UKPT Privacy and Cookies Policy
Our Commitment
The UK Paruresis Trust started in 2002 as a group of people experiencing, or having experienced, avoidant paruresis. We organised ourselves into a self-help charity to help people cope with urinary dysfunction that has a psychological or social origin. We now aim to provide information and relief for adults experiencing the social anxiety Avoidant Paruresis (aka Shy Bladder Syndrome), particularly by:
- the provision of internet based information and support
- the provision of desensitisation workshops
- the promotion of the concept of individual privacy in the design of public toilets
- the promotion of research into all aspects of the condition, its cause and treatment
- the raising of public awareness, including that of the medical profession.
We want to provide a website service which the people we are in contact with feel confident to use. We want them to feel that the UKPT website is a safe place in which they can give their views or discuss their issues without fear of their information being passed on or used in any way to which they have not agreed.
What is this Privacy and Cookies Policy for?
This Privacy and Cookies Policy is for the website UKPT Paruresis Trust and served by the charity UK Paruresis Trust governing the privacy of the people who choose to use it.
The UKPT have had a website operating successfully since 2002, with no complaints about breach of privacy.
This policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations and requirements of the users, the website and website owners. Furthermore, the way this website processes, stores and protects user data and information will also be detailed within this policy.
It is difficult to detail all aspects of privacy without descending into legalese, and sounding off-putting. Bear in mind that all those involved in running the UKPT have or have had paruresis, and so are very aware of the need for privacy, in a way that transcends any policy.
The Website
UKPT takes a proactive approach to user privacy and ensures the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of users of the website throughout their visiting experience. This website complies with all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy.
Use of Cookies
This website uses cookies to better the user’s experience while visiting the website. Where applicable it uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with legislative requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user's computer / device.
Cookies are small files saved to the user's computer’s hard drive that track, save and store information about the user's interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server, to provide users with a tailored experience within this website.
If users wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computer’s hard drive, they should take necessary steps within their web browser’s security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external links. If you choose to do this, you will be unable to use the workshop booking facility and the forum.
This website uses anonymous tracking software to try to better understand how visitors’ use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor engagement and usage.
It will not store, save or collect any personal information except as outlined below in “Fair Processing Information”.
The information gathered by Google Analytics is invaluable to the organisation, enabling us to make ongoing improvements to the website which will help us to reach more people and provide the resources which are of greatest interest and help to them. View and read Google's privacy policy by following the link in the Resources section of this page.
Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external links. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer.
Contact & Communication
Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion, and provide any such personal details requested (eg by the workshop booking system) at their own risk. In this instance your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer needed, as detailed in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The website uses an online form to allow individuals to submit an email to the UKPT. Every effort has been made to ensure that this is a safe and secure process. Users are advised that they use it at their own risk, but to our knowledge there has never been a breach of security.
UKPT uses any information submitted to the website to provide you with further information about the services they offer, or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to any secure email marketing service the website operates, currently Mailchimp, but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted, or if you, have previously purchased or enquired about a product or service that the marketing service relates to. We will keep this information on our email marketing service until you inform us that you no longer wish to receive information from us. This is by no means an entire list of your user rights in regard to receiving email marketing material.
Your personal details are never, and never will be, passed on to any third parties.
Women have the additional opportunity to join a women’s only email mailing list administered by a female trustee so that they can be informed of female specific information and bimonthly Zoom meetings with other women.
Fair Processing Information
The charity UK Paruresis Trust is what is known as the ‘Controller’ of the personal data you provide to us. Contact details can be found at the end of this policy.
We need your contact details in order to keep you informed of developments or updates you may be interested in within UKPT, such as upcoming workshops etc.
We need anonymous data about paruresis in order to be able to keep reliable evidence of our effectiveness. This will enable us to inform existing funders and potential future funders, and promote our work to interested parties, eg health articles for magazines, radio interviews etc.
We carry out awareness raising activities to try to increase public awareness of paruresis. Keeping information from our workshops such as gender, age, pre and post workshop evaluation documents with all identifying details removed enables us to give examples, statistics, and feedback from the workshops, to encourage other paruresis sufferers to come forward for help.
We will not collect and store any additional data from you. Data collected will only be used for these purposes and will only be processed either by our Administrative Coordinator or trustees.
Your data will never be sold to 3rd parties.
Your information will be stored on a secure cloud based system. Any additional information which may be stored temporarily for a specific purpose eg administering a workshop, will be stored, encrypted, online.
We take all possible reasonable steps to ensure that your data is processed and stored securely. We will generally keep your anonymised data until it is no longer required for the purpose(s) for which it was collected, as outlined above.
External Links
UKPT aims to include only quality, safe and relevant external links on the website However, we cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite our best efforts. You are therefore advised to adopt caution before clicking any external clickable web links mentioned throughout this website. UKPT cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links on the website.
Social Media Platforms
Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on eg Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or X (formerly known as Twitter), are subject to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.
You are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate / engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to your own privacy and personal details. This website and UKPT will never ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms, and encourages anyone wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels, such as email.
This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. You are advised before using such social sharing buttons that you do so at your own discretion, and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.
Shortened Links in Social Media
This website and its owners through their social media platform accounts may sometimes share web links to relevant web pages. By default some social media platforms shorten lengthy urls [web addresses] eg http://bit.ly/zyVUBo
You are advised to take caution and exercise good judgment before clicking on any shortened urls published on social media platforms by this website and its owners.
Despite our best efforts to ensure only genuine urls are published, many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking, and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.
Resources & Further Information
- The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
- Privacy and electronic communications regulations
- X Privacy Policy
- Meta Data Policy (Facebook and Instagram)
- Google Privacy Policy
- Justgiving Privacy Policy
- Paypal Privacy Policy
Our contact details:
UK Paruresis Trust
P.O. Box 182, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 9AE
Charity registration number 1109541
Email: support@ukpt.org.uk
Chairperson: Andrew Smith andrew@ukpt.org.uk
