Last updated: 5th July 2026

Torbay Astronomical Society ("TAS", "we", "us") is a not-for-profit amateur astronomy society founded in 1956. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being clear about what we collect and why. This policy explains how we handle personal data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who is responsible for your data:
Torbay Astronomical Society is the data controller. Our contact for anything relating to this policy is: Secretary - astrosecretary@gmail.com

What information we collect, and why

Membership
When you join or renew, we collect your name, postal address, email address, telephone number, and membership category (adult / senior / student or junior). For members under 18 we also record the name and contact details of a parent or guardian.

We use this to administer your membership, contact you about meetings and society business, and maintain our membership records. Our lawful basis is *contract* — we need this information to provide your membership — and *legitimate interests* for routine society administration.

Payments
Membership fees and visitor tickets can be paid online through our shop at shop.torbayastronomicalsociety.co.uk, operated via Sum-Up. **We never see or store your card details** — these go directly to the payment processor. We keep records of payments made (who paid, what for, when) for our accounts. Our lawful basis is *contract* and, for retaining financial records, *legal obligation*.

Contact form and general enquiries
If you contact us through the form on our website, we collect your name, email address, and whatever you write in your message. We use this solely to respond to your enquiry. Our lawful basis is *legitimate interests* — answering the question you asked us. The form is provided by Google Forms and responses are stored in the Society's Google account.

Photography at meetings and events
We sometimes take photographs at meetings, observing evenings and outreach events for use on our website, in society publications, and on any society social media. Where individuals are identifiable - We will tell you when photography is taking place, and you can ask not to be photographed — just let the photographer or a committee member know.

- **We will not publish identifiable photographs of anyone under 18 without written consent from a parent or guardian.**

- If a photograph of you has been published and you would like it removed, contact us and we will take it down promptly.

Our lawful basis is *legitimate interests* (promoting the society and recording its activities) and, for photographs of children, *consent*.

Astronomical images in our Photo Gallery are members' astrophotography and do not contain personal data.

Email communications
We email members about meetings, the programme, Sky Notes and society news as part of membership. We do not send marketing, and we never sell or rent your details to anyone. If we ever operate a mailing list for non-members, it will be strictly opt-in (*consent*) and every email will include an unsubscribe link.

Our website
Our website is hosted on Google Sites, and we use other Google services (Forms, Drive, Maps) within it. Google may set cookies and collect technical information (such as IP address and browser type) when you visit; this is governed by [Google's own privacy policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy). We do not run our own analytics or advertising, and we do not use tracking cookies of our own.

Our website contains links to other sites (for example the Federation of Astronomical Societies and our online shop). This policy covers only the TAS website; other sites have their own privacy policies.

Who we share your data with
We do not sell, rent or trade personal data. We share it only with - **Anyone we are legally required to share it with**, such as HMRC or law enforcement, should that ever arise.

Some of our service providers (notably Google) may store data outside the UK; where they do, transfers are covered by the safeguards in their standard UK/EU data processing terms.

Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to:
- **Access** the personal data we hold about you (a "subject access request")
- **Correct** anything that is inaccurate
- **Erasure** — ask us to delete your data (subject to legal retention requirements)
- **Restrict or object to** our processing of your data
- **Withdraw consent** at any time, where consent is our lawful basis (e.g. photographs)
- **Data portability** — receive your data in a usable format

To exercise any of these rights, contact astrosecretary@gmail.com. We will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the **Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)** at [ico.org.uk](https://ico.org.uk) or on 0303 123 1113 — though we would welcome the chance to resolve any concern directly first.

Children
Junior members (under 18) are welcome at TAS, accompanied by a supervising adult. We collect only the information needed to administer their membership, always alongside a parent or guardian's details, and we apply the stricter photography rules described above.

Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version, with its "last updated" date, will always be published on this page. Significant changes will be announced to members.