Privacy notice

Otra Cosa Network (“OCN”, “we”, “us”) is a charity registered in England and Wales (no. 1133680) and a registered Peruvian NGO (no. 11126841). For the purposes of UK data protection law, Otra Cosa Network is the data controller for the personal information described in this notice.

You can contact us about anything in this notice at info@otracosa.org or by post at our UK office: 126 Coventry Road, Warwick, CV34 5HL, United Kingdom.

This notice explains what personal information we collect when you visit otracosa.org, contact us, sign up to our newsletter, apply to volunteer, become an ambassador or make a donation; why we collect it; how long we keep it; and the rights you have. It applies to supporters, volunteers, applicants and website visitors in the UK, Peru and elsewhere.

We only collect information you choose to give us, or that is needed for the thing you've asked us to do:

• Contact form and emails: your name, email address, the topic and your message.
• Newsletter: your first name and email address.
• Volunteer and internship applications: your contact details, date of birth, gender, nationality, university (if you're a student), role preferences, level of Spanish, estimated travel dates, CV and anything else you tell us about yourself. If you're offered a placement we'll also ask for a background check from your home country.
• Donations: your name and contact details, the amount and date of your gift and, if you choose Gift Aid, your home address and declaration that you're a UK taxpayer. Card and bank details are handled by our payment provider and never stored by us.
• Ambassador applications: your contact details and the answers you give.

Please don't send us sensitive information (for example about your health) unless we ask for it and explain why.

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each way we use your information:

We will never sell your personal information, and we won't use it for purposes you wouldn't reasonably expect.

We only share your information when we need to, and only with:

• Our team in Peru and the UK, so they can respond to you and organise placements.
• Service providers who help us run the charity, such as our website host, email and newsletter provider, and payment providers (for example PayPal or Stripe). They may only use your information on our instructions.
• HMRC, when we claim Gift Aid on your donations.
• Authorities, where the law requires it or to protect someone from harm.

Because our projects are in Peru, some of your information will be accessed by our team there, and some of our service providers may store data outside the UK. Where a country doesn't have UK “adequacy” status, we put appropriate safeguards in place, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or equivalent contractual protections, and we only transfer what is needed.

We keep information only for as long as we need it. Our proposed retention periods are:

• Enquiries: up to two years after our last contact with you.
• Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
• Unsuccessful volunteer applications: up to 12 months.
• Volunteer records, including safeguarding checks: up to six years after your placement ends.
• Donation and Gift Aid records: six years after the end of the financial year of your last gift, as HMRC requires.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete your information, or restrict how we use it;
• object to us using your information on the basis of legitimate interests;
• ask for information you gave us to be transferred to another organisation;
• withdraw your consent at any time, for example by unsubscribing from our newsletter.

To use any of these rights, email info@otracosa.org. We'll respond within one month. We don't make decisions about you using solely automated processes.

Our website doesn't use advertising or tracking cookies. If we add privacy-friendly analytics or any non-essential cookies in future, we'll update this notice and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

Our online forms are intended for adults, and volunteers must be 18 or over. We don't knowingly collect personal information online from children. Photos of the children we work with are handled under our safeguarding commitments: we never name children alongside identifiable photos, and we remove location data from images we publish.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including limiting access to people who need it and using reputable providers with strong security. No system is perfectly secure, so if we ever have a data breach that puts you at risk, we'll tell you and, where required, the Information Commissioner's Office.

If you have a question or concern about how we handle your information, please contact us first at info@otracosa.org and we'll do our best to put it right.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

We'll update this notice when the way we use personal information changes, for example when we connect new online forms or payment services. The latest version will always be on this page.