Privacy policy

ROOF is the housing magazine of Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity. As such its website is subject to the privacy and data protection practices for all the websites operated by Shelter.

Shelter is committed to protecting your privacy. This page explains our policy on collecting, storing, and processing your personal and financial information, and steps you can take to protect your privacy on our websites.

References to ‘we’ or ‘us’ are to Shelter, The National Campaign for Homeless People Limited and Shelter Trading Limited, registered charity no: 263710 (England & Wales); SC002327 (Scotland) of 88 Old Street, London EC1V 9HU.

If you have any questions, please contact our Supporter Helpdesk on 0845 458 4590, or email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Collecting personal information

We ask you for personal details when you make a transaction on our websites, such as making a donation, joining a campaign, booking a training course, or buying goods or services online.

We also collect information when you respond to an appeal or take part in an action.

The personal information we collect from you is used to provide you with information, services or products you have requested and for administration purposes. This information helps us to know what incentives, appeals and actions are working well and assists Shelter in campaigning for decent housing for all.

We may need to share your information with our service providers, associated organisations and agents for these purposes. We do not disclose personal information for direct marketing purposes and do not share your details with third parties. We may need to disclose your information if required to do so by law.

Financial information

We only collect the financial information that you knowingly supply when making a payment or donation, such as credit card or debit card payments, through the Shelter website. This information is encrypted and stored on secure servers so that your transaction can be completed.

Site usage information

We collect site usage information, using cookies, log files and page tagging techniques including JavaScript.

This information gives us a better understanding of how the Shelter website is used, and how we can improve our services to our clients and supporters.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are often created when you visit a website, and which are stored in the cookie directory of your computer. A cookie is created when you visit the Shelter website. Shelter uses permanent cookies and session cookies. The permanent cookie stores a random number on your computer to help us count the number of times users return to our site. The session cookie lets us know which pages within our site you visit. Permanent cookies do not expire when you leave Shelter and may be used on subsequent visits to the site. Session cookies expire when you leave Shelter or switch off your computer.

You can choose not to accept cookies, or delete existing cookies, by adjusting your internet security preferences. To do this, refer to the instructions for your browser in the ‘help’ menu. More information about cookies is available at www.allaboutcookies.org

Log files

Log files record visitors’ use of the site. We can collect information about site usage from the data contained in these logs which we obtain from third parties. Log files do not contain any personal information and they are not used to identify any individual patterns of use of the site.

Page tagging

We use JavaScript to aggregate and analyse customer usage patterns on the Shelter website domain. This provides us with data on your usability and behaviour. We use this information to make changes to the layout of the website and to the information in it. This does not collect any personal or identifiable information about users.

Maintaining your privacy

Some of the information on our website relates to sensitive issues. If you would like to remove details of the pages you have viewed on our site from your computer, you can clear your browsing history. To do this, choose ‘tools’ from the top navigation bar on your browser, select ‘internet options’, and click on ‘clear history’. Alternatively, refer to the instructions for your browser in the ‘help’ menu.

Storing your information

Personal information you submit on the Shelter website is stored on secure servers. Occasionally, in order to complete your request as outlined above, we may need to transfer personal information you submit to us to countries or jurisdictions outside the EEA which do not provide the same level of data protection. In such instances, we will ensure that a contract is put in place to make sure your details are protected. We will never sell or share your personal information with any other organisation besides Shelter, or Shelter Trading Limited.

External sites

The Shelter website contains links to external sites not owned or managed by us. We cannot be held responsible for the content or for the privacy of any external sites.

Changing your details

If your personal details change, please help keep our records up-to-date by contacting our Supporter Helpdesk on 0845 458 4590, or by emailing (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Accessing your information

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. We may charge you a small fee for this. To request a copy, please contact our Supporter Helpdesk on 0845 458 4590, or use the contact form.