Privacy Policy

Last Updated: September 2020

Aims & Objectives
Bristol Zoological Society is committed to the protection of Personal Data obtained and stored by the Society and on our behalf by third party processors. This statement supports the Data Protection Policy and is a plain English description for the public of what data is collected and stored and for what purposes.
 
This is the general privacy statement for Bristol, Clifton & West of England Zoological Society. Please refer to the additional internal policies for details on staff, volunteer & student personal data.
 
Who are we?
Bristol, Clifton & West of England Zoological Society Ltd and its subsidiary Bristol Zoo Enterprises Ltd (together referred to as ‘BCWEZS’). We are a conservation and education charity, which runs and operates Bristol Zoo Gardens and Wild Place Project.
 
The company details are as follows:
 
Bristol, Clifton & West of England Zoological Society Ltd
Registered office: Bristol Zoo Gardens, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 3HA.
Company registered in England, number 5154176.
Charity registered number 1104986.
 
Bristol Zoo Enterprises Ltd
Registered office: Bristol Zoo Gardens, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 3HA.
Company registered in England, number 1750167.
 
What information do we collect about you?
We collect information about you when you make a purchase at our sites or online, register for an event, experience or course, donate, or register for our e-news mailing list. We also collect information when you enter our competitions or register for special offers. Website usage information is collected using cookies.

We occasionally have photographers on site who may take images of our visitors for use in marketing, promotional and educational purposes.
 
The Society has installed and monitors closed circuit television (‘CCTV’) to provide a safe and secure environment for employees, for visitors to the Society’s premises, to protect the Society’s property and to monitor some animal enclosures. Sound is only recorded for the purposes of monitoring animal behaviour. CCTV is installed in entrance and exit areas, in retail areas and other high traffic areas as well as some animal enclosures.
 
 
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What is the legal basis for having your data?
The ‘legal basis’ is our reason under data protection law for having this information. You can find out more about these at https://ico.org.uk.

When we are providing you with a product or service your personal data is held under the basis of contract. We will only ask for the information we need and will only use it for administration and provision of the product or service.

To develop what we offer to guests and as educational experiences, we use data for analysis, including customer comments and feedback. The basis for this is legitimate interest. Whenever possible, data is anonymised for these purposes.

The lawful basis of CCTV monitoring includes the safety of those on site, emergency situations, prevention of crime, prevention of employee misconduct and ensuring compliance with health and safety procedures.

In some areas we have a legal obligation to keep data such as on purchases and incident reports as well as for the purposes of the NHS Test and Trace initiative.

For other areas we will ask for consent – this means we would like to use the information for a specific stated purpose and are asking your permission. If you give your permission it is only for this purpose, and you may withdraw permission at any time.
 
How will we use the information about you?
We collect information to process your purchase or booking, and to manage your membership. If you contact us with queries or feedback, we will use your information to respond.

Research is sometimes conducted by BCWEZS, and you may be contacted following your visit to complete a survey. The data collected as part of this survey is anonymised and your contact details only obtained by consent and only for the purposes of the competition. On occasion research may be conducted on our behalf by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (MHM), who may contact you as part of your online ticketing purchase.

If you agree, we will email you our newsletter with updates of our work at Bristol Zoo Gardens, Wild Place Project and about our overseas conservation. If you agree, we will email you with events and offers which may be of interest to you.

Marketing
We would like to send you information about our ongoing work and future events and offers which may be of interest to you. If you have given permission for this, you may withdraw this at any time by contacting us.

We do not share your information with other organisations for marketing purposes. We sometimes use external companies to support our own marketing work, and will ask for your permission to share your details with them. Any data shared with an external processor is transferred using secure methods and only to complete work requested by us.

Members
A photograph will be taken when you join as part of your membership registration. This will appear on our screens when your card is scanned on entry so we can ensure the correct person is visiting with your card.

Medical information
Some events and experiences require us to obtain medical and emergency contact information. This helps us ensure that all participants are safe to take part. In the unlikely event of an incident they allow us to contact a suitable person and to pass essential information on to emergency services.

In most cases these forms are destroyed at the end of the event or experience. If there was an incident, the form would be kept with the incident report which is stored for 5 years as part of our Health and Safety records.

CCTV
Where CCTV captures images of people:
Cameras are included in the admission/retail areas to help prevent theft or unauthorised access and are only reviewed retrospectively if a theft or security issue needs to be investigated.
Cameras on key pathways which are used for checking visitor flow and safety issues. These will only be reviewed retrospectively if there is a health and safety incident which needs to be checked.

Access to, and disclosure of, images recorded on CCTV is restricted.

Photographs and digital images of individuals
Anyone featured individually (where the photo is of a person or family), we will ask permission and complete a filming permission form. When photography or filming involves children, and/or vulnerable adults, no photographs will be taken unless full permission has been gained from the responsible adult/s accompanying the child/ children and/ or vulnerable adult/ adults.

Fundraising
As a conservation and education based charity, we rely on fundraising and income from our visitors to continue our work both locally and globally. This work is supported by members, individuals, companies and trusts / foundations. We aim to target our fundraising activities to ensure that we contact you appropriately.  We may use simple research methods to profile supporters and to identify shared interests and connections. All information is obtained from publicly available sources or data that you have given to us. We use this information to understand who our supporters are and what they may be best interested in. This information aids us in making appropriate fundraising approaches to those who will be most interested.

Test and Trace
We will only use the information collected to support the NHS Test and Trace initiative for that purpose.

 
How long do we keep your data?
 
We hold your information for only as long as necessary for the purpose needed. For only as long as necessary’ varies according to the nature of the information.

• We have to keep all data relating to purchases and other financial transactions for 6 years for our tax records.
• Incident reports are kept for 5 years for our health and safety records.
• Medical information forms are destroyed at the end of the day they are needed, unless there has been an incident, or it will be needed for a future event and you have asked us to keep it on file instead of giving a new one.
• Customer feedback and complaints are kept for 3 years from the year of contact.
• Member data is kept for contact for the duration of membership, members are also added to our e-news mailing list as part of their subscription. As a transaction it is also kept by Finance for 6 years.
• Personal data collected through Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (MHM) research is retained for 1 year.
• Personal data collected as part of a competition is retained for 1 month following the closure of the competition.
• E-news mailing list tracks if emails are opened, and if you do not read anything for 6 months we will remove you automatically from the mailing list. You may also unsubscribe at any time.
• CCTV footage is erased after 31 days as standard. Sections may be extracted and retained to support ongoing investigations as required, and may be added to incident reports or complaints with the associated timescales above.
• Photography permissions will be kept for 5 years or for the duration that the photograph is in use. ​
• Personal data collected as part of Test and Trace will be retained securely and destroyed after 21 days.  

• You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of the information we hold, please write to the address above or email receptionist@bristolzoo.org.uk
  We want to ensure that your information is correct and up to date, so you are also entitled to ask us to update or remove information which you think is inaccurate.
  Removing or restricting your information
  You have the right to request that we remove your information from our records, or stop using it for particular purposes. We will do this wherever possible, with the following exceptions:

  • If restriction would prevent us providing a service you have asked for (e.g. membership/booking) and you still wish to receive the service

  • Where we have a legal obligation to retain the information

  • There may be other situations where our business interests require  us to keep your data, and we will advise if it is not possible to remove your data entirely in our response