At South West Business Council (SWBC), we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This policy explains when and why we collect personal information about you, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, how we keep it safe and secure and your rights and choices in relation to your information.
Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to info@swbc.co.uk.
Who are we?
South West Business Council C.I.C., trading as “South West Business Council” is a limited liability company registered in England and Wales
Registration No. 4146397 VAT No. 768969833
Postal Address and Registered Address: Unit D3, Apollo Court, Neptune Park, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 0SJ
How do we collect information from you?
We obtain information about you in the following ways:
Information you give us directly: For example, we may obtain information about you when you decide to become a member, partner or key stakeholder of SWBC or take part in one of our events, or when you register to receive one of our newsletters. SWBC collects information directly from individuals or from the parent companies of the individuals. The information could be collected through emails, phone calls, online registration forms, event registration forms and face to face meetings. SWBC collects personal data about individuals when there is a legitimate basis, a contract or when such information is provided on a voluntary basis.
Your information may be shared with us by third parties (i.e. a referral from an existing member or a referral as part of a contract we are delivering) or by one of our Partners. In all cases the person sharing your information should be already known to you and having obtained your permission.
We also receive data through networking (e.g. by you giving us a business card or by you attending one of our events) and we will add these details, if relevant, onto our internal CRM management system.
If you contact us using the Contact Form on our website, we will email you in response to that request and if relevant record that information in our CRM system.
When you visit our website: We, like many companies, automatically collect the following information:
- Technical information, including the type of device you’re using, the IP address, browser and operating system being used to connect your computer to the internet.
- Information about your visit to this website, for example we collect information about pages you visit and how you navigate the website, i.e. length of visits to certain pages, services you viewed and searched for, referral sources (e.g. how you arrived at our website).
Social Media: When you interact with us on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter we may obtain information about you (for example, when you publicly tag us in an event photo). The information we receive will depend on the privacy preferences you have set on those types of platforms.
What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect, store and use might include:
- Your name and contact details (including postal address, email address and telephone number).
- The name of the organisation you work for and the events you attend.
We do not collect sensitive data about you, other than dietary / any special access requirements for the purposes of event planning.
How and why is your information used?
We may use your information for a number of different purposes, which may include:
- providing you with the services and information you asked for.
- processing orders, such as event attendance, that you have submitted;
- carrying out our obligations under any contracts entered between you and us;
- keeping a record of your relationship with us;
- conducting analysis so we can understand how we can improve our services;
- checking for updated contact details against third party sources, such as LinkedIn so we can stay in touch if you move;
- seeking your views or comments on the services we provide;
- notifying you of changes to our services;
- sending you communications which you have requested or that may be of interest to you.
How long is your information kept for?
We keep your information for no longer than is necessary for the purposes it was collected for. The length of time we retain your personal information for is determined by operational and legal considerations. For example, we are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory and regulatory obligations (e.g. health/safety and tax/accounting purposes).
We review our retention periods on a regular basis:
| Type of Data Set | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Members | Through the contract period & up to 24 months after this has ended |
| Prospects | Up to 24 months from last contact |
| Statutory Board Members | Whilst serving and up to 6 months after term |
| Advisory Board Members | Whilst serving and up to 6 months after term |
| Stakeholders | Whilst serving and up to 6 months after term |
| Suppliers | Through the contract period & up to 24 months after this has ended |
Who has access to your information?
We do not sell or rent your information to third parties.
We do not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
We may pass your information to our associates for the purposes of completing tasks on your behalf.
We have secure cloud service providers to manage our customer details and service records
Lawful processing
Data protection law requires us to rely on one or more lawful grounds to process your personal information. We consider the following grounds to be relevant:
Performance of a contract: Where we are entering into a contract with you or performing our obligations under it, for example when you became a ‘paying’ member of our network.
Legal obligation: Where necessary so that we can comply with a legal or regulatory obligation to which we are subject.
Legitimate interests: Where it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate interests, i.e. those required for running SWBC as a B2B strategic networking organisation in pursuit of our shared aims and ideals. For example, to:
- broker connections where there is mutual benefit in doing so
- send postal communications which we think will be of interest to you;
- conduct research to better understand the priorities of our membership and to represent accurately the South West business community;
- contact you to seek your views or comments on emerging political or economic issues
- enhance, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services /communications for the benefit of our members, partners and stakeholders; and understand better how people interact with our website
- invite you to events that we may think are relevant to you in your professional capacity.
