Privacy Policy – January 2018
Introduction
Your privacy is critically important to us. At the Institute of Acoustics (IOA), we have a few fundamental principles:
- We are thoughtful about the personal information we ask you to provide and the personal information that we collect about you through the operation of our services. • We store personal information for only as long as we have a reason to keep it. • We aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information.
Below is the IOA’s privacy policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles. Who We Are and What This Policy Covers
The IOA is a professional body for scientists and engineers working in all fields of acoustics, noise and vibration. We are a charitable company whose aim is to promote and advance the art, science and technology of acoustics in all their aspects. We do this through:
- Providing membership and professional recognition for those working in acoustics, noise and vibration.
- Organizing meetings, events and conferences on acoustics, noise and vibration open to both members and the public.
- Delivering professional training courses in acoustics, noise and vibration. • Promoting of a wider understanding of acoustics, noise and vibration to other professionals, the public and students.
- Providing advice and guidance on acoustics, noise and vibration to policy makers and Government.
This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you use:
- Our website.
- Our mobile applications.
- Our Learning Platform.
- Or enrol on one of our courses, events, or become a member of the IOA (at any grade).
Throughout this Privacy Policy we’ll refer to our website, mobile applications and other products and services collectively as “Services.”
Below we explain how we collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.
Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of our products or services (current or future) that have a separate privacy policy.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at admin@ioa.org.uk.
Information We Collect
We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so for example, to provide our Services, to communicate with you, or to make our Services better.
We collect information in three ways: if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating our services, and from outside sources. Let’s go over the information that we collect.
Information You Provide to Us
It’s probably no surprise that we collect information that you provide to us. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how we use the information. Here are some examples:
- Professional Membership Information: we ask for information that enables us to contact you, to assess your professional education and experience for a membership grade. We ask you for your fields of interest, whether you are a registered engineer or not and, if so, details of your registration. We also ask you who your employer is. We use this information to manage our services to you and to inform you of specific events and CPD that may link with your stated fields of interest. If you chose to receive a hard copy of the Bulletin your postal details are given to our mail distributor in order to send you your copy. This data is not used by the distributor for any other purpose nor given to a third party. Apart from the data given to our postal distributor an individual’s data is not passed on to a third party.
- Annual Members Snapshot: Every December we take a snapshot of our membership and make this available to all members. The snapshot lists member’s grade and name. You have the option within your online membership record to link yourself to an employer. If you choose to do this then your employer will also be listed against your name.
- Equality and Diversity Data: We collect Equality and Diversity data on members and customers using our courses and events. The IOA is striving to be an equal opportunity provider of services to members and our service users. We use this data at a macro level to monitor the diversity of our membership and the participation rates in our events. For students on our courses we also monitor retention and achievement rates by the various diversity categories. We do this to ensure that we are not being unconsciously prejudiced in how we deliver our services. We do not pass an individual’s data onto a third party. Under the sensitive diversity categories you have the option of ‘prefer not to say’.
- Register of Members: On our website we have a Membership Check for the public. Some members find it professionally beneficial for the public to be able to check that they are a current member of the IOA. The public can check using your name whether you are a current member of the institute and if you chose to list it, your employer. You have to opt in to this service in your membership record to be included in this checking service.
- Student Membership: Student membership is free and available to anyone over 18. We ask for your date of birth to confirm your age. We use your email, course details and year of graduation to send you information on events you may be interested in and we use your
graduation date to inform you of courses and events that may help you continue your professional development. We use any diversity information you give us to help us monitor the diversity of those entering the profession to enable us to be an equal opportunity service provider. We do not pass on your details to any third parties.
- Transaction and Billing Information: If you buy something from us–a membership subscription, a ticket for an event or a course, for example–you will provide additional personal and payment information that is required to process the transaction and your payment, such as your name, credit/debit card information, and contact information. If you
pay online through our website payments are taken through our credit/debit card payment provider, currently Sagepay (Jan 2018). In this case we do not have access to your bank account or card details. Occasionally someone may pay for a service over the phone or by card at an event. We keep a hard copy of your card details only long enough to ensure the payment has been taken (normally a few minutes), then the details are destroyed, we DO NOT store your card details either in the office or on our IT system.
- Travel and Expenses Claims: Volunteers are entitled to claim travel and expenses when working for the IOA. Claims are paid via bank transfer and we ask for your bank account number and sort code to facilitate this. We do not store these details on our IT system but they are stored on our account with Lloyds Bank who are fully General Data Protection Regulation compliant. When a claim is processed we check the bank details on your claim against the details stored with the bank to ensure we are transferring the funds to the right account. Once confirmed, the details on your claim are blacked out so only the last 4 digits are visible. The claim is then scanned and the original destroyed. It is impossible to read the blacked out digits on the scan. The last 4 digits are then only used for the bank reconciliation at the end of the month. We do not store your bank account details on our IT system or in the office.
- CPD Record: you have the ability to log your CPD on your membership record. We may access this as part of a check by our CPD Committee to confirm your commitment to undertake CPD as part of your membership. We do not pass this information onto a third party or your employer without your express permission.
Information We Collect Automatically
We also collect some information automatically:
- Log Information: Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. We collect log information when you use our online Services.
