Privacy Policy of The Welding Institute

The Welding Institute treats the privacy of its members and website users very seriously and we take appropriate measures to safeguard your privacy. This policy explains how we protect and manage any personal data you share with us and that we hold about you, including how we collect, process, protect and share that data. 

About The Welding Institute

For the purposes of any personal data processed whilst you visit this website, the Data Controller will be TWI Ltd.  TWI Ltd/The Welding Institute is registered with the UK Information Commissioner and a copy of the registration is available via the Information Commissioner's website.

Please note, as well as The Welding Institute’s main website, this policy applies to all public web domains and subdomains operated by TWI Ltd/The Welding Institute.

Privacy

The Welding Institute may process your personal data including; your contact details, areas of engineering interest, payment data, details of academic record and employment experience or history, order and delivery data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (“Act”), and the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR”).

Please note, we will not process or store the personal information of individuals under 16 years of age, unless consent is given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility.

How We Use Your Personal Data  

We process personal information for certain legitimate interest business purposes, which includes where the processing enables us to exchange, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services and / or communications for the benefit of our members, for example sending renewal notifications.

Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always keep your Personal Data rights in high regards and take account of these rights. You have the right to object to this processing if you wish, and if you wish to do so please contact us at theweldinginstitute@twi.co.uk. Please bear in mind that if you object this may affect our ability to carry our tasks above for your benefit.

The Welding Institute may use your personal data in the following ways:

• To process membership applications and renewals and for all other membership administration; 
• Member Grade Application – processing of personal data (completed application form, details of previous experience, qualifications, references etc. as stipulated by The Welding Institute) in order to assess your application. This may include the processing of your personal information by third party experts / Assessors and Examiners;
• To provide you with critically important information about your membership or the Institution;  
• To provide your personal information to branches in accordance with your member eligibility.
• To provide your personal information to branches, specifically to our branch volunteers who look after events in your chosen branch area, to enable communication with you around events or other local branch matters.
  
• To provide your personal information to other TWI Group companies for the purpose of delivering your full membership benefits
  
• To undertake other services or to provide products that you have requested from the organisation - for example: renewals, event booking administration, venue booking administration, merchandise orders.  
• To conduct service administration e.g. issue password reminders , or to notify you that a particular The Welding Institute service, activity or content has been changed, suspended for maintenance, or is otherwise not able to be used or consumed as expected; 
• To carry out our obligations arising from any other contracts or agreements entered into between you and The Welding Institute

Do we use your personal data for marketing purposes?

Based on your consent preferences we will provide you with information that you have requested about the Institution e.g. engineering news, products or services; to invite you to participate in surveys or discussions; or to share with you any other content relevant to your membership or stated preferences.

The Welding Institute may permit selected third parties to use your data to provide you with information about goods and services, which will be beneficial to you, if you have given your consent for it to do so. If at any time you no longer wish your contact details to be shared for marketing purposes, you can simply let The Welding Institute know at theweldinginstitute@twi.co.uk

The Welding Institute collects information about users of the Website for the following reasons:

• To help The Welding Institute improve the Website and the services it offers to obtain aggregated statistics.
• To help The Welding Institute achieve its constitutional purposes.
• The Welding Institute will monitor and review (in a manner proportionate to the size and nature of the Institute) on a regular basis, equality data to measure the effectiveness of our Equality and Diversity policy. Monitoring information will always be used in anonymous ways and treated with the highest level of confidentiality. In particular, The Welding Institute will, as appropriate, monitor and record sensitive information such as the age, sexual orientation, gender, and ethnicity of members/ volunteers, employees, applicants and contractors.

Please note that telephone calls to The Welding Institute may be monitored or recorded for training purposes

Disclosure of your information 

The Welding Institute will only disclose your personal information to third parties without your consent if it is;

• under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply the terms and conditions of supply and other agreements; or
• to protect the rights, property, or safety of The Welding Institute, its members or others; or for the purposes of fraud prevention and credit risk reduction.

The Welding Institute may disclose your personal information to any of its wholly owned subsidiaries.

 

Your rights

You are entitled to see copies of all personal data held by us and to request an amendment, correction or deletion of such data. You can also ask that your data be limited, restricted or object to the processing of your data. Registered The Welding Institute Website users can log into the website to manage various opt-in and opt-out options.

If you gave us your consent to use your data, e.g. so that we can send you marketing emails, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us directly at theweldinginstitute@twi.co.uk

Please note that even if you withdraw your consent, we can still rely on the consent you gave as the lawful basis for processing your data before you withdrew your consent.

You can object to our use of your data where we rely on our legitimate interests to do so. To raise any objections or to exercise any of your rights, you can send an email to the Data Protection Officer at theweldinginstitute@twi.co.uk

When you get in touch, we will come back to you as soon as possible and where possible within one month

Subject Access Requests

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) grants you (hereinafter referred to as the “data subject”) the right to access particular personal data that we hold about you. This is referred to as a subject access request. You will need to complete an application form (available on request, as detailed below).  We normally respond to subject access requests within one month, however exceptions may apply.  

