Privacy notice

Visitors to our websites
When someone visits www.informationsharing.org.uk we use a third-party service, (Google Analytics), to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be upfront about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

WordPress
We use a third-party service, (WordPress.com), to publish our website. We use a standard WordPress service to collect anonymous information about users’ activity on the site, for example, the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it. WordPress requires visitors that want to post a comment on a webpage to enter a name and email address. Their name will be published if their comment is approved by Centre administrators, whereas their email address will remain anonymous. For more information about how WordPress processes data, please see their privacy notice.

Use of cookies

1. a) What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your computer, tablet or mobile phone (all referred to here as a “device”) web browser from a website’s computer and is stored on your device’s hard drive. Each website can send its own cookie to your web browser if your browser’s preferences allow it. Many websites do this whenever a user visits their website to track online traffic flows. Similar technologies are also often used within emails to understand whether the email has been read or if any links have been clicked.

During the course of any visit to the Centre’s website, the pages you see, along with a cookie, are downloaded to your device. Many websites do this because cookies enable website publishers to do useful things like find out whether the device (and probably its user) has visited the website before. This is done on a repeat visit by checking to see, and finding, the cookie left there on the last visit.

1. b) How does the Centre use cookies?

Information supplied by cookies can help us to understand the profile of our visitors and help us to provide you with a better user experience.

1. c) Other information collected from web browsers

Your web browser may also provide the Centre with information about your devices, such as an IP address and details about the browser that you are using. We use information provided by your browser or by the link that you have clicked to understand the webpage that directed you to the Centre’s website and this may be captured by performance cookies.

Hyperlinks to external sites
The Centre’s website contains hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. These websites have their own privacy policies, and are also likely to use cookies, and we therefore urge you to review them. They will govern the use of personal information you submit when visiting these websites, which may also be collected by cookies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third-party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.

Search engines
Our website search queries and results are logged anonymously to help us improve our website and search functionality. No user-specific data is collected by either the Centre or any third party.

E-newsletter
We use a third-party provider, Mailchimp, to deliver our e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please see Mailchimp’s privacy notice.

We use the information you provided on registration to send you our e-newsletter and it will only be used for this purpose. It won’t be shared with any third parties or partners and if you ever want your details to be removed, you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link which is at the end of any e-newsletter you receive from us to your email address. 

To make sure you meant to sign up to our newsletter, we use what is called ‘a double opt-in’ process. This means that once your details are added on to our list, (either directly by you on the online form on our website, or if we manually add you after you sign a paper form at an event or conference), you will receive an email to your inbox asking you to confirm you would like to join the list. If you choose not to click the ‘subscribe’ button on the email, you will not be added to our e-newsletter distribution list. If you have any questions about how we look after your data please contact us at [email protected]

Surveys
We occasionally run surveys to inform our thinking and understand more about what information sharing challenges our audience are facing. We use a third-party supplier, SurveyMonkey, to conduct these surveys. Contact details are not a required field within the surveys and respondents can choose to remain anonymous. For more information, please see SurveyMonkey’s privacy notice.

Security and performance
The Centre uses a third-party service to help maintain the security and performance of the Centre’s website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to the Centre’s website.

People who contact us via social media
We use a third-party provider, Hootsuite, to manage our social media interactions.

If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored by Hootsuite who store analytics data indefinitely. Data older than 3 months, however, will be frozen, and stop updating, even if new clicks or comments are made on a post. It will not be shared with any other organisations. For more information, please see Hootsuite’s privacy notice.

People who email us
We will monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

Complaints or queries
The Centre tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

Access to personal information
Under the Data Protection Act (DPA) you have the right to request a copy of the personal information the Centre holds about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected (this will be a copy of the information you provided when you registered to receive the Centre’s e-newsletter). We will use reasonable efforts consistent with our legal duty to supply, correct or delete personal information about you on our files.

To make a request to the Centre for any personal information we may hold you need to email the request to: [email protected]. If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone. If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again, contacting the email address below.

Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 30 April 2018.

How to contact us
If you want to request information about our privacy policy you can email us at: [email protected]