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

• What personal data is collected by The Bedford Competition
• How the personal data is used
• How long the personal data is kept

1: What personal data is collected by The Bedford Competition

Personal data may come from four sources:

1.1. The competition entry form

Entrants in either of the short story or poetry competitions submit an entry form that contains the following personal data:

• Name
• Postal address
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Age group (optional)

1.2. Email account

An individual may voluntarily set up an account via the website to receive further Bedford Competition information. The data submitted when registering are:

• Name
• Email address
• Postcode (this applies to UK individuals only)
• Age group (optional)

1.3. Anthology

Main prize (short story and poetry) shortlisted entrants and all competition winners are published in an anthology which may be available as an e-book, paperback or both. Any author or poet appearing in the anthology may be asked to provide a biography of themselves.

1.4. Payments

Payment of entry fees by the entrant is handled by PayPal and Stripe. No data, apart from the amount to be paid is passed from the competition entry form to the payment system. No data is passed from the payment application to the The Bedford Competition website. Acknowledgment of successful payment is made by an email to the The Bedford Competition treasurer. The email will contain the following data:

• Postal address
• Email address

2: How the personal 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.

2.1. The competition entry form

2.1.1. Name:

This is used to:

• 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 if they so wish.
• Be the salutation in any emails sent to the entrant.

If the entrant is short-listed, or long-listed, then their name together with the title of the relevant story or poem will be posted on the website.

2.1.2. 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:

• The email address they supplied is undeliverable
• The entrant has won a prize and is unable to receive it in person.
• The entrant is short-listed, or long-listed, the country of that person, taken from the postal address, will appear on the website. The reason for showing the location is to indicate the spread of entries throughout the world to all entrants.

2.1.3. Email address:

This is used to:

• Acknowledge receipt of an entry
• Verify that the entrant, where appropriate, is eligible to be shortlisted
• Send an invitation to entrants relating to the awards presentation.

• Send entrants further information related to The Bedford Competition. Targeted, unsolicited emails, sent to previous entrants of The Bedford Competition, will contain the option for the entrants to revoke their registration and delete their email address permanently from the email register database.

• Request biographical information from entrants for inclusion in the anthology

2.1.4. 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.

2.1.5. Age group:

The entrant may voluntarily provide this data which will be used to determine the impact of the competition in respect of age or validation of entry into the Cygnature competition.

2.2. Anthology:

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:

• Edited to remove certain information but not to add any or change the context.
• Altered to read in the third person so that it conforms to the standard of presentation in the publication.

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.

2.4. Payment System Data:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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

3.1 The competition entry form

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 5^th anniversary of the relevant competition closing date i.e. data from an entry submitted in 2025 will be deleted at the close of the competition in 2030. After this time statistics derived from the personal data may be retained but all the personal data will be deleted.

• The data from the postal entry form for the short story and poetry competitions will be kept from the date that it is received until the 5^th anniversary of the relevant competition closing date i.e. data from an entry submitted in 2025 will be destroyed at the close of the competition in 2030. After this time statistics derived from the personal data may be retained but all the personal data will be deleted.

3.2. Email account

• The entrant may contact the administrator at any time instructing that their email address is deleted from the email register database. The administrator may be contacted via email at administrator@bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk

3.3. Anthology

• The biography of an author or poet once published will exist for as long as the publication is available to the public.
• If an author or poet requests that their biography be removed from the publication, The Bedford Competition will do so if the volume is reprinted.

3.4. Paypal

• 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.
• 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.

3.5. Stripe Payments

• Stripe payment details are managed by the Stripe application.
• Only postal addresses will be saved and used for delivery.