Porzana is committed to respecting the privacy of all visitors to its website. We have structured our website so that, in general, you can visit Porzana on the web without identifying yourself or disclosing any personal information. Once you choose to provide us with any information by which you can be identified, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

Who we are

Porzana is a trading subsidiary of BTO Services Limited, which donates all its available profits to the BTO.

BTO Services Limited is a Company Limited by Shares, Registered in England and Wales No 2907282. Registered Office The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU.

BTO is a charity with a vision of a world inspired by birds and informed by science. We harness the skills and passion of birdwatchers to advance our understanding of ornithology and produce impartial science, communicated so that it can be of benefit to everyone.

BTO is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 (Registration No Z547079X) and has given all appropriate notifications to the Information Commissioner. We are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR). The Privacy Officer for the BTO group is the Director of Services.

The British Trust for Ornithology
Registered Charity Number: 216652 (England & Wales), SC039193 (Scotland)
Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered in England and Wales No 357284
Registered Office The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU.

Information that you may provide to us

Your name, address, e-mail address and other relevant information when you contact us to purchase goods or services, request data or make general enquiries.

Financial information to support the processing of payment information, such as credit/debit card or direct debit details.

On our website we make use of cookies in order to provide you with the best possible user experience and to allow you to make use of certain functions. For further information please see: Our policy on cookies and what we use them for.

What we may do with the information we collect

Porzana will never sell your personal data, and will only ever share it with other individuals or organisations where necessary and where guarantees as to its privacy and security have been provided.

When you interact with Porzana 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 statement.

Porzana will only process your personal data where it has a lawful basis for doing so (as specified under Article 6 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR). In most cases, the lawful basis is that processing such data is necessary for the legitimate interests of Porzana.

Porzana seeks to balance the preservation of your rights under the GDPR & the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) with Porzana’s legitimate interest in promoting and managing the supply of bird rings and sundries. We reinforce your rights by offering you the option not to receive information linked to this purpose.  If you feel your personal rights override our legitimate interests, you have the opportunity to ask us not to use your information in such a way.

In other cases, the legal basis for processing your personal data may be:
  • where you have given clear consent for us to do so for a specific purpose;
  • where the processing is necessary for a contract Porzana has with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract;
  • where the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life;
  • where the processing is necessary for Porzana to perform a task in the public interest or for its official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law;
  • where the processing is necessary for Porzana to otherwise comply with the law.
Where we process personal data on the basis of our legitimate interests, we do so for the following purposes:
  • to manage customers and commercial interactions;
  • to ensure the effectiveness and rigour associated with the supply of rings and sundries;
  • to provide you with feedback;
  • to enable us periodically to send you information about our products. You may opt out of receiving such communications at any time.

Justification of the Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information

  • Trading: Porzana processes personal information in connection with the sale of products and services provided by Porzana to customers and others, entered into by way of a contract for goods or services. We reinforce data subjects’ rights by offering data subjects the opportunity not to receive information linked to this purpose.
  • General Information: Porzana may acquire and retain personal information in order to provide general information, education and knowledge about our products and services. Porzana balances this legitimate interest with the rights of data subjects under the GDPR & PECR. We reinforce data subjects’ rights by offering data subjects the opportunity not to receive information linked to these general purposes.

How we store your information

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. We ensure that encryption is used where appropriate, including when transferring credit card information. We are certified to the relevant PCI compliance standards to ensure the security of customer credit card data, and safely handle payments made to us using PCI-compliant payment services.

Our operations are based in the UK and we store the bulk of our data within the European Union.

We will only store your personal information for as long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. How long information will be stored for depends on the nature of the information collected and what it is being used for. We will undertake regular reviews of the personal information that we hold and will delete personal information that is no longer required to be held (whilst maintaining a record of any preferences expressed by you not to be contacted).

Your rights

Whilst we collect and process personal information in order to undertake our work, Porzana very much wishes to protect your rights and here we set out a brief description of them.

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 of the personal information we hold (this is known as a Subject Access Request). Should you wish to make such a request, please contact us at [email protected]

You have the right to request that we remove some or all of your personal information (though this may not apply where it is necessary for us to continue to use the data for a lawful reason). If you wish to make such a request, please contact us as above.

You have the right to have any inaccurate personal information corrected; and/or to specify some of the purposes for which we may contact you; and/or to specify some of the channels by which we may contact you. You can do this at any time by contacting us as above.

If you believe that any aspects of your data protection or privacy rights have been infringed by Porzana, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates and enforces data protection law in the UK. Details of how to do this can be found at www.ico.org.uk.

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.