Your right to access your information 

The Act and GDPR give you the right to access information held about you. All subject Access rights may be exercised in accordance with the Act by writing to the Data Protection Officer at The Welding Institute and any access request is normally free of charge.

How long do we keep your Information?

The Welding Institute will not retain personal data that we process for any specific purpose for any longer than is necessary.

Your right to prevent marketing

The Welding Institute will actively seek your consent for marketing purposes and you always have the right to change your preferences and contact us if you prefer that The Welding Institute does not process your personal data for marketing purposes.                

Opt-In/Opt-Out Preferences

You can exercise this right at any time by

(1) visiting the preferences section of your members portal
(2) emailing theweldinginstitute@twi.co.uk
(3) writing to The Welding Institute Data Protection Officer, TWI Ltd, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AL

All marketing from The Welding Institute will carry a link in the footer, through which you can unsubscribe from any or all marketing emails.

IP Addresses and cookies

This Website may automatically collect information about your computer, including your IP address, operating system and browser type. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual. This data is primarily used for;

• helping The Welding Institute improve Websites, digital products, or other services The Welding Institute offers;
  providing statistics to help The Welding Institute achieve its constitutional purposes;
  an estimation of audience size and usage patterns;
  to store preferences information to allow for website customising, and;
  to recognise members’ log in details for return visits to The Welding Institute website.
  

Information about your general internet usage is collected by using a ‘cookie’ file that is stored on your computer. Cookies help The Welding Institute to improve this Website and to deliver a better and more personalised service. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the relevant setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to optimally use certain parts of our site. The Welding Institute websites will issue cookies when you visit them, unless you have adjusted your browser settings to decline them.

Data security

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. The Welding Institute will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. This includes cloud based servers through third party companies, including DotDigital for the processing of enquiries and Wild Apricot our membership database provider. Details of DotDigital's third party privacy policy can be found at online here and Wild Apricot's third party privacy policy online here. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where The Welding Institute has given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of the Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. The Welding Institute requests that you do not share a password with anyone.

The transmission of information via the internet is not always secure. The Welding Institute will protect your personal data in accordance with current best practice but, it cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the Website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once The Welding Institute has received your information, it will use procedures and security features to minimise the likelihood of unauthorised access.

Third party websites

This Website contains links to other websites not operated by The Welding Institute and that are outside its control. The Welding Institute accepts no responsibility whatsoever for these websites or their content.

Policy Changes

This Privacy Policy is reviewed periodically. This is to make sure that we continue to meet the highest standards, meet legal requirements and protect your privacy.

Our privacy policy cover The Welding Institute’s website:

Organisation name:	The Welding Institute
Address:	Granta Park, Great Abington
City:	Cambridge, CB21 6AL
County:	UK
Controller:	The Data Controller
ICO Registration:	Z5611956
Website:	www.theweldinginstitute.com

 

Further information on Cookies

Anonymous Access

You can access our website’s home page and browse much of our site without disclosing your personal information.

Other websites

Our website includes links to external websites and a link to:

• Barclays Bank secure payment system

Such third party web service providers may collect personal information about our visitors. This privacy and cookie use policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy and cookie use policies.

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data which is sent to your browser from a website's computer and is stored on your device's hard drive.  These pieces of information are used to improve services for you.  

What we use cookies for 

• ensuring the website works as you’d expect
• enabling a service to recognise your device with your permission so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
• recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested anonymously measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they are fast
• allowing you to share pages with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter
• personalising our site to you to help you get what you need faster.

What we do not use cookies for

• collecting personally identifiable information unless you have given your express permission and consent

• collecting personally sensitive information unless you have given your express permission and consent

• pass data onto third party advertising networks
• pass personally identifiable data onto third parties
• paying sales commissions or trading in your personal and web session data.

Cookie note for users

By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing with us that we can place the types of cookies as described on your device.  

If you do not agree with the use of cookies as described in this section, please follow the steps for controlling and deleting cookies provided in 'How to control and delete cookies' below and navigate away from our website.

Cookies set by us for improving our service to you 

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics, and are applied to every page of the The Welding Institute site. Google Analytics set cookies to help The Welding Institute accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This is to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast.

Name:_utmz

Purpose: logs where a visitor came from, e.g. a search engine or from another website

Typical content: no personal information about you, only a randomly generated identification number linked to information about your computer and your browser

Domain: .theweldinginstitute.com

Expires: 6 months after it was last set on your device 

Name:_utma

Purpose: logs each user’s number of visits, the time of the first visit, the previous visit and the current visit

Typical content: no personal information about you, only a randomly generated identification number linked to information about your computer and your browser

Domain: .theweldinginstitute.com

Expires: 2 years after your last visit to the website

Name:_utmb 

Purpose: logs when a user starts their visit

Typical content: no personal information about you, only a randomly generated identification number linked to information about your computer and your browser

Domain: .theweldinginstitute.com

Expires: 30 minutes after your visit or after 30 minutes of inactivity

Name:_utmc

Purpose: logs when a user ends their visit

Typical content: no personal information about you, only a randomly generated identification number linked to information about your computer and your browser

Domain: .theweldinginstitute.com

Expires: when you close your browser

For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google Code website.

