Last updated 22 October 2026.
This notice explains how Pelham Lodge No. 1303 looks after personal information collected through this website. We have written it in plain English. If anything is unclear, ask us using the contact page.
Who is responsible for your data
Pelham Lodge No. 1303, acting through its Secretary, is the "data controller" for the information described here. That means we decide why and how it is used. The website platform is provided and hosted by Hanoto Technology, which acts as our "data processor". Hanoto Technology only handles personal information on our instructions and under a written agreement.
What we collect and why
If you use the contact or join form. Your name, email address, the message you write and, if you choose to give it, your phone number. We use these to reply to you and to deal with your enquiry. We also keep a one-way scrambled form of your internet address, which is used only to stop automated spam. It cannot be turned back into your address. Our legal basis is legitimate interests (answering people who write to us), and, if you ask to join, taking steps at your request before membership.
If you are a member. Members' areas hold the details a lodge needs to run: name, contact details, membership dates and offices, dining preferences, subscription and payment records, and an emergency contact if you gave one. Our legal bases are the membership relationship (contract), legitimate interests in running the lodge, and legal obligations such as financial record keeping. Members' details are available only to the lodge officers who need them and are never published on this website.
Membership is treated as sensitive. Belonging to Freemasonry can reveal a philosophical belief. We therefore treat every membership record with extra care, we do not share it outside the lodge, the Province and the United Grand Lodge of England except where the law requires, and we limit access to those who need it.
If you sign in, book dining or pay. We record the sign-in, the booking and the payment outcome. Card details are entered on the payment provider's own page and are never stored by us. If we text you a sign-in or booking code, we keep a short log of the message sent.
Emails and texts. We send service messages such as summonses, booking confirmations and sign-in links. We do not send marketing to people who have only used the contact form.
Cookies
This website uses one essential cookie, which keeps you signed in and protects forms against forgery. It is removed when you close your browser. We do not use advertising, tracking or analytics cookies, and the pages do not load scripts from advertising or analytics companies, so there is no cookie banner to dismiss.
Who we share information with
We do not sell personal information. We share it only with the services needed to run the website and the lodge:
- Hanoto Technology, who host the website and database.
- Microsoft, whose email service sends our messages.
- Twilio, which delivers text messages.
- Stripe or PayPal, when a member pays online.
- Provincial Grand Lodge of Sussex and the United Grand Lodge of England, for membership records the lodge is required to keep with them.
Where a provider processes data outside the UK, it does so under the safeguards the law requires, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.
How long we keep it
- Contact and join enquiries: no longer than 12 months after we last wrote to you, unless you go on to join.
- Member records: while you are a member, then only the minimum we need for lodge history and the law.
- Financial records: for the period the law requires, currently six years.
- Sign-in, text and email logs: no longer than 12 months.
You can ask us to delete your information sooner, and we will unless we must keep it by law.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you can ask us to:
- tell you what we hold about you and give you a copy;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- erase your information;
- restrict or stop how we use it;
- give you your information in a portable format;
- stop using it where we rely on legitimate interests.
Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. To use any of these rights, write to us through the contact page. We will reply within one month and will not charge for a normal request. We may need to confirm who you are first.
Keeping it safe
The website is served over an encrypted connection, passwords and secrets are stored securely, members' pages need a sign-in, and access is limited to the people who need it. If we ever suffer a breach that puts your rights at risk, we will tell you and the Information Commissioner's Office as the law requires.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes
We will update this page if what we do changes, and the date at the top will change with it.