Our Privacy Policy

Introduction to our Privacy Policy

This policy sets out the different areas where your privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations and requirements of our website and website owners and users. We also detail the way we process, store and protect your data and information.

We take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect your privacy throughout your visiting experience. Our website complies with all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy.

We collect information about you for two reasons: firstly, to process your order and secondly, to provide you with the best possible service.

Security on our website

We will provide information about the type and level of security being used on our site and identify a person responsible for the security of our site, this person being Kit Sadgrove. He will:

• Regularly review the security of the system
• Make sure that any changes to the system are made in a secure way
• Make sure that we follow the security guidelines of the system supplier

We use technology to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to our site. This includes the use of a “cookie” which would be stored on your browser. You can usually modify your browser to prevent this happening. But for our secure online ordering technology to work, your computer must accept cookies.

How we use cookies

What are cookies?

Cookies are small files saved to your computer’s hard drive. They track, save and store information about your interactions and use of the website.

This allows us to provide you with a tailored experience on our website.

What do we use cookies for?

We may use cookies to remember personal settings you have chosen on our website. We do not use cookies to collect information that identifies you personally. Most of the cookies we set are automatically deleted from your computer when you leave our website or shortly afterwards.

We use anonymous session cookies (short-term cookies that disappear when you close yourbrowser) to help you navigate the website and make the most of the features. If you log into the website, application or a course as a registered user, your session cookie will also contain your user ID so that we can check which services you are allowed to access.

Our website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and use of the website. But it does not store, save or collect personal information.

If you want to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to your computer’s hard drive, you should take necessary steps within your web browser’s security settings (for example Chrome or Firefox) to block all cookies from this website and our external serving vendors.

Your personal information

While using our website, software applications or services, we may ask you to provide personal information (name, address, email, learner details, etc.). We will use this information to administer our website, applications, learner database and marketing material.

We will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, as adopted into law of the United Kingdom in the Data Protection Act 2018.

We will never collect sensitive information about you without your explicit consent.

By providing telephone or email details, you consent to The Blackford Centre contacting you using that method.

You have the right at any time to request a copy of the personal information we hold on you. Should you want a copy of this, or would like to be removed from our database, please contact us at [email protected]

Children (younger than 16)

We do not aim any of our courses or communications at children. If we were to aim any communication at children, it will be appropriate to their age and will not exploit their credulity, lack of experience or sense of loyalty.

We will not accept an order from someone we know or suspect to be a child without the consent of the child’s parent or carer.

If the child is under 12, we will not collect any personal information without the consent of their parent or carer. If the child is over 12, we will only collect information necessary to send them appropriate communications as long as the child understands what is involved.

We will not disclose information collected from children to anyone else without the consent of their parent or guardian. We will not ask the child for personal information about other people. We will not entice the child to give personal information by offering them a reward or a prize

How we collect and use information

How do we collect information?

The Blackford Centre collects information in two possible ways:

• • When you directly give it to us (“Directly Provided Data”) When you sign up for our site, purchase our products or communicate with us, you may choose to voluntarily give us certain information – for example, by filling in text boxes or completing registration forms. All this information requires a direct action by you at that time in order for us to receive it.

• When you give us permission to obtain from other accounts (“User Authorised Data”) Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for other online services, you may give us permission to obtain information from your account with those other services. For example, this can be via social media or by choosing to send us your location data when accessing our website from your smartphone.

How long do we keep your data for?

The Blackford Centre will not retain your personal information longer than necessary. We will hold on to the information you provide either while your account is in existence, or as needed to be able to provide services to you, or (in the case of any contact you may have with our Support team) for as long as is necessary to provide support-related reporting and trend analysis only.

If legally required or if it is reasonably necessary to meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our Terms and Conditions, we may also retain some of your information for a limited period of time as required, even after you have closed your account or it is no longer needed to provide the Services to you.

Payment

If you enrol online and pay in full, the order form will ask for your credit card details. We never see this information. It is passed straight to our bank on a secure line. If you enrol on the telephone and pay in full, we will ask for your credit card details. We shred these details immediately after the payment has been made.

If you pay by instalments, we will retain your credit card details only for the period of time (usually four or five months) of the agreed instalment plan. Immediately thereafter our system will we will delete your credit card details.

Our web transactions are carried on a secure ‘padlocked’ SSL line. This means that your personal information and the transaction itself remain confidential and cannot be interfered with.

We require any subcontractors or third parties involved in the transaction to follow these principles and maintain a similar level of security

Registration forms

The Blackford Centre will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information, gathered as a result of filling out the site registration form to anyone.

Trustpilot reviews

If you enrol online, our system will send a copy of your email address to Trustpilot.com, who will invite you to provide independently verified feedback on our service. If you do not send a review, Trustpilot will send you one (and only one) reminder seven days after the first email.

Trustpilot does not allow us to cancel or halt an invitation once it has received your email address. If you would prefer us not to send an email to Trustpilot, we recommend you enrol over the phone. This will allow us to stop the Trustpilot email.

Choosing how we use your data

We understand that you trust us with your personal information and we are committed to ensuring you can manage the privacy and security of your personal information yourself.

With respect to the information relating to you that ends up in our possession, and recognising that it is your choice to provide us with your personally identifiable information, we commit to giving you the ability to do all of the following:

• You can verify the details you have submitted to The Blackford Centre by contacting our customer services team at [email protected]. Our security procedures mean that we may request proof of identity before we reveal information, including your e-mail address and possibly your address.
• You can also contact us by the same method to change, correct, or delete your personal information controlled by The Blackford Centre regarding your profile at any time. If you have shared any information with others through social media, that information may remain visible, even if your account is deleted.
• You are also free to close your account. If you do so, your account will be deactivated. However, we may retain archived copies of your information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes (including helping address fraud and spam).
• You can update us on your details at any point by contacting our Support team.
• You can unsubscribe from receiving marketing emails from us by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email. Once you do this, you will no longer receive any emails from us.
• You can request a readable copy of the personal data we hold on you at any time. To do this, please contact our Support team.

We regularly review how we process and protect data. Therefore, changes to our policy may occur at any time. We will endeavour to publicise any changes.

Advertising

Our advertising aims to meet the standards of the Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion. It also aims to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. We will also comply with the rulings of the Advertising Standards Authority.

We will aim to explain the contents of the course as clearly as possible, and avoid making undue claims for it.

We will also identify clearly any advertising on our site from other people or organisations. At present, we do not carry any advertising from other sites.

Unsolicited commercial email: We do not send untargeted mass-marketing emails (or ‘spam’) to people we’ve never had any contact with before. All emails have an ‘unsubscribe’ link that will automatically remove you from our mailing list.

If you have any questions or comments about privacy, you should email [email protected]