Privacy & Cookie Policy

GENERAL:

BQF (and trusted training partners acting on our behalf) uses your personal data:

to provide events, training, workshops and services to you;
to create, and make available to you with your consent, engaging and relevant website and personalised marketing content;
where applicable, to manage personal content relating to your membership;
for any future market research purposes so we can get a better understanding of how we can support you;
if you provide credit or debit card payment information (to purchase BQF products, services, training or events etc), we may also use third parties to check the validity of the sort code, account number and card number you submit in order to prevent fraud, in accordance with our legitimate interests and those of the third parties. We do not store credit or debit card information in any capacity.
if you contact us by telephone, information may be recorded as appropriate for future customer use, as agreed with you at the time of calling, in accordance with our legitimate business interests;
where we have a legal right or duty to use or disclose your information (for example in relation to an investigation by a public authority or in a legal dispute).

IN ADDITION:

Where you have given us consent to receive it, we will send you electronic direct marketing communications (emails and e-newsletters relating to BQF products, services and events) or (where this is available) you have been given an opportunity to opt-out. You can opt-out of electronic direct marketing at any time and clear instructions on how to do this will be visible in the relevant communication.

OTHER MARKETING:

Promotional communications
With your consent BQF will send you electronic marketing communications about promotional offers and products and services which we think may be of interest to you. We may send you postal mail to update you on the latest BQF offer.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time, by:

Making use of the simple and visible “unsubscribe” link in emails
Contacting BQF via the relevant channels set out in this Policy.

OUR SERVICE PROVIDERS AND SUPPLIERS

In order to make certain services available to you, we may need to share your personal data with some of our service partners. These include, but are not limited to, IT support, website hosting, training/delivery service providers, database hosting (Salesforce), email marketing provider (Dotmailer) and e-commerce (SagePay). All service providers will process your data in agreement with this policy, and in line with GDPR regulations and law, to provide services to BQF and you and for no other purpose.

You can find out more about their products and services on individual websites. These websites, and others linked to from this Policy, are owned and operated by a third party and they are responsible for processing personal data in accordance with their own privacy policies.

OTHER THIRD PARTIES

Aside from our service providers, BQF will not disclose your personal data to any third party, except as set out below. We will never sell or rent our customer data to other organisations for marketing purposes.

We may also share your data with:

Our suppliers, business partners and sub-contractors; and/or
Search engine and web analytics.
Personal data may be shared with government authorities and/or law enforcement officials if required for the purposes above, if mandated by law or if needed for the legal protection of our legitimate interests in compliance with applicable laws.
In the event that our business or any part of it is sold or integrated with another business, your details will be disclosed to our advisers and those of any prospective purchaser and will be passed to the new owners of the business.

We will not keep your data for longer than required for the purposes set out in this Policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data.

BQF may collect the following information about you:

your name
your contact details: postal address including billing and delivery addresses, telephone numbers (including mobile numbers) and e-mail address(es);
your on-line browsing activities on the BQF website;
your payment card details when you make a purchase where an invoice is not required (eg publications, book a meeting room), or place an order with us (event booking, services or consultancy provision);
your communication and marketing preferences;
your event feedback and survey responses (where applicable);
your location;
your correspondence and communications with BQF; and
other publicly available personal data, including any which you have shared via a public platform (such as a social media).
BQF is a Business-to-Business (B2B) organisation and all of our communication, correspondence and contact is with other organisations and individuals within those organisations who are invested or interested in the products and services we provide. We do not:

knowingly collect data relating to children or minors.
process special category data (data relating to race, ethnic origin, politics or religion etc.)
process criminal conviction data or data about offences
Sometimes we may need to collect additional data other than that set out in this policy. Updates to data collected and policy changes will be recorded and communicated appropriately.

We collect your data in different ways:

BQF WEBSITE:

‘Contact Us’ form
Sign-up to BQF Matters (monthly e-newsletter)
Events, training and workshop booking forms
Meeting room booking forms
Enquiry forms (products, services, consultancy)
Job applications
Annual Award application forms

INDIRECTLY:

When you send an email to the BQF team
When you telephone our office and submit your personal contact details (including credit card details, name, address, telephone number(s), email address)

BQF is committed to keeping your personal data safe and secure.

We use appropriate administrative, organisational, technical and physical safeguards that are designed to protect the personal information we collect and process about you. The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information and to help ensure that your data is safe, secure, and only available to you and to those with authorisation. However, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so you should take care in deciding what information you send us in this way.

