British Federation of Women Graduates

Privacy Policy 

Introduction

The British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG) 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, and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time, but we will notify members and those on our mailing lists when we do so.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to: office@bfwg.co.uk or in writing to: BFWG Office, 4 Mandeville Courtyard, 142 Battersea Park Rd, London SW11 4NB.

Collecting your information 

We obtain information about you when you use our website, for example, when you contact us, apply for membership, register for an event, or if you are on one of our mailing lists.

The personal information we collect includes your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages of the website are accessed and when.

If you pay for your subscription, make a donation, or purchase a badge from us online your card 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.

Using your information

We may use your information to:

• process your membership application
• seek your views or comments;
• notify you of changes to our services;
• process a grant or job application;
• send you communications which you have requested  or that may be of interest to you;
• send you information about meetings and events
• process a donation that you have made;
• process orders for badges.
• to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements, for example to process Gift Aid declarations.

Certain members of our management team or people in other positions, eg web administrators will have access to all of this information.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis.

Scholarship awards
Applications for scholarship awards will require additional information about the applicant, their studies, and their referee.
Any personal information that is provided in the application is used only for the purpose of assessing the application and for the ongoing administration and management of any prizes that are awarded. We will also publish information about awards on our website, including the name of the award, recipient, university and title of thesis. We will retain the names and contact details of winners in order that we may keep in touch with those we have helped.

We will never sell, trade, rent, exchange or otherwise share your personal information with any other person, company or organisation without gaining consent to do so. The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors, whether the information is in electronic or physical format. We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary for the relevant activity.

Your choices

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us.

If you do not want to receive information from us about our services, including events and meetings, then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant boxes situated on the form on which we collect your information.

Accessing and updating your information

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, and we are working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct that information, as it is important that your information is accurate. In the meantime, if you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: office@bfwg.co.uk, or write to us at: 4 Mandeville Courtyard, 142 Battersea Park Rd, London SW11 4NB.

Security 

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it is treated securely. Any sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) is encrypted and protected.

When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Some details (your email address for example) are transmitted by you 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.

Links to other websites

Our website also contains links to other websites that may be of interest to our members or visitors. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, this privacy statement no longer applies and we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting those sites - such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. Please check the respective policies of any such sites that you chose to visit.
Equally, if you have 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.

Transferring your information outside Europe  

Our website is held on secure servers within the UK. However, if you use our website while you are outside the EU, your information may be transferred outside the EU in order to provide you with access.
Although membership of BFWG automatically makes you a member of University Women of Europe (UWE) and Graduate Women International (GWI) your details are not passed to them. You may register directly with them to receive information, or to apply for events, but this is separate from BFWG.

Our Cookie Policy 

Use of 'cookies'
Like many other websites, our website uses Functionality and Performance `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. We use cookies to store your device and browser preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better, more personalised service.

Functionality cookies are cookies that automatically remember choices that users have previously made in order to improve their experience next time they visit a website, for example, where users select their preferred settings and layout.
Performance cookies are cookies which collect anonymous information about users for the purpose of assessing the performance of a website. Common uses include well-known web analytics tools such as ‘Google Analytics’, which generates statistical and other information about website use which we can then analyse to see how our website is being used.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. More information on how to delete cookies on your computer or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies can be found on the help pages of your web browser.

Please note, however, that if you delete cookies or refuse to accept them, you might not be able to use all of the features we offer, you may not be able to store your preferences, and some of our pages might not display properly.

Complaints 

If you have any complaints about the way your information is being handled please contact BFWG HQ as quickly as possible, either by email to office@bfwg.org.uk or in writing to 4 Mandeville Courtyard, 142 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 4NB. We will carefully investigate and review all complaints and take appropriate action. We will keep you informed of progress and the outcome. If you are not satisfied with the outcome you can contact the Information Commissioner`s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns.

Security Breaches

Every care is taken to protect the data we hold. However if there is any compromise of information, confidentiality, integrity or availability it will be reported immediately to the Management Team. Appropriate steps will be taken immediately to minimise the effects of the breach and what further investigation is required. Depending on the nature of the breach consideration will be given to the appropriate authorities/experts to be informed. Anybody whose personal data has been affected by the incident will be notified, with a clear description of what has happened, and advice on what they can do to protect themselves and what has already been done to mitigate the risks.

Review of this Policy

We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated in May 2018.