Privacy Policy

BLSA Privacy Statement

As an association, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. For any personal data you provide for the purposes of your membership, The BLSA is the Data Controller and is responsible for storing and otherwise processing that data in a fair, lawful, secure, and transparent way.

What personal data do we hold:

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

Identity Data includes full name, username or similar identifier, age and photograph, proof of guardianship relating to parental consent for junior members under the age of 13.

Contact Data includes postal address, email address and telephone numbers

Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of any services you have purchased from us.

Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.

Profile Data includes your username and password, subscriptions made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback, and survey responses.

Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and services.

Next of Kin / Emergency Contact Data

Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from your communication preferences

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

Why we need your personal data:

We need your Personal Data so that we can administer your membership and provide the membership services you are signing up to when you register with the Association. Our lawful basis for processing your personal data is that we have a contractual obligation to you as a member to provide the services you are registering for or have a legitimate interest in processing your data to enrich your membership experience and consequently the range and quality of services we can provide.

Reasons we need to process your data include and in brackets the legal basis on which we process it:

  • Processing of membership forms and payments (consent, contractual obligation, legitimate interest)
  • Providing you with proof of membership (consent, contractual obligation)
  • Linking an individual pilot member with a “K” sail number (consent, contractual obligation)
  • Being able to contact next of kin in the event of an emergency (consent, legitimate interest, vital interest)
  • To provide you with information about Association activities, membership renewals, renewal reminders, or invitations to social events, race meetings, General or Annual General Meetings (consent, legitimate interest)
  • Association emails sent by the BLSA to members promoting association activity (consent, legitimate interest)
  • Publishing of race and competition results and event or racing reports on the The BLSA website, where a member’s name or photo, such as winner’s podium photo, might be included in the results or report (consent, legitimate interest)
  • To register members for competition and racing events (consent, contractual obligation, legitimate interest)
  • Linking an individual pilot member with a racing class and publishing a list of entrants on The BLSA website to a race meeting divided by racing category i.e., Middle, Heavy etc and by performance class i.e., Production / Performance (consent, legitimate interest)

By agreeing to join the BLSA you agree and consent to the BLSA using your data in the ways and for the purposes bullet pointed directly above.

Some of the ways we hope to improve your membership experience in the future will require individual member specific opt in consent. 

  • At some point in future allowing members to message each other via BLSA website. Members will need to opt in to use this facility. Members will self-activate this feature and can self-de-activate this feature at their own choice (consent)

Junior member data policy

  • The BLSA needs to obtain the consent of a legal guardian for us to handle and process the data of junior members under the age of 13. For a junior member below the age of 13 to join the BLSA we therefore need written consent from the legal guardian. Please write to the membership secretary
  • We do not knowingly collect personal data about children under the age of 13. If you become aware that a child has provided us with their personal data without the consent of the parent or guardian, we would ask you to contact the BLSA straightaway so that we can address the matter.
  • Any junior member or parent concerned about how the BLSA handle the data of junior members can write to the BLSA and ask for an explanation of what data we hold and how we protect the data interests of juniors
  • Obviously, juniors have all the same rights regarding their data as any other member of the BLSA

Social Media:

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through The BLSA public message boards such as Facebook, or other social media platforms, this information may be collected and used by others. Note:  The BLSA does not read any of your private online communications.

The BLSA encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from The BLSA so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. The BLSA is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the The BLSA and The BLSA family of Web sites.

With whom do we share your personal data:

The BLSA does not sell, rent, or lease its member lists to third parties. The BLSA may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, The BLSA may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to The BLSA, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

The BLSA Web sites will  disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so  by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a)  conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on  The BLSA or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of  The BLSA; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the  personal safety of users of The BLSA, or the public.

Use of Cookies

The BLSA Web site uses “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize The BLSA pages, or register with The BLSA site or services, a cookie helps The BLSA to recall your specific information on subsequent visits.  This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same The BLSA Web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the The BLSA features that you customised.

You can accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of The BLSA services or Web sites you visit.

How long do we hold your personal data:

We will hold your personal data on file for as long as you are a member with us. All data is updated every year on annual membership forms. Any personal data, that we hold, that we are not legally required to keep longer for accounting or legal purposes, will be deleted one calendar year after the year in which you were last a full adult or junior member at the expiry of your “Friend of the BLSA” membership as detailed in the BLSA Member Handbook.  

Security of your Personal Information

The BLSA secures your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. The BLSA secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Changes to this Statement
The BLSA will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. The BLSA encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how The BLSA is protecting your information.

Contact Information
The BLSA welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that The BLSA has not adhered to this Statement, please contact The BLSA at richard.hollingsworth AT datapacific.com. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.

Your rights regarding your personal data:

As a data subject you may have the right at any time to request access to, rectification or erasure of your personal data; to restrict or object to certain kinds of processing of your personal data, including direct marketing; to the portability of your personal data and to complain to the UK’s data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office, about the processing of your personal

As a data subject you are not obliged to share your personal data with the Association. If you choose not to share your personal data with the BLSA we may not be able to register or administer your membership.