Privacy Policy

  1. Introduction

1.1 We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors, service users and individual customers.

1.2 This policy applies where we are acting as a data controller with respect to the personal data of such persons; in other words, where we determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.

1.3 We use cookies on our website. Insofar as those cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of PolymerCourses.com, we will ask you to consent to our use of cookies when you first visit our website.

1.4 In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to British Plastics Federation. For more information about us, see Section 13.

  1. The personal data that we collect

2.1 In this Section 2 we have set out the general categories of personal data that we process and, in the case of personal data that we did not obtain directly from you, information about the source and specific categories of that data.

2.2 We may process data enabling us to get in touch with you (“contact data”). The contact data may include your name, email address, telephone number, postal address and/or company details. The source of the contact data is you and/or your employer.

2.3 We may process your website user account data (“account data”). The account data may include your account identifier, name, email address, business name, account creation and modification dates, website settings and marketing preferences. The primary source of the account data is you and/or your employer, although some elements of the account data may be generated by our website. If you log into our website using a social media account, we will obtain elements of the account data from the relevant social media account provider.

2.4 We may process information relating to transactions, including purchases of goods and/or services, that you enter into with us and/or through our website (“transaction data”). The transaction data may include your name, your contact details, your payment card details (or other payment details) and the transaction details. The source of the transaction data is [you and/or our payment services provider.

2.5 We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us or that we send to you (“communication data”). The communication data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms.

2.6 We may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data”). The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is Google Analytics.

2.7 We may process data on user profiles. This data may include gender, age, ethnicity, disability, organization type, organization size, organization sector, job title and level of seniority. The source of this data is provided by the user during the checkout process.

2.8 When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

2.9 If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

2.10 Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

2.11 If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

2.12 Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

  1. Purposes of processing and legal bases

3.1 In this Section 3, we have set out the purposes for which we may process personal data and the legal bases of the processing.

3.2 Operations – We may process your personal data for the purposes of operating our website, the processing and fulfilment of orders, providing our services, supplying our goods, generating invoices, bills and other payment-related documentation, and credit control. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website, services and business.

3.3 Publications – We may process account data for the purposes of publishing such data on our website and elsewhere through our services in accordance with your express instructions. The legal basis for this processing is consent.

3.4 Relationships and communications – We may process contact data, account data, transaction data and/or communication data for the purposes of managing our relationships, communicating with you (excluding communicating for the purposes of direct marketing) by email, SMS, post, fax and/or telephone, providing support services and complaint handling. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely communications with our website visitors, service users, individual customers and customer personnel, the maintenance of relationships, and the proper administration of our website, services and business.

3.5 Direct marketing – We may process contact data, account data and/or transaction data for the purposes of creating, targeting and sending direct marketing communications by email, SMS, post and/or fax and making contact by telephone for marketing-related purposes. The legal basis for this processing is consent.

3.6 Research and analysis – We may process usage data and/or transaction data for the purposes of researching and analysing the use of our website and services, as well as researching and analysing other interactions with our business. The legal basis for this processing is consent.

3.7 Record keeping – We may process your personal data for the purposes of creating and maintaining our databases, back-up copies of our databases and our business records generally. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely ensuring that we have access to all the information we need to properly and efficiently run our business in accordance with this policy.

3.8 Security – We may process your personal data for the purposes of security and the prevention of fraud and other criminal activity. The legal basis of this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection of our website, services and business, and the protection of others.

3.9 Legal claims – We may process your personal data where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.

3.10 Legal compliance and vital interests – We may also process your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

  1. Providing your personal data to others

4.1 We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice.

4.2 Your personal data held in our website database will be stored on the servers of our hosting services providers.

4.3 We may disclose user data about gender, age, ethnicity, disability, organization type, organization size, organization sector, job title and level of seniority to Innovate UK insofar as reasonably necessary for understanding and evaluating the profile of site users. This will not include personal identifying information such as name or email address.

4.4 Financial transactions relating to our website and services are handled by our payment services providers Opayo. We will share transaction data with our payment services providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds. You can find information about the payment services providers’ privacy policies and practices at https://www.opayo.co.uk/policies/privacy-policy.

4.5 In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this Section 4, we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

  1. International transfers of your personal data

5.1 You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through our website or services may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.

  1. Retaining and deleting personal data

6.1 This Section 6 sets out our data retention policies and procedures, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal data.

6.2 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.

6.3 We will retain your personal data as follows:

(a) contact data will be retained following the date of the most recent contact between you and us, for up to five years or for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to maintain and evaluate our service, unless a specific and reasonable request is made for it to be deleted sooner.

(b) account data will be retained following the date of closure of the relevant account, for up to five years or for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to maintain and evaluate our service, unless a specific and reasonable request is made for it to be deleted sooner.

(c) transaction data will be retained following the date of the transaction for up to five years or for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to maintain and evaluate our service, unless a specific and reasonable request is made for it to be deleted sooner.

(d) communication data will be retained following the date of the communication in question for up to five years or for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to maintain and evaluate our service, unless a specific and reasonable request is made for it to be deleted sooner.

(e) usage data will be retained for up to five years or for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to maintain and evaluate our service, unless a specific and reasonable request is made for it to be deleted sooner.

6.4 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 6, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

  1. Your rights

7.1 In this Section 7, we have listed the rights that you have under data protection law.

7.2 Your principal rights under data protection law are:

(a) the right to access – you can ask for copies of your personal data;

(b) the right to rectification – you can ask us to rectify inaccurate personal data and to complete incomplete personal data;

(c) the right to erasure – you can ask us to erase your personal data;

(d) the right to restrict processing – you can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data;

(e) the right to object to processing – you can object to the processing of your personal data;

(f) the right to data portability – you can ask that we transfer your personal data to another organisation or to you;

(g) the right to complain to a supervisory authority – you can complain about our processing of your personal data; and

(h) the right to withdraw consent – to the extent that the legal basis of our processing of your personal data is consent, you can withdraw that consent.

7.3 These rights are subject to certain limitations and exceptions. You can learn more about the rights of data subjects by visiting https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/.

7.4 You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by written notice to us, using the contact details set out below.

  1. Amendments

8.1 We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.

8.2 You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.

8.3 We may notify you of significant changes to this policy by email.

  1. Our details

9.1 This website is owned and operated by The British Plastics Federation

9.2 We are registered in England and Wales under registration number 00282883, and our registered office is at 5-6 Bath Place, Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3JE, United Kingdom

9.3 Our principal place of business is at 5-6 Bath Place, Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3JE, United Kingdom.

9.4 You can contact us:

(a) by post, to the postal address 5-6 Bath Place, Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3JE, United Kingdom.

(b) using our website contact form;

(c) by telephone, on +44 (0) 207 457 5044; or

(d) by email, using the email address published on our website.