When we legitimately process your personal information in this way, we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative), and your rights under data protection laws. We will not use your personal information where our interests are overridden by the impact on you, for example, where use would be excessively intrusive (unless, for instance, we are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
Specific Consent: Where you have provided specific consent to us using your personal information in a certain way, such as to send you email, text and/or contact via telephone.
Marketing communications
We may use your contact details to provide you with information about the vital work we do for the South West business community and additional opportunities to support us or to work together on projects, if we think it may be of interest to you.
You may opt out of our marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the end of our marketing emails.
Post
We may occasionally send you marketing communications by post unless you have told us that you would prefer not to hear from us, under your access rights request (details listed below).
Building profiles
We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can tailor and target our communications in a way that is timely and relevant to you – an example of this would be where interest in one of our Special Interest Groups (SIGs) has been expressed by you. This allows us to be more focused, efficient and cost effective with our resources and reduces the risk of someone receiving information they may find inappropriate or irrelevant.
We’re committed to putting you in control of your data, please refer to your rights, below.
We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law, you have certain rights over the personal information that we hold about you. Here is a summary of the rights that we think apply:
Right of access
You have a right to request access to the personal data that we hold about you. You also have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you, and we will provide you with this unless legal exceptions apply.
If you want to access your information, please send a description of the information you want to see and proof of your identity by post to the address provided below:
FAO: South West Business Council, Unit D3, Apollo Court, Neptune Park, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 0SJ
Right to have your inaccurate personal information corrected
We shall update, archive or securely delete information if it goes out of date. You have the right to have inaccurate or incomplete information we hold about you corrected.
Right to restrict use
You have a right to ask us to restrict the processing of some or all your personal information if there is a disagreement about its accuracy or we’re not lawfully allowed to use it.
Right of erasure
You may ask us to delete some or all your personal information and in certain cases, and subject to certain exceptions; we will do so as far as we are required to. In many cases, we will anonymise that information, rather than delete it.
Right for your personal information to be portable
If we are processing your personal information (1) based on your consent, or in order to enter into or carry out a contract with you, and (2) the processing is being done by automated means, you may ask us to provide it to you or another service provider in a machine-readable format.
Right to object
You have the right to object to processing where we using your personal information (1) based on legitimate interests, (2) for direct marketing or (3) for statistical/research purposes.
If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please email us at info@swbc.co.uk and clearly state in the email subject line: RIGHTS REQUEST. We may be required to ask for further information and/or evidence of identity. We will endeavour to respond fully to all requests within 10 working days of your request, however if we are unable to do so we will contact you with reasons for the delay.
Please note that exceptions apply to a number of these rights, and not all rights will be applicable in all circumstances. For more details we recommend you consult the guidance published by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office, https://ico.org.uk.
Keeping your information safe
When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that appropriate technical and organisational controls are in place to protect it.
Any sensitive information such as credit or debit card details is encrypted and protected with the following software 128 Bit encryption on SSL. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. This information will be stored by a third party. We have carried out due diligence with the organisation.
Security
SWBC uses reasonable measures to safeguard personal information. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to only those employees, contractors or agents who have a legitimate business need to have access to that data. The employees, contractors or agents will process your personal data in accordance with our instructions. They will be subject to a duty of confidentiality and due care with respect to handling the personal data. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
Emails 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 website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Use of ‘cookies’
Like many other websites, this 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. This helps us to deliver a better more personalised service when you browse our website and improve our services.
Google Analytics allows us to recognise and track visitors on our website and to understand how they are using this. We use this to improve the customer journey and website experience.
Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This 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 websites 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 privacy policy of that third party site.
Changes to this policy
Any changes we may make to this policy in the future will be posted on this website so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. If we make any significant changes, we’ll make this clear on this website and you are deemed to have accepted the terms of the privacy policy on your first use of the website following the alterations.
Review of this policy
We keep this policy under regular review. This policy was last updated in April 2021.
General
You may not transfer any of your rights under this privacy policy to any other person. We may transfer our rights under this privacy policy where we believe your rights will not be affected. We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all assets. We would take steps to ensure your privacy rights continue to be protected.