Welcome to the Royal Society of Biology's privacy notice.
The Royal Society of Biology ("RSB") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit the RSB websites (www.rsb.org.uk, thebiologist.rsb.org.uk, biologyheritage.rsb.org.uk, heteaching.rsb.org.uk), our mySociety (my.rsb.org.uk) portal and our online training platform myLearning (learn.rsb.org.uk) (together, "our websites") (regardless of where you visit them from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
This privacy notice is provided in sections for ease of use. Click on the title of each section to show or hide its contents. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.
Purpose of this privacy notice
This privacy notice aims to give you information on how the Royal Society of Biology collects and processes your personal data through your use of our websites, including any data you may provide through our websites.
Our websites are only intended for use by adults or children under the supervision of an adult. We do not knowingly collect data relating to children who are too young to provide their own consent to the processing of their personal data without parental consent.
Controller
The Royal Society of Biology is the controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy notice). We are a registered charity in England and Wales (No. 277981) and incorporated by Royal Charter.
We have appointed a data protection officer ("DPO") who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact our DPO using the details set out below:
FAO Data Protection Officer
Royal Society of Biology
1 Naoroji Street
London
WC1X 0GB
Email address: membership@rsb.org.uk
Telephone number: +44(0)20 3925 3446
Fax number: +44(0)20 3514 3204
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (the "ICO"), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes
This version was last updated on 25 May 2018.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Third-party links
Our websites may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave any of our websites, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
- Identity Data includes first name, middle name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, title, date of birth, gender, country of residence, nationality, LinkedIn address, affiliation, job title and grade and category of membership.
- Contact Data includes contact address (used to fulfil your subscription to a publication, if relevant), billing address, alternative addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers.
- Application Data includes information about your education (including graduation date), qualifications, career, current and past employment, references, specialism, knowledge, skills, competencies, expertise, interests, potential conflicts of interest, immigration status, and your CV, degree certificates, publication record, exam results, application statement, and details of where you heard about us.
- Continuing Professional Development ("CPD") Data includes information about your CPD activities and records.
- Gift Aid Data includes first name, last name, tax payer address and confirmation regarding eligibility as a UK tax payer.
- Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
- Profile Data includes your username and credentials, purchases or orders made by you (including subscriptions to publications), your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses, dietary or other requirements.
- Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.
- Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our websites.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use our websites, products and services.
- Sensitive Data includes photographs, filming or other images of you (including your avatar photograph or image) and information about your political opinions and criminal convictions and offences.
We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data) except in the following cases:
- Applications for a job, committee position or other post and applications for a grant, bursary, award or prize may include an optional questionnaire on diversity ("Diversity Questionnaire"). Completion of a Diversity Questionnaire is always optional and has no bearing on the success or failure of an application. We may aggregate the data collected on Diversity Questionnaires to inform our strategy in terms of diversity. Data collected on Diversity Questionnaires is only presented in an anonymous format - it does not fall within the definition of personal data as a person cannot be identified from it.
- We may collect information regarding your political opinions on applications for certain jobs, committee positions or other posts that are highly sensitive. We will only do so where we consider it essential for the particular job, committee position or other post. In such cases, we will seek your explicit consent to us collecting this information from you. If you do not consent to us collecting this information from you or you withdraw your consent then we will not be able to progress your application for these sensitive posts.
- If you choose to upload an avatar photograph or image to your user profile on our mySociety portal, we will seek your explicit consent (or your parent's explicit consent if you are below the age of consent) to us collecting this information from you. Uploading an avatar photograph or image is optional. You can delete your avatar photograph or image from your user profile on our mySociety portal at any time. Your avatar photograph or image is not visible to other users.
- We may take photographs of you and/or film you if:
- you are awarded a grant, bursary, award or prize; and/or
- you win an individual competition or school competition; and/or
- you attend an event or training course.
We will collect information about criminal convictions and offences on applications for jobs, committee positions or other posts and applications for voluntary work. We will only do so where we consider it essential for the particular job, committee position, voluntary work or other post and we are legally able to do so. In such cases, we will seek your explicit consent to us collecting this information. If you do not consent to us collecting this information or you withdraw your consent then we will not be able to progress your application for these posts.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
- Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Application, CPD, Gift Aid, Financial, Profile and Marketing and Communications Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
- register as a user;
- register as a volunteer;
- subscribe to a publication, list or group;
- apply to become a member;
- apply for a grant, bursary, award or prize;
- book an event or training course;
- purchase or access an online training course;
- apply for a job, committee position or other post;
- register for an individual competition;
- register for a school competition;
- apply to be on one of our professional registers;
- set up a direct debit;
- submit a Gift Aid declaration;
- complete a Diversity Questionnaire;
- enrol in our CPD system;
- raise a query;
- provide details about your marketing preferences.
- Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our websites, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. Please see our {ReloadPane;cookies}cookie policy for further details.
- Third parties. We may receive Usage Data from analytics providers such as Google Analytics based outside the EU.
The personal information you provide via our websites is stored in a central, secure back office system called Marvin. This is a private, secure system where your personal data is collected, stored and processed. When you log in to, and use, our websites, they connect, securely, to Marvin to retrieve, store or update your personal data.
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
Click here to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.
Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data except as set out in the table below.
Where personal data belongs to a child below the age of consent we will rely on the consent of that child's parent or guardian as a legal basis for processing that child's personal data.
You have the right to withdraw consent at any time by contacting us.
Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
Purpose/Activity | Type of data | Lawful basis for processing |
---|---|---|
To register you as a user by creating a user record and providing credentials for logging in | a) Identity b) Contact |
Performance of a contract with you |
To register you as a volunteer including: a) carrying out background checks (if relevant) b) matching volunteers to opportunities, including by geographic matching, matching against expertise and interest or background in general |
a) Identity b) Contact c) Application |
Performance of a contract with you |
To fulfil your subscription to a publication, mailing list or interest/activity group | a) Identity b) Contact c) Application |
a) Performance of a contract with you b) Consent of parent in case of subscriber below the age of consent |
To verify your eligibility for membership and to fulfil membership and its benefits including: a) sending you branch-specific information b) sending you publications you are entitled to receive under your membership c) sending you communications about membership benefits renewal of membership |
a) Identity b) Contact c) Application |
Performance of a contract with you |
To publish the name and grade of new members in The Biologist and in our membership directory | a) Identity | Necessary for our legitimate interests (to be transparent about who our members are) |
To verify your eligibility for a grant, bursary, award or prize and score including: a) evaluating and ranking applicants b) managing processes and outcomes |
a) Identity b) Contact c) Application |
Performance of a contract with you |
To process and deliver your order to attend an event or training course including: a) managing payments, fees and charges (if relevant) b) sending you communications related to the event or training course c) asking you to take a survey d) producing name badges and attendee lists e) managing automatic recording of CPD on our CPD system (if relevant) |
a) Identity b) Contact c) CPD d) Profile |
Performance of a contract with you |
To process and deliver your order of an online training course including: a) managing payments, fees and charges b) providing access to purchased online training course c) managing your portfolio of online training courses d) monitoring your progress through an online training course e) issuing certificates and managing automatic recording of CPD on our CPD system (in both cases, if relevant) |
a) Identity b) Contact c) CPD d) Financial |
Performance of a contract with you |
To verify your suitability for a job, committee position or other post including: a) evaluating and ranking applicants b) carrying out background checks (if relevant) c) managing processes and outcomes |
a) Identity b) Contact c) Application |
Performance of a contract with you |
To verify your suitability for a job, committee position, voluntary work or other post. | a) Sensitive | Consent Please see further information above. |
To manage and organise an individual competition and judge and rank submissions | a) Identity b) Contact |
a) Performance of a contract with you b) Consent of parent in case of participant below the age of consent |
To manage participation in school competitions and facilitate access to separate school competition platform | a) Identity | Performance of a contract with you |
To verify your eligibility for admission to one of our professional registers and to fulfil registration on one of our professional registers and its benefits including: a) sending you communications relating to your registration on a professional register such as reminders for renewal b) demonstrating compliance with CPD requirements for our professional registers |
a) Identity b) Contact c) Application d) CPD |
Performance of a contract with you |
To verify your bank account details and process payment by direct debit for your membership and/or your subscription to a publication and/or your registration on one of our professional registers | a) Identity b) Contact c) Application d) Financial |
Performance of a contract with you |
To process your Gift Aid claim when you make a Gift Aid declaration | a) Gift Aid | Performance of a contract with you |
To collect statistical information about geographic location, gender and age of our members and progression within the categories of membership to inform our strategy in terms of growth and engagement | a) Aggregated data | Not applicable - aggregated data is not personal data |
To collect statistical information about the diversity of our staff, schemes and programmes to inform our strategy in terms of diversity | a) Aggregated data | Not applicable - aggregated data is not personal data |
To create and update your record of CPD activities | a) Identity b) Contact c) CPD Data |
Performance of a contract with you |
To send you publications you subscribe to | a) Identity b) Contact c) Profile d) Marketing and Communications |
Performance of a contract with you |
To notify you about changes to our terms or privacy policy | a) Identity b) Contact |
a) Performance of a contract with you b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation |
To administer and protect our activities and our websites (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) | a) Identity b) Contact c) Technical |
a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running RSB, provisions of administration and IT services, network security to prevent fraud and in the context of a reorganisation or restricting exercise) b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation |
