This Customer Privacy Policy governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal information relating to potential and existing customers of PCM Scientific, an affiliate member of the Cogora Group Ltd, hereinafter referred to as ‘Cogora’.
Cogora is committed to abiding by this Customer Privacy Policy, as well as the requirements of applicable laws, in the operation of its business.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998, the data controller is Cogora Group Ltd, 140 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5DN, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)20 7214 0500.
Table of Contents
What personal information do we collect?
Should you choose to visit our websites or interact with our services there are a number of ways you may provide us with your personal information, such as
- by completing a registration form on one of our websites
- by consenting to have your badge scanned at a congress where PCM Scientific is an exhibitor or is running an event
- by corresponding with us via email
- by registering for an event or
- by interacting with our other bespoke services
We collect basic information about you when you register with us, which may include personal details such as your full name, GMC number or other professional registration numbers, email address, payment processing information as well as other non-sensitive personal information.
If you chose to register for an educational programme, we may also collect pre- and post- assessment results and track your progress through a module.
We also collect information when you voluntarily complete surveys, provide feedback for one of our products or services, participate in competitions or interact with one of our websites (please see ‘Website usage and cookies’ for more information).
How will we use information about you?
Personal data submitted on this website will be used for the purposes specified in this privacy policy or in relevant parts of the website.
We may use your personal information to:
- administer the website
- enable your use of the account settings section available on our websites
- supply you with educational products and services requested or purchased via our websites, and to process your payments
- supply you with CME certificates following completion of an appropriate educational programme
- send you email notifications when action needs to be taken by you to maintain an uninterrupted service
- provide you with updates regarding new educational material which we think may be of interest to you by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (please see ‘marketing’ for more information)
- provide you with updates regarding new educational material which we think may be of interest to you by post or email based on your previous business with us and when you have not objected to receiving such information (please see ‘marketing’ for more information)
- deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the website or our services
- validate our details
- monitor usage of our websites (please see ‘website usage and cookies’ for more information)
- provide access to third-party webinars or case study clinics (see ‘Will your data be shared with third parties?’ for more information)
We may also process your personal information where we are required to do so by law, and for the exercise or defence of legal claims.
From time to time, we may contact you for market research purposes, or to tell you about our special offers and other services in accordance with your contact preferences.
Cogora’s legal basis for processing personal data include:
- Consent of the data subject
- Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
- Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject or to take steps to enter into a contract
By your continued use of our services (including our websites), you consent to the collection and use of your personal information for the purposes set out in this Customer Privacy Policy.
Appraisal date
This information will never be shared with anyone else. Users registering with our websites may be asked to provide the approximate date of their next appraisal. This information may be used to tailor the content made available to you across our websites and any marketing communications which you have consented to receive to ensure these best meet your needs.
With your consent, Cogora may from time to time send you updates about our educational products, events and services. If you do not wish to be contacted by email for direct marketing purposes, please email [email protected] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject box.
Marketing
You may at any time ask us to refrain from sending you marketing messages by sending us an email at [email protected] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject box. If we contact you by email, each time you receive a message you will also have the option to decline to receive further information of that type from us by choosing to unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.
Website usage and cookies
Web activity
If you are using our websites, we will use your personal information to help you to log on to your account and into restricted areas of our websites, to permit future use of our websites and to provide you with more tailored information when you return to our websites.
We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, or to administer our websites. We may conduct analyses of user traffic to measure the use of our sites and to improve the content of our websites and our services. These analyses will be performed through the use of IP addresses and cookies.
When someone visits one of our websites we will use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. Google Analytics mainly uses first-party cookies to report on website interactions. These cookies are used to store non-personally identifiable information; it is not possible for Google to identify individual visitors to our websites.
We may use additional software to collect website usage information for each of our registered users. This information will be used to personalise your repeat visits to our website and to help us get to know our users in order to provide a more relevant and improved service.
Third party cookies
Most of the advertisements that you see on our websites are generated by third parties who may use cookies to track viewing of their advertisements and for other purposes specified in their own privacy policies. We have no access to or control over these cookies (although we may use statistical, non-identifiable information provided to us to improve the targeting of these advertisements).
We may also use the Google Analytics Advertising Features Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing Ads to promote our products and services, as well as sponsored content, online. Google AdWords uses first-party Google Advertising Cookies to record online transactions and Bing Ads similarly uses cookies. To prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics download The Google Analytics opt-out add-on.
You can obtain further information about third party privacy policies or disable their cookies by visiting their websites.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser. Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but usually you can alter the settings of your browser to prevent automatic acceptance. If you reject the use of cookies, please note that the efficient operation of the website that you are using may be affected.
For more information about cookies, please visit AboutCookies.org
Clear GIFs
From time to time we may employ a software technology called “clear gifs” (also known as Web Beacons/Web Bugs). Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of site users. Clear gifs are not tied to users’ personally identifiable information.
In addition, we use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
Will your data be shared with third parties?
We will only disclose personal information about you internally and to third parties for processing purposes associated with payment processing, accreditation, the supply of goods and services, for web site administration, or elsewhere when you have consented to such disclosures, or where such disclosures are required or permitted by law. These third parties are contractually bound only to use personal information to perform the services that we hire them to provide.
Events
Should you choose to attend an event, you may encounter exhibitions or stands which are sponsored and/or provided by third parties. Should you choose to interact with a third party the information you provided to us may be shared with one or more third parties.
Your information will not be shared unless you, as the user, consent to having your badge scanned by the exhibitor or third-party representative. We will let you know at the time of registration if an event is sponsored and when your details will be shared.
Transfer of data
Third party data processors, advertisers, exhibitors and other such business relationships outside of the EEA, are required to take adequate technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information. We also take measures to ensure that personal information transferred by us outside of the EEA is adequately protected.
How do we keep your data safe?
We use administrative, technical, and physical measures to safeguard personal information against loss, theft and unauthorised uses, access or modifications. Certain areas of our websites may be password protected. If you are a user of our websites and have a password, you can help to preserve your privacy by ensuring that you do not share your password with anyone else.
Payments made via our web sites are processed in a secure environment using software provided by third-party providers.
We take steps to regularly validate the personal information we hold to ensure that the information is accurate and, where necessary, up to date. Information that is no longer required for any valid business purpose, and that we are not required to keep pursuant to any applicable law, will be routinely destroyed by secure means.
How can I access my personal information?
You may renew and update personal information that we hold about you at any time by contacting us directly by email (contact [email protected]) or by post (see ‘How can you contact Cogora?’ for more information). If you are registered with one of our websites it may be possible to update your information by accessing your online account settings.
How can I contact Cogora?
If you have any questions about this privacy policy you can write to the Data Controller, Cogora Limited, 140 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5DN, United Kingdom or call +44 (0)20 7214 0500.
Changes to privacy policy
We reserve the right to add to or amend this privacy policy at our sole discretion, without prior notice to you. Please review our privacy policy on a regular basis to make sure you have read the latest version and you understand what we do with your personal information. Your continued use of our services or our websites following the posting of changes to these terms means that you consent to those changes.
This version of the privacy policy is effective as of the 14.08.2017.