Privacy Policy

 

Pensthorpe Privacy Policy

 

This policy applies to:
• Current members (adults and adults paying for/responsible for a child membership)
• Individuals buying membership as a gift and using their personal information to register the membership
• Individuals making a party or event booking
• Individuals making a group booking such as a school or community group booking
• Individuals buying day tickets online
• Subscribers to our mailing lists (following a mailing for a reason listed above)
• Individuals who make contact with us through another means: website or email enquiry, one-off shop order, or raffle donation request

 

This information is collected to help us deliver our services, fulfil bookings and purchases, keep in touch with you, and protect us legally (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim).
This policy does not apply to employee, volunteer, work experience, intern, or contractor data – we have separate policies for those individuals.

 

Privacy Statement

Your privacy and the security of your personal information are extremely important to us. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data, so you can be confident about giving us your information.
We will never sell your personal data to anyone and we are not in the practice of sharing it with other organisations. If that ever changes, we will inform you and, where required, obtain your consent.

 

Who are “we”?

We are Pensthorpe. Under our company umbrella, we also operate:
• Pensthorpe Conservation Trust Ltd (charity no. 1100589)
• Porter and Makins Ltd (Company no. 00586007)
• The Conservation Shop Ltd (Company no. 01979520)

 

If you have any questions relating to this policy or our use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer:
info@pensthorpe.com
Data Protection Officer, Pensthorpe, Fakenham, Norfolk, NR21 0LN

 

What personal data do we collect?

“Personal data” means any information that can identify you directly or indirectly.
We may collect:
• Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Photo (for memberships)
• Date of birth (optional – and required only where necessary, such as for child memberships)
• Information about your booking, purchase, or enquiry
• Technical information (such as IP address, browser type and version, operating system, and device type) when you use our website
• Usage information (such as the pages you visit on our site and how you interact with them – this is anonymised for analytics and does not identify you personally)

 

We do not routinely collect “special category” data (such as health information or religious beliefs). If this ever changes, we will update this policy and explain why.
For children’s data (e.g. child memberships), we only collect what is strictly necessary to provide the service, and only from the adult with parental responsibility.

 

How we use your personal data

We use your data only where we have a lawful basis, such as:
• Fulfilling a contract with you (e.g. providing membership or tickets)
• Legitimate interests (e.g. keeping records of your visit, sending relevant updates)
• Consent (e.g. marketing communications where you have opted in)
• Legal obligations (e.g. safety, safeguarding, incident reporting)

We use your information to:
• Manage memberships and bookings
• Send relevant updates and offers (if you have opted in)
• Respond to enquiries
• Process payments securely
• Keep our site and visitors safe (including CCTV for security, safeguarding, and incident review – retained for a set period in line with our security policy)
• Improve our services and visitor experience

 

Use of AI in our operations

We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to help process certain data and improve efficiency. Examples include:
• Extracting booking or enquiry details from forms or emails
• Automating routine responses to visitor enquiries (e.g. raffle donation requests)
• Analysing anonymised visitor trends to improve our services

Whenever AI tools are used, we ensure:
• They operate within GDPR and UK data protection rules
• Data is only accessed by authorised team members
• Personal data is not shared with AI providers in a way that allows them to use it for their own purposes
• AI tools do not make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you without human involvement
• Where AI tools process personal data, no data is retained or used to train external AI systems
• If processing takes place outside the UK/EEA, we use approved safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses to protect your data

 

How long we keep your data

We keep your information for as long as we have a legitimate reason to use it – for example, to manage your membership, fulfil a booking, or respond to an enquiry.
Expired membership records remain on our system for business records and to make it easier for you to rejoin in the future, unless you ask us to delete them. You can request deletion at any time by contacting info@pensthorpe.com.

 

Marketing communications

We will only send you marketing emails if you have consented. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in our emails or by contacting us directly.

 

Sharing your data

We do not share your personal data with third parties except where required to:
• Fulfil your booking (e.g. payment processing)
• Meet legal obligations
• Protect our rights or safety

If we use trusted service providers to process data on our behalf (for example, for payment processing or email delivery), they are contractually bound to keep your data secure and use it only for the purpose we instruct.

 

Security of your data

We take the security of your personal information seriously.
We use:
• Secure payment systems compliant with PCI-DSS standards
• Encrypted storage where appropriate
• Strict access controls so only authorised team members can access your data
• Procedures to detect, respond to, and report any data breaches in line with UK GDPR requirements

 

Cookies

Our website uses cookies (small text files) to make the site work better for you and to help us understand how people use it.
You can change your cookie settings at any time in your browser. For full details, please see our https://pensthorpe.com/website-terms-of-use-and-cookies/

 

Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:
• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request corrections
• Request deletion of your data
• Object to certain uses of your data
• Withdraw consent where given

 

Please note: these rights are not absolute. In some cases, legal or regulatory requirements may mean we cannot fully meet your request. If that happens, we will explain why.

To exercise your rights, contact info@pensthorpe.com.

 

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be published on our website.