Privacy Policy

The Scottish Private Hire Association is a not-for-profit unincorporated association and as such, and for the reasons below, is exempt from registering with the Information Commissioner's Office as a Data Controller and exempt from paying a data protection fee.  The Scottish Private Hire Association only ever processes information that is necessary to establish and maintain membership and support, only ever processes information necessary to provide or administer activities for people who are members of the association or have regular contact with the association, only ever holds information about individuals whose data we need to process for this exempt purpose, and the personal data we process is restricted to personal information necessary for this exempt purpose.

However, The Scottish Private Hire Association is committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of the members of our association, of the visitors to our website, and of any person we do business with. This privacy policy describes how and why we collect personal data, how we use such data and how it is protected.

The Scottish Private Hire Association is the ‘data controller’ of your personal data. Personal data is any data which can identify you, either directly or indirectly. This can include your name, address and phone number. The personal data you provide to us could be held in electronic format or on paper hard copy. We manage your data in full compliance with the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

The Scottish Private Hire Association it required by law to define the lawful basis for the processing of your personal data. We process your data, lawfully, based on the consent you have given and also because the association has a legitimate interest in doing so.     

When you join the Scottish Private Hire Association, either as a regular member or as an affiliate member, you consent to the association collecting and processing your personal data. We process your data to establish, maintain and administer membership records, to process payment of your association subscription (if applicable), to provide you with news and updates on association business and activities, to provide you with support, to provide you with advice, to facilitate meetings of association members, to conduct elections and ballots, to conduct research and surveys, to inform you about any changes to the services or benefits we offer and to help the association determine your eligibility for such services or benefits, and to help the association conduct equality monitoring,

We may share your personal data within the association for the purposes and interests described in this policy. For example, we may share your contact information with local elected office bearers. However, we will not share your personal data with external third parties without your explicit consent. The exception to this is where we select third party service providers who process your data on our behalf. Such third party processing activities may include membership administration and membership database administration, ballot and election administration, processing of subscription payments, email services, survey services, electronic messaging services, website services, and legal services. From time to time, we may also send you (and process) printed materials, such as ballot papers, membership cards and campaign materials.

WE WILL NEVER SELL YOUR DATA TO EXTERNAL THIRD PARTIES.

We may also use personal information associated with your website visit, whether you are a member or not, to our website for the purposes of administration of the website, to improve the website browsing experience, to personalise web services for you, to send you email, campaigning or direct marketing notifications that you have consented to receive, and to handle and process any queries, complaints or comments you have made on web forms.

If you register for association membership via our website then we will process your data collected via the website for the purpose of processing your application.  

We will only keep your data for as long as is necessary to serve the purposes for which it was collected and/or for as long as we have a legitimate interest in holding such data.

We will not routinely transfer your data outside of the EEA.

Your rights are extremely important to us and you have significant legal protections including the right to access your personal data, the right to rectification, the right to be forgotten, and the right to restrict or object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.  If you wish to exercise any of these rights you can contact us using the following details:

Scottish Private Hire Association,
Clyde Offices, Second Floor,
48 West George Street,
Glasgow, G2 1BP.

Email: office@spha.scot

You can also contact us if you have any questions, queries or complaints regarding your data protection and privacy. You can also make a data subject access request by using the above contact details.

Finally, you have the right to make a complaint to the regulatory authority, which is the Information Commissioner. You may contact them as follows:

o   Helpline: 0303 123 1113

o   Email: casework@ico.org

o   Website: www.ico.org.uk