Lighthouse: Privacy Policy
The Purpose Of Our Privacy Policy
We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold about you, how we process your data and your rights to amend or delete this information.
The purpose of this policy is to give you a clear explanation about how and why we collect and use the information that we obtain from you directly, and from third parties.
We use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information. This policy explains:
- What information we may collect about you.
- How we may use that information.
- In what situations we may disclose your details to third parties.
- Our use of cookies to improve your use of our website.
- Information about how we keep your personal information secure, how we maintain it and your rights to be able to access it.
- Your rights to amend your information or to be deleted from our system.
If you have any queries about this policy or wish your data to be amended or deleted from our system, please contact John Baker, Data Controller, by emailing dpm@lighthousepoole.co.uk or if you prefer by post, at Lighthouse, 21 Kingland Road, Poole. Dorset BH15 1UG.
Who We Are
Poole Arts Trust Limited is the charity which runs Lighthouse, an arts centre that is located in Poole, Dorset.
We are funded by Arts Council England, BCP Council, as well as various trusts, foundations and individual donors and supporters.
Our registered charity number in England and Wales is 275961 and we are also registered as a company in England and Wales under registration number 1368325.
Lighthouse also has a commercial trading company called Poole Arts Trading Limited, which is registered as a company under registration number 1368368.
When this privacy policy refers to Lighthouse as an organisation, it is referring to both Poole Arts Trust Limited and Poole Arts Trading Limited, unless otherwise indicated.
Information Collection
We collect various types of information on our customers in a number of different ways:
Information that you give us:
When you register on our website, buy tickets, join our membership schemes or make a donation, we will store the personal information you give us, including; your name, email address, postal address, telephone number, date of birth and debit / credit card details.
We will also store a record of the purchases that you have made with us, membership schemes that you have joined and donations that you have made.
Card details are collected securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). You can find out more information on this standard here: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security/
Information about your interactions with us:
We collect information about how you interact with us when you visit our website or read our emails. This allows us to make our communications relevant to you and to understand how we can make them more effective.
When we send you a mailing, we store a record of this, and in the case of emails we keep a record of which ones you have opened and which links you have clicked on. This helps us to make sure that our communications with you are relevant and effective.
Sensitive Personal Data
Data Protection law recognises that certain categories of personal information are more sensitive such as health information, race, religious beliefs and political opinions.
We do not usually collect this type of information about our patrons unless there is a clear reason for doing so.
Instances when we collect and store information of this type include:
- Access performances: where customers wishing to book wheelchair seats and access performances online (such as signed and audio described performances) can choose to register themselves as having a particular access need. This allows our Box Office system to unlock reserved seats in the appropriate areas of the auditorium. However, if a customer does not wish to register their access requirements in this way, they can book their tickets with our Box Office team, by phone or in-person.
- Creative Engagement participation classes: we collect relevant health and access information from participants taking part in our creative classes. This information allows our workshop leaders and creative team to make any reasonable or necessary adjustments to creative classes for the individual. This information is stored securely and is only available to relevant staff.
The Lawful Bases For Processing Your Data
There are three bases under which we may process your data:
1) Contract Purposes
When you make a purchase from us or donate to us, you are entering into a contract with us. To perform this contract, we need to process and store your data.
2) Consent
When we ask for your specific consent to use your data in a clearly defined way, often through an opt-in that you need to click and agree to, before we process your data.
3) Legitimate Interest
In certain situations, we collect and process your personal information for purposes that are in our legitimate organisational interests. However, we only do this if there is no overriding prejudice to you by using your personal information this way. We describe below situations where we may use this basis for processing.
How Lighthouse Uses Those Lawful Bases For Processing Your Data
1) Contract Purposes
a) Your Purchases & Donations
When you make a purchase from us or donate to us, you are entering into a contract with Lighthouse. To perform this contract, we need to process and store your data. We may occasionally need to contact you by email, letter or telephone about your purchase with us, such as in the case of a cancelled show, or should there be a problem with your payment.
