We respect our website visitors and understand that you are concerned about privacy. Therefore St. Peters Syriac Orthodox Cathedral (collectively, “we,” “our,” or “us”) have instituted policies intended to ensure that your personal information is handled securely and responsibly. We have posted this Privacy Policy to let you know what kind of information we collect, how it is handled, and with whom it may be shared.
This Privacy Policy may change as we continue to develop our websites, applications, and online services or programs, so we encourage you to refer to this Privacy Policy on an ongoing basis, so that you understand our current Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us at privacy@saintpeterscathedral.org.
1. Who we are
We are St. Peters Syriac Orthodox Cathedral, and we exist to lift up the name of Jesus. Read about our History, Mission statement here. Our website address is www.saintpeterscathedral.org.
2. What personal data we collect and why we collect it
With your consent, we may collect the following information from a variety of sources, including filling in an online form on the website (our website cannot collect this information without your knowledge and consent), providing your details over the phone or in an email to any of the staff team, by filling in a paper contact card at church, by signing up to an event, through face to face meetings with one of our team, making an online donation or a purchase from our online shop:
- Your name
- Your date of birth
- Contact information including email address
- Your child/children’s name(s), date of birth and contact information
- Financial information
- Anonymous requests
We require this information to understand your needs, provide you with a better service and in particular for the following reasons:
- Internal record keeping
- We may use the information to improve our products and services
- Financial services, including the administering of Gift Aid
We may periodically send promotional emails about events or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided. St. Peters Syriac Orthodox Cathedral may collect and store special category data such as health information and religious information relating to pastoral support activities or attend courses, which fulfill the legitimate interests of St. Peters Syriac Orthodox Cathedral as a religious organization. We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.
3. Financial Data
All financial payments and records are held in accordance with The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (“PCI DSS”). All credit/debit card donations or payments made online or by phone, are made securely through third party service providers and payment gateways, which comply with the PCI DSS. Your card details are not recorded and stored on our systems. We do not store your financial details (credit or debit card numbers) obtained through online transactions nor do we pass any information to third parties, except where we are legally required to do so, to assist fraud reduction, or to provide a service requested and minimize credit risks.
4. How we keep your information safe
All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers or on secure servers operated by a third party eg BlueHost, MailChimp. The database is accessed through the cloud and therefore, can be accessed through any computer or smart device with internet access. The server for the database is in the US and hosted by BlueHost. Access to the database is strictly controlled through the use of name specific passwords, which are selected by the individual. Those authorized to use the database only have access to their specific area of use within it. This is controlled by the Data Controller and other specified Administrators and these are the only people who can access and set these security parameters. People who will have secure and authorized access to the database include Church Staff, Church Board and Ministry Team Leaders. Personal information will not be passed onto any third parties outside of the church environment. We do not sell or pass any of your personal information to any other organizations and/or individuals without your express consent, with the following exception: by providing us with your details you are giving us your express permission to transfer your data to service providers, to enable fulfillment of the purpose for collection.
5. Website comments & images
When visitors leave comments on our website we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF / GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
6. Cookies
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. The file is added and the cookie helps analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Our website does not use or set any cookies directly with the exception of those required for the basic functionality of the website. If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
7. Embedded content from other websites
Articles on our website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. If you follow a link to another website, these websites will have their own privacy policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question as we cannot accept responsibility for any other website.
8. How long we retain your data
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Where information is no longer required we will ensure that it is disposed of securely. If you leave a comment on our website, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
9. What third parties we receive data from
We use third party elements within our website, which include (but are not limited to) Google Analytics (for providing us with anonymous statistics on the visitors to our site).
10. What rights you have over your data
You have the right to access information that we hold about you. If you wish to receive a copy of the information that we hold about you please write to us at the address below. St. Peters Syriac Orthodox Cathedral aims to comply with requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible, and will ensure that it is provided within 30 days of receipt of a request unless there is good reason for delay. In such cases, the reason for delay will be explained in writing to the individual making the request. You can ask us at any time to change, amend or delete the information that we hold about you or ask us not to contact you with any further information. You can also ask us to restrict the information that we process about you. Unless we are required by law to retain certain information, we will comply with your request within 30 days. You can use the checkboxes on the forms we use to collect your information or you can also request that we change, amend, delete your information or restrict our processing by emailing or writing to us. Please write to us or email us at the addresses below if you wish to receive a copy of the information we hold on you, or if you wish your data to be erased.
11. Contact Us
Please address all correspondence regarding your privacy and data to: The Vicar, St. Peters Syriac Orthodox Cathedral, 9946 Haldeman Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19115 Or email us at: privacy@saintpeterscathedral.org