The Porcupine Council make available the notices and agenda for Annual General Meetings held each year which can be downloaded from this page.
In the light of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we have updated our privacy policy which can be read below or downloaded here: PMNHS – Privacy Policy 2018
PRIVACY POLICY
The Porcupine Marine Natural History Society is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy (together with our website terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) 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 are happy with any changes.
By using our website, you are agreeing to be bound by this policy.
Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to secretary@pmnhs.co.uk.
The rules on processing of personal data are set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).
1.1 Who are we?
The Porcupine Natural History Society is a membership society for any person with an interest in marine biology and ecology. The purpose of the Society is to promote interest in the ecology and distribution of marine fauna and flora of the North East Atlantic region and the Mediterranean.
We are classed under the GDPR regulations as a data controller. That means we decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.
1.2 How do we collect information from you?
We obtain information about you when you use our website, for example when we receive and process personal information regarding membership applications and renewals or when you register for an event e.g. conference or workshop. A member notice on personal data, consent and processing is also available on our website and with our membership application form.
1.3 What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect might include your title, first name, surname, postal address, email address, phone number, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when. We may also collect information relating to your topic of interest.
If you pay for your membership subscriptions or event fees online, your card and other payment information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.
Bank details may be collected during grant applications or for expense reimbursements. This information will be held for as long as necessary to fulfil the stated purpose and then permanently deleted.
1.4 How is your information used?
We may use your information to:
- Process applications or renewal of membership to the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society;
- Process orders for the Society or Society associated events;
- Seek your views or comments on the Society;
- Notify you of changes to our Society;
- Post out copies of the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society Bulletin to you your registered address;
- Send you communications which may be of interest to you. These may include electronic copies of our Bulletin, Society conferences and other Society activities;
- Process grant applications
We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity.
1.5 What is our legal basis for processing your personal data?
Our lawful basis for processing your general personal data under article 6 of GDPR is as follows:
Consent of the data subject – We will directly ask for your consent to process data;
- When you register for membership of the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society directly on our website or through paper forms.
Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject or to take steps to enter into a contract – We will collect and use your personal data in the following circumstances;
- When you book tickets for our conferences or workshops so that we can process your booking and any payments.
- When you apply for a Porcupine Marine Natural History Society grant or submit a piece of writing for The Frank Evans Prize for non-professional writers so we can process your application and inform you of the outcome and make the relevant payment to you.
Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the data controller or a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights or freedoms of the data subject;
- We will use your personal data to process and facilitate your membership of the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society directly.
1.6 Who has access to your information?
We will not sell or rent your information to third parties unless you have given your express consent for us to do so where required by law.
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 process website payments or to mail your copy of the Porcupine Marine Natural History Bulletin). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have contracts that require 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 Porcupine Marine Natural History Society 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.
1.7 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 communications from us then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant boxes situated on the form on which we collect your information. This may be a web form or a paper version.
We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email or phone unless you have give your prior consent.
We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted.
You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: membership@pmnhs.co.uk.
1.8 How you can access and update your information
The accuracy of your information is important to us.
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society hold about you. Also, if you change your email address or notice that any of the other information we hold is out of date you can email the Society at membership@pmnhs.co.uk.
The Porcupine Marine Natural History Society has 30 calendar days in which to respond to your request.
There is no charge for such requests.
Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information.
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 we will strive to protect your personal information but 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.
1.9 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 were 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.
1.10 Transferring your information outside of Europe
As part of the service offered to you through this website, the information which you provide 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 are 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 ensuing that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outline in this policy.
1.11 How to make a complaint?
To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints, please in the first instance contact the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society via secretary@pmnhs.co.uk or membership@pmnhs.co.uk.
If this does not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction you have the right to lodge a complaint with the information Commissioner’s Office on 03031231113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email.
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
1.12 Further processing
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose not covered by this Data Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions.
1.13 Reviewing of this Policy
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.
This policy was last updated in May 2018.
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