Personal Information Policy

Date published: 30 June 2021
Information Officer: Charlotte Cameron

Knysna Baptist Church reserves the right to change the Privacy Policy at any time. When this policy is revised, we will send a notification to all registered data subjects. Your continued use of our ministry indicates your acceptance of these changes.

INTRODUCTION

The Protection of Personal Information POPI ACT of 2013 is intended to protect everybody’s constitutional right to privacy of personal information. It also allows the church (Knysna Baptist Church) to collect and use personal information for legitimate purposes.

UNDERTAKING

In keeping with the appropriate legal safeguards as specified in the POPI ACT 2020 (Protection of Personal Information Act), our obligations at Knysna Baptist Church are

  1. to follow POPI lawfully and not infringe the privacy of members/ adherents.
  2. to only collect information that we need for our ministry to serve you well.
  3. to use the information received only for the purposes for which it is intended. We will collect such information directly from our members/adherents. We will only hold as much as we need, and only for as long as we need it.
  4. to apply reasonable security measures to protect it.
  5. to ensure it is relevant and up to date.
  6. to allow the subject of the information to see it upon request

1. The personal information we collect about you and store may include:

  • Names and Surnames, and names of your family members
  • Contact details: email addresses, telephone numbers, home addresses
  • Demographic Information: birth date or annual birthday, anniversary date
  • Any correspondence sent or received between you via email, social media, physical letters and other means

2. How we collect your information

  • We collect your information when you fill in a contact form, register for an event, apply to join the church, and join our social media pages and groups;
  • If you give your contact detail to a member, they may share it with the elders or other members for ministry contact purposes

3. How we use your information:

  • We send relevant updates about our church ministry, prayer requests, and other notices we believe are relevant to you in connection with the church ministry.
  • We send birthday wishes via SMS, including your contact number, to the church family so they can wish you well. You may opt out of this service, but we have found it to be encouraging to our members.
  • We send agenda and minutes from our meetings to our church members
  • We may contact you directly via phone or email in relation to our ministry.

4. How we store your information:

  • We store your information on a private computer belonging to our Information Officer. This data is backed up offline and the computer is protected by antivirus software and an Internet router.
  • It is stored in electronic document format and printed copies at the Information Officer’s home.

5.Who we share your information with:

  • Your personal information is shared with the elders of the church for purposes of spiritual oversight and contact.
  • Ministry leaders such as Bible Study leaders and Sunday School teachers will also request your contact details from the Information Officer for ministry-relevant purposes, including to see how you’re doing.
  • Our weekly bulletins will include your name in turn for our members to remember in prayer. They also note your birthday and anniversary celebrations at the appropriate week.

6. Modifying your information

  • When your personal information changes, you are responsible to update the Information Officer by the relevant contact form, or by a personal message.
  • We will responsibly update our copy of your information.
  • The church officers rely on the Information Officer’s copy of your personal information as the correct and up to date source.

7. Destruction of your information

  • Once you have left the church or resigned membership for a period of 3 months, we manually remove your details from our current contact database, and stop contacting you.
  • However, we keep records of past personal information and correspondence when a person resigns membership, and even after their death, for the purposes of remembering our history and being accountable for our ministry. These references are typically in newsletters and bulletins which we have shared with the whole church over time and will be virtually impossible to remove. However, these references will normally be only your name, and where only very specifically required, your contact number or address (For example if you host an event at your house, we may include your home address for our members to locate you)
  • You may at any time request to be removed from our contact list, weekly bulletin, and social platform groups

D. INFORMATION OFFICER

The Information Officer is responsible for:

  1. Ensuring compliance with POPI
  2. Dealing with requests which we receive in terms of POPI
  3. Working with the Information Regulator in relation to investigations
  4. Receiving appropriate data in terms of POPI and recording it and maintaining such records as are necessary for compliance with POPI