British Heart Foundation ("BHF") website privacy policy

BHF is committed to safeguarding your privacy online. We use the information we collect about you to help us understand more about how our site is used and to be able to send you communications about BHF that may be of interest to you, either electronically or otherwise. The "personal information" is information that enables us to identify you, such as your email address, name, title and address.

Please read the following policy to understand how your personal information will be treated. This policy may change from time to time so please check back periodically.

  1. What personal information does BHF collect?

    Information is collected for the BHF regarding supporters, service users and visitors to our website: information regarding what pages are accessed and when, information volunteered by you (such as survey information), contact details and your preferred means of communication. 
  2. How does BHF use my information?

    BHF uses the information we collect about you to help us with understanding more about how our site is used and to be able to send you communications that you have requested as well as those which may be of interest to you, either electronically or otherwise.
  3. Who is collecting your information?

    When you are in the BHF website and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with BHF alone unless stated otherwise. For example, when you are using our secure online donation pages, you are going through to a partner company, World Pay plc and it is clear on the donation page when you are going through to the World Pay site. Where information is not collected directly from the BHF website, but is entered via a third party, the information is not used in any way or for any purpose other than to process the transaction or to pass the information on to the BHF, unless otherwise stated.
  4. With whom does BHF share your information?

    As a general rule, BHF will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information, except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. When you are using our secure online donation pages you are going through to a partner company and the information you give such as your credit card number and contact information is provided to them so that the transaction can take place. Where information is collected via a third party, this data is only used by the BHF unless otherwise stated.

    BHF may make individual identifying information available to affiliated third parties, including BHF Ventures Ltd our trading subsidiary and our agents for marketing purposes. BHF also uses such information to contact you for marketing purposes. BHF does not sell on lists to others. From time to time, we agree with other likeminded organisations to write to some of each other's supporters for the mutual benefit of both.
  5. What are my choices regarding collection, use and distribution of my information?

    If you indicated that you are interested in receiving regular information about BHF's work we will send you communications regarding BHF's work and activities, either electronically or otherwise. In addition, we may send you direct mail that we feel may be of interest to you.

    BHF does not sell or rent user information to anyone. From time to time, we agree with other likeminded organisations to write to some of each other's supporters, for the mutual benefit of both.
  6. What is BHF's policy on allowing me to update, correct or delete my personally identifiable information?

    The accuracy of your individual identifying information is important to BHF. If you change email address or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at internet@bhf.org.uk or write to Supporter Care, British Heart Foundation, Greater London House, 180 Hampstead Road, London NW1 7AW.
  7. How does BHF protect my personal identifiable information?

    BHF is committed to taking reasonable steps to protect the individual identifying information that you provide to us.
  8. What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of my information?

    Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, BHF cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.
  9. Users under 18

    If you use this site for information about fundraising campaigning or supporting the work of BHF, please let an adult know.

Cookies and privacy

We use several different types of cookies to help the website work.  The main categories are:

Cookies which are necessary to run the site

Our sites produce some cookies which are essential to keeping the site working and provide the services you need. These include:

  • Cookies that enable you to stay logged in for an entire visit to the site
  • Cookies which enable you to add things to a shopping basket and keep them there until you decide to check out.

Cookies which help us improve the site

Some cookies help us to see how people are using our sites.  These  are known as ‘analytics cookies’ or ‘tracking cookies’.  They let us know what areas of website content are popular and how people are using the site.  This information is anonymous – we don’t collect anything that would identify a user.   We combine this data with the rest of the visitor data and examine it as a whole to build up a picture of how the site is performing. These cookies only work on our site and are not shared with anyone else.

We also place tiny tags (also known as ‘tracking pixels’ or ‘web beacons’) on some of the emails we send out.  These do not collect any personal information either, but they let us know how many people are opening and reading our emails so that we can choose more popular content.

We use cookies to test and improve the quality of our website service. For instance, when we are testing new website content we ask some of our visitors to answer a brief survey.  To make sure that we don’t ask the same people repeatedly and interfere with their browsing too much, we set a cookie which remembers if they have been asked to participate and what their answers were.  

On occasion, we also run multiple versions of a page.  Some of our visitors will be shown one version of a page and we then use our analytics to see if this has helped people access more information or experience a better user journey with us.  To prevent confusion we set a cookie to make sure that our visitors always see the same version of a page instead of all the different ones.

Cookies which help us get value for money from advertising

We occasionally use other cookies to track how our advertisements perform.  As with all our analytics cookies, all the information we collect is anonymous.  These cookies are used solely to let us know which site a visitor clicked on for our advertisement, that they have come through to our site and completed whatever action we wished to see promoted - such downloading a leaflet or ordering an information pack.

A note about Youtube cookies

We have begun to embed our Youtube videos using the ‘Privacy-enhanced’ settings.  This uses a cookie if the video is played.  More information on this setting can be found here.

Additional Information

More information on the EU Cookie Directive can be found here.

Controlling Your Cookies

Instructions on how to set the options on your browser to control what types of cookie you will accept can be found here (select the link that corresponds to your browser).

There are also a lot of 3rd party controls which can offer even greater flexibility and depth of control around which cookies you accept.  These changes would apply to all sites you visit, not just those run by the British Heart Foundation.

Opting Out of Analytics Services

The BHF uses 2 different analytics providers which you can opt out from.  Once opted out, you will no longer be included in any tracking data from those tools across all sites (not just BHF ones).

Offline Methods of Contact

If you do not wish to use our website there are other ways we can help you.

Our cardiac nurses and heart health advisors are on hand to help with any questions or concerns you have about heart health and heart conditions.

Call us on 0300 330 3311 (similar cost to 01 or 02 numbers). Lines are open 9am-5pm Monday to Friday.

Taking part in an event

To find additional information or to register for one of our fundraising events, please call us on 0845 130 8663

Donating to us

If you wish to donate offline, send a cheque made payable to British Heart Foundation and take it to your local BHF Shop or post it to:
British Heart Foundation, Greater London House, 180 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 7AW

If you have any questions about making a donation, please call us on 0844 847 2787.

Finding your nearest shop

Book a free collection online for furniture and electrical items you would like to donate, or call 0844 412 5000