The Guild of Food Writers (‘GFW’) collects and keeps information on the individuals and organisations that we interact with. This includes personal data on current, former and prospective members of the GFW; sponsors of activities of the GFW; entrants to the GFW awards and competitions; non-members applying to take part in the GFW’s mentorship programme; contributors to GFW events; and other individuals and organisations who work with the Guild.
We only store private data given to us by the individual or organisation, or shared with us with their consent, such as information entered on a membership application form or awards or competition entry form.
We do not acquire personal data from other parties. We do not sell personal data. We will never share your personal data without your consent.
Our mailing lists are hosted by MailChimp and Beacon CRM. Our entry forms for the Awards and membership surveys are hosted by SurveyMonkey and Beacon CRM.
We run online events using Zoom. Any registration information you enter on this platform to attend an event organised through the account controlled by the GFW will only be used to enable you to attend the event.
The processing of your information is limited to communications that publicise our activities, which include membership activities and the annual general meeting, awards, grants and competitions. This will involve ‘segmenting’ the information we hold in order to, for example, contact members in a geographic area, or with a specific professional interest. However, we do not profile, screen or cross reference the data we hold against other databases. We do not track individual users’ behaviour on our website or elsewhere. We do not use AI or algorithms to make decisions that affect you.
When we track user behaviour on our website, using Google Analytics, all data is anonymised.
If you ask us to advise you on a contract or other professional issue, we will retain a copy of your query and associated documentation, along with a record of the advice we gave you.
You have a right to ask to see what information we hold for you. You have the right to ask for that data to be edited or deleted. You have the right to ask us to delete the data we hold on you. In some cases, we are legally required to retain some data permanently or for a period – for example, financial records in relation to payments you make to us or payments we make to you.
You can unsubscribe from our mailing lists at any time.
The information we hold and what do we do with it
The personal information we collect from you will vary depending on your relation with us and work we need to carry out with you or on your behalf.
Members of the GFW
The following information applies to current, former and prospective members of the GFW.
In the course of processing your membership application, we will ask you for a range of personal information, including (but not limited to) your name, your professional name, address and other contact details, information about your professional output, as well as financial information in order to process your membership subscription.
This information will form the basis of your profile on the Guild website. Access to a member’s profile is controlled by a username and password, which are unique to you.
Throughout your membership of the GFW, we may need to ask you for additional information at various times. This could include information to help us advise you on professional matters (including contracts and correspondence), and information to help us book you onto an event.
Awards and competition entrants and mentorship applicants
At the point of submitting your awards or competition entry or application to our mentorship programme we will explain the judging or assessment process, and where appropriate ask for your consent to share the details of your entry with judges.
If your publisher enters your work for a prize on your behalf, we will process that entry on the basis that they have your permission to do so.
We may invite you to take part in PR activities around our awards, competitions and mentorship programme, however there is no obligation on you to do so.
Other non-members
For all other people or organisations who we work with we will ask you for a range of personal information, including (but not limited to) your name, address and other contact details, and information about your professional output relevant to the professional relationship with the GFW. We will only request financial information in order to process your fees or sponsorship contributions.
Sharing your data with others
The GFW will only share your personal data in the following circumstances:
Service providers and suppliers
The GFW employs external IT consultants to provide support and development services in relation to our systems and databases. These consultants may from time to time need to access information, which may contain personal data for the purposes of systems testing and development.
The GFW also uses third party providers to facilitate certain communications on its behalf, such as mail-outs providing notices of company meetings and elections, which requires them to access contact data. All such third parties are vetted by us to ensure they provide adequate levels of security and GDPR compliance when processing data.
General
In some circumstance, the GFW may need to share your personal data where necessary with other third parties (including legal or other advisors, regulatory authorities, courts and government agencies) to enable us to enforce our legal rights, or where such disclosure may be permitted or required by law.
We require third parties to maintain appropriate security to protect information from unauthorised access or processing.
How we keep your information safe
We keep our approaches to data management and storage under continual review.
Our approach to our technical setup, and its ongoing development, is based on protecting the personal data we transmit, store and otherwise process against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration or unauthorised disclosure or access.
If you engage in an email exchange with us, while we cannot guarantee the security of communications as they are transmitted between us, once we receive your message it will be stored securely on our email and, if appropriate, member filing systems.
If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is not secure, please notify us of the problem immediately by contacting us using the details below.
Before introducing new systems or technologies relevant to the processing of personal data, the GFW will undertake the necessary impact assessments with a focus on any associated risks.
Data retention
The GFW retains your personal data only for as long as is necessary to provide our services, or for as long as we reasonably need to retain the information for our lawful business purposes or comply with statutory or other legal requirements.
Data breaches
In the event of a data breach of the GFW’s systems that impacts on the security of your personal data, we will inform you as soon as possible of the nature of the breach, the possible consequences, and what we are doing to remedy the situation in accordance with our procedures, obligations, and applicable law.
Other websites
The website contains links to other websites. The Privacy Notice only applies to this website, so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.
Changes to the Privacy Notice
From time to time we may change our data processing activities. We will post an updated version on this page of our website. You will be alerted to any material changes to the Privacy Notice by email and/or by means of a notice on our home page. The Privacy Notice was last updated on 5 May 2021.
How to contact us
Please contact us if you have any questions about the Privacy Notice or information we hold about you by email to data@gfw.co.uk or by emailing the Administrator on admin@gfw.co.uk.