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Privacy and cookies

Introduction

Who we are

Collection of personal data

Storage of personal data

Legitimate interests

Your rights

Lodging a complaint

Cookie notice

Introduction

This notice explains how, why and when we process your personal data and how it is protected.

Who we are

The Geological Society of London ("we"), collect and process your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and in compliance with the relevant data protection Regulation and laws


Our registered office is:
Geological Society of London
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BG

Registered charity no. 210161

Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office no. Z6454263

Our designated Data Protection Officer can be contacted via the following methods:

Email: [email protected]

Post: Data Protection Officer, Geological Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG

Collection of personal data

Why we collect it

We process your personal information to provide you with our services and products.

Where we collect it

  • Directly from you, through membership applications; award and grant applications; email enquiries; room and conference bookings; book purchases and our journal and book publication process.
  • Indirectly using publicly available information, for instance to identify potential authors to invite them to write for our publications.
  • Cookies from browsing our website (see Cookie notice below)


What we collect

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Home address
  • Business/institute address
  • Personal email
  • Business email
  • Home telephone number
  • Mobile telephone number
  • Data on the diversity of our membership (see Special Category Data below)
  • Education, academic and work history (as part of your membership application or through award and grant applications for example)
  • Signature (on paper forms such as Fellowship application forms)
  • Bank card details (to process payments for membership or Library services, for example)
  • Geographical location (collected through use of our website and newsletters)
  • Relevant information submitted during the manuscript submission and peer review process that enables us to publish accepted content, eg ORCID iD, funding information
  • CCTV footage on visiting our premises
  • Information on personal wealth for fundraising purposes

Special Category Data

We process a limited amount of sensitive personal data, termed ‘Special Category Data’ where we have your consent. Examples include:

  • Data on the diversity of our Fellowship to ensure we are meeting our equality and inclusion commitments (Processed under Article 9(2d) of UK GDPR)
  • Dietary requirements when attending catered conferences
  • Health conditions which may require adjustments to be made to accommodate visits to our building
  • CCTV (see below)

How we use your data (legal basis for processing)

We use your personal data in the following ways (the lawful basis laid out under Article 6(1) of the UK GDPR upon which GSL is relying is outlined in the parentheses):

  • To administer Fellowship, Chartership, Friends and other membership categories in order to ensure services are provided (Contract)
  • To organise attendance at conferences, room bookings and other events (Contract)
  • As part of our legal obligation for business accounting and tax purposes (Legal Obligation)
  • For newsletters or for marketing our services and products where you have either consented to receive communications or it is assessed it would be beneficial to you as a customer (Consent and/or Legitimate Interests). In compliance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) you may opt out of these communications at any time
  • To identify potential authors, editors and reviewers for our publications using information from publicly available sources (Legitimate Interests) 
  • To aid fundraising activities. (Legitimate Interests) This includes utilising specialist wealth screening services to gather additional information from publicly available sources, which will help the Society identify potential donors to support our activities. If you would prefer us not to use your data in this way, please email [email protected]
  • To provide access to our products, content and services (Contract)
  • To process payments such as author processing charges (APCs) or subscriptions (Contract)
  • To retain historically important data to add to GSL’s archival record (Public Task)
  • To improve our services and products through the use of statistical analysis and membership surveys (Legitimate Interests)
  • For statistical analysis to improve our services and products (Legitimate Interests)
  • To answer enquiries, such as to GSL’s Library Service (Consent)
  • To administer job applications and subsequent employment (Contract)
  • To aid the provision of geological education at schools, by retaining the contact details of teachers and professional geologists who have expressed a desire to help (Consent)

Who we share it with

We will not share or disclose any of your personal information without your consent, other than for the purposes specified in this notice or where there is a legal requirement. We use third-parties so that we can provide you with the various services and products that we offer. We also utilise these trusted third parties to administer surveys or wealth screening services.These third-parties, or processors, process your data in accordance with instructions from us and comply fully with this privacy notice, the data protection laws and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Storage of personal data

How is it stored and for how long?

We only ever retain personal information for as long as is necessary and has review and retention policies in place to meet these obligations. We take your privacy seriously and take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data. We work hard to protect you and your information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and has programs in place to deploy several layers of security measures, including:
  • Restricted access
  • Encryption of devices such as but not limited to USB Sticks and Flash Drives
  • Regular staff training
  • Anonymisation and pseudonymisation of sensitive data
  • Antivirus measures on IT hardware
  • Regular penetration tests to ensure our security meets the Government’s “Cyber Essentials” standard

Where it is stored (transfers outside of EU)

We store the majority of personal data in the UK and the European Union where it is protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or UK GDPR. Where we utilise the services of third-party providers located outside of the European Economic Area ("EEA"), we have in place Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) to ensure they meet the same standards as UK GDPR.

Legitimate interests

We may occasionally process your personal information outside of the functions listed above under the ‘legitimate interests’ legal basis. Where this is the case, we will have first carried out a Legitimate Interests Assessment (LIA) to ensure your interests have been considered and any risk posed to you against our own and that such interests are proportionate and appropriate.

