UKIF Privacy and Usage Policy (Full)
Your privacy is our top concern. We work hard to earn and keep your trust, so we adhere to the following principles to protect your privacy:
- We do not rent or sell your personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes.
- We do not share your contact information with another UKIF member (User) without your consent.
- Any personally identifiable information that you provide will be secured with industry standard protocols and technology.
- We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page. By continuing to use the UKIF service after notice of changes have been sent to you or published on the UKIF website, you are consenting to the changes.
Please read this privacy policy to learn more about:
- What personally identifiable information of yours is collected by UKIF.
- How the information is used.
- With whom the information may be shared.
- How you can access and change your Account settings.
- What security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information collected by UKIF
- How to contact us.
1. Personal Information Collected
The purpose of the UKIF website is to permit Users to voluntarily provide information about themselves for the purposes of developing, maintaining and enhancing a network of professional contacts. You willingly provide us with certain personal information, which we collect in order to allow you to benefit from the UKIF website. If you have any hesitation about providing such information to us and/or having such information displayed on the UKIF website or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, you should not become a member of the UKIF community.
We collect your personal information in the following ways:
Registration
In order to become a User, you must first create an account on our website. To create an account you are required to provide the following contact information, which you recognise and expressly acknowledge is personal information allowing others, including UKIF, to identify you: name, email address, country, postal code (or ZIP), a brief summary of your professional background, and a password chosen by you.
Profile Information
Once you become a User, you may provide additional information in the Profile section describing your skills, professional experiences, and networking objectives. Providing additional information beyond what is required at registration to become a User is entirely optional, but enables you to better identify yourself and find new opportunities in the UKIF system to build and leverage your professional network. Any information you provide at registration or in the Profile section that is not personally identifiable may be used in the same manner and extent to which other information that is not personally identifiable is permitted to be used hereunder, including for the purpose of serving advertisements through the service. If you opt-out you may lose the potential benefit of being a User, including receiving ads that are more targeted to your interests.
Contacts Information
In order to invite others to connect with you directly in UKIF, you may use the UKIF services to invite them if they are a User, or enter their names and email addresses. This information will be used by UKIF to send your invitation including a message that you write. The names and email addresses of people that you invite will be used only to send your invitation and reminders.
Customer Service
UKIF may collect information through the UKIF website in order to, among other things, accurately categorise and respond to a customer’s enquiry and deliver appropriate service levels.
Cookies
Like most websites, UKIF uses cookies and web log files to track site usage. A cookie is a tiny data file which resides on your computer which allows UKIF to recognize you as a User when you return to the UKIF website using the same computer and web browser. If your browser settings do not allow cookies, you will not be able to use the UKIF website. Like the information you enter at registration or in your Profile, cookie and log file data is used to customize your experience on our website.
One type of cookie, known as a “persistent” cookie, is set once you’ve logged in to your UKIF account. The next time you visit the UKIF website, the persistent cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing User so you will not need to log in before using the service. In order to access or change any of your private information (like a credit card number) or to send a message to another User, however, you must log in securely again with your password even if your computer contains your persistent cookie.
Additionally, if you log out of the UKIF website you will need to re-enter your password the next time you visit in order to log in to your account. Another type of cookie, called a “session” cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the UKIF website. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser.
We use cookies to improve the quality of our service by storing User preferences and tracking User trends. In the course of serving advertisements or optimizing services to our Users, we may allow authorized third parties to place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. Any information provided to third parties through such cookies will not be personally identifiable but may provide general segment information, e.g. your industry or geographic location, your occupation, or information about your professional or educational background, for greater customization of your user experience. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Unfortunately, if your browser settings do not allow cookies or you opt to refuse all cookies, you may not be able to use the UKIF website or services. UKIF does not store personally identifiable information in the cookies.
Log files, IP addresses and information about your computer
Due to the communications standards on the Internet, when you visit the UKIF web site we automatically receive the URL of the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave UKIF. We also receive the Internet protocol (IP) address of your computer (or the proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using, email patterns, as well as the name of your ISP. This information is used to analyze overall trends to help us improve the UKIF service. The linkage between your IP address and your personally identifiable information is not shared with third-parties without your permission or except when required by law.
