such as job history, trusteeship, political preferences, locality and philanthropic activities from places such as Companies House, Google, and information that has been published in articles / newspapers.

Why do we collect your personal information and what do we do with it?

The main reasons we collect information are to provide a service you have requested, to keep you up to date with news and events, to personalise your communications, or to contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information (e.g. show cancelations, travel disruption). The information we collect about our audiences helps us understand how we can best meet their needs. It also enables us to fundraise effectively because we are a charity.  For further information, see the below section.

Specifically, we use the information we collect from you in the following ways.

• To carry out our business and to provide a service or carry out a contract with you to fulfil ticket and donation requests.
• Invite you to events
• Process payments.

Please note that the Acorn Theatre does not store any Credit Card or other payment information once the transaction has been completed. Provide you with the best customer service at the theatre or by phone and to help us with internal administration. Contact you with important information relating to your booking or purchase, such as confirming your order, reminding you of an upcoming performance you’ve booked for or letting you know about cancellations, travel disruption or changes to event times that may affect your visit.

Where we have your consent: 

• Keep you up-to-date with productions, news, offers and events, products and information.
• Let you know about opportunities to support our work.
• Let you know about upcoming community projects.
• Share your details with other arts organisations whose work you may have seen at or in collaboration with the Acorn Theatre. These organisations should contact you to let you know how they collected your data and to check that you’re still happy to hear from them. You will always be able to opt out of their communications by contacting them directly.

Where we have a legal obligation to: 

• Use CCTV recording equipment in and around our premises for monitoring and security purposes.
• Detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

Where we have legitimate interest to: 

Keep track of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information that is relevant to you.

Help us target our marketing communications so that they’re more relevant to you.  

Measure and understand how our audiences respond to a variety of marketing activity so we can ensure our activity is well targeted, relevant and effective.  

Undertake audience research: we may contact you to ask you to participate in research either via an online or telephone survey or in person.

Participation in research is entirely voluntary, so you can choose whether or not to disclose any information requested. We will make it clear whether your response to surveys is anonymous or not and, should you provide any further information, the Acorn Theatre will inform you how it will be used. In some instances, your anonymous responses may be shared with co-producers of the events you have purchased tickets for. We will clearly notify you of this when we send you the survey. We will not share your anonymous responses with any other third parties.  Analyse and continually improve the services we offer including our artistic programme, our website and our other products.

Help us run the test version of our website that we use internally to pilot new features and ensure the smooth running of our web services.  

To keep our database accurate and relevant, for example, using National Change of Address.

We also collect information in order to better inform our teams about prospective donors, to fulfil our fundraising goals as a charity. This is to ensure we are providing appropriate opportunities for people to support our work, should this form of engagement be of interest.

Who do we share your information with?

The Acorn Theatre will never share, sell, rent or trade your personal information to any third parties for marketing purposes without your prior consent. We will ask for your consent to share personal information with organisations we have co-produced work with whose shows you will have seen here at the Acorn Theatre or in collaboration with us at another venue. If you would like to unsubscribe from the mailing lists of any of the third parties you have previously agreed to share your information with you can contact them directly. We use a number of data processors in order to help us provide the services you request. These organisations are obligated to act on our instruction in relation to their use of your personal data and do not have any control over your data in their own right. We make sure anyone who provides a service for the Acorn Theatre enters into an agreement with us and meets our standards for data security. They will not use your data for anything other than the clearly defined purpose relating to the service that they are providing.

There are certain circumstances under which we may disclose your personal information to third parties. These are as follows:

• Our ticketing system provider Ticket Source
• Name on card, card number, billing address, CVV and amount of transaction with Lloyds Bank/Square in order to process transactions
• Name and email address with Mailchimp in order to produce e-marketing campaigns and pre & post show emails (e-marketing campaigns require consent)
• Where required to do so or when requested by the police or a regulatory or government authority investigating illegal activities
• Named third party organisations if you ticked the relevant opt-in box when you purchased tickets.

In these instances, we may supply your personal information to that specific organisation only We will only supply full name and email address in these data shares and only with your consent Other organisations such as competition organisers if you choose to take part in such activities that need administration by third parties and you choose to opt in for contact from those organisations. We will only supply full name and email address in these data shares and only with your consent

The Acorn Theatre is not responsible for the privacy notices and practices of other websites even if accessed using links from www.acorntheatre.org and recommends that you check the policy of each website you visit and contact its owner or the Data team if you have any concerns or questions. Despite all our precautions, no data transmission over the internet is 100% secure. Therefore we cannot guarantee the security of any information which you disclose to us and so wish to draw your attention to the fact that you do so at your own risk.