If you are donating to Lighthouse by Direct Debit, we will process your payments using a third-party solution called Access Paysuite.
b) Joining Our Memberships Schemes
When you join a Lighthouse membership scheme, we will contact you by email, letter or telephone with information regarding your membership, including (but not exclusive to) updates on membership benefits such as priority booking on new shows, special discounts and offers, exclusive Friends events and information on how your membership is helping to support Lighthouse’s charitable work.
This enables Lighthouse to perform its contract with its members, providing the benefits that were promised to you when you joined.
You have the right to object to any of this processing at any time. If you wish to object, please use the contact details provided at the end of this policy. However, if you object, this may affect our ability to carry out tasks that are for your benefit.
c) Taking Part In Our Creative Engagement Programme
For adults taking part in Lighthouse’s engagement programme, we contact participants with a request for relevant information that enables them to participate, which may include relevant medical information.
For young people taking part in Lighthouse’s engagement programme, we contact their parents and/or carers, with a request for relevant information that enables them to participate, which may include relevant medical information.
We may ask you for, and store, your consent to appear in photographs and videos taken of Creative Engagement activity.
We will record, and store records of, your attendance at Creative Engagement sessions.
d) Access Requirements
If you have an access need, we ask that you inform Lighthouse of your requirements, so that we can ensure that you can access the seating or wheelchair spaces that are most suitable for you. This information can be provided by the customer via our online booking system Spektrix, or given to a member of our team in-person or over the phone.
If a customer requires a seat for a carer to accompany them on their visit to Lighthouse, we ask that customers provide documents to evidence their need.
All information on customers access needs are stored securely on our Spektrix box office system and can be accessed, amended or deleted by our customers at any time. This information may be shared between operational departments to ensure that we deliver the service that is required.
If you are borrowing a headset, for use during audio described performances, we will ask you to supply your name and contact details for the duration of the loan.
e) Restaurant & Catering Bookings
If you are booking a meal at The Artful Salt Pig restaurant, you can do this when you are booking your tickets from our website, where we will use our Box Office system Spektrix to process your booking.
Our restaurant is operated by an independent company called Salt Pig. To help facilitate your booking we will share only your name and any dietary requirements that you have informed us of for that booking.
For any other catering provided by Lighthouse, we will ask you if you have any dietary requirements, so to ensure that we can provide food that is suitable for you and our operational and catering teams can fulfil your booking requirements.
This information may be shared between operational Lighthouse departments to ensure that we deliver the service that is required, as will any details of upsells that you have bought in advance, such as drink packages and merchandise.
This information that you give us will be stored on our Box Office system, Spektrix.
f) Business Partnerships, Room Hire & Sponsorship
If a business or organisation enters into a contract with Lighthouse for activities such as sponsorship, room hire or business club membership, we will use their data to contact them for the purposes of fulfilling our contract with them. We will also store their financial information on our accounting system to enable payment and keep relevant financial records.
g) Visiting Companies & Artists
When companies and artists are contracted to perform at Lighthouse, we store their contact details and contract on our Artifax software system. We may subsequently contact these artists and companies about future opportunities to perform at Lighthouse.
When producing productions or Creative Engagement projects in-house, Lighthouse processes information and personal data on those performers and creative professionals involved. This information is required to contract these individuals and pay them.
Name and contact details may also be shared amongst other members of the company for use on company contact lists and permission will be asked to do this.
h) Companies & Contractors Providing Goods & Services For Lighthouse
We process the information of suppliers and contractors who provide us with services. These can be individuals at companies or personal details for sole traders. This information is held in our finance system SAGE and is kept for seven years, in keeping with financial regulation.
2) Consent
Where contract purposes are not appropriate as a lawful basis for the processing of your data, we will ask for your consent before using your personal information in that specific situation.
Situations when we ask for your active opt-in consent to process your data, or contact you, include:
a) Email & Postal Mailings About Future Lighthouse Event
Contacting you by email and/or by post about forthcoming events at Lighthouse, when you have consented for us to do so.
