The Theosophical Society in England & Wales – Privacy Notice

 

The TSEW is committed to protecting your personal details whilst interacting with us. This Privacy Notice explains why we may ask for your personal information and what we will do with it. We collect and process personal data to manage our relationships with our members, visitors to our website, and other members of the public that may be associated with us. We also collect this information to better understand how we can improve our interaction with and services to you.

By providing us with personal information, you consent to its collection and use as set out in this Privacy Notice. We aim to be clear, transparent and to use your information in a way that you would reasonably expect us to.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice please contact our Data Protection Officer by email or by post at The Theosophical Society in England and Wales, 50 Gloucester Place W1U 8EA.

 

The Privacy Notice tells you:


1.     Who we are

We are The Theosophical Society in England and Wales. We are a charity in the UK devoted to the promotion of the teachings of Theosophy. We are an incorporated company limited by guarantee (09705732) with registered charity number (1167737). Our principal place of business is 50 Gloucester Place W1U 8EA.

2.     Where we collect information from

We collect information in the following ways:

  • Information you share with us: We may obtain personal information from you when, for example, you register to be a member, sign up for one of our events,  apply to become a volunteer, take part in an event, make a donation, or join our mailing list.
  • Information we get from your use of our website and services: We collect information about the services you use and how you use them, like when you watch a video on YouTube, visit our websites, interact with our social media handles, or view and interact with our advertisement and content.
  • Information in the public domain: We may on rare occasions obtain information from publicly available sources such as Companies House, newspaper articles or open postings on social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn. This is not an exhaustive list of the public sources.

3.     Information we collect

The types of personal information that we collects may include:

  • Your title, name, gender, and date of birth;
  • Your contact details (address, email, phone number and social media contact details);
  • Family and spouse/partner details, relationships to other supporters;
  • Your professional activities and employment details;
  • Current interests and activities;
  • Gift Aid status and records of donations;
  • Contact preferences;
  • Your IP address, location, browser type and information on how you interact on our website;
  • Your bank or credit card details in line with payment card industry standards; and,
  • Any other information that you have provided by yourself at the request of The TSEW.

Where appropriate, we may also ask your interests and motivation for visiting the TSEW website and supporting its activities. We may also collect  personal information regarding racial or ethnic origins, political opinions, religious beliefs, and health (including mental health).  If you are under 13, you must ask permission from your parent or guardian before sending personal information to anyone online.

 

4.     What we do with your information

We will use your information to develop and evaluate our programmes and events.

If you become a member or support our activities for example by attending an online lecture, watching a video, donating, or signing up for an event, we will mainly use your information to:

  • Provide you with the information, activity, services, or products or that you asked for;
  • Provide you information about other activity, services, or products we think might interest you where you have consented to being contacted;
  • Administer your donation or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid;
  • Send you surveys, and for market research;
  • Invite you to events;
  • Keep a record of your relationship with us and record the contact we have with you; and
  • Conduct data quality tests to improve insights, functionality, and the overall performance of our technology systems, reporting and infrastructure.

We may also use personal information to carry out due diligence in line with our Accepting, Refusing and Returning Donations Policy so that we are fundraising in accordance within the law, the code of fundraising practice, and our internal policies and procedures.

5.     Legal basis for processing your information

GDPR and the DPA rules require us to have a legal reason to collect, keep and use your data. We rely on the following legal basis for processing your data:

  • Consent
  • Legal obligation
  • Legitimate interests

We process your personal data for our legitimate interests to allow the TSEW operate as a charity effectively and in furtherance of our objectives.

When we process your personal information for our legitimate interests, we make sure that the use does not impact you and your rights under data protection laws.

Some examples of instances where we process your data for our legitimate interest include:

  • Direct marketing: We will send emails and postal marketing for events, lectures seminars and other events that further the aims and objectives of The TSEW and do not unduly impact your rights as an individual.
  • Profiling and analysing information: We carry out limited profiling and research to help us understand visitors to our website and users of our services in order improve our service to them

Profiling and analysing information of our supporters

In order to tailor the type of invitations that we extend to you, we may analyse personal information we collect about you, including how you have engaged with us previously, demographic information, interests and networks.

 

 

6.     How we update your information

We review records of our members and supporters to ensure that it is as accurate as possible and always appreciate it if you let us know if your contact details change. The information that we hold about you is automatically updated when you renew your membership or register for any of our events.

 

7.     Who we share information with

We are committed to protecting your data and your data will never be sold to external organisations. They will only be disclosed to those agents and data processors who carry out some work on our behalf. We have strict formal agreements with these parties to ensure the security of your data while carrying out work on our behalf.

These Parties may include:

  • Suppliers such as printers who print and send out communications such as magazines and leaflets on our behalf;
  • Other charities and entities within the Theosophical Society group where we share information for internal procedures and policies only. Your data may also be shared with Lodges within the Society;
  • Our delivery partners within the UK or abroad to enable us to deliver our programmes effectively.

8.     Your rights, andhow to access, correct and delete your information

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

  • Right to be informed (about what data we process, how we process it, why we process it and other key information)
  • Right to request a copy of the information we hold about you
  • Right to edit and update your information
  • Right to request to have your information erased
  • Right to restrict processing of your information
  • Right to object to processing of your information – including automated decision making and profiling
  • Right to data portability

If you wish to exercise your rights, please address your request, by email or mail, to our Data Protection Officer. To help us locate information about you (or in case we need to get in touch with you to obtain further information to help us locate your records), please include your full name, address, and date of birth with your request.

If you do not want to receive any further information about The TSEW and would like us to remove your name from our mailing list, use the unsubscribe link in the email you have received. You can also contact us using the details above.

9.     How we keep your data safe

Our goal is to make that there are suitable controls in place to protect any personal information you may provide to us. All our online forms are encrypted, and our network is protected and monitored. Within our offices, all our staff receive training on handling data securely.

Where we use external companies to collect or process data on our behalf, we carry out comprehensive checks on them before we work with them and ensure that contracts are in place that set out our expectations and requirements.

Despite our best precautions, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. So, whilst we will always strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information which you disclose to us and so wish to draw your attention that you do so at your own risk.

10.     How long we store your data

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity that they have been collected for. If you request that we stop sending you marketing materials, we will keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us. We will not keep any information that we don’t need.

11.     Changes to this notice

Any changes to this Notice will be notified by displaying the word 'NEW' next to the 'Privacy Notice' link on our site. This Privacy Notice was last updated in March 2026.

12.     Contact us

If you have any queries about this Privacy Notice or any complaints with regard to the administration of the notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer.