Sign In Join Now
User Accessibility
  • Increase Font

  • Invert Colours

Search for a Book Browse Books Menu

Privacy Policy

Listening Books is committed to ensuring your privacy is protected.

 

You may be asked to provide certain information which will identify you when using our website. You can rest assured that any information will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Listening Books may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. Please check this page to keep up-to-date with any changes.  If you have any questions about this policy or how we keep or use your information, please contact us at info@listening-books.org.ukAn audio version of our privacy policy is available here.

Listening Books' lawful basis for the collection and processing of our members' and donors' data
 

Listening Books is fully compliant with regulations on data collection and takes the collection of data and its processing very seriously.  Our lawful basis for the collection of data is as follows:

We are fulfilling a ‘contract’ with our members who pay for the service, and we will process the data needed to ensure we successfully fulfil that contract.  As part of the contract we will collect ‘special category data’ with regards to a member’s illness or disability.  This data is only used to ensure a member qualifies for our service and we may anonymously use the information to analyse our membership statistics and reach.

We process sponsored members’ data to fulfil our ‘legitimate interest’ in providing them with an audiobook service.

It is under ‘legitimate interest’ that we collect data on book preferences and level of service use so that we can ensure members are shown other books which may interest them, or provide them with help with the service if they are not using or struggling to use.

What information we collect on you
 

If you are signing up to become a member of Listening Books, detailed explanations as to why we are collecting your name, date of birth, disability etc and what we will do with the information can be found on the online application form. 

For those members who have already signed up to the service, please click here to see why we have collected certain data and what we use it for

We also collect IP addresses and analyse where people have visited our website from and which pages they have visited, how much time they have spent there and from which page they have left the website. This information helps us to determine the pages on the website that are working well for our members and supporters and how people have found us.

If you subscribe to our blog, we will hold your email address, and you will be emailed each time we post a new story.  You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the email or contacting us directly.

If you make an online payment to us either as a donation or membership payment we do not collect and store your card information.  It is collected by our third party payment processers, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.

We currently partner with OverDrive and PressReader to provide titles for our members. We do not share any personal data with our partners, except anonymously to enable you to access content through their websites.  The data they use relates to age, enabling them to show appropriate content to those identified as under 18, and to track usage to enable them to track trends in content. If you download the PressReader app (which you do not need to do in order to use the service through Listening Books) you have the option to create an account with them, so that the app remembers your choices and favourites, and provide access to additional features, such as commenting, bookmarking, sharing, auto-delivery, translation, saved searches and more.  The information you give to this app is independent of Listening Books and they then hold your data separately, under their own policies. 

Listening Books has a page with links to external websites. These links are being provided for convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by Listening Books of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation, organisation or individual. Listening Books bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external site or for that of existing and subsequent links. This privacy statement does not cover the information and data collection practices of those websites.

What we do with the information we hold on file
 

Listening Books will not pass on any personal information to any third party for marketing purposes. Listening Books uses third parties to enable us to carry out our services, some of these third parties may at times have access to small parts of data for the purpose of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf.  Anonymised information (year of birth, print impairment type and outward postcode i.e. the first part) may be reported to our funders. Listening Books has safeguards in place ensuring that any third party with access to your data keep that information secure and do not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

Please be reassured we will not release your data to any third parties outside the Listening Books network unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example a court order for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect both off and online.  However, the transmission of information using the internet is not completely secure, especially if that is via one of our social media accounts, and although we do everything we can to ensure your data is secure we cannot guarantee its security.

We will only use your information to:

  • Process a donation that you have made
  • Process your membership application
  • Ensure you are shown the books that interest you the most with regards to any preferences you have told us or based on your age or reading habits
  • Carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you or us
  • Notify you of a change to our service
  • Seek your views or comments on the services we provide if you have chosen to be part of our members forum
  • Send you relevant information on your membership such as new books, competitions, author interviews, charity partnerships, charity news and our bi annual newsletter
  • Contact you about your account and any payments

Once you are no longer a member of Listening Books, and have returned all goods owned by Listening Books, we will no longer contact you. However, due to legal reasons or to fulfil our statuary obligations (for example the collection of gift aid) we will hold your personal information for as long as necessary. For auditing purposes this is usually 7 years.