We aim to communicate with you about the work that we do in ways that you find relevant, timely and respectful. To do this, we use data that we have stored about you, such as information on which events you have booked for in the past, as well as any preferences you may have told us about.
b) Season Brochure Mailings
Sending our season brochures to you by post, approximately three times a year, when you have consented for us to do so.
c) Sharing Your Data With Another Organisation
We may ask you if you would like your data to be shared with other performing arts companies or resident organisations (such as the BSO). We only do this if you give us your active consent and this can be withdrawn at any time.
d) Fundraising Communications
For communications about our fundraising, we use a soft opt-in for consent for those customers who have joined our Friends membership scheme, meaning that we will contact members with information about our charitable work and campaigns to support it, unless you opt out and ask us not to do so. When people join our Friends scheme, we explain to them that as well as getting benefits such as priority booking and discounts, they are also helping to support the charitable work that they do.
This approach is in keeping with new legislation that was detailed in the Data Use and Access Act 2026. It will apply to customers who have joined as Lighthouse Friends, on, or after, 5 February 2026 (when this act began)
3) Legitimate Organisational Interest
In certain situations, we may collect and process your personal information for purposes under the lawful basis of Legitimate Organisational Interest.
However, we only do this if there is no overriding prejudice to you caused by Lighthouse through using your personal information in this way. In these cases, we will always keep your fundamental rights and freedoms at the forefront of what we do.
For all processing that takes place under the basis of Legitimate Organisational Interest, a Legitimate Organisational Interest Assessment process is undertaken, which is available on request.
You also have the right to object to and opt out of any of this processing at any time. If you wish to do this, please use the contact details at the end of this policy.
We use Legitimate Organisational Interest, for the following:
a) Targeting Communications
Under Legitimate Interest we may use your data in the following additional ways, if you have consented to receive information from us:
- To contact you about our Friends membership scheme by post and email, under the basis that this is of Legitimate Interest and that it is of benefit to our customers, as a means to get better value from their visits with discounts and priority booking and to support our charitable work in the community.
- If you are a past group booker, such as a school or a social group or organisation, we may contact you by phone to let you know about forthcoming events and activities. We will check your details against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
You can ask us not to undertake these communications at any time, by emailing us using the contact details below or by talking to a member of our Box Office team. However, we may still contact you by email for matters relating to your purchases (such as in the event of a cancelled performance or a problem with your payment).
b) Marketing Using Social Media
We use social media marketing to provide our customers with relevant, helpful and timely information via the social channels that they use, which we do so under the basis of Legitimate Organisational Interest.
To do this, we may securely share your email address with Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram (Meta) to check whether you have an account with them and, where a match is made, then include you in an audience on those platforms for our Lighthouse advertising and information.
We will then display relevant advertising to you on said platforms, or via other third-party advertising that may appear on other websites that you use.
We only do this if you have consented to receive email information from us.
You can opt-out at any time by emailing dpm@lighthousepoole.co.uk or by contacting our Ticket Sales Office. Opting out will not affect your email marketing preferences. Opting out of this data processing action will not affect your email marketing preferences.
You may also see adverts from us on social media that are tailored to your interests, depending on your settings or the privacy policies of social media and messaging services such as (but not exclusive to) Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services such as (but not exclusive to) Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, you may give us permission to access information from those accounts or services.
c) Marketing Databases
To ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy Lighthouse and the benefits of the events and activities that it has to offer, we collate lists of schools and social groups and organisations from publicly available sources for the purpose of sharing information about future events and activities.
We use Legitimate Organisational Interest as the basis to communicate with these organisations, by email, post or phone. We normally used generalised information for this purpose and will not normally contact a named individual.
You can ask us not to send these communications at any time, by emailing us using the contact details below or by talking to a member of our Box Office team.
d) Fundraising & Development
If you have donated to Lighthouse in the past, we may contact you by email, post or phone to let you know about the impact that your donation is having – as well as sharing relevant information on Lighthouse Friends membership schemes, fundraising campaigns to support the Lighthouse’s charitable activities in the community and general news about Lighthouse. If you do not wish to be contacted in this way, you can inform us by using the contact details below.
We may contact individuals and organisations by email or by post, who are not on our database, to make introductions and ask for people to become involved in and support Lighthouse and its charitable work, or to benefit from our partnerships with business. This information is researched from publicly available sources. Anyone whom we contact can request that they are not contacted on the future by using the contact details below.
