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GDPR - it's boring, but it matters

GDPR - it's boring, but it matters

Dan Hough14 May 2018 - 09:37
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https://www.twickenhamcc.net/n

New data protection laws come in on 25 May.

Data protection is a big deal. We take it seriously, and we encourage our members to do so, too
- Dan Hough (Club Secretary)

Data protection isn't normally an issue that gets cricket players (or indeed anyone else) out of bed in the morning, but given that new legislation comes in to force on this on 25 May we at Twickenham Cricket Club have to take it seriously. And we do. Hence a little update to advise you (TCC members) of what measures we take to protect your data and what we do (and don't) do with it.

What is GDPR?
For many people, data means numbers. For Nihal Tomar, for example, it means cricket stats! As many of them as possible, too. But data in this context means more than that; it is any information that the club holds on you (date of birth, email address, postal address and so on).

A piece of legislation called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (2016/679, seeing as you ask) was passed in to EU law in 2017. Given that the UK is in the EU (let's not get on to Brexit, ok ... ) this applies to all organisations (including sports clubs) active across the 28 members states. We subsequently have to show that we protect your data and indeed your privacy.

As this helpful blog shows, amongst other things Twickenham CC now needs to do the following things.

- ensure your data is truly secure
- is viewed only by those who really need to view it
- is accurate and up to date
- is available to be seen by its owner on request
- is not shared with 3rd Parties unnecessarily
- is easily amended if incorrect

There are also a whole raft of rules on who can view the data (only club officers and those with a specific reason for needing to see it) and what needs to be done if a data breach is suspected. As secretary, it's my job to keep abreast of all that sort of stuff. Rock'n'roll it may not be, but I am on the case. Should you have any issues with this, then please do just drop me a line.

What we do with your data
TCC will not share your data with any third parties. If sponsors, for example, want to get in touch with our members, they have to do so through TCC's official communications channels. We oversee this, they provide us with the information to be distributed.

We do not let anyone view our members' database. We have two distinct ways of holding your data. We use Pitchero to host our website and Play Cricket to keep in line with the way national cricket in this country is organised. We strongly encourage all players to register with both Pitchero and Play Cricket. You only need to do this once.

Only those with administrators' rights to Pitchero and Play Cricket can access your personal information. Club officers are permitted to use the pitchero database to email members; we strongly discourage members from taking it upon themselves to use previous email lists that were created in the pre-GDPR era. On the one hand they will simply be out of date and on the other that is not compliant with the law.

When we register players to play league cricket we do indeed provide those leagues with contact details. The leagues are under the same data obligations as we are. You'll notice that the MCCL, for example, doesn't publish any data (see here) other than the name of the registered player. They, too, take their data obligations very seriously.

Our Allstars cricketers, our junior cricketers and our Ladies section have their data stored electronically. Again, this information is not formally available and only those with official roles in those sections can use it. If you've any question about the details of this, do just say the word.

Moving Forward
The new law requires clubs to do quite a lot (and to show that they are doing quite a lot). There are a lot of moving parts. Do subsequently let me know if anything is unclear.

The one thing that we ask of you is that you keep your personal information on Pitchero and Play Cricket up to date. I assume your dates of birth won't be changing (!), but if you move house or change email address then do update your profile.

In the meantime, play a straight bat and never forget that the leave alone is a genuine cricket shot. Go well, folks.

Further reading