Privacy Policy

The Harkness Fellows Association and Transatlantic Trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales no. 4168003 and is a registered charity no. 1088426.

Generally known as the Harkness Fellows Association (HFA), it is a not-for-profit organisation set up with the aim of encouraging transatlantic understanding by bringing people together from both sides of the Atlantic.  The principal activity of the Company is in holding educational lectures, seminars and debates on issues of current interest, including issues with a Transatlantic theme.

Type of personal information we collect

We only collect and process personal information necessary to establish or maintain Membership or support and to provide or administer activities for persons who are Members of the organisation or have regular contact with it.

We currently collect and process the following information:

• For Members, prospective Members and persons who request to be on our mailing list: Names, honours and titles, contact details (addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers), year of birth and country of birth, whether deceased,
• Data on those who have been awarded a Harkness Fellowship – country from which fellowship started, years, location, topic, mentor (if any),
• For Members of the HFA, date and confirmation of payment, whether gift aid applies,
• Lists of attendees at Events we hold, confirmation of payment,
• Responses to surveys (if any).

Sources of personal information and purpose of processing

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, as an HFA Member or when applying for Membership or to join our mailing list.  We also receive personal information indirectly from the Commonwealth Fund, Harkness House, One East 75^th Street, New York, New York 10021-2692 which awards and administers the Harkness Fellowships.

The information you provide is used in the following ways:

• To administer those who are Members and also those on our data base to receive our newsletter and notices of meetings and events,
• To verify that you are eligible for Membership; we cannot process applications without the information requested in the joining form,
• To contact you with the outcome of your application,
• To collate statistics and to conduct research (although in these circumstances no information that could identify you as an individual will be published), and
• To prepare accounting records and statutory corporate records.

The HFA takes privacy very seriously.  We will never sell your data to any third party nor will we share your details with other entities for marketing purposes. 

Legal basis for processing

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) the lawful basis we rely on for processing

your data is the HFA’s legitimate interests.  Those are the provision of membership services and advancing education for the benefit of the public particularly through the organisation of talks and events covering a wide range of topics.

Data storage and retention

We store your information securely in electronic form which is accessible only by our administrative assistant and a very limited number of our Directors.  In addition, some data which forms part of our statutory corporate records, such as the Register of Members, is also stored in paper form at a secure location.

HFA operates two mailing lists, one for newsletters which are circulated twice a year (from 2018).  The other is for notification of our Events; these are usually held in London or online with about 6 Events a year.  If you no longer wish to be on one or other of these lists, please notify us by contacting us at the address below, by mail or by email, and your data will be promptly removed.

We endeavour to keep your data accurate through timely recording of any changes notified to us or which appear in the public domain as well as by regularly reviewing and following up on bounce backs from emails which we send out.  Membership lists are reviewed from time to time, at least twice annually. Requests to unsubscribe from mailing lists or to have personal data deleted are actioned promptly.

Data for Members is retained throughout the period of Membership and then for 2 years from the date Membership expires.  An exception to this is data for Members who have served as Directors, Trustees and Committee Members; their data is retained indefinitely for record purposes.  If a person applies for Membership and is unsuccessful, their data is retained for 2 months from the date of the decision and then deleted.

For persons who have requested to be on our mailing list but who then decide to unsubscribe, their data is retained for 2 months from the date of the decision and then deleted.  

Financial information (subscriptions, payment for events, gift aid records) is retained for six fiscal years plus the current fiscal year.

 Your rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• Right of access – to ask us for copies of the personal information we hold on you.
• Right of rectification – to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate and / or to complete information you think is incomplete.
• Right to erasure – to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Right to restriction of processing – to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Right to object to processing – to object to processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability – to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation or to you in certain circumstances.

There is no fee for exercising your rights unless you make repeated requests for the same information.  If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at the address below, by mail or by email, if you wish to make a request.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at the address below, by mail or by email.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.  Their address is: