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Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 3 July, 2026

Welcome to SOK: Shetland’s Organisation for Knitters (“we”, “our”, or “us”). We are a community-rooted Scottish charity dedicated to preserving and protecting Shetland’s living knitting heritage, including Fair Isle knitting, Shetland lace, and domestic machine knitting.

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and look after your personal information when you interact with us—whether you are a local knitter, tutor, volunteer, donor, event attendee, or a visitor to our website and online experiences.

1. Important Information and Who We Are

Data Controller

SOK: Shetland’s Organisation for Knitters is the data controller and is responsible for your personal data.

  • Charity Name: SOK: Shetland’s Organisation for Knitters
  • Scottish Registered Charity Number: SC054469
  • Registered Address: Da Peerie Haa, Scousburgh, Shetland ZE2 9JE

Contact Details

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:

  • Email Address: sok@sokshetland.org
  • Postal Address: Lerwick, Shetland Isles, Scotland, UK

2. The Data We Collect About You

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity Data: Includes first name, last name, username, or similar identifier.
  • Contact Data: Includes email address, telephone numbers, and billing/delivery address (for workshops, training, or physical materials).
  • Financial Data: Includes payment card details if you buy a ticket for a workshop, make a donation, or book training. (Note: We use secure third-party payment processors and do not store your full card details).
  • Heritage & Project Data: If you participate in our oral history recordings, research, or skills-sharing archives, this may include your biographical details, memories, photographs, or audio/video recordings of your knitting skills and stories.
  • Technical & Usage Data: Includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, time zone setting, operating system, and how you use our website or online experiences.
  • Marketing and Communications Data: Includes your preferences in receiving updates about our events, talks, workshops, and newsletters.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:

  • Direct Interactions: You may give us your Identity, Contact, and Financial Data by filling in forms on our website, signing up for workshops/events, subscribing to our newsletter, making a donation, or contacting us directly.
  • Community Heritage Projects: You may provide us with historical information, recordings, or oral histories when participating in our core mission to record the skills and knowledge of local knitters.
  • Automated Technologies: As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment and browsing patterns via cookies.

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • To fulfill our charitable objectives: Such as organizing occupational training, managing workshops, hosting local events, and maintaining accurate records of Shetland's knitting heritage.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests: For example, running our charity effectively, updating our records, improving our online experiences, and ensuring public understanding of Shetland's knitting traditions is accurate.
  • With your explicit consent: For example, sending you marketing emails, or recording your stories and image for archival, exhibition, or educational purposes.

5. Sharing Your Personal Data

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your personal data with trusted third parties only to help us run our charity and deliver our services:

  • Service Providers: IT support, website hosting, and secure payment processing platforms.
  • Public Heritage Archives: Where you have given explicit consent, your recorded stories, knowledge, and knitting histories may be shared publicly through our website, local events, or exhibitions to fulfill our charitable purpose.
  • Legal Authorities: If required to do so by law (e.g., reporting Gift Aid to HMRC).

6. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed in an unauthorized way. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those trustees, employees, volunteers, and contractors who have a business need to know.

7. Data Retention

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.

For historical, archival, and research data collected as part of our mission to preserve Shetland’s living knitting heritage, data may be retained indefinitely in the public interest, subject to your ongoing rights and any explicit agreements made at the time of collection.

8. Your Legal Rights

Under UK data protection laws (UK GDPR / Data Protection Act 2018), you have rights in relation to your personal data, including the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data.
  • Request correction of inaccurate data.
  • Request erasure of your personal data (the "right to be forgotten").
  • Object to processing or request restriction of processing.
  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your data.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the details provided in Section 1.

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us first.

9. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We keep our Privacy Policy under regular review to ensure it accurately reflects how we handle your data. Any updates will be posted on this page.