This privacy policy sets out how the Waterbird Colour-marking Group complies with data protection obligations as a Data Controller and Data Processor.
If you have any queries, please contact us via email.
Who we are
The Waterbird Colour-marking Group (WBCM) have been colour-ringing waterbirds since 2008, operating across Britain and Ireland using a variety of catch methods, with the main aim of providing a better understanding of our resident and migratory waterbirds. Members of the group are all volunteers working together to run projects on our study species. All members who are bird ringers are licensed by British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
You can find out more about the group’s activities, and ‘meet’ our members on other pages on this website.
The information we collect about you
In order to support our studies in the most effective manner and to ensure that we communicate with you in the way that you prefer, we may collect and hold personal information about you in the following ways:
Personal information that you provide us:
Your name and email address when submitting a sighting of a colour-marked bird(s), survey or census counts, or via a contact form on our website.
Personal information created through your engagement with us:
By submitting a sighting of a colour-marked bird(s) or a survey or census count, data is created which may be classed as personal information, as the sighting can identify where you were on a particular date.
What we do with the information we collect
We will never sell you personal data. When you interact with WBCM, and have not advised us to the contrary, you are agreeing that we may use your personal information for the purposes set out in this policy. We will only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis for doing so. in most cases, the lawful basis is that processing such data is necessary for our legitimate interests.
When we process your personal data we will only do so to allow us to ensure the effectiveness and scientific rigour of our studies. This may include contacting you to verify sighting, survey or census information, or provide you feedback on the information you have submitted to us. We may also process your personal data to enable us periodically send you information about the study for which you have submitted a sighting, survey or census count which we think you may find interesting (from which you may opt out of receiving such communications at any time).
How we store your information
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. Any name or email address submitted with a sighting, as part of a survey or census count is stored securely along with the sighting information, or survey or census count as applicable. We will only store your personal information for as long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for.
How we process your information
Any name or email address submitted with a sighting, survey or census count is stored securely, and only accessible to Group and Project Sighting Coordinators, as listed on our Meet the team page of this website.
Any name or email address, or other personal information, submitted via the contact forms on this website, or via direct email may be passed on to another member of the Group and Project Sighting Coordinators in order for them to accurately store the sighting information, or contact you for reasons set out in this policy.
WBCM are happy to receive sighting information anonymously, and observers are able to do so via our online reporting app, however we reserve the right to exclude these data from our scientific research and analysis as we are unable to contact the observer should a need to verify the record arise.
Your personal information is never as part of the scientific data analysis for our scientific research and publications. We will only process your personal information as set out in this policy to verify sighting, survey or census information prior to analysis. We may share sighting, survey or census information with wider members WBCM, partner organisations, funders or to promote our studies and scientific research. Where this is done, it is done so anonymously and no personal information is shared.
All sightings of colour-marked birds are shared with BTO and added to the national ringing database, to aid scientific research. All records are shared anonymously and no personal information is shared.
Your rights
Whilst we collect and process personal information in order to undertake our work, we wish to protect your rights as set out below.
Right to access
You have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we have your personal information, and if we do, the right to obtain a copy. Should you wish to make such a request, please contact us via the form on the Contact Us page.
Right to erasure
You have the right to request that we remove some or all of our personal information (though this may not apply where it is necessary for us to continue to use the data for a lawful reason). Should you wish to make such a request, please contact us via the form on the Contact Us page.
Right to rectification
You have the right to have any personal information corrected. Should you wish to make such a request, please contact us via the form on the Contact Us page.
Links to external sites
Please note that our website may contain links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site you should note that we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites, which are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
Waterbird Colour-marking Group 