With regards to the website:

There is real-time reporting on administrator access.
No user data is held on the website or the webserver.
Monthly security and code updates are applied to ensure continued stability.

Tell us as soon as possible about any changes to your personal data so we can update our database and records. This means the information we send you will be correct and relevant to you personally.

Changes or suggestions you make will also help us ensure our processes and policies are kept up to date, robust and keep you, the customer, at the forefront of our security.

Under the new GDPR regulations you have the following rights:

the right to ask for a copy of personal data that we hold about you (the right of access);
the right to request that we delete personal data held on you; where we no longer have any legal reason to retain it (the right to be forgotten);
the right to ask us to update and correct any out-of-date or incorrect personal data that we hold about you (the right of rectification);
the right to opt out of any marketing communications that we may send you and to object to us using / holding your personal data if we have no legitimate reasons to do so (the right to object);
the right to ask us to ‘restrict processing of data’; which means that we would need to secure and retain the data for your benefit but not otherwise use it (the right to restrict processing); and
the right to ask us to supply you with some of the personal data we hold about you in a easy to read format and/or to provide a copy of the data in such a format to another organisation (the right to data portability).
If you wish to talk to us or apply any of the above rights, please contact us using the contact details set out below:

phone us on: 020 7654 5000
e-mail us at: mail@bqf-org-uk
write to us at:
BQF, Third Floor, 53 New Broad Street, London EC2M 1JJ

We have to tell you what lawful basis we are using to process your data. We must have at least one lawful basis in place to ensure we process your data legally, fairly and transparently. BQF collects and uses customers’ personal data using the following lawful bases:

1. Where it is needed to provide you with (or information about) our products and services: Including but not limited to:

a. Membership, event bookings, Annual Award entries, booking forms (events, training and networking); general enquiry form; BQF Matters sign-up;

b. All stages and activities relevant to managing those products and services from initial enquiry, application, administration, management of accounts;

c. Updating your records, where appropriate, to enable you to benefit fully from the BQF offer, products and services you have signed up to.

2. Where it is in our legitimate interests to do so, for example:

a. Managing your account, membership, event booking, products and services and any other BQF activity you have engaged in;

b. Contact you about all (a) activity;

c. Communicate appropriate updates and information, including promotional, relating to (a);

d. To follow guidance and recommended best practice of government and regulatory bodies;

e. For management and audit of our business operations including financial transactions and accounting;

f. Where the provision of your personal data is required by a contractual obligation (eg Membership)

The standard legal basis for processing customer data is that it is necessary for the legitimate interests of BQF, including:

selling and supplying training, events products and services to our customers;
promoting, marketing and advertising the BQF offer;
sending promotional communications which are relevant and tailored to individual customers;
understanding our customers’ behaviour, activities, preferences, and needs;
improving existing products and services and developing new products and services;
complying with our legal and regulatory obligations;
handling customer contacts, queries, complaints or disputes;
protecting BQF, its employees and customers, by taking appropriate legal action against third parties who have committed criminal acts or are in breach of the legal obligations to BQF.

WHAT IS A COOKIE?

A cookie is a small file which may be placed on the device you’re using to access our website. If your browser settings allow it, the file is added and the cookie helps us analyse web traffic, or improve your user journey. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application may tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

HOW WE USE COOKIES

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes. These cookies are anonymous and cannot be used to track your activity as an individual. This information is not shared by us with any additional third parties.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline them if you prefer. This may however prevent you from taking full advantage of our website.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Some cookies collect information about browsing behaviour when you access the BQF website via the same computer or device. This includes information about pages viewed, products purchased and your journey around a website. We do not use cookies to collect or record information on your name, address or other contact details. BQF can use cookies to monitor your browsing and purchasing behaviour.

HOW DO I DISABLE COOKIES?

You can disable cookies at any time. How you do this depends on the browser you use and you should refer to individual browser guidelines for information and support.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website contains links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. Once you have used these links to leave our site, we do not have control over other websites. We cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide while visiting other sites.

This policy was last updated in May 2018.

If you have any questions about how BQF uses your personal data that are not answered here, or if you want to exercise your rights regarding your personal data, please contact us by any of the following means:

• phone us on: 020 7654 5000
• e-mail us at: mail@bqf-org-uk
• write to us at:
  BQF, Third Floor, 53 New Broad Street, London EC2M 1JJ

If, after talking to us, you are still unhappy with how we have processed your data you can direct your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Hopefully we can fix any issues you have but you can find further information, including contact details on the ICO website.