Privacy policy

August 2021 For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the GDPR, the data controller is The British Cardiovascular Society (BCS), 9 Fitzroy Square, London W1T 5HW We will regularly review our retention of your personal data and delete any personal  data which is not necessary for us to retain.

Information Collection and Use

We collect information from our users at several different points on the website – this is for customer service and billing purposes, we also collect  data from our users so that we can customise the site according to individual  selections. The British Cardiovascular Society is the sole owner of the  personal information collected from this site. We will not sell, share, or rent  this information to others.

Legal basis for the use of your data

We rely on the following clauses as a legal basis for the  collection and processing of your data:

Consent

Some of the personal data we collect and process is done  with your consent. For example, we rely on consent when we send you membership communications or emails regarding BCS courses, conference, events (including programmes & agendas) if your email subscription preferences indicate you are willing to receive such emails. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time. See more information about your rights to withdraw consent further down the page. From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose any information requested. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and delivery address), and demographic information (such as postcode, age level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the functionality of the site. You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data (following opt in) for marketing purposes. We will inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by not checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at [email protected]

Legitimate Interest

Our legitimate interests include ensuring that the BCS website is operating effectively and that you as a user can make use and benefit of all its services (browsing, registering for a course or conference, getting notifications regarding ACCEA renewals etc.). BCS Members are also sent regular member communications by email (these include; announcements, updates, topical news relevant to the field of cardiology, Society news, guidance, membership benefits, forthcoming BCS courses, conference, education, resources and the BCS Presidents message), using contact information taken from their membership application form. In order to receive marketing email alerts from BCS, users have to complete a registration form and opt in to receive updates on BCS Courses, Conference, Education and Events. These emails will from time to time include information on symposia events sponsored by industry: this includes pharmaceutical, medtech and healthcare companies promoting products or services related to cardiology in an educational format and advertised as ‘sponsored symposia’. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). This information is used to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. It is optional for the user to provide demographic information (such as role, income level and gender), and unique identifiers, but encouraged so we can provide a more personalised experience. You may unsubscribe from BCS communications at any time, although we will still contact you regarding your membership account under the legitimate interest to do so and when this interest is not overridden by your data protection rights. The BCS may process your data to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations e.g. preventing, investigating crime or working with law enforcement agencies.

Website  usage and data collection/processing

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file written to a users’ hard drive that contains the  User ID. The cookies do not contain any personal information about users. The  use of cookies is now widespread. The reason we use cookies is to save our  users time on the site (so that users do not have to log in with a password  more than once); and also so that we can personalise a user’s experience of the  site. If a user sets up his browser to reject the cookie, he or she may still  use the site although functionality will be impaired.

Log Files

We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site, track users  movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. Links This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that the British Cardiovascular Society is not responsible for the privacy practices of such  other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to  read the privacy statements of these third party sites. This privacy statement  applies solely to information collected by this Web site. Security This website takes every precaution to protect our users information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line. When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information  (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry – SSL. While on a secure  page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such  as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as  opposed to un- locked, or open, as will be the case for most of the time that a  user is browsing the web. If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an  email to [email protected]

Correcting/Updating Personal Information

If a users’ personally identifiable information changes (such as your postcode), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavour to  provide a way to correct, update or remove that users personal data provided to  us. This can usually be done at the personal profile page or by sending an email to [email protected]

Retention cessation

If you request to delete your data, then the data will stop being retained and deleted or anonymised immediately. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to BCS; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

International  transfers of personal data

Though BCS is based within the United Kingdom and is subject to GDPR, there are instances where we may send information outside of the UK, EU or EEA, due to the nature of the BCS website, international membership access and communications and the technologies required (transmission of data via Internet), your data may be transferred to a destination outside the EEA. In such  scenario, we ensure that we transfer the minimum amount of data necessary enter legal contracts to with these third parties to ensure your data is treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the European levels of data protection.

Your Rights (as a data subject)

You have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data by submitting a written request to that effect to [email protected]. Furthermore, if you believe any of the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate, please tell us so we can correct it as necessary. You always have the right to request for the deletion of your data. We have a formal process which we will follow if you decide you would no longer like us to retain our data. We will follow our usual customer service response and be in touch to confirm we have received the request in less than four business hours (Monday to Friday from 9am to 5:30pm). Once the request has been received, it will take 7 business days for it to be completed. Please email [email protected] if you would like to request deletion of your data. If you are unhappy with the way your personal data has been processed by us, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office through their site www.ico.org.uk

Changes to this policy

Any changes we  make to our privacy policy in the 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.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to [email protected] using the subject line ‘Website Privacy Policy’.

User Comments – Disclaimer

These comments are written by the users of this site. Please make note of the following when reading or writing these comments.

Use of trademarks

The comments trademarks and logos contained within this section are the property of the owners of those trademarks.

Limitation of liability

In no event shall the British Cardiovascular Society be liable for any indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages, including, without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill or any and all other commercial damages or losses, even if advised of the possibility thereof, and regardless of whether any claim is based upon any contract, tort or other legal or equitable theory, relating or arising from the comments on this site.