Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 2026

Brightlingsea Panto Group (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share your personal information when you visit our website https://pantogroup.co.uk or interact with us (e.g., through membership, ticket enquiries, or contact forms).

1. Important Information and Who We Are

Brightlingsea Panto Group is a non-profit community organisation operating in Essex, UK. For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we act as the Data Controller responsible for your personal data.

Contact Details

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:

• Organisation Name: Brightlingsea Panto Group

• Website: https://pantogroup.co.uk

• Contact Email: secretary@pantogroup.co.uk

• Postal Address: c/o 22 Edward Avenue, Brightlingsea, CO7 0LZ

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data about you depending on your interaction with us:

• Contact Data: Name, email address, telephone number, and message contents provided via our website contact form or email enquiries.

• Membership & Volunteer Data: Information collected if you register interest or join as a cast/crew/volunteer member (e.g., name, contact details, emergency contact details, age/DOB for performers).

• Technical Data: Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types, operating system, and platform when accessing our website.

• Usage Data: Information about how you use our website.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data (such as health or racial/ethnic origin details) unless explicitly needed for member safety/safeguarding during productions, for which explicit consent will be requested separately.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

We collect data from and about you through:

• Direct Interactions: When you fill out contact forms on our website, email us, apply for membership, or sign up to participate in cast/crew activities.

• Automated Technologies: As you interact with our website, technical data about your equipment and browsing actions may automatically be collected using cookies and server logs.

4. Legal Basis & How We Use Your Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we use your personal data under the following legal bases:

Purpose / Activity	Type of Data	Legal Basis for Processing
To respond to contact form enquiries or general questions	Contact Data, Identity Data	Legitimate Interests (to communicate with website visitors and community members)
To process membership or cast/crew volunteer registration	Identity Data, Contact Data, Production Role Data	Contract / Performance of an Agreement or Legitimate Interests
To process show ticket bookings/enquiries (if applicable)	Contact Data, Transaction Data	Performance of a Contract
To manage, optimize, and secure our website	Technical Data	Legitimate Interests (to ensure IT security and site function)

5. Sharing Your Personal Data

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. We may share your data only with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website and group, including:

• Web hosting and website administration providers.

• Email service providers (used to reply to contact requests or send member updates).

All third-party service providers are required to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with UK law.

6. Data Security & Storage

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed. Access to personal data is limited strictly to group committee members and volunteers on a need-to-know basis.

7. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including satisfying any legal, administrative, or accounting requirements.

• Contact form enquiries are retained until resolved or for a maximum of 12 months thereafter.

• Member/Volunteer records are retained for the duration of involvement and deleted shortly after active participation ends.

8. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users and ensure proper site functionality. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. Note that if you disable cookies, some parts of this site may become inaccessible or function improperly.

9. Your Legal Rights

Under UK data protection laws (UK GDPR), you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data (a “data subject access request”).

• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.

• Request erasure (“right to be forgotten”) of your personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it.

• Object to processing of your personal data based on legitimate interests.

• Request restriction of processing your personal data.

• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via the details provided above.

Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the UK regulator for data protection issues:

• Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): https://ico.org.uk

We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns directly before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

10. Third-Party Links

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, or social media pages (e.g., ticket booking partners or local community pages). Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We keep our Privacy Policy under regular review. Any updates will be posted directly on this page with an updated revision date.