How do we protect your data? 

We’re committed to protecting the personal information you entrust to us. We adopt robust and appropriate technologies and policies to protect it from unauthorized access and improper use e.g. your online account is encrypted and our own network is protected. As part of the services offered to you through the Acorn Theatre website, the personal information you provide may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). By way of example, this may happen if any of the computer servers used to host the website are located in a country outside of the EEA. If the Acorn Theatre transfers your personal information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this privacy notice. The Acorn Theatre may transfer your data to the USA to organizations such as Facebook, Google or IBM. The USA has weaker data protection laws than that of the EEA and therefore we will ensure that only organisations who are a part of the EU privacy shield initiative will handle your personal information. If you use your credit or debit card to purchase from us or to make a donation, we will ensure that this is carried out securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).

How long will we keep your information for?

Where we are able, we will keep your information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice and to fulfil our legal obligations. The retention period that we will keep your personal data for will vary according to the purpose. For example, if you have signed up to receive emails from us, we will only keep your personal data for as long as you subscribe to our mailing list. Once you have opted out, the only information we will keep is your email address, to ensure we don’t email you again. We will also increase restrictions on access to your data, when it is no longer needed. For example if purchasing a ticket only, after seven years from the date of your last transaction your customer record will not be included in customer lists, reports or searches. For further information about how long we will keep your information, please contact the Management Team using the contact details outlined in this notice. If you ask us to stop sending direct marketing communications to you, we will retain the information required (e.g. name, address or email address) to ensure we adhere with such requests. Any objections you make to any processing of your data will be stored against your record on our system so that we can comply with your requests.

What are your rights to your personal information?

You should find it easy to access and amend the personal information that we hold on you, or request that we stop contacting you. It’s your data and we want to make sure you feel in control of it. Every email we send to you will include details on how to change your communications preferences or unsubscribe from future communications. You can request full details of personal information we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998, or after 25 May 2018, The General Data Protection Regulation. Please send a description of the information you would like to see, together with proof of your identity to [email protected]

At any time you have the right to ask the Acorn Theatre to amend or to stop how it uses your personal information including for marketing purposes.  You can do this by phoning, emailing or writing using our contact details below. You have the right to get information held about you by us corrected. If you have any concern about the accuracy of your personal data, please let us know using the below contact details. If you would like us to remove the personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the below contact details.

By email: [email protected]

By phone: 01909 501817

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, The Information Commissioner’s Office – www.ico.org.uk

Are you under 18? 

If you are under 18, please ensure that you obtain your parent/guardian’s consent beforehand whenever you provide personal information to the website. If you don’t have that consent, you must not provide personal information to us.

Updates or Changes to the Privacy Policy and Further Information

This notice was updated on 23.05.18. It may be updated to take into account changes at the Acorn Theatre or for example to reflect changes to regulation or legislation. Updates to this policy will be posted on this page – please check back from time to time. We will also inform you of any changes where we hold an appropriate email address for you. Further information on data protection regulations and laws can be found here: Data Protection: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public

Cookies Policy

Our website uses cookies, as almost all websites do, to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites.

Our cookies help us: 

• Make our website work as you’d expect
• Save you having to login every time you visit the site
• Remember your settings during and between visits
• Improve the speed/security of the site
• Continuously improve our website for you
• Make our marketing more efficient (ultimately helping us to offer the service we do at the price we do)

We do not use cookies to: 

• Collect any personally identifiable information (without your express permission)
• Collect any sensitive information (without your express permission)
• Pass personally identifiable data to third parties
• Pay sales commissions

If the settings on your software that you are using to view this website (your browser) are adjusted to accept cookies we take this, and your continued use of our website, to mean that you are fine with this. Should you wish to remove or not use cookies from our site you can learn how to do this below, however doing so will likely mean that our site will not work as you would expect. ‘Cookies’ are set to help support the structure of the pages that are displayed to you. These help the website to function and enhance the look and feel of the website. They also help to improve navigation around our website and allow you to return to pages you have previously visited. This type of ‘cookie’ only lasts for the duration of the time you are visiting the website. When you leave the website they are deleted automatically. There is no way to prevent these cookies being set other than to not use our site.