We want all website visitors to feel confident and comfortable with how we use any personal information shared with us. This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use and store your personal information (this means any information that identifies or could identify you).

Who we are

We are Walthew House, an independent charity that provides practical and emotional support to people who are Blind, Visually Impaired, Deaf, Hard of Hearing or who have Dual Sensory Loss.

For further information about our privacy practices, please contact our Data Protection Officer by:

  • Letter: FAQ: Information Officer, Walthew House, 112 Shaw Heath, Stockport, SK2 6QS
  • Telephone: 0161 480 2612
  • Email: info@walthewhouse.org.uk

How we collect information

Third Parties

For example if you provide a donation via a third party service (such as https://www.cafonline.org/) they may provide us with your details.

Website Interaction

When you visit our website we gather information regarding which pages you visit most often. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails from us. We also use “cookies” to help our site run effectively. There are more details below – see ‘Cookies’.

You may also submit information to us by interacting with the website, for example submitting your details via a contact form.

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Cookies

A ‘Cookie; is a small file, usually of letters and numbers, which is downloaded onto your device, like your computer, mobile phone or table when you visit a website. They allow websites you visit to recognise you and gather information about how you use the site, but can’t be used to identify you.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

We make use of Google Analytics to better understand how visitors use our website.

Who we share your data with

The personal information we collect about you will mainly be used by our staff (and volunteers) at Walthew House.

We will never sell or share your personal information with organisations so that they can contact you for any marketing activities. Nor do we sell any information about your web browsing activity.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.