Privacy Policy

The International PPI Network (the Network) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent to us using the following details: Katie Porter, email: k.s.porter@soton.ac.uk

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you when you use our website, for example, when you complete the contact form, when you complete the site registration form, sign-up for an event or engage with other forms within our site.

What type of information is collected from you?

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of data when you use our site.

Data that is given to us by you when registering to become a member:

Full name
Email address
Organisation (optional)
Region (optional)
Area of interest (optional)

Data we collect about you:

If you visit our site, we will automatically collect certain technical information, for example, the type of device you use to access our site, the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, mobile network information and platform.
We will automatically collect information about your visit to our site including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from the Website (including date and time), pages you viewed, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.

Website recording

Like many other websites, the Network website uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website. The following links explain how to access cookie settings in various browsers:

Use of ‘cookies’

These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.

How is your information used?

We may use your information to:

Contact you regarding queries raised in the contact form;
Seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
Notify you of changes to our services;
Send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other fundraising activities, promotions of our associated organisation's services;
Register you as a Network member and provide you with access to the member spaces on the website.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We will hold your personal information on our secure systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to send you newsletters).

However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond the company for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our supporters and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Your choices

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the Network, then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your information.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email unless you have given your prior consent. You can unsubscribe from Network update notifications via the unsubscribe link on our correspondence or by letting the administrator know via email that you would like to no longer be contacted by email (k.s.porter@soton.ac.uk).

How you can access and update your information

The accuracy of your information is important to us. You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you so that you can ensure its accuracy. You can do this by sending an email to the administrator and request the information held about you; k.s.porter@soton.ac.uk

Right to erasure

Visitors / users of the site should have the ability to have all records of their personal data held by a business where there is no legitimate reason for that business to maintain that reason. This includes where GDPR is super-ceded by other laws governing the details obtained. This section should clarify how users request erasure.

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information.

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Profiling

We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

16 or Under

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Transferring your information outside of Europe

As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EU. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy.

If you use our services while you are outside the EU, your information may be transferred outside the EU in order to provide you with those services.

Review of this Policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. This Policy was last updated in November 2023.