When meeting with individuals about fundraising support and donations, we may store notes of our conversation on our CRM system, Spektrix.
e) Analysis Of Our Communications & Our Website
We are a charity and as such it is important to us that we use our marketing resources in ways that are as effective as possible.
We may analyse data that we hold about you (such as past ticket purchase history) to help us ensure that the content and timing of communications that we send you by post or email are as relevant to you as possible.
To help us understand and improve the effectiveness of our marketing, we undertake analysis of the marketing communications that we send you, such as email open rates and purchases made following our communications to you.
In order to improve our website, we may analyse information about how you use it and how you interact with the show pages and content that it contains – using tools such as Google Analytics.
f) Customer Research & Profiling
To allow us to understand more about who we attract to our events and activities we may undertake data analysis and profiling of our customer database. This provides us with generalised information on our audiences, helping us to understand the geographic and demographic trends of the people who participate in what we do.
Profiling helps Lighthouse to understand which segments of our audience database should be targeted with information about a particular show or service offered by us. We may also use this information to identify individuals who are likely to be interested in donating to Lighthouse and supporting its charitable work, so to ensure that any approach we make is relevant and likely to be of interest to the individual.
This allows Lighthouse’s marketing to be more effective at giving the right information to the most relevant customers, at the right time.
Profiling is undertaken for Lighthouse by third party organisations, including The Audience Agency and Purple Seven. This process involves Lighthouse securely sharing its customer data with these organisations who then provide Lighthouse with information on generalised audience trends.
Lighthouse also uses Audience Agency’s services to tag our customers with a demographic segment, using nationally available data that is commonly used by cultural organisations.
We may use profiling techniques or third-party wealth screening and insight companies to provide us with information about you that will help us to communicate in a relevant way with you when we are approaching you about potential philanthropic support. This information is compiled using publicly available information.
You have the right to object to this processing at any time. If you wish to object, please use the contact details provided at the end of this policy.
g) Customer Surveys
To enable Lighthouse to understand what customers think about the quality of the service that it provides to them, we send daily surveys to customers who have attended our events. We then use the results of these surveys to identify the changes that we need to make to our customer service, so that we can improve the overall customer experience that we offer.
These surveys are undertaken and processed by a third-party organisation, Purple Seven. This process involves Lighthouse securely sharing its data with this organisation. These surveys may include questions about gender, disability, occupation, ethnicity and age. This information is only used for anonymised and statistical purposes, allowing us to understand which audiences we do, and do not, attract. You are not required to supply this information and it is entirely optional as to whether you choose to do so.
Lighthouse may also send surveys to customers, via software systems that include SurveyMonkey and Microsoft Forms, to help us to understand the quality of the service that it provides in other areas of its operation, such as The Artful Salt Pig restaurant, membership schemes and creative classes.
Lighthouse may also send surveys to its customers on behalf of other arts organisations who perform at the venue. In these circumstances, no customer data is shared with the external organisation and the results of the surveys are anonymised and used for statistical purposes, unless customers choose to provide supporting quotes.
If you would prefer not to be contacted about surveys, please inform us by using the contact details provided below.
h) Visiting Companies, Community Groups & Artists
We collate contact information on relevant artists, performing arts companies and community groups for the purpose of letting them know about opportunities to collaborate with, or perform at, Lighthouse.
We may do this for companies that have performed at Lighthouse in the past or with companies and performers who are new to us.
i) Invitations to special events and media nights
To ensure that as many people as possible are aware of Lighthouse’s shows and charitable activities, we collate lists of relevant people from publicly available sources, for the purpose of inviting them to free VIP receptions, media guest nights and gala events.
We use Legitimate Organisational Interest as the basis to communicate with these organisations, by email or by post.
We include information on how to opt out of future communications with each invitation that we send and if you would prefer not to be contacted in this way, please inform us by using the contact details provided below.
