Privacy Statement

St Thomas Anglican Church (“the Church”) uses personal data about living individuals for the purpose of general church administration and communication.

The Church recognizes the importance of the correct and lawful treatment of personal data. All personal data, whether it is held on paper, on computer or other media, will be subject to the appropriate legal safeguards.

The Church adheres to strict biblical principles, enumerated below, in order to protect individuals from abuse and preventable risk. We adhere to these principles in relation to obtaining, handling, processing, transportation and storage of personal data. Employees and any others who obtain, handle, process, transport and store personal data for the Church must adhere to these principles.

Principle 1. Accountability

All of the Church’s staff are accountable for compliance with this policy, including the guiding principles.

Principle 2. Identifying purposes

The Church only collects personal information necessary to communicate with our members, attendees and prospective attendees.

Principle 3. Consent

All members, attendees and prospective attendees have the ability to consent to the use of their personal information.

Principle 4. Limiting collection

The Church’s website is available without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself, including your email address.

Like any other website, our web server may collect the name, address, IP address and domain you used to access the website, the type and version of web browser and operating system you are using, and the number/duration/frequency of visits to our website. This anonymous information cannot be traced to a specific individual user, but is used simply to measure the number of visits, average time spent, page views, most popular preferences and other statistics, to determine the ways in which users prefer to use the website. We may use this data to monitor the website's performance for systems administration purposes, to improve the website, and to track statistics such as web traffic in aggregate form. In cases where the collection of personal information is necessary (i.e. filling out a form, requesting more information or contacting us), we will explain the purpose for collecting each piece of personal information. If it is necessary to use the personal information collected for a purpose not identified when the information was collected, consent for the new use will be obtained.

Principle 5. Limiting use, disclosure and retention

The Church will use personal information only for the purpose for which it was collected, and will not disclose the information to other parties.

All personal information provided to the Church will be maintained in a secure manner to ensure that its use is limited to the purpose for which it was collected.

Principle 6. Accuracy

The Church will take all reasonable measures to ensure accuracy of any personal information that we collect.

Principle 7. Safeguards

The Church will assess and implement appropriate measures to properly protect personal data. These measures will be subject to independent audit, if necessary, to ensure their effectiveness.

Principle 8. Openness

This Privacy Statement will be available to any individual via our website. Questions regarding personal information may be directed to admin@stthomasac.org.

Principle 9. Individual access

On request, individuals will be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of their personal information, and will be given access to view that information. An individual may challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information, and have it corrected or amended as appropriate.

Principle 10. Challenging compliance

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with the Church, contact admin@stthomasac.org or phone ‭703.754.9673‬.