The Jane Austen Society is committed to respecting your privacy. This notice explains how we use any personal information we collect about you and your rights in relation to it. Please read it carefully.
Who we are
We are: the Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom. Our website address: https://janeaustensociety.org.uk
Registered address: 20 Parsonage Road, Henfield BN5 9JG
Charity number: 1200422
Data Protection Officer: Fiona Riley, email membership@jasoc.org.uk
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Cookies
Our website, like most, uses cookies. You can manage or withdraw consent for their use via the Cookie Notice bar or via our Cookie Policy page. If you prevent their use, you will not be able to use all the functionality of our website. We provide more information about the cookies we use in our Cookie Policy page.
Media
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.
Embedded content from other websites
Pages on this site 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.
We use LinkedIn, Instagram and FaceBook feed plugins to display social media content on our website. As a result, our website makes requests to these service providers’ servers in order to display posts, images and videos.
LinkedIn’s privacy policy: linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
Instagram data policy: https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
Facebook data policy: https://en-gb.facebook.com/policy.php
We may also embed video content from Vimeo and YouTube: Vimeo privacy policy: vimeo.com/privacy YouTube (Google) privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy.
The website uses web fonts provided by Google but these are hosted locally so no personal data is collected by Google’s content delivery network.
Security measures
Some data (including username, IP address, hostname, location) is temporarily stored in security logs on the server and database, and may be sent via email to alert the website administrator of critical problems or suspicious activities on the site.
To secure our website, we use the Wordfence and SiteGround Security Optimizer plugins.
The Wordfence Security plugin, provided by Defiant, Inc., protects against malicious attacks, brute force attempts, and malware. In doing so, Wordfence may process personal data, including IP addresses, login attempt information, and browser data, for the purpose of securing our site. This processing is based on our legitimate interest in maintaining a secure online environment (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)). Wordfence may transfer this information to servers in the USA, adhering to standard contractual clauses to ensure data protection. Data is retained only as long as necessary to identify and mitigate threats.
SiteGround Security Optimizer may collect technical data, including IP addresses, in order to identify malicious attacks and prevent unauthorized logins. These security logs are stored for 8 days. For more information on how SiteGround processes this data, please visit their Plugins Privacy Notice.
Who we share your data with
Except as set out here, we do not share, or sell, or disclose to a third party, any information collected through our website.
How long we retain your data
For members registered on our website, we store the personal information they provide in their user profile for 10 years, as prescribed by the CIO Regulations (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3012/contents/made). All users can see, edit, or delete their own personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). The membership team and the VeryConnect administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you are a member registered on this site, or have left comments, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we correct personal data we hold about you, or that we erase it, subject to any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
The website is hosted at SiteGround in datacentres located in London (UK), and backed up in Eemshaven (NL). It is protected by 256-bit encryption. SSL certificate provided by Let’s Encrypt from the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).
The membership database is hosted by VeryConnect, whose privacy policy is here: https://veryconnect.com/privacy-policy/ and who have access to the site and its data. Siteground security details: siteground.com/datacenters/ Let’s Encrypt privacy policy: letsencrypt.org/privacy/
Emails sent to Jane Austen Society membership team from website forms reside in the data centres of IONOS, which adhere to GDPR: ionos.co.uk/terms-gtc/privacy-policy/
Website administrator emails reside in the data centres of Zoho.com, which adhere to GDPR: www.zoho.com/mail/help/zoho-mail-gdpr-compliance.html
Website database backups are encrypted and stored at Amazon S3 – server located in London – and at Microsoft’s OnDrive – data centres located in GB – for up to 1 year. AWS data privacy statements: aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy/ Microsoft’s privacy commitment: microsoft.com/en-gb/trust-center/privacy
Contact information
If you have any privacy-specific concerns, please contact us.
Additional information
How we protect your data
We have various measures in place to protect the website from malicious attack, including firewall protection, malware scanning, bot/spam blocking and encryption.
What data breach procedures we have in place
The website has internal reporting systems and contact mechanisms to alert us to any malicious activity on the site.
Last updated: 14-Aug-2026
