Privacy Policy

Centre for Big Synergy (hereafter referred to as, CBS, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to safeguarding your personal data. As a not for profit, in line with the guidance of the Information Commissioner’s office, UK, CBS adheres to the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations and understands best practice for managing information.

The privacy policy works to protect the privacy and security of any personal information we obtain about ‘you’, whether you are visiting or using our “website”/”site”, www.thebigsynergy.org, as a visitor, user, supporter, patron, member or partner.

Please note that you are agreeing to the privacy policy below when using the website www.thebigsynergy.org.

In line with our internal processes and systems, we comply with the following policies:

– UK Data Protection Act 1998

– EU Data Protection Directive 1995 (DPD)

– EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR)

– US Government’s ‘Privacy Shield’ framework

1. Data we collect

1.1. We do not collect any personal information from you to our site unless you explicitly and intentionally provide it. Under no circumstances do we collect any personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health, or sex life. If you are simply browsing our site, we do not gather any personal information about you.

1.2 Under no circumstances do we collect any financial data nor do we store any card details or financial information, whatsoever. All financial data are handled by our payment providers including Paypal, Stripe and GoCardless on their respective platforms.

1.3 We collect information in two principal ways in which you may explicitly and intentionally provide us with, and consent to our collection of certain personal information:

a) From our website
b) From emails, telephone calls and written correspondence or otherwise.

  1. It includes information you provide when you visit our site, register as a subscriber, subscribe to any of our membership or partner services or have sent us an email or complaint regarding any matter related to our company, website, projects, and services or otherwise.
  2. Information that are collected from you are as follows: Name, telephone number, e-mail addresses, address or location, demographic information, CV, date of birth, technical information such as browser used and IP information, parts of the website visited and source of your visit to our site.

1.4 As we closely work with third parties including  IT partners, sub-contractors, partner organisations, marketing partners, advertising networks, business analytics services, SEO providers, analyst services, credit reference providers, event organisers, and media partners, we might receive information about you from them, such as your name, telephone number, e-mail addresses, address or location, browser used and IP information. In such a situation we will notify you regarding the source and the purposes for which we intend to use your data.

2. Data usage

We use the information provided to us to ensure that we cater to your needs and provide you with a better service. We use this information for the following:

  1. Record keeping and database maintenance for ‘you’ i.e. our members, partners and subscribers;
  2. To offer membership and invite you to become involved in our projects and activities;
  3. Hold your personal data in order to administer membership and partnership activities i.e. to fulfil contractual obligations entered into with you in line with the terms of service you have signed up to;
  4. Contact you for the services we provide and to improve our services and projects;
  5. To customize the website according to your interests and needs;
  6. Periodically send promotional emails, newsletters about new projects, services, events, special offers, news, discounts or other information which we think you may find interesting and of relevance to you;
  7. To send you marketing information about our projects, activities and appeals where we have your consent or are otherwise allowed to send;
  8. Better user experience via Google Analytics monitoring
  9. When you visit our site, our computers may automatically collect statistics about your visit. This information does not identify you personally, but rather about a visit to our site. We may monitor statistics such as how many people visit our site, the user’s IP address, which pages people visit on our site, from which domains our visitors reach our site, and which browsers people use. We use these statistics about your visit for aggregation purposes only. These statistics are used to help us improve the performance of our website.
  10. Collect information on pages that you access or visit and consumer trends. This information we collect is used to improve the content of our web pages and the quality of our service, and is not shared with or sold to other organizations for commercial purposes, except to provide products or services that you have requested, when we have your permission, or under the following circumstances or for legal reasons:
  11. Your communications with us, including online, by email, text message (SMS), via our website (or otherwise) may be recorded and retained for quality, training and record-keeping purposes. If you post or interact with us via social media, we may use your information, in order to contact you in relation to the query. We will not use this for the purpose of further marketing or communications, unless you give us your consent to do so.
  12. If you are registered as a member or partner, you give us the consent to publish your profile and details on our digital platform, member directory, our online directory, website, journals, publications (online and paper) or handbook. You can withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us.

3. Data sharing

3.1 It is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Terms and Conditions of the website, or as otherwise stated by law.

3.2 We will transfer information about you if we partner or is acquired by or merged with another company or there is a transfer of assets. In such an event, we will notify you before information about you are transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy under the new company structure.