You can choose
 

If at anytime you would prefer not to be contacted with all the extras that membership brings, such as access to our newsletter, exclusive access to author interviews, invites to enter competitions, then you can select your relevant choices in your account, or by emailing us at anytime at info@listening-books.org.uk or writing to us at Listening Books, 12 Lant Street, London, SE1 1QH.  You can also cancel your membership at anytime. If you decide that Listening Books isn’t for you, as long as you contact us within 2 weeks of joining you will be entitled to a full refund of the membership fee. Those who wish to cancel their membership after 2 weeks from the joining date but within four months of the membership period will receive a refund minus the expired period of their membership. Unfortunately we cannot offer refunds after 4 months

Your rights
 

You have various rights to information and to make a complaint to Listening Books at any time.  The best way to contact us is at 12 Lant Street, London, SE1 1QH, at info@listening-books.org.uk or by phone on 0207 407 9417.  You can also make a complaint  to the data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner's Office, https://ico.org.uk/

1. The right to be informed

You have the right to be informed of how we process your data and this privacy document lays that out for you. If you have any further questions please contact us at info@listening-books.org.uk.

2. The right of access

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold on you, we aim to get that information to you within 2 weeks of requesting it. This will usually be free of charge.

3. The right to rectification

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

4. The right to erasure

You have the right to ask us to delete all data we hold on you. New laws brought in on the 25th May 2018 mean you can ask verbally or in writing for us to delete all data we hold on you and we have 1 month to respond to this request.  Please note there are some exceptions to us being able to delete your data, such as where it is required for us to comply with our legal obligations.

5. The right to restrict processing

You have the right to request that restrictions be placed on our ability to process your data under certain circumstances. Please contact us and we will aim to comply with any restriction requests where possible.

6. The right to data portability

You can ask us to provide you or a third party with some of the personal information that we hold about you in a structured, commonly used, electronic form, so it can be easily transferred.

7. The right to object

You can object to us using your data where we are relying on legitimate interest and there is a valid reason to object. 

8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

You have the right to know about any automated decision making we make using your data.  The only automated decision making we use with regards to our members data is using their previous book choices to recommend them titles that they may like.  This is done by genre or what other people have listened to who have also listened to a book they have looked at/listened to.  These books are only recommendations and are not chosen on your behalf and you can intervene to choose your own books at anytime.  We carry out regular checks on this system to ensure it is working as intended.

What is a cookie?
 

Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a small file which is stored on your browser or your computer's hard drive (or internet-enabled device).

Cookies allow our website to tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to understand which pages you find useful and which you do not.

How are cookies used on our site?

We use different cookies based on their functionality.  We use certain necessary cookies to operate our site.  These cookies relate to the Site’s functionality for the services that are explicitly requested by you, such as to log you into our site or to make a payment.  We also use cookies to remember your cookie preferences, including where you are asked to consent to the use of other, non-necessary, types of cookies on our site.  Our site also uses session cookies to deliver the basic website functions such as to allow pages to remember technical changes or selections you may make between pages.  Session cookies are temporary cookies and are erased when you close your browser. 

You can view a PDF version of our Cookie Policy here, which includes a list of the cookies we use and their purpose.

 

EU Cookie Law
 

As part of our compliance with EU Cookie Law, we provide a popup message informing users of our use of cookies. The popup states that by continuing to use the site the user has accepted our use of cookies. The popup displays on every page until the user clicks that they wish to hide it.

 

Membership Complaints Procedure

All complaints are taken seriously.  A membership complaint will usually be dealt with initially by the Membership Support Team, who may need to liaise with other staff to investigate and then form an appropriate response.  On rare occasions, a complaint may fall to another member of staff.  This will be decided by the management team.  

If an allegation is made against a member of staff or volunteer, a full investigation will take place by the CEO and Trustees, and will be escalated to the correct authorities where appropriate.

Should any allegation be made, confidentiality will be maintained. However, the welfare of children and vulnerable adults is paramount and this may necessitate a breach of the organisation’s rules of confidentially and data protection in the interests of safety.

In the case of an allegation of abuse being made by a child or young person, if appropriate, we will escalate the complaint to our Local Authority Designated Officer: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/childcare-and-parenting/children-s-social-care/child-protection/allegations-against-people-who-work-with-children-in-southwark

 

Fundraising Complaints

 

Listening Books is registered by the Fundraising Regulator. If you feel that we have not satisfactorily resolved your fundraising complaint, you can contact the Regulator here: Fundraising Regulator Complaints Procedure

Safeguarding Policy

If you have questions about our safeguarding policy or have any safeguarding concerns, please contact our Safeguarding Lead, Louise Barling, at lbarling@listening-books.org.uk.  

*page updated 14th March 2023