Data Protection Policy

The Bedford Competition wishes to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into force on 25th May 2018 and the statement below describes its policy towards the data used by the organisation in relation to:

1. What personal data is collected by The Bedford Competition
2. How the personal data is used
3. How long the personal data is kept

1. What data is collected by The Bedford Competition
   Personal data can come from four sources:
   1. The competition entry form
   Entrants in either of the short story or poetry competitions submit and entry form that contains the following personal data:
   Name
   Postal address
   Email address
   Telephone number
   Age group (optional)
   
   2. Email registration
   An individual may voluntarily register their email address in order to receive information relating to the competitions. The data submitted when registering are:
   Name
   Email address
   Postcode (this is optional and applies to UK individuals only)
   Age group (optional)
   
   3. Anthology
   Shortlisted (including first, second and third placed) and Bedford Prize winners for the short story and poetry competitions are published in an anthology which is available as an e-book or paperback. Any author or poet appearing in the anthology will be asked to provide a biography of themselves.
   4. PayPal
   Payment of entry fees by the entrant is handled by PayPal and no data, apart from the amount to be paid is passed from the competition entry form to the PayPal application. No data is passed from the PayPal application to the The Bedford Competition website. Acknowledgment of successful payment is made by an email from PayPal to the The Bedford Competition treasurer. The email will contain the following data:
   Postal address
   Email address
   
   
   
2. How the data is used
   General comment: The data collected and stored by The Bedford Competition is used exclusively for activities associated with the competition and is not given or sold to other organisations for any purpose. Data belonging to entrants or registrants is not collected from any source other than those mentioned below. Data that is held electronically is password protected and data that is in paper form is stored in locked cabinets accessible only to authorised The Bedford Competition officials.
   
   1. The competition entry form
      1. Name This is used to:
         1. Facilitate a necessary part of the administration of the competition so that the story or poem entered by the individual can be matched to the entrant. An entrant may identify themselves with a pseudonym is they so wish.
         2. Be the salutation in any emails sent to the entrant.
         3. If the entrant is short-listed then his or her name together with the relevant story or poem will be posted on the website.
      2. Postal address This is used to determine whether an entrant is eligible to be entered for the short story or poetry Bedford Prize. It will also be used to communicate with an entrant if:
         1. The email address the supplied is undeliverable
         2. The entrant has won a prize and is unable to receive it in person.
         3. If the entrant is short-listed then, with the entrant's consent, the location of that person taken from the postal address will appear on the website, however this will not be the entrant's full address. The reason for showing the location is to indicate the spread of entries throughout the world to all entrants.
      3. Email address This is used to:
         1. Acknowledge receipt of an entry
         2. Verify that the entrant, where appropriate is eligible to be shortlisted
         3. Send an invitation to entrants relating to the awards presentation
         4. Request biographical information from entrants for inclusion in the anthology
      4. Telephone number
      This is used only if it is found that the email and postal address do not provide a means of communicating with the entrant in circumstances where it is necessary to make contact.
      5. Age group
      The entrant may voluntarily provide this data which will be used to determine the impact of the competition in respect of age.
   2. Email registration
      1. Name
      This is used for the salutation in any emails sent to the entrant.
      2. Email address This is used to:
         1. Acknowledge receipt of the email registration.
         2. Send emails to the registrant relating to the short story and poetry competitions.
      3. Postcode
      This is used to enable the targeting of emails, relating to the short story and poetry competitions, to be sent to registrants in specific areas of the UK.
      4. Age group
      The registrant may voluntarily provide this data which will be used to determine the impact of interest in the competition in respect of age.
   3. Anthology
      1. Biography A biography of the author or poet appearing in the anthology is requested for inclusion in the publication. The author or poet is advised of how the biography will be used and is given the option not to provide one. If a biography is provided, it may be:
         1. Edited to remove certain information but not to add any or change the context.
         2. Altered to read in the third person so that it conforms to the standard of presentation in the publication.
         3. Prior to publishing the anthology, the biography of each author or poet will be sent a copy it in the form that it will appear in the publication and be given the chance to make amendments of withdraw it.
         4. After publication, amendments to a biography may be made upon request of a particular author or poet which will be incorporated in subsequent editions of the anthology, however any anthologies sold to the public before the amendment is made cannot subsequently be altered.
   4. PayPal
      1. Name
      This data will be used, together with the date and time of the transaction, to match payment of the entry fee with the entry form.
      2. Postal address
      As it is possible that the person paying is not the same as the entrant, this data is to try to establish a match between the payment of the entry fee with the entry form.
      3. Website This data is used as a further means of matching the payment of the entry fee with the entry form. It is possible that none of this data matches in which case the verification is based on date and time alone.
         
   
   
3. How long the personal data is kept
   1. The competition entry form
      1. The data from the online entry form for the short story and poetry competitions will be kept from the date that it is received until the end of the life cycle of the relevant competition which will be 31st March in the following year. After this time statistics derived from the personal data may be retained but all the personal data will be deleted.
      2. In the case of a postal entry form, for the purposed of ease of administration the data from these will be converted into electronic form. Both the paper and electronic data from the short story and poetry competitions will be kept from the date that it is received or entered electronically until the end of the life cycle of the relevant competition which will be 31st March in the following year. After this time statistics derived from the personal data may be retained but all the electronically held personal data will be deleted and the paper entry forms shredded and disposed of.
   2. Email registration
      1. Every email sent to registrant will contain the means for the registrant to revoke his or her registration and delete his or her email address permanently from the email register database.
      2. The registrant may contact the administrator at any time instructing that his or her email address is deleted from the email register database.
      3. On an annual basis every registrant will be emailed with the intention of drawing their attention to their being on the email register database and indicating how they can remove their email address from it if they so wish.
   3. Anthology
      1. The biography of an author or poet once published will exist for as long as the publication is available to the public.
      2. An author or poet may request that his or her biography is removed from the publication and a revised publication, available to the public, will be produced as soon as possible after the request
   4. PayPal
      1. The email from PayPal is saved in email folder of The Bedford Competition, access to which is password protected, and held until the end of the competition so that, if any query arises concerning payment of the entry fee, it can be investigated.
      2. The saved emails will be permanently deleted from the email folder of The Bedford Competition at the end of the relevant competition life cycle which is 31st March in the following year.