Third Parties
There are certain circumstances under which we may disclose your personal information to third parties. These are as follows:
a) To our own service providers who process data on our behalf and on our instructions (for example our ticketing system software provider). In these cases, we require that these third parties comply strictly with our instructions and with data protection laws, for example around security of personal data.
b) To specific and named visiting theatre companies or event organisers whose performances or events you have attended, such as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO). In these cases, we will always ask for your explicit consent before sharing your data and we also require that these third parties comply strictly with our instructions and with relevant data protection laws, for example around the security of personal data.
c) Where we are under a duty to disclose your personal information to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies).
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s device, such as a computer, phone, or tablet. Cookies allow businesses to identify individual users and store certain information about them, such as login details or preferences.
Cookies are also used to allow a website to function (for example to keep track of your basket) as well as to provide website operators with information on how well our site is operating and being used.
We use cookies to keep track of your basket as well as to identify how the website is being used and what improvements we can make.
Cookies help to improve your visit to our website by helping with the following:
- Remembering settings, so that you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page.
- Remembering information, you’ve given us (e.g. your postcode) so you don’t need to keep entering it.
- Measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs.
When you visit our website, we will provide you with a list of cookies that we use and you are able to choose to give your consent to our use of them during your visit to our website.
The different types of cookies that we use are:
– Necessary (To enable the basic functions of the website to function)
– Functional (To perform certain functions such as collecting feedback)
– Analytics (To understand how visitors interact with the website)
– Performance (To understand how well the website is functioning through KPIs)
– Advertisement (To provide visitors with customised advertisements based on pages that customers have visited.
Your Debit & Credit Card Information
If you use your credit or debit card to purchase from us or to donate, we will ensure that this is carried out securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS). You can find out more information on this standard here: https:/ /www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security/
We optionally allow you to store your card details for use in a future transaction or for continuous card payments. This is carried out in compliance with PCI-DSS and in a way where none of our staff members can see you full card number. We never store your three or four-digit security code.
Maintaining Your Personal Information
We store your personal information for five years so that for any subsequent purchases you make we can link them back to a single unique record that we hold for you on our system.
If there are aspects of your record that are inaccurate, or that you would like to remove, you can do this by logging in to your account through our website. Alternatively, please use the contact details at the end of this policy.
Any objections you make to any processing of your data will be stored against your record on our system, so that we can comply with your requests.
Security Of Personal Information
We will put in place appropriate safeguards (both in terms of our procedures and the technology we use) to keep your personal information as secure as possible. We will ensure that any third parties we use for processing your personal information do the same.
Your Rights To Your Personal Information
You have a right to request a copy of personal information that we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies in this data corrected. Please use the contact details at the end of this policy if you would like to exercise this right.
Complaints Procedure
If you would like to complain to Lighthouse about how your data has been used by our organisation, please email dpm@lighthousepoole.co.uk or write to:
John Baker
Data Controller
Lighthouse
21 Kingland Road
Poole
Dorset
BH15 1UG
We will then address your concerns in the following ways.
1) Acknowledging Your Complaint
Lighthouse will acknowledge your complaint as soon as possible and by no longer than 30 days after it has been received.
2) Looking Into Your Complaint & Updating You On Progress
We will then take the appropriate steps to investigate your complaint and we will keep you up-to-date on the progress of this investigation, letting you know if we need any further information from you.
3) Providing You With An Outcome
Once Lighthouse has investigated your complaint, we will provide you with a clear outcome, in a timely way.
We will explain what has been done to resolve your complaint and, if relevant, what actions we have taken as a result. We will also explain why, if we think that we have complied with data protection law.
4) Escalation
If you are not satisfied by Lighthouse’s response to your complaint, you can escalate this by contact the Information Commissioners Offer (ICO).
The ICO can be contacted in the following ways:
Website: ico.org.uk
Helpline: 0303 123 1133
Email: icocasework@ico.org.uk
Contact Details & Further Information
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about any aspect of this privacy policy, and if you would like to object to any processing of your personal information that we carry out for our legitimate organisational interests.
You can get in touch by contacting:
John Baker, Data Controller, Lighthouse, 21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset. BH15 1UG
Email: dpm@lighthousepoole.co.uk
(Policy Updated: 13th October 2026)