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Privacy policy

How PATCH handles information on patchscotland.com, including cookieless PostHog analytics, contact and funding enquiries, and your rights under UK data protection law.

Who we are

PATCH (Palliation and The Caring Hospital) is a registered Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), charity number SC044231. Our registered address is Airliebank, 26 William Street, Carnoustie DD7 6BW.

This privacy policy explains how we handle information when you use our public website at patchscotland.com.

What this policy covers

This policy applies to visitors browsing patchscotland.com. It does not cover staff sign-in to our private admin area, which is used only by PATCH operators.

Information we collect

When you browse the site

Like most websites, our servers and analytics tools receive technical information when you visit a page. This can include your browser type, the page you requested, the site that linked you here (if any), and the time of your visit. We use this in aggregate to understand how the site is used and to keep it working.

When you contact us or apply for funding

If you email us, use our contact form, or submit a funding application, you choose what personal information to send (for example your name, organisation, and project details). We use that information only to respond to you or assess your enquiry. Funding applications may be handled through a Microsoft form hosted outside this website; that provider's privacy notice applies while you complete the form.

Donations

Donations are processed by PayPal when you follow our donate links. We do not receive your payment card details through patchscotland.com. PayPal's privacy policy applies on their site.

Website analytics

We use PostHog (PostHog EU) to understand how visitors use the site so we can improve content and spot problems, for example whether donate buttons are easy to find. We do not use Google Analytics or advertising trackers on this site.

PostHog is configured in cookieless mode. It does not set analytics cookies and does not use local or session storage on your browser. PostHog counts visitors using a short-lived pseudonymous identifier created on PostHog's servers from a hash of technical data such as browser user agent, hostname, and network information. PostHog treats that identifier as non-personal in this mode. We do not use PostHog to identify you by name or email on the public website, and we do not call tracking features that would link analytics to named individuals.

Examples of what we measure include:

  • Pages viewed and general navigation
  • Clicks on donate buttons (which area of the site you used)
  • Downloads of our charity profile PDF
  • Clicks on social media links
  • Submissions of our work enquiry contact form (we record the budget range selected, not the text of your message)
  • Opening the mobile navigation menu

We may also receive technical error information to help fix faults. We do not deliberately send the contents of forms to PostHog.

Lawful basis

We process this analytics data for legitimate interests: running and improving our charity website, understanding whether our information and calls to action are effective, and maintaining security. We keep the data minimal and do not use it for advertising or sell it to third parties.

Retention

Analytics retention is set in our PostHog project (typically months, not years). Contact us if you need more detail.

Your choices

You can limit analytics by using browser tracking protection or an ad blocker. If you object to this analytics processing, email contactus@patchscotland.com and we will note your objection.

Cookies and similar technologies

Our public analytics (PostHog) is configured not to place analytics cookies on your device. Ordinary visitors to patchscotland.com should not receive analytics cookies from PATCH.

Strictly necessary cookies or storage may still apply in limited cases, for example if you sign in to our staff admin area (not available to the public) or if our hosting infrastructure sets a short-lived technical cookie for load balancing. Those are not used to track public browsing for marketing.

If we add optional cookies in future (for example embedded media or marketing tools), we will update this policy and ask for consent where the law requires it.

How we use and share information

We do not sell personal information. We may share information only:

  • With service providers who help us run the website (for example hosting and analytics), under contract and only as needed
  • When required by law or to protect PATCH, our users, or others
  • With your consent, where we have asked for it explicitly

Our website is hosted on Vercel. Analytics data is processed by PostHog, Inc. in the EU region. Links to external sites (PayPal, Microsoft forms, social networks) are governed by those providers' policies.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as needed for the purpose we collected it, or as required by law. Enquiries and funding correspondence are kept only as long as needed for PATCH's work and governance.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you may have rights to access, correct, erase, restrict, or object to processing of your personal information, and to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). To exercise your rights, contact contactus@patchscotland.com.

This site links to other websites. We aim to link only to reputable resources, but we cannot control third-party sites. Please review their privacy policies before sharing personal information.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will change the "last updated" date when we do. Continued use of the site after changes means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your information: contactus@patchscotland.com (general enquiries) or kate@patchscotland.com (media).

Further information