- Usage Information: We collect information about your usage of our Services. For example, we collect information about the actions that site administrators and users perform on a site–in other words, who did what, when and to what thing on a site (e.g when you last logged onto your membership account, what changes you made) We also collect information about what happens when you use our Services (e.g., page views, support document searches, button clicks) along with information about your device (e.g., mobile screen size, name of cellular network, and mobile device manufacturer). We use this information to, for example, provide our Services to you, as well as get insights on how people use our Services, so we can make our Services better.
- Location Information: We may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit our Services from certain geographic regions. We may also collect information about your precise location via our mobile apps (when, for example, you post information to our learning platform with location information) if you allow us to do so through your mobile device operating system’s permissions.
- Stored Information: We may access information stored on your mobile device via a mobile app (possible future development). We may access this stored information through your device operating system’s permissions. For example, if you give us permission to access the photographs on your mobile device’s camera roll, our Services may access the photos stored
on your device when you upload a really amazing photograph from an IOA event or some course work.
Information from Cookies & Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and e-mails. The IOA uses cookies, and other technologies like pixel tags, to help us identify and track
visitors, usage, and access preferences for our Services, as well as track and understand e-mail campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads. You can disable any cookies already stored on your computer, but these may stop our website or learning platform or apps from functioning properly.
The following is strictly necessary in the operation of our IT systems.
The systems will:
o Remember what is in your shopping basket
o Remember where you are in the order process
o Remember that you are logged in and that your session is secure. You need to be logged in to complete an order.
The following are not strictly necessary, but are required to provide you with the best user experience and also to tell us which pages you find most interesting (anonymously).
Functional Cookies
The systems will:
o Offer Live Chat Support; if available.
o Track the pages you visit via Google Analytics.
Targeting Cookies
The systems will:
o Allow you to share pages with social networks such as Facebook; if available. o Allow you to share pages via Add This ; if available.
This website will not
o Share any personal information with third parties.
Information We Could Collect from Other Sources
We may also get information about you from other sources. For example, if you connect your website or account to a social media service (like Twitter), we could receive information from that service (such as your username, basic profile information, and friends list) via the authorization procedures used by that service. The information we receive depends on which services you authorize and any options that are available.
We could also get information from third party services about individuals who are not yet our users (…but we hope will be!), which we may use, for example, for marketing and advertising purposes.
How We Use Information
We use information about you as mentioned above and as follows:
- To provide our Services–for example, to set up and maintain your account, or charge you for any of our paid Services.
- To further develop our Services–for example by adding new features that we think will benefit our members/service users.
- To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with our Services, which helps us improve our Services and make them easier to use.
- To monitor and protect the security of our Services, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of the IOA and others.
- To communicate with you about offers and promotions offered by IOA and others we think will be of interest to you, solicit your feedback, or keep you up to date on the IOA and our events and courses.
- To personalize your experience using our Services and provide content and CPD recommendations.
Sharing Information
How We Share Information
We do not sell our users’ private personal information.
We share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:
- Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: We may disclose information about you to our subsidiaries, our employees, and individuals who are our independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help us provide our Services or to process the information on our behalf. We require our subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for personal information that we share with them.
- Third Party Vendors: We may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us. This group includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you (like payment providers that process your credit and debit card information) and those that help us understand and enhance our Services (like analytics providers). We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.
- As Required by Law: We may disclose information about you in response to a court order, or other governmental request.
- To Protect Rights and Property: We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of the IOA, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
- Business Transfers: In connection with the unlikely events of any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another organisation, or in the that the IOA goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
- With Your Consent: We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, we may share your information with third parties with which you authorize us to do so.
- Aggregated and De-Identified Information: We may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may publish aggregate diversity statistics about the use of our Services.
- Published Support Requests: And if you send us a request (for example, via a support email or one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish that request in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.
Security
While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so.
Choices
You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:
- Limit the Information that You Provide: If you have an account with us, you can choose not to provide the optional account information and transaction and billing information. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our Services may not be accessible.
- Limit Access to Information on Your Mobile Device: Your mobile device operating system should provide you with the ability to discontinue our ability to collect stored information or location information via mobile apps.
- Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies: You can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using IOA online services, with the drawback that certain features of our online services may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Other Things You Should Know (Keep Reading!)
Transferring Information
The IOA has a world wide reach but or information is only stored in the UK with a backup in the Netherlands both of which are covered by the General Data Protection Regulations which come into force in May 2018.
Analytics Services Provided by Others
You will access our online services through a third party provider, such as Google. These providers use technologies that allow these third parties to recognize your device and to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows us and other companies to, among
other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to your interests. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by IOA and does not cover the collection of information by any third party advertisers or analytics providers.
Third Party Software
If you’d like to use third party software like plugins with our Services, please keep in mind that when you interact with them you may provide information about yourself to those third parties. We don’t own or control these third parties and they have their own rules about collection, use and sharing of information. You should review their rules and policies when installing and using third party
software.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, the IOA may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. The Institute encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, we may provide additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification through e-mail). Your continued use of the Services after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your consent to such change.
Change log
- I January 2018: Privacy Policy Version 1
Institute of Acoustics, Silbury Court, 406 Silbury Boulevard,
Milton Keynes, MK9 2AF, UK
Tel +44 (0) 300 999 9675
