Privacy Policy

Last updated: 13/02/2026

Who we are

The Wildlife Information Centre (TWIC) is the Local Environmental Records Centre (LERC) for south‑east and most of central Scotland. TWIC collects, collates and shares biological data for this area. We are a company registered in Scotland (No. SC234339) and a registered Scottish Charity (SC034113).

TWIC is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Our contact details

If you have any privacy or UK GDPR queries, please contact the GIS and Data Officer by email at GDPR@wildlifeinformation.co.uk or by telephone on 01875 825968.

Our registered address is:
The Wildlife Information Centre,
Unit 3,
Vineyard Business Centre,
Pathhead,
Midlothian,
EH37 5XP.

The type of information we collect

We collect and process personal information such as names, postal addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers and reasons for contacting us. When you visit our website, we may also collect your IP address and information about the pages you visit and when you access them.

In addition, we may hold medical or emergency contact information for employees, volunteers and event participants. We may also hold bank details for employees, contractors, volunteers and suppliers.

If you make an online donation, TWIC does not store your payment card details. Instead, our third‑party payment processors collect this information securely.

How we collect information from you

We collect personal information in several ways. For example, this may occur when you contact us, submit records or data, use our services, apply for membership, make a donation, subscribe to communications, register for events, or volunteer with TWIC.

In most cases, you provide this information directly. Occasionally, we may request specific details, such as emergency contact information, to meet health and safety requirements for events.

We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:

  • The provision of biological records or data from dataset providers/ data partners, including online databases, which may include recorder names, addresses, usernames or contact information.
  • The provision of landowner names and contact information from Local Authority partners for the purposes of managing Local Biodiversity Site/ Local Nature Conservation Site systems as part of contracted work.

How we use your information

We may use your information in order to:

  • Respond to any enquiry you make
  • Provide you with the information, products or services that you request from us
  • Send you our newsletter, information on our events, or events organised by related organisations where you have subscribed
  • Manage membership subscriptions and gift aid
  • Communicate with you regarding the processing/ management or your biological records/ datasets, including record validation and verification checks
  • Give you credit as the source/ originator of the data
  • Comply with health and safety requirement on our events, including excursions and workshops
  • Communicate with you regarding recording excursions or biological surveys on your land, including the results of surveys
  • Notify you of Local Biodiversity Site/ Local Nature Conservation Site designations on your land on behalf of the Local Authorities
  • Undertake analysis into our users, for example data commonly requested, to improve our website and our services

Who we share your data with

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

We may share your information with:

  • Our payment and credit card processors where relevant, so that we can process your payment. We use SumUp as our payment processor for card donations. When you make a card payment, SumUp processes your payment information as an independent data controller. You can read their privacy policy at www.sumup.com/privacy.
  • Recorder/determiner names may be shared with data partners, including but not limited to National Recording Schemes and Societies, and record verifiers.
  • Analytics and search engine providers (such as Google Analytics and search tools) that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our websites.
  • Information relating to landowners/ tenants for Local Biodiversity Sites / Local Nature Conservation Sites may be shared with Local Authorities partners, TWIC’s surveyors/ volunteers and contractors for the purpose of fulfilling contracts.
  • We use third party service providers to administer activities on our behalf such as sending out our newsletters and mailings (using the secure platform Mailchimp), taking bookings using Eventbrite and gathering feedback on our events (ArcGIS Survey123).
  • Anonymised versions of records may be provided to the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Recorder names may be uploaded with prior consent of the dataset provider/ recorder.

Legal Basis for processing your data

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

(a) Your consent (mailing lists and ‘List of Local Experts’ webpage). You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting us at info@wildlifeinformation.co.uk

(b) We have a contractual obligation (as part of services to clients, our grant funder and Service Level Agreement holders)

(c) We have a legal obligation or vital interest (employee and volunteer medical or emergency contact details)

(d) We have a legitimate interest (managing memberships, processing records, managing datasets, managing volunteers or event participants)

How we store your personal information

Your personal data is stored securely on our password protected servers and on encrypted backup drives. Hardcopy materials with personal information are kept in locked cabinets. No volunteers, users or other people may have access to the office without either a Director or staff member being present. In the event of a hard drive failure, the affected hard drives are destroyed to prevent data breaches.

All computers at TWIC are protected by anti-virus and firewall software to guarantee a high level of cyber security.

TWIC’s online cloud storage is protected by a strong password and by an embedded security system that monitors data security and possible breach in real-time.

We use Dropbox for our cloud storage. Dropbox holds its physical servers in the USA.  Transfer of data from the UK to the US is covered by Dropbox’s Privacy Shield Certification. In addition, we use Microsoft Office products and OneDrive and SharePoint which store data on servers located in the EU & UK. Microsoft are also certified under the USA’s Privacy Shield Scheme should use of any of their products result in information being transferred to or being accessible from the US.

Any personal information submitted via one of our website forms will be stored on the website for processing and a copy of the data sent to our team by email.

Remote volunteers are trained in cyber-security, and passwords are routinely changed after volunteers have completed their work.

Cookies

When you visit our website (www.wildlifeinformation.co.uk), we use Google Analytics, a third‑party analytics service, to collect standard internet log information and information about how visitors use our site. This helps us understand how the website is used, for example which pages are visited most often. The information we collect is processed in an anonymised way and does not identify you personally. We do not attempt to identify website visitors, and we do not allow Google to do so.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on our website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How long we retain your data

TWIC will only store information for so long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for.  We will undertake regular reviews of information we hold and delete any obsolete information in a secure manner.  Information regarding any preferences to not be contacted by TWIC will be retained.  We never store any payment card information.

Your data protection rights

Under the UK GDPR you have the following rights:

•      The right to be informed – You have the right to know how your personal data is used by TWIC.  This document is intended to be a clear description of how your data may be used.

•      The right of access – You have the right to request a copy of all personal information that we hold on you as part of a Subject Access Request.  Under the GDPR, TWIC has 30 days to respond to this.  Please email GDPR@wildlifeinformation.co.uk for Subject Access Requests.

•      The right to rectification – You have the right to ask TWIC to update your records where any information in them is inaccurate.  TWIC will correct the data immediately.

•      The right to erasure – You have the right to be forgotten.  If you request that your personal data be removed from TWIC’s systems, we will do so immediately.  This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. Where this concerns records TWIC would request that the data be pseudonymised instead, but if this is unacceptable to you we will remove your records also.

•      The right to restrict processing – You have the right to ask for processing of your personal data to be restricted where you believe it is inaccurate or that there is no legitimate use for the processing of your personal data.

•      The right to data portability – You have the right to request that TWIC transfer your personal data to another service provider, in a machine readable format. 

•      The right to object – You have the right to stop the processing of your data for marketing processes, or any of the legitimate interests that TWIC uses personal data for.

•      The right to not be subject to automated decision-making including profiling – Where the data controller is using your personal data in an automated way to make decisions that have an effect on you, you have the right to object.  TWIC does not use your personal data in this way.

More information about each of these rights can be found here: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

Changes to this notice

If TWIC makes changes to this notice, an updated copy of this document will be made available on our website and will be distributed to relevant parties.

How to complain

If you have concerns about how your data is used, please contact GDPR@wildlifeinformation.co.uk. If you remain dissatisfied, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Postal address:

Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.