Who we are
The Write By The Sea Festival (WBTS) is held annually in the fishing Village of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford. We are a not-for-profit group and the Festival is organised and coordinated by a voluntary committee in association with the Kilmore Quay Development Association and the Stella Maris Centre, Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford.
Purpose of this Policy
The Write By The Sea Festival is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our online services or attend our in-person or online events. This document explants how and why we collect and use your information and how to contact us with any privacy concerns or questions.
What Information we Collect
We may collect personal information such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone number, interests, hobbies, and preferences. Additionally, when ordering certain goods or services from our website, we will require your credit/payment card number and expiration date.
Analytics, Logging, and Anonymised Data Collection
We may use analytics and logging tools to track and analyse usage of our website. These tools may collect anonymised data such as website traffic, page views, and user interactions. This data is used to understand how our website is being used and to improve the user experience. We do not collect any personal information through these tools, and all data is analysed in an aggregate and anonymous form.
Cookies
We use cookies to personalise your experience on our website and to understand how our website is used. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website. You can reject or accept cookies using the pop-up cookie management dialogue and you can disable cookies your browser settings, but please note that this may limit your ability to use certain features of our website.
Why we collect Information
The following are the main purposes for collecting data from festival attendees and users of our website: ● To identify you each time you visit our website or wish to have a service provided ● To process orders or applications submitted by you ● To facilitate entries to our writing competition ● To improve our services and website to better meet the needs of our users ● To personalize your experience by providing information that is relevant to your interests and requests ● To carry out research on the demographics, interests, and behaviour of our customers ● To administer and manage your attendance at the Festival and in your chosen workshops ● To send you information about new events, products and services offered by Write By The Sea How we collect your personal information When you interact with Write By The Sea we collect your personal information in a number of ways, such as: ● When you buy a WBTS ticket via our designated ticket service provider. In this situation WBTS has access to your name email address and order number but not your card payment details which will only be used by the ticket service provider to process your ticket purchase transaction online ● When you contact us by phone, in person, online or by post to make an enquiry, to reserve Festival workshops or to access information ● When you submit an entry to our writers’ competitions ● When you join our mailing list and agree to receive communications and updates from Write By The Sea ● When you make a donation or sponsor an event or workshop ● When you submit a suggestion or complaint or when you complete an evaluation form after a workshop and include your contact details How we use your personal information We use your information to meet our business needs, to provide you with our services and to fulfil contracts with you. In relation to Festival bookings that you make, we use your information in the following ways: ● To fulfil ticket and workshop requests and to ensure payments are received and processed correctly; to provide joining instructions and confirmations; to notify you of any programme changes or cancellations; to issue additional workshop instructions or information and to thank you for your support ● To administer and manage your attendance at the Festival and in your chosen workshops ● To respond to you when you initiate contact with us in person, by email, through our website or social media, or by phone ● To process competition entries that you may submit ● To notify you by email of Festival updates ● To acknowledge a gift or donation that you have made ● To enhance customer service by responding to a suggestion, query or complaint that you have made or Festival or workshop evaluation form that you have completed ● To comply with our legal and financial obligations in relation to record keeping ● For general administration and record-keeping purposes ● Please note: in certain venues where we stage events, CCTV may be used on the premises for the security and protection of staff and patrons of those venues ● Official photographs are sometimes taken at WBTS events by the WBTS team or by designated photographers and these photographs may be used by WBTS for publicity purposes. We endeavour to alert participants when such photographs are being taken. In the case of events which will be recorded for live streaming or future screening online, we will notify audience members in advance. Recordings are made only with the advance permission of the contributors involved. How we share your personal information WBTS is committed to protecting the privacy of its users. We do not share, sell, or rent personal information to third parties, except in the following circumstances: ● We may disclose personal information to third-party suppliers who provide services on our behalf. These third-party suppliers include our ticketing service provider Ti.to (www.ti.to) and our mailing list service provider MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) and our payment processer Stripe (www.stripe.com ) ● We may disclose aggregate statistics about our sales, attendees and website visitors, services to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other reputable third parties. These statistics will not include personally identifying information. ● We may disclose personal information if required to do so by law or if it believes that such action is necessary to protect and defend the rights, property or personal safety of WBTS and its website, visitors to the website, and customers of our services. ● Our website contains links to third-party sites. We recommend that you review the privacy policies of these sites before providing any personal information. WBTS is not responsible for the privacy policies or content of these sites.
Information Security
To ensure any data you provide to us via our website is securely transferred to us, we use a Secure Socket Layer certificate (SSL) on our website. This verifies our identity to your browser and encrypts any data that you provide us with, for example, via our contact form. SSL is identifiable by the padlock symbol or trust mark in the browser’s URL bar and by the URL itself which will begin https:// (as opposed to http://) While no digital system or online service is 100% secure, we will endeavour to ensure the information you provide to us is securely held, both online and offline as applicable, and protected against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction and will take reasonable measures to do so.
Your rights regarding the personal information we hold
● If you are a resident of the EEA, you have the right to access the Personal Information we hold about you in a portable format, and to ask that your Personal Information be corrected, updated, or erased. If you would like to exercise these rights, please contact us through the contact information below. Email us at writebytheseakq@gmail.com ● You have a right to be informed of how we collect and use the information we hold about you. ● You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time to receiving our emails, updates and information from WBTS, and to unsubscribe from our mailing lists. ● In the case of a suspected data breach, individuals have the right to contact the Data Commissioner…… wording and decision The Write By The Sea Festival is made possible through the commitment and co-operation of all our volunteers, attendees, sponsors and donors. We will endeavour to address any concerns that you may have in a prompt and efficient manner.