Information & Data Protection of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church
Protecting personal information and data, called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the UK affects how OCAC handles personal data. Data protection in other national entities of OCAC whilst similar, is not identical to UK law. As the Old Catholic Apostolic Church does not keep lists of congregation members, the church does not hold data on members of the public, or informal adherents. Persons that take part in Social Media groups or online forums are listed and identifiable only by their profiles on those social media platforms.OCAC does hold and maintain personal information on those engaged in clergy activities, including their safeguarding and disclosure status. This is to allow monitoring and management of the various ministries, and licensing of those conducting such ministry. The church only holds sufficient data to manage this function safely. Clergy have applied to become part of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church and in doing so it is expected that any information held is kept regularly up to date. The trustees of the church entities are responsible for data security. Any data held will be secured by password, encryption or other suitable method. Only persons accredited by and listed on the OCAC website are legitimate clergy of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church and hence have any information held.
Some Religious Societies or Religious Orders that are part of, or associated with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church may keep registers of their members and if so are required to keep such information secure, up to date, accurate and only keep relevant information. Joining the group is the permission to collect and use the information in order to manage the group, the membership and the contact details for the members.
The Superiors of Religious Orders, or Societies shall be the Responsible Officer for data protection compliance which can be devolved to another suitably responsible person within the group.
The Old Catholic Apostolic Church has a 'simplified' approach to holding information, and keeps and uses only the minimum necessary for our purposes.