Consent to UKIF Processing Information About You
Certain information you provide to UKIF may reveal, or allow others to identify, your nationality, ethnic origin, religion or other aspects of your private life, and more generally about you. Please be aware that in providing information to UKIF for the purposes of opening your user account, you are expressly and voluntarily accepting the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and UKIF’s User Agreement. The supplying of all such information by you to UKIF, including all information deemed “sensitive” by applicable law, is entirely voluntary on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, but please note that your withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive.
Rights to Access, Correct and Eliminate Information About You
You have a right to access, modify, correct and eliminate the data about you which has been collected pursuant to your decision to become a User. If you update any of your information, we may keep a copy of the information which you originally provided to us in our archives for uses documented herein.
We take your rights seriously and encourage you to use them if you deem this to be appropriate. You may exercise these rights by emailing us at gro.FI-KUnull@pihsrebmem or by contacting us at: UK Innovation Forum Ltd
2. Uses of personal information
UKIF provides an online service dedicated to helping individuals active in the innovation sector to connect more effectively with one another. The personally identifiable information you choose to provide on our website is used to help you describe yourself to other Users. Other information, that does not personally identify you as an individual, is collected by UKIF from Users (such as, for example, patterns of utilisation) and is exclusively owned by UKIF. This information can be utilised by UKIF in such manner as UKIF, in its sole discretion, deems appropriate.
UKIF Communications
UKIF will communicate with you through email and notices posted on the UKIF website or through other means available through the service, including text and other forms of messaging. These include a series of up to five welcome emails which help inform new Users about various features of the service. Please be aware that you will always receive certain emails from UKIF related to the proper functioning of your account, such as email notices when another User in your network sends you an opportunity. UKIF may send you promotional information unless you have opted out of receiving such information. You can change your e-mail and contact preferences at any time by logging into your ‘Account & Settings’ and amending your email notification choices. If you wish, you can also opt-out of receiving promotional emails, by sending a request to gro.fi-kunull@pihsrebmem.
Customized Content
Information provided to UKIF (or to third parties with whom it offers combined services) is also used to customise your experience on our website.
Sharing Information with Third Parties
UKIF takes the privacy of Users very seriously. We do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes. We will only share your personally identifiable information with third parties to carry out your instructions or to provide specific services or information. For instance, we use a credit card processing company to bill Users for subscription fees. These third parties do not retain, share, or store any personally identifiable information except to provide these services and they are bound by confidentiality agreements which limit their use of such information.
We may provide aggregated anonymous data about the usage of our services to third parties for such purposes as we deem, in our sole discretion, to be appropriate, including to prospective advertisers on UKIF. We may segment our Users by role (i.e. CEOs, CTOs), industry, geographic location, or company. If you would like to be excluded from the aggregated research or products based upon aggregated data about our Users’ activities on the site, please email gro.FI-KUnull@pihsrebmem.
Teaming with Other Organizations to Offer Combined and Other Services
UKIF may offer our services in connection with other websites (including updates about the UKIF service) or may team with other online services to give you the combined results of both services or additional services and benefits. Platform Applications (as defined in the User Agreement) can be designed by Platform Developers (as defined in the User Agreement) or by a subset of Platform Developers with whom UKIF has more closely aligned (“Partners”).
In the case of Partners, we do some vetting and we only work with trusted Partners. Because of UKIF’s trust in these Partners, Platform Applications or services designed by a Partner may be automatically granted permission to access account information to provide the combined services.
For Platform Applications designed by most Platform Developers, you will be asked to confirm acceptance of the Platform Developers’ respective privacy policies and user agreements, which have not necessarily been reviewed or approved by UKIF. In these cases, it will be your choice whether or not to make use of the services and whether to proceed under the Platform Developers’ terms.
Platform Developers are required to agree to restrictions on access, storage and usage of your information. However, while we typically enter into contractual agreements and take technical steps to restrict possible misuse of such information by such Platform Developers, we may not screen or approve Platform Developers, and we cannot and do not guarantee that all Platform Developers will abide by such restrictions and agreements. Certain actions you take through the Platform Applications will be displayed to your connections. You understand that your use of any Platform Applications is on an “as is” basis without any warranty as to the Platform Developers’ actions.
