Privacy notice

Who we are

Doric Lodge No. 2695 ("the lodge", "we", "us") is a Masonic lodge in Harrogate, meeting at Harrogate Masonic Hall, Station Avenue, Harrogate HG1 5NE, under the Province of Yorkshire West Riding and the United Grand Lodge of England. The lodge is the data controller for the personal information described in this notice.

What we collect

Through the contact form, we collect:

• your name (required);
• your email address (required);
• your message (required);
• your phone number, if you choose to give it;
• what you are interested in, if you choose an option (joining the lodge, rejoining Freemasonry, visiting as a Freemason, or a general question).

Please do not send health or other sensitive information through the form. The form also has a hidden anti-spam field that people leave blank; it does not collect anything about you.

When you visit the website, our host, Netlify, automatically receives basic technical data needed to deliver the pages: your IP address, the page requested, your browser type and the date and time. We do not use this data to identify you.

This website has no user accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking.

Why we use it, and our lawful basis

• Contact form: to read and reply to your enquiry, for example about joining or visiting the lodge. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)): we have an interest in answering enquiries, and you expect a reply when you contact us.
• Website technical data: to deliver the website and keep it secure, for example against abuse and attacks. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in running a working, secure website.

How we use it

We use your information only for the purpose you gave it to us. We do not use it for marketing, we do not add you to mailing lists, and we never sell or rent it. Only lodge members dealing with your enquiry see it.

Who we share it with

We use two service providers. Both act as our processors, which means they handle the information only on our instructions:

• Netlify, Inc., which hosts the website and handles the contact form;
• Google LLC (Google Workspace), which provides the lodge email account that receives contact form messages.

We do not share your information with anyone else unless the law requires us to.

International transfers

Netlify and Google are based in the United States and may process information outside the UK. Where a provider is certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (the "UK–US data bridge"), we rely on that. Otherwise, we rely on standard contractual clauses with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum. Both protect your information to UK standards.

How long we keep it

• Contact form enquiries: we keep your enquiry and our correspondence with you for 12 months from your last contact with us, then delete it.
• Form submissions held by Netlify: we delete them from Netlify once they have been forwarded to the lodge mailbox, and within 30 days at the latest.
• Website technical data: Netlify keeps its server logs for a short period under its own policy, for security and to run the service.

If you go on to join the lodge, we will tell you separately how members' information is handled.

How we keep it secure

The website is served only over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Access to the lodge mailbox is limited to the lodge members who need it, and those accounts are password-protected.

Cookies

This website does not set any cookies. Because of this, there is no cookie banner. It loads no third-party scripts, fonts, maps or videos. If we ever need a cookie, it will be one that is strictly necessary for the site to work, and we will update this notice and our cookie notice first. Other websites we link to have their own cookie policies.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• access: ask for a copy of the information we hold about you;
• rectification: ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• erasure: ask us to delete your information;
• restriction: ask us to limit how we use it;
• objection: object to us using it where we rely on legitimate interests; we will stop unless we have compelling grounds to continue, for example to deal with a legal claim;
• portability: where it applies, ask for your information in a common electronic format.

There is no charge. We will reply within one month. If a request is complex, we may extend this by up to two further months, and we will tell you why within the first month.

How to raise a privacy query

To ask a question about this notice or to use any of your rights, contact us through the contact form on this website. Please say that your message is about data protection.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: ico.org.uk, or call 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

We will update this notice if the way we use personal information changes, and change the "last updated" date at the top of this page.