This page explains how the Big Wildlife Garden uses any information you give to us, and the ways in which we protect your privacy.

Any changes in our privacy policy will be posted on this page, so regularly checking here means you will be aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we share it with other parties.

The Data Controllers of this site are The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) /The Wildlife Trusts (TWT). The RHS/TWT is committed to protecting your privacy and security. Whenever you provide personal information, the RHS/TWT will treat that information in accordance with this policy and current UK Data Protection legislation.

As a condition of the site’s Terms of Use, if you register with us you must give us permission to send you email messages that directly relate to your use of this service.

However, you choose whether we can contact you for any other purpose. We do not pass on your details to any third-party. If you have given us permission to contact you, we may use the information to:

• Send information from your local Wildlife Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society which may include gardening tips, events you may be interested in, how you can help wildlife in your garden, how you can help your local Wildlife Trust and RHS and new features or opportunities, using the email address you have provided. If you have provided your contact number we may also contact you by phone, email or text to let you know how you can help your local Wildlife Trust or RHS.
• Contact you by email for feedback on the Big Wildlife Garden so we can improve the Big Wildlife Garden.

What information do we collect?

You have to complete an online registration to use most of the Big Wildlife Garden website, which includes supplying some personal information about yourself / your gardening group and your garden. We use this to help us understand who is using our site so we can develop new features. We may use this to generate some aggregated statistics on usage, which we may publish on the homepage, but we will not reveal any information about your individual registration.

You must also grant us permission to send you any email messages that directly relate to your user account. To do this, we must collect a contact email address. For more details read our Terms of use.

Information made public through the Big Wildlife Garden

If you choose to join the Big Wildlife Garden then your garden name, description and any picture you upload will become visible on the Big Wildlife Garden map to all visitors to the site. The marker pin on the map will relate to the postcode or longitude/latitude you provide. If you don’t want to provide your full postcode eg GL50 3RA, you may choose to supply only the first half eg GL50.

If you choose to share your Journal and Survey entries with Big Wildlife Gardening "Friends", this information will become visible to other registered members whom you accept as Friends. You can delete friendships at any point and your Journal and Survey entries will no longer be visible to that member.

RHS/TWT will be able to run reports on survey results in order to generate and publish statistics, but we will not identify you individually.

Cookies

Like many websites, bigwildlifegarden.org.uk (the "Website") makes use of cookies. A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to your browser, and your browser transfers back with each page request, so that the website can remember who you are.

This site uses session cookies so that it can remember any changes you make to the interface, such as adding details a form, along with which gadgets you leave open, or closed.

The site also makes use of cookies for tracking general usage of the site. These cookies do not store any identifying information and are not used in a way that can be associated with identifying information.

If you do not wish to receive cookies you can easily modify your web browser to refuse cookies or to notify you when you receive a new cookie. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features of the Website if cookies are disabled and the RHS/TWT recommends that you leave them switched on.

For more information about cookies and instructions on how to stop cookies being installed on your browser, visit www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies.

By using the RHS/TWT Website you agree to accept the RHS/TWT Cookie Policy and agree to make your own arrangements to modify your web browser to refuse cookies or to notify when you receive a new cookie. The RHS/TWT may change this Cookie Policy from time to time. It is your responsibility to check the Cookie Policy regularly. You will be deemed to have accepted any amendments to the Cookie Policy if you continue to make use of the Website after a change to the Cookie Policy has been made.

Registration

When you register to use this site, you are solely responsible for maintaining the security of your account. For example, this means that you may not share your password or let anyone else access your account. If you have reason to believe that your account is no longer secure, please let us know immediately by emailing: headgardener@bigwildlifegarden.org.uk

Links to other sites

Although our Terms of Use advise users against the use of links to external websites in the information they post, this may happen. You need to be aware that this privacy policy does not cover any of these websites. These sites should have their own privacy policy. You should always be aware of this when you are moving to another site and read their privacy statement.

Some of the links we include for more information on gardening topics take you out to external specialist gardening and wildlife websites. These sites should have their own privacy policy. You should be aware of this when you are moving to another site and read their privacy statement.

We do not pass on any personal information you have given us to any other site.

Feedback

You can send us your feedback by emailing headgardener@bigwildlifegarden.org.uk

If this feedback is asking for information, we may need to contact other government departments to find that information. If your question is technical, we may need to pass it to our technology suppliers. We do not pass on any of your personal information when dealing with your enquiry. Once we have replied to you, we keep a record of your emails for six months for reference and audit purposes, after which it is deleted.

Access to your information and contacting bigwildlifegarden.org.uk

For any enquiry or concern about our privacy policy, or to request access to your personal data contact us via: Email: headgardener@bigwildlifegarden.org.uk