At The Oxford Trust, the parent body to Science Oxford, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website and book tickets to our events, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you are agreeing to be bound by this Policy. Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices can be sent by email to [email protected]

About us:-

We are The Oxford Trust, which is a charitable trust that aims to encourage the pursuit of science and enterprise. The Oxford Trust is a registered charity (no.292664) and company limited by guarantee (no. 1898691). Our registered address is Oxford Centre for Innovation, New Road, Oxford, OX11BY. We are the parent body to Science Oxford. We have told the Information Commissioner’s Office that we collect information about people and we have to show that we obey the law. We have registered our business with Companies House.

The legal basis for processing your personal data:-

The lawful bases on which we process your data are:

• Consent eg. where you ask to be kept informed of the services, opportunities and news we supply.
• To fulfil a contract with you for a service or event.
• Legitimate interest in order to pursue our business interests which would be reasonably expected.
• Compliance with legal obligations eg. disclosure upon provision of appropriate legally valid documentation by enforcement authorities.

How we collect information:-

We obtain information about you when you use our website, for example, to book tickets to our Science Oxford events, or if you register to receive one of our e-newsletters.

Information collected:-

When you use the services we offer, work for us or use our website, we collect information about you. It might be simple information like your name, address and email address, or it might be information from your computer which could tell us who you are (like your IP address for example). Information that can identify you as an individual is called ‘Personal Data’. This information is held on a secure CRM system called SHEEP.

How we collect information from you:–

We collect information about you when you:

• Ask for more information about our programmes and services
• Book our tickets or services
• Meet one of the team at networking events
• Attend our online events or training courses
• Work for us
• Use our website

How information is used:-

We need to collect information about you to help us run the charity and provide great services. The list below includes the main reasons that we collect information about you:

• So we can provide you with good services, if you need them
• So we can answer your questions, if you have them.
• So we follow the rules businesses in the UK have to follow
• So we can organise the event(s) you are taking part in
• So we can send you our newsletter, but only if you want to receive it and have told us that you want to
• So we can make our website better, if we understand how everyone uses it

We have carefully checked that these reasons are okay under the law that tells companies how to keep you and your information safe when we use it.

Young adults using our services:-

The majority of our customers are adults. However, we know that young adults studying in college may be interested in data protection. You could find our website helpful for more information. You may want to attend an online event or one of our training courses. If you use our services, we will collect the information about you listed below:

• Your name, email address and contact telephone number – probably through your parents or guardian
• Payment details (for training courses only)
• Any emails we get from you or send to you
• Information from ‘cookies’ about how you use our website, if you have consented for us to use them when you visit our website.

We keep the information within our emails and on our computers, to help us organise our work and provide you with a good service. We also keep all your contact information on ‘SHEEP’, the software programme that we use. We collect this information to organise the event and let you attend. We keep it until the event is finished, and then for 12 months after you attended. Information about payment is kept for 7 years in case we need to check our accounts in that time.

Young adults who join us for work experience:-

When you join Science Oxford/The Oxford Trust on a work experience placement, we will collect the information about you listed below:

• Your name, your date of birth, and how to contact you – probably through your parents or guardian, or your school or college.
• Where you live and your postcode
• Your education and qualifications
• Any emails we get from you or send to you

We keep all this information safely on our computers and within our emails. We keep it for at least 7 years, in case we need to check information about your time working for us or provide you with a reference.

Who can see or use your information:-

People who work for Science Oxford/The Oxford Trust can see your information when they need it to do their jobs. We work with other businesses to help us with our website and accounts, but they can only see your information if it’s really necessary. They can never use it for their own purposes. We will never sell your data to other businesses to use for their own reasons.

