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Privacy policy General 1. We, European Study Group Limited ("ESG", "we"), recognise that your personal information is valuable and understand the need to protect your privacy. Please read this Privacy Policy to learn more about how we use the data we collect (i) when you request information from us, (ii) through the ESG website ("the Website") and/or our cookie technology software, and (iii) when you correspond with us in other ways. 2. If you have any queries about our approach to privacy issues, or if you have any requests concerning your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer, European Study Group Limited, Gardiner Building, Brunel Science Park, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge UB8 3PQ. 3. We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time; if we do so, we will post the amended Privacy Policy on the Website. Hard copies of this Privacy Policy (as amended from time to time) are available from the Data Protection Officer on request. Your Data 4. By accessing and using the Website, or by submitting or providing information to us by any other method, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of the information which you provide to us, or which we collect from your use, in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This information generally falls into the following two categories: 4.1 Personally identifiable information:- information that lets us know the specifics of who you are (including your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, your internet protocol ("IP") address, etc). We request personally identifiable information when you request information from us (whether via the Website or otherwise), participate in certain promotional activities, fill out surveys, apply for a job or otherwise correspond with us by telephone, email or letter. In these cases, we will collect the information you submit about yourself. 4.2 Non-personally identifiable information:- information that does not by itself identify a specific individual. We collect such information when you visit the Website (including the uniform resource locator of the website that you came from before visiting the Website, which pages you visit on the Website, and any search terms entered on the Website). This Privacy Policy contains more information about how we use cookies and other technology to collect this data. 5. We will not make personally identifiable information available to any other person for any purpose except (a) as set out in this Privacy Policy, (b) to comply with all applicable laws and lawful requests from any Government or regulatory authority, to operate our systems properly or to protect us and other users; and/or (c) as permitted by applicable data protection laws. This Privacy Policy is not intended to, and does not, create any contractual or other legal rights. Why We Collect this Information 6. Our primary goals in collecting information are to provide members of the European Study Group network and other users of our services and/or our Website with superior service and a smooth, efficient, and personalised experience. For example, if you request information from us, we will use your personally identifiable information to provide the requested information. We use non-personally identifiable information on an aggregated basis to analyse member/client/user behaviour to help us understand how users use the Website and to measure interest in the various pages and services. We use this information to improve the content of the Website to make the Website easier to use. We also use your information for internal administration, as part of the European Study Group membership network and for marketing (subject to the restrictions set out below) and to comply with our legal obligations. How We Gather and Use Your Information 7. We gather, hold and use personal information in a number of ways for the proper administration of our business, in order to provide services to you and to answer questions which you may raise. These include the following:- 7.1 Application:- We collect personally identifiable information if you apply to become a member of the European Study Group network. We collect this information to process your application, to obtain payment, and to communicate with you about the status of your application. 7.2 Information and advice:- We collect personally identifiable information when you ask for information (including information about seminars or events held by us or third parties) or advice, whether you are a member of our network or are simply making preliminary enquiries. We use this information to provide you with the information you request. 7.3 Recruitment:- If you wish to apply for a position within ESG and send us your CV, your application and the personally identifiable information contained in it and your CV will be used for the purpose of assessing your application for the relevant position and may also be used as part of our equal opportunities monitoring. Any information you send us for the purposes of a job application will not be passed to any third party. 7.4 Surveys and reviews:- We collect personally identifiable information from European Study Group members and/or users who volunteer to complete surveys or submit testimonials. We use this information to improve our services. 7.5 Browsing and Searching:- We collect certain personally identifiable information when you visit the Website or click on the various links for services. We collect this information to help run the Website more efficiently, to gather broad demographic information and to monitor the level of activity on the Website. Direct Marketing 8. When you submit your contact details to us, you may be asked whether you would like to receive information about the services offered by ESG or our strategic partners including Pinsents, CHA and Getfeedback. We and our strategic partners will only send such information to you by email, SMS (text messaging) or other electronic method if you specifically state that you wish your details to be used for that purpose in which case we and our strategic partners (as appropriate) may contact you in these ways. You may at any time indicate that you wish to stop receiving such information by any method by contacting the Data Protection Officer at European Study Group Limited, Gardiner Building, Brunel Science Park, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge UB8 3PQ. Disclosure of your Information 9. From time to time it may be necessary for us to pass your details on to carefully selected third parties, for example third parties who provide services to us to ensure the proper functioning of our Website and/or who assist us in providing services to you. Similarly, there may be services offered by us or on the Website which mean that we necessarily have to provide your details to a third party. 10. On occasion it may be necessary for us to transfer your personal information overseas and in particular outside the European Economic Area (this comprises the member states of the EU plus Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland) when using such information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy eg when sharing information with carefully selected third party partners who are outside the EEA. Where this is the case, you specifically consent to our disclosing this information outside the EEA for such purposes. Sharing Your Information 11. We do not sell, trade, rent to or share with others the personally identifiable information we collect except as set out in this Privacy Policy. 12. We may share the personally identifiable information about you with our strategic partners, including Pinsents, CHA, Getfeedback and third party businesses that provide services to ESG only for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. You have an ongoing right to inform us that you do not wish to receive information from us, our strategic partners or those third parties. Direct marketing information will only be passed to you by electronic methods if you have specifically stated that you wish your details to be used in this way (see paragraph 8 above). 13. From time to time, we may be required to provide personally identifiable information in response to a court order, subpoena, or government or criminal investigation. We also reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we in good faith believe may be unlawful. We may release certain personally identifiable information when we believe that such release is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of others and ourselves. 14. ESG or its related entities could merge with or be acquired by another business entity or their respective assets could be acquired. Should such a combination or acquisition occur, you should expect that ESG would share some or all of your personally identifiable information so that it or its successor can continue serving you, and other users of the Website and our services. Accessing Your Data and Making Sure it is Accurate 15. You have the right to be informed of the information which we hold on you and if you have any queries in this regard please contact the Data Protection Officer at European Study Group Limited, Gardiner Building, Brunel Science Park, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge UB8 3PQ. We may request from you a fee of up to £10 to cover our administration charges of supplying this information to you. You also have the right to request us to update any records which we hold about you should the information become inaccurate or out of date. If you wish to update your details please let us know by contacting the Data Protection Officer at European Study Group Limited, Gardiner Building, Brunel Science Park, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge UB8 3PQ. The following sections are applicable if you access the Website: Cookies 15.1 This Website uses cookies to track your use of the web and to assist the functionality of the Website. A cookie is a small file of text which is downloaded onto your computer when you access the Website. This allows us to recognise you as the same user when you come back to the Website. A cookie typically contains the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the "lifetime" of the cookie and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number. 16. Third parties may place cookies on your browser via the Website; such cookies may be used to serve advertisements on the Website and to track whether these are clicked on by users, to control how often you are shown a particular advertisement or to tailor content to your preferences. We do not have access to or control of cookies placed by third parties. 17. Some of the pages of the Website may also contain electronic images known as "web beacons" (or clear gifs) which allow us to count users who have visited those particular pages. Web beacons contain limited information including a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. 18. You have the right to reject any cookies by modifying the settings on your browser but if you do reject our cookies then you may not be able to use all the interactive features of the Website. It is not necessary for any third party cookies to be enabled for the Website to work. Further information about how cookies work and how they can be managed (including how you can accept cookies, delete existing cookies and stop new cookies being installed) can be found at www.allaboutcookies.org. Security 19. The Website does not provide facilities for the secure transmission of information across the internet. You should be aware that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the Internet. |