If you, your connections, members of your network, or other Users of UKIF use any Platform Application, or if you interact with a Platform Application being used by any of them, such Platform Application may access and share certain information about you with others. Because a Platform Application can make calls on behalf of the User interacting with it to access non-public information, the level of detail accessible by the Platform Application is constrained by the same settings that govern visibility of your data to that User on UKIF.
For example, assuming you have not already given a Platform Application permission to access your information, your nonpublic profile information should not be visible to someone using a Platform Application if it is not otherwise accessible to that person on UKIF.
To report any suspected misuse of information contact: moc.FIKUnull@esuba. UKIF is not responsible for your use of or inability to use any Platform Applications, including the content, accuracy, or reliability of such applications and the privacy practices or other policies of Platform Developers.
Surveys and Polls
As a User, you will receive requests to participate in market research including polls and surveys submitted by other UKIF members. If you participate in surveys and polls offered through our website, the information you provide may be visible to others using the UKIF website. You may opt-out of participating by changing your Account & Settings to stop receiving these inquiries and requests.
Forums/Chats/Blogs
If you post on the Answers section of UKIF, or use a bulletin board, import a blog, or participate in a chat room on UKIF, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you choose to provide there can be read, collected, or used by other Users of these forums, as well as Platform Developers and other third parties, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. UKIF is not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.
Legal Disclaimer
It is possible that we may need to disclose personal information when required by law, such as responses to civil or criminal subpoenas, or other requests by law enforcement personnel. We will disclose such information wherein we have a good-faith belief that it is necessary to comply with a court order, ongoing judicial proceeding, subpoena, or other legal process or request to UKIF brought in any country throughout the world, or to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
Disclosures to others
We may also disclose your personal and other information you provide, to another third party as part of a reorganisation or a sale of the assets of a UKIF corporation division or company. Any third party to which we transfer or sell UKIF’s assets will have the right to continue to use the personal and other information that you provide to us.
3. Your Information Choices
Accessing and Changing Your Account Information
You can review the personal information you provided to us and make any desired changes to the information you publish, or to the settings for your UKIF account including your email, and contact preferences, at any time by logging in to your account on the UKIF website. Please be aware that even after your request for a change is processed, UKIF may, for a time, retain residual information about you in its backup and/or archival copies of its database.
Closing Your Account
You can also close your account through the UKIF website. If you close your UKIF account, we will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from our publicly viewable database. We may retain certain data contributed by you if we believe it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. To request that we close your account and remove your information from the UKIF website, please send your request to gro.FI-KUnull@pihsrebmem. Please send your request using an email account that you have registered with UKIF under your name.
Your Obligations
As a User, you have certain obligations toward the other Users with whom you will be communicating. Certain of these obligations are imposed by applicable law and regulations, and others have become commonplace in user-friendly communities of like-minded members, such as UKIF:
- You must, at all times, respect the terms and conditions of the then-current Privacy Policy and the User Agreement. This includes respecting all intellectual property rights which may belong to third parties (such as photographs).
- You must not download or otherwise disseminate any information which may be deemed to be injurious, violent, offensive, racist or xenophobic or which may otherwise violate the purpose and spirit of UKIF and its community of Users.
- You must not provide information to UKIF and /or other Users which you believe might be injurious or detrimental to your person, professional or social status.
Any violation of these guidelines may lead to the restriction, suspension or termination of your account by UKIF, as we take these principles seriously and consider them to be the basis on which our Users adhere to the UKIF website and the services which it offers.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
UKIF may update this privacy policy at any time, with or without advance notice. In the event there are significant changes in the way we treat your personally identifiable information, we will display a notice on the UKIF website or send you an email, as provided for above. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.
If you use the UKIF service after notice of changes have been sent to you or published on our site, you hereby provide your consent to the changed practices.
4. Security
In order to secure your personal information, access to your data on UKIF is password-protected, and sensitive data (such as credit card information) is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and the UKIF web site. To protect any data you store on our servers we also regularly audit our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks and we use a tier-one secured-access data center. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that emails and instant messaging and similar means of communication with other users of UKIF are not encrypted and we strongly request you not to communicate any confidential information through these means.
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