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences | a) Technical b) Usage |
a) Technical b) Usage Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of users for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our activities and to inform our marketing strategy) |
To record your queries and our responses, to provide the service requested and to provide more relevant interactions in the future and allow us to see the full history of engagement | a) Identity b) Contact |
a) Consent |
To send you marketing communications | a) Identity b) Contact c) Profile d) Marketing and Communications |
a) Consent b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to help build and develop the scientific community as part of our general promotional/outreach activities) Please see further information below. |
To publish details other than name and grade of our members in our membership directory | a) Identity b) Profile |
a) Consent |
To publish your name, photograph and/or film of you if: a) you are awarded a grant, bursary, award or prize; and/or b) you win an individual competition or school competition; and/or c) you attend an event or training course. |
a) Identity b) Sensitive |
a) Consent b) Consent of parent in the case of participant below the age of consent |
To display your avatar photograph or image on your user profile on our mySociety portal | a) Sensitive | a) Consent b) Consent of parent in the case of participant below the age of consent |
Marketing
Most commonly, we will only send you communications in connection with the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
We may also use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).
We strive to provide you with choices regarding use of your personal data for marketing purposes.
We will only send you marketing communications if:
- (i) you have given us your consent by opting in to receive marketing communications; or
- (ii) we have a legitimate interest to do so, for example:
- to invite you to join as a member if you are not a member;
- to invite you to re-join as a member if you are a lapsed member;
- to invite you to attend events if you have a professional profile relevant to the event; and
- to contact you in relation to relevant matters within our mission and vision if you are an individual with a role in a relevant organisation or committee.
You can update your marketing preferences by logging into your user account on mySociety.
Third-party marketing
We do not share your personal data with any other company or organisation for marketing purposes.
Opting out
You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into your user account on mySociety and checking or unchecking relevant controls to adjust your marketing preferences or by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting our Data Protection Officer at any time.
Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of an application, a product/service purchase or other transactions.
Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block cookies that enable authentication and maintaining state, you may not be able to access all or parts of our websites and you will not be able to log in to any of our websites. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our {ReloadPane;cookies}cookie policy.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to receive an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.
- Internal Third Parties as set out in in the Glossary.
- External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
- Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our organisation or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other organisations or merge with them. If a change happens to our organisation, then the new trustees or owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area ("EEA").
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 those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
How long will you use my personal data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
If you wish to receive details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data, please contact us.
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:
- Request access to your personal data.
- Request correction of your personal data.
- Request erasure of your personal data.
- Object to processing of your personal data.
- Request restriction of processing your personal data.
- Request transfer of your personal data.
- Right to withdraw consent.
You have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. You can securely access and manage much of the personal data we hold about you by logging in or registering on our mySociety portal.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us. You can access and edit much of the personal data we hold about you by logging in or registering on our mySociety portal.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
Exercising your rights
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact our Data Protection Officer:
FAO Data Protection Officer
Royal Society of Biology
1 Naoroji Street
London
WC1X 0GB
Email address: membership@rsb.org.uk
Telephone number: +44(0)20 3925 3440
Fax number: +44(0)20 3514 3204
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Lawful basis
- Legitimate Interest means the interest of our organisation in conducting and managing our organisation to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
- Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
- Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.
Internal Third Parties
- Our committee members or representatives.
External Third Parties
- Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our websites.
- Referees acting as processors or joint controllers you have identified on an application for membership or on an application for inclusion on one of our professional registers.
- External assessors or examiners acting as processors or joint controllers for evaluation of your application for a grant, bursary, award or prize or your application for a job, committee position or other post or your application for inclusion on one of our professional registers (in the case of some of our professional registers).
- The Science Council acting as processor or joint controller, licensing some of our professional registers.
- Service providers acting as processors based in the EEA who provide payment-processing services, bank-account-verification services membership-related services, subscription-fulfilment services, voting services, IT and system administration services.
- Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
- HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
- Competition organisers acting as processors or joint controllers.