Privacy Policy

INTRODUCTION

The Geological Society (The Geological Society, we or us) cares about the privacy of your personal information and is committed to protecting it. This Privacy Policy (Policy) explains what information we collect about you and why, what we do with that information, and how we handle that information. For the purposes of the applicable data protection laws (the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR), together with any implementing legislation, in particular, the Data Protection Act 2018), the organisation responsible for your personal information is The Geological Society.

This Policy is incorporated into The Geological Society’s Terms of Business (“Terms of Business”) and applies to information obtained by us through your use of the information, software, products and services made available through the https://gslpicturelibrary.org.uk/ website (Website) or engaging with us to provide you with our Services (as defined in our Terms of Business). More simply put: The Geological Society is responsible for protecting your personal information. This privacy policy applies to information obtained through your use of our website or our Services.

COLLECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Geological Society collects information that, alone or in combination with other data, could be used to identify you (Personal Information), such as your e-mail address, name, physical address, telephone number, or employment information. If you purchase our Services, we will collect and store your billing and payment information. The Geological Society may also collect anonymous demographic information which is not unique to you, such as your postal code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favourites (Non-Personal Information). Non-Personal Information is not linked to your Personal Information (for example, your IP address). The Geological Society will collect your Personal Information in a number of ways, including when you contact us through the Website, by telephone, post, e-mail or through the other means set out below. More simply put: We collect information that could be used to personally identify you, such as your name and contact details. We may also collect information that is not personal to you and not linked to your personal information.

AUTOMATICALLY COLLECTED INFORMATION

When you visit our Website, we automatically collect information about your computer hardware and software such as your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times, operating system, cookie information, referring website addresses, pages visited, links clicked, text entered, mouse movements, and Internet Service Provider. We analyse and use this information to better understand how our users use the Website, to maintain and improve our Website, and in some cases, to publicly disclose aggregated statistics regarding our Website.

More simply put: We automatically collect certain information about you when you visit our Website. We use this information to analyse your use of the Website and to improve our services.

USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Geological Society collects and uses your Personal Information as necessary to perform our contract with you and for our legitimate business interests, including to:

  • Operate the Website and/or deliver the Services.
  • Communicate with you about the Services.
  • Understand and improve how our users use and interact with our Website.
  • Publicly disclose aggregated statistics regarding our users’ use of our Website.

When you enter into a contract with us to receive our Services, the legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract. When we process any payment made by you, we process your Personal Information to prevent or detect fraud, including fraudulent payments and fraudulent use of the Website. The legal basis for this processing is compliance with our legal obligations. More simply put: We collect your personal information to perform the contract you enter into with us when you agree to use our Services. We also collect certain information when we have a good reason to do so.

STORAGE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law, we will only hold your Personal Information on our systems for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Policy, or until you request that the information be deleted in accordance with your right of erasure (see “Your rights” section below). Even if we delete your Personal Information, we reserve the right to maintain a copy for legal, tax or regulatory purposes, but in such event, we will do so only as long as necessary to fulfil those legal, tax or regulatory purposes. Please contactinfo@maxcommunications.co.uk for more information.

More simply put: We’ll retain your personal information for no longer than is necessary. For more information, please contact our DPO by emailing info@maxcommunications.co.uk.

PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCESS AND DISCLOSURE

We will only disclose Personal Information to third parties when we use vendors, professional advisers and service providers to assist us in meeting business or operating needs, such as providing legal services, hosting our Website, communicating with users, delivering and improving our Services, e-mail communication, invoicing and payments, customer support services and analytics. These service providers may only access, process or store Personal Information pursuant to our instructions and to perform their duties to us, and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations; or when we have your explicit consent to share your Personal Information; or when we determine that disclosure is required to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of The Geological Society and users of the Website and/or our Services, or to respond to lawful subpoenas, warrants, or requests by public or regulatory authorities, including requests by law enforcement authorities; or if we sell some or all of our business or assets, we may disclose your Personal Information to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets, and if the transaction closes, then your Personal Information may be transferred to the buyer.

More simply put: We disclose your personal information to third parties such as service providers. We also disclose your personal information when we have your explicit consent, or if we are required to do so by law.

USE OF COOKIES

The Website uses “cookies” to help you personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed by us or our remarketing partners on your hard drive by a web page server. Our cookies do not run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to your computer, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to your computer. One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenient feature to save you time. The cookie tells the server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalise the Website pages, or register with the Website, a cookie helps the Website recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your Personal Information, such as your billing address or site preferences. When you return to the same Website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Website features that you customised.

We may place the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Website or make use of e-billing services.
  • Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the Website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our Website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  • Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to the Website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
  • Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to the Website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our Website more relevant to your interests and for remarketing as described below. If you want to check or change what types of cookies you accept, this can usually be done within your browser settings.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control.

How to reject cookies: If you do not want to receive cookies, you can usually choose to opt-out by modifying your browser settings to decline them. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to access all or parts of, or to fully experience the interactive features of, the The Geological Society services or web pages you visit. For more information generally on cookies, including how to disable them, please refer to aboutcookies.org. This site also provides details on how to delete cookies from your computer.

More simply put: We use cookies to enhance your online experience. If you do not want to receive cookies, you can reject them by opting out or modifying your browser settings.

DATA SECURITY & INTEGRITY

The Geological Society is committed to taking reasonable and appropriate steps to protect the Personal Information that we hold from misuse, loss, or unauthorised access. We do this by using a range of technical and organisational measures including measures to deal with any suspected data breach. If you suspect any misuse or loss or unauthorised access to your personal information, please let us know immediately. The Website is designed to secure the Personal Information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, with protections from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. When Personal Information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other websites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. However, while we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of all data which is transmitted to the Website or to another website via the internet or similar connection.

More simply put: The Geological Society’s website is designed to keep your personal information safe, however, we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet or similar connection.

YOUR RIGHTS

Under the GDPR, you have various rights in relation to your Personal Information, such as the rights of access, rectification, restriction, objection, portability, and erasure. Please note that these rights are subject to certain limitations set forth in applicable law. To exercise these rights, please contact our DPO.

We will seek to deal with your request without undue delay, and in any event in accordance with the requirements of applicable laws. Please note that we may keep a record of your communications to help us resolve any issues you raise. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority (for UK residents, the Information Commissioner’s Office, or ICO) if you believe we have failed to meet our obligations regarding your Personal Information. You can contact the ICO here.

More simply put: You have rights in relation to your personal information. Just contact our DPO to find out more.

THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING

We may use remarketing services to advertise our products to you on third party websites after you have visited our Website.

More simply put: If you visit, or take any action on our website, we may show you targeted ads on other websites you subsequently visit.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Our Website may include links to other websites whose privacy practices are not under The Geological Society’s control. If you submit Personal Information to any of those websites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy on any website that you visit.

More simply put: We may link to other websites, whose privacy practices may differ from our own. We encourage you to read the privacy policy on any other website you visit carefully.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We will occasionally update this Policy to reflect company and customer feedback. The Geological Society encourages you to periodically review this Policy to be informed of how we are protecting your Personal Information.

More simply put: We may change this policy from time to time. We encourage you to review this policy regularly.

CONTACT INFORMATION

The Geological Society welcomes your comments regarding this Policy. Please contact us at info@maxcommunications.co.uk, or write to us at: Data Protection Officer The Geological Society Limited Allen House, 1 Westmead Road, Sutton, SM1 4LA. For more information on use of our Website, please review our Terms & Conditions.