Storing your information outside the UK & Europe:-

The law which tells businesses how to use information about people and how to keep it safe is the same in most European Countries, including the UK. A lot of companies round the world offer services to record and store information, and sometimes we might use them to store your information. We have to tell you when we send or store information in other countries in the world. We also have to make sure that it is always stored safely, no matter where it is in the world. Here are some of the companies we use:

• We use Quickbooks to track money paid to us. Quickbooks is a company based in the United States (US) and they have big computers, known as servers, which store data for us. We have checked your information will still be safe and Quickbooks also obey the same laws that we have to here in the UK.
• We use a secure CRM system called SHEEP to record contact details of our customers and people who might become customers. It also records information about our projects and our team members. SHEEP is a company based in the UK and they have big computers, known as servers, which store data for us. We have checked your information will still be safe.
• We use Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Slack to to deliver training courses and free webinars to customers and make it easy to keep in touch with other team members about our work. All are companies based in the United States (US) and they have big computers, known as servers, which store data for us. We have checked your information will still be safe and they also obey the same laws that we have to here in the UK.
• We use Mailchimp to let people sign up to our newsletters. Mailchimp is a company based in the United States (US) and they have big computers, known as servers, which store data for us. We have checked your information will still be safe and Mailchimp also obey the same laws that we have to here in the UK.
• We use Eventbrite to book and take payment for our online event tickets and courses.
• We use Hootsuite to organise our social media accounts more easily. If you send us a direct message on any of our social media accounts, it will also be kept in Hootsuite for 3 months.

Your rights:-

You have the right to:

• Be told how we use your information
• Ask to see the information we hold
• Ask us to change information you think is wrong
• Ask us to remove information when it’s not needed any more
• Ask us to only use your information in certain ways
• Tell us you don’t want us to do anything with your information.
• Be told if we make any decisions about you using computer algorithms

We will only send you our newsletter if you ask for it, and we always give you a way of telling us you don’t want to get it anymore.

If you’re worried about how we get and use your information, or wish to update your information or talk to us please email [email protected] or by phone: 01865 810000.

If you then want to speak to someone outside our business, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on 0303 123 1113 or via their website.

We obtain information about you when you use our website, for example, to book tickets to events, or if you register to receive one of our e-newsletters.

How information is used:-

We may use your information to:

• process ticket orders that you have submitted;
• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us, such as schools membership;
• deal with entries into a competition;
• notify you of changes to our services;
• send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you, such as an e-newsletter about upcoming school opportunities or our programmes and events;
• process a grant or job application.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example the collection of Gift Aid). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information:-

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Authorised partners:-

Very occasionally, we might pass your information to our authorised partners for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf. For example booking information (name and contact email) to a venue hosting an event for us for health and safety purposes.

However, when we use authorised partners, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties, unless we are required to do so by law, for example, for NHS Test and Trace, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

Marketing:-

We will only contact you for marketing purposes by email if you have given your prior consent. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us email: [email protected] or calling us on 01865 810 000.

If you no longer wish to receive our newsletters, you can click UNSUBSCRIBE when you open the most recent newsletter in your browser.

How to access & update your information:-

The accuracy of your information is important to us. We’re working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you. In the meantime, if you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: [email protected]

Alternatively, you can telephone 01865 810 000.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information that The Oxford Trust holds about you. Please contact [email protected] or call 01865 810 000.

Withdrawal of consent:-

Whenever you have given us consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind and withdraw consent.

Profiling:-

We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

Use of cookies:-

Like many other websites, The Oxford Trust and Science Oxford websites uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store the first three digits of your postcode. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. For more information on how to switch off cookies on your computer, visit our full cookies policy. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

Links to other websites:-

Our website may contain links to websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

Consent for video, audio & photography:-

We sometimes take photographs/videos at events for website, social media and marketing purposes. These photographs are stored on a secure server, shared only with authorised partners and will automatically be deleted after 10 years, according to the photographic permissions form.

In accordance with our child protection policy, we will not permit photographs, video, sound or other images of young people to be taken without the consent of the parents/carers of the child.

The Oxford Trust will take all steps to ensure images are used solely for the purposes they are intended. If you become aware that any images are being used inappropriately you should inform The Oxford Trust immediately.

We keep this Policy under regular review.

Updated December 2023.