CCTV

For the purposes of public and staff safety and crime prevention and detection, we operate CCTV systems in our premises. Images captured by CCTV are kept for 30 days. On occasion there may be a need to keep images for longer, for example where a crime is being investigated.

You have the right to see CCTV images of yourself and be provided with a copy of the images. We will only disclose images to other authorised bodies who intend to use it for the purposes stated above. 

Marketing

We may occasionally send you communications regarding our products, services, promotions or fundraising activities by email or post, which you have either consented to or which we think may be of direct interest to you through previous interactions with us, such as book purchases, conference attendance or donations.

In compliance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) you can withdraw your consent or opt out of these communications at any time. To do so please follow this link to unsubscribe from marketing.

Your rights

You have the right to access any personal information that we process about you and to request information about:

  • What personal data we hold about you
  • The purposes of the processing
  • The categories of personal data concerned
  • The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed
  • How long we intend to store your personal data for
  • If we did not collect the data directly from you, information about the source
  • Where you have consented to us providing you with promotional offers and marketing, you are free to withdraw this consent at any time.
  • If you believe that we hold any incomplete or inaccurate data about you, you have the right to ask us to correct and/or complete the information. We will strive to update/correct it as quickly as possible unless there is a valid reason for not doing so, at which point you will be notified.

You also have the right to request erasure of your personal data or to restrict processing (where applicable) in accordance with data protection laws, as well as to object to any direct marketing from us, to exercise your data portability rights and to be informed about any automated decision-making we may use.

Where you have consented to us using your details for direct marketing, we will keep such data until you notify us otherwise and/or withdraw your consent.

To submit a request to exercise any of the above rights (that is a Data Subject Access Request), please contact:

Data Protection Officer, The Geological Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG. [email protected]

Information about how we deal with Data Subject Access Requests

Lodging a complaint

We process your personal information in compliance with this privacy notice and in accordance with the relevant data protection laws. If you would like to make a complaint please contact:

Data Protection Officer, The Geological Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG [email protected]

If you wish to raise a complaint with the supervisory authority, please contact: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Consequences of not providing your data

You are not obligated to provide your personal information to us. However, as this information is required for us to provide you with our services/deliver your products, we will not be able to offer some/all of our products or services without it.

Please note that this statement is not a legal contract and it may be updated to reflect any changes in the law or our privacy procedures.

Last updated: December 2021

Cookie notice

A ‘cookie’ is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer by the user’s web browser while the user is browsing. When you visit a site that uses cookies for the first time, a cookie is downloaded onto your computer/mobile device so that the next time you visit that site, your device will remember useful information such as items added in the shopping cart, visited pages or logging in options.

Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or to work more efficiently, and our site relies on cookies to optimise your user experience and for features, products and services to function properly.

Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

Our cookies do not store financial information or information which is capable of directly identifying you (such as your name or address). You have the right to choose whether to accept these cookies.

Cookies used on our website

Essential cookies

These are used in order to ensure our website works efficiently, allows our services and products to function correctly. Maintains security and offers the best user experience.

Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId
Type: Essential
Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit
Duration: session

Analytics cookies

Google Analytics cookies enable us to measure engagement and user behaviour in order to continually improve our website for our users. The information these cookies gather is completely anonymised.

Cookie: _ga
Type: Analytics
The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
Duration: 2 years

Cookie: _gid
Type: Analytics
Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
Duration: 1 day

Cookie:_gat
Type: Analytics
This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites.
Duration: 1 minute

Cookie: __utma
Type: Analytics
This cookie is set by Google Analytics and is used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and there are no existing __utma cookies. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
Duration: 2 years

Cookie: __utmc
Type: Analytics
The cookie is set by Google Analytics and is deleted when the user closes the browser. It is used to enable interoperability with urchin.js, which is an older version of Google Analytics and is used in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine new sessions/visits.
Duration: session

Cookie: __utmz
Type: Analytics
Google Analytics sets this cookie to store the traffic source or campaign by which the visitor reached the site.
Duration: 6 months

Cookie: __utmt
Type: Analytics
Google Analytics sets this cookie to inhibit request rate.
Duration: 10 minutes

Cookie: __utmb
Type: Analytics
Google Analytics sets this cookie, to determine new sessions/visits. __utmb cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and there are no existing __utma cookies. It is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
Duration: 30 minutes

Third party cookies

Cookies which are set by third party websites in order to measure how users view and share content that is on our website.

Cookie: pubconsent-V2
Type: Third party
A cookie connected to sharethis.com, which measures how users share content from our website. For more information, see https://sharethis.com/privacy/
Duration: 365 days

Cookie: fpestid
Type: Third party
A cookie connected to sharethis.com, which measures how users share content from our website. For more information, see https://sharethis.com/privacy/

Cookie: _stidv
Type: Third party
A cookie connected to sharethis.com, which measures how users share content from our website. For more information, see https://sharethis.com/privacy/

Cookie: _stid
Type: Third party
A cookie connected to sharethis.com, which measures how users share content from our website. For more information, see https://sharethis.com/privacy/