3.3 Personal data that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes. Personal data are retained for maximum period of 10 years from the time of receipt.

4. Data Storage and transfers of your information out of the EEA

We use third party vendors and UK hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required to run the website. Although we own the databases, and all rights to our website, you retain all rights to your data. In case of third party vendors that are located in the UK, they comply with the European data protection law and GDPR requirements. For some of our vendors with headquarters or servers outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), your Personal information may be transferred to countries outside the EEA including to the United States. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the EEA. If our providers transfer your Personal Information to the USA, they will protect it as described in their Privacy Policy which adheres to the EU – U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (“Privacy Shield”) set forth by the United States Department of Commerce and the European Commission regarding the collection, use, and retention of Personal Information collected from individuals located in the EEA.

5. Data security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is safe and secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. Nonetheless, due to the inherent risks of the Internet we cannot guarantee the protection of such information against loss, misuse or alteration during transmission via the internet. 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, 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.

6. Third-party advertisements and marketing

6.1 Third-party advertisements

Companies and partners are allowed to display products and services of interest and relevance in the form of adverts and links when you visit our website. These companies may use aggregated information (which does not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of what might be of interest to you. Please note that we have no control over these third-party websites and therefore cannot accept responsibility for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such third-party websites and such websites are not governed by this privacy policy. It is your responsibility to exercise caution and note the terms of privacy policies relevant to any such third-party websites.

6.2 Third-party marketing

We will always ask you to confirm in advance that you are happy for us to allow third parties to contact you by email. Our partner organisations and associate or affiliate companies can send you tailored marketing emails and offers, only if you provide ‘opt-in’ consent before we share your personal data with any company outside our internal service provider companies for marketing purposes. At any time you can email us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages by following the opt-out or unsubscribe links on any marketing message sent to you.

7. Cookie policy

7.1 Our website uses cookies to improve user experience. We will ask you to consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy when you first visit our website. By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.

7.2 A cookie is a small file which can be placed on the computer’s hard drive with the users’ prior permission. Once the user agrees, the file is added and the cookies helps analyze web traffic or lets the user know when they visit a particular site or product. We may use cookies in the future to record or track user preference and web traffic data to improve our products and services. This will ensure that we tailor our site to improve user experience and tailor it to customer needs. The cookies help us identify the IP address of your computer. They help us confirm your identity when you log into our website, and they help us determine how many people are online.

7.3 We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users’ computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google’s privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html

7.4 Through your Internet browser you can set your computer whether to accept cookies or not. This option can be activated via the tools section of your internet browser. If you refuse a cookie it may prevent the proper operation of the site or even prevent your access to certain areas.

8. Your rights

8.1 Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  1. The right to request a copy of the personal data, which we may hold about you;
  2. The right to request that we correct any personal data, if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
  3. The right to request your personal data is erased, where it is no longer necessary to retain such data;
  4. The right to ask us from contacting you for direct marketing purposes;
  5. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time, where consent was your lawful basis for processing the data;
  6. The right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable, i.e. where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and where the data controller processes the data by automated means);
  7. The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
    The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable i.e. where processing is based on legitimate interests, or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority).

8.2 For any request to access, rectify, change or delete your data, we will respond within 14-30 working days from the time we have received your request.

9. Your consent

By using our site, you consent to this privacy policy.

Your personal information will not be used for any unrelated purpose without your consent. By disclosing your personal information to us, by using this website or by telephone or written correspondence, you consent to the collection, storage and processing of your personal information by the website.

10. Data breach

We will take necessary safeguards to ensure your data is safe with us, however, in case of any data breach of our systems that impact the security of any member(s), partner(s) or any other individual’s personal data, we will immediately inform the party affected as soon as we are made aware of such an occurrence providing details and nature of the breach, possible consequences of such a breach and the measures taken by us to amend the breach in accordance with our legal policy and procedures. Where required, we will notify the Information Commissioner’s Office, UK in line with the legal requirements of the case.

11. Changes and notifications

We may periodically update this policy. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the email address provided by you or by placing a prominent notice on our site. We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review. This Privacy Policy was last updated on 05.07.2019.

12. Questions or comments

If you have any questions or would like to request information about our privacy policy you can contact us here.