Name: ASP.NET_SessionID

Purpose: session identifier cookies are set if you have login credentials after registering with our website and agreeing our terms and conditions. The cookie recognises your movement around the site as being from one computer.

Typical content: information about the session but the cookie itself does not contain any personal information

Domain:.theweldinginstitute.com/login/?ReturnUrl=/home/

Expires: when you close your browser

Name: RememberMe (2 cookies)

Purpose: after entering your username and password in the login page, you can check this box allowing the website to remember your login details on your next visit so that you do not have to repeat the login process. These are ‘persistent cookies’ which are only set by your actions.

Typical content: username and password and a session verification cookies to authenticate your login details against our login database.

Domain:.theweldinginstitute.com/login/?ReturnUrl=/home/

Expires: never until the logged in user clicks the ‘log out’ option

Cookies set by third-party services

Throughout the site we use the services of external service providers to enhance the visitors’ experience. They set cookies to enhance their service or to track usage or to validate users. These cookies are only set when the page that uses that service is visited for example when you select a link and opt in to such a service. The Welding Institute is not responsible for the content of third party websites and does not control the dissemination of these cookies. You should check the relevant third party website for further information.  

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google stores the information collected by the cookie on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google does not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. To give you additional control over Google Analytics cookies, Google provides an opt-out plug-in for most common website browsers.

For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google Code website.

Cookies set by ‘Share This’

The ShareThis widget places the following cookies on your computer to make their service easier to use and to measure the size of our website’s audience.  

Name: _uset

Purpose: identifies when a user had had a cookie set on their computer so that the task is not repeated in the next eight hours

Typical content: contains the text ‘true’ or ‘false’ depending on whether you have enabled cookie sharing

Domain: .sharethis.com

Expires: 8 hours after being set on your device

Name: _stid

Purpose: identifies users with topics of interest, based upon the content they consume and share

Typical content: a randomly generated number identifies the session

Domain: .sharethis.com

Expires: 1 year after the cookie is set on your device

Name: _UID

Purpose: measures the website’s audience size

Typical content: a randomly generated number identifies the session

Domain: .scorecardresearch.com

Expires: 1 year after the cookie is set on your device

Name: _UIDR

Purpose: measures the website’s audience size

Typical content: a randomly generated number identifies the session

Domain: .scorecardresearch.com

Expires: 1 year after the cookie is set on your device

Other cookies set by third party sites

The Welding Institute website also hosts links to various social media portals and offers options to ‘share’ information. When selecting a link and opting in to such a service, you may be presented with a cookie. The Welding Institute is not responsible for the content of third party websites and does not control the dissemination of these cookies. You should check the relevant third party website for further information. If you do not agree, do not use links to third parties

LinkedIn

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

How to control and delete cookies

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you do not have to accept cookies and you can, should you choose at any time, reject or block the use of cookies and delete all cookies stored on your device.

The Welding Institute does not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. We use them to help us provide you with a better service. However, if you wish to restrict or block any cookies you can do this through your browser settings. The Help function within your browser should tell you how.

For example, this is how it can be achieved in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0:

• Press the ‘F1’ key
• The Help function appears. Type in ‘cookie’ in the Help search box and follow the instructions

You can also delete cookies in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 by:

• Selecting 'Tools/Internet Options'
• Clicking on 'Delete' in the Browsing History section
• Then select 'delete cookies'.

In addition to this, options to accept, block, or require notification for the use of cookies are found under:

• 'Tools/Internet Options/Privacy/Advanced'.

Please be aware however that if you choose to block cookies you may not be able to access certain features of this web site. For rejecting and deleting cookies on other web browsing platforms and mobile devices you may need to refer to your software or device manual.

AboutCookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org are independent sites which offers a guide to the use of cookies online. You can find more general information about how to delete and control cookies through your browser at these sites. Please note that The Welding Institute is not responsible for the content of third party website sites but has provided these links in good faith to help you make an informed decision about your online privacy and cookie settings.

It may be that your concerns about cookies are related to malicious spyware. Rather than switching off cookies in your browser you may find that anti-spyware software achieves the same objective by automatically deleting cookies considered to be invasive.    

Changes to our privacy and cookie use policy

We keep our privacy and cookie use policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage. This privacy and cookie use policy was last updated on 24 May 2018.

How to contact us

If you have an enquiry or concern about our privacy and cookie use policy, please contact:

Name / designation:	Data Controller
Address:	Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge, CB21 6AL, UK
Phone number:	+44 (0)1223 899000
Fax number:	01223 892588
Email address:	data.protection@twi.co.uk