The Oxford College of Garden Design is wholly owned by Oxford Brookes University and we value your privacy and care about the way in which your personal information is treated.
This policy describes:
- what personal information we collect about you
- how we obtain your personal information
- how we use your personal information
- on what basis we use your personal information
- how long we keep your personal information
- who we share your personal information with
- how we protect your personal information
- which countries we transfer your personal information to
- your rights regarding your personal information
What personal information do we collect about you?
We may collect personal information from you in the course of our business, including through your use of our website, when you contact or request information from us, when you engage our services or as a result of your relationship with one or more of our staff and clients.
The personal information that we process includes:
- Basic information, such as your name (including name prefix or title), the company you work for, your title or position and your relationship to a person
- Contact information, such as your postal address, email address and phone number(s)
- Technical information, such as information from your visits to our website or applications or in relation to materials and communications we send to you electronically
- Information you provide to us for the purposes of attending meetings including access and dietary requirements
- Identification and background information provided by you or collected as part of our business acceptance processes
- Personal information provided to us by or on behalf of our clients or generated by us in the course or providing services to them, which may include special categories of data
- Any other information relating to you which you may provide to us
How we obtain your personal information
- We collect information from you as part of our business acceptance processes and about you and others as necessary in the course of providing website and branding design services
- We collect your personal information while monitoring our technology tools and services, including our websites and email communications sent to and from Oxford College of Garden Design
- We gather information about you when you provide it to us, or interact with us directly, for instance engaging with our staff or registering on one of our digital platforms or applications
- We may collect or receive information about you from other sources, such as keeping the contact details we already hold for you accurate and up to date using publically available sources
How we use your personal information
Oxford College of Garden Design collects and processes personal information about you in a number of ways, including through your use of our website and in the provision of services by us. We use that information:
- To provide and improve this website, including auditing and monitoring its use
- To provide and improve our services to you and to our clients, including handling the personal information of others on behalf of our clients
- To provide information requested by you
- To promote our services, including sending offers and updates, publications and details of events
- To manage and administer our relationship with you and our clients
- To fulfil our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations, including establishing, exercising or defending legal claims
- For the purposes of recruitment
Use of Oxford College of Garden Design website
A number of facilities on our website invite you to provide us with personal information, such as the contact page section of our website and our email queries facilities. The purpose of these facilities is apparent at the point that you provide your personal information and we only use that information for those purposes.
Our website uses Google Analytics, a web-based analytics tool that tracks and reports on the manner in which the website is used to help us to improve it. Google Analytics does this by placing small text files called ‘cookies’ on your device. The information that the cookies collect, such as the number of visitors to the site, the pages visited and the length of time spent on the site, is aggregated and therefore anonymous. Please also see ‘Marketing and other emails’ below.
You may refuse the use of cookies or withdraw your consent at any time by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser but please note that this may affect your use and experience of our website. By continuing to use our website without changing your privacy settings, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. To find out more about cookies, including how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
Marketing and other emails
We operate an email mailing list program, used to inform subscribers about products, services and/or news we supply/publish. Users can subscribe through an online automated process where they have given their explicit permission. Subscriber personal details are collected, processed, managed and stored in accordance with the regulations named above. Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time through an automated online service, or if not available, other means as detailed in the footer of sent marketing messages. The type and content of marketing messages subscribers receive, and if it may contain third party content, is clearly outlined at the point of subscription.
On what basis we use your personal information
We use your personal information on the following bases:
- To perform a contract, such as engaging with an individual to provide photographic or other services
- To comply with legal and regulatory obligations
- For legitimate business purposes. Please see ‘How we use your personal information’ for more detail
How long we keep your personal information
- Your personal information will be retained in accordance with our global data retention policy which categorises all of the information held by Oxford College of Garden Design and specifies the appropriate retention period for each category of data. Those periods are based on the requirements of applicable data protection laws and the purpose for which the information is collected and used, taking into account legal and regulatory requirements to retain the information for a minimum period, limitation periods for taking legal action, good practice and business purposes.
Who we share your personal information with
We are a UK based website and online education company and we operate within the UK as well as the EU and globally and any information that you provide to us is used only by and shared with Oxford College of Garden Design employees and support partners.We may also share your personal information with certain trusted third parties in accordance with contractual arrangements in place with them, including:
- Our professional advisers and auditors
- Suppliers to whom we outsource certain support services such as website hosting, backup and security, and admin
- IT service providers
Where necessary, or for the reasons set out in this policy, personal information may also be shared with regulatory authorities, courts, tribunals, government agencies and law enforcement agencies. While it is unlikely, we may be required to disclose your information to comply with legal or regulatory requirements. We will use reasonable endeavours to notify you before we do this, unless we are legally restricted from doing so.
We would never sell, rent or otherwise make personal information commercially available to any third party, except with your prior permission.
Social Media Policy & Usage
We adopt a Social Media Policy to ensure our business and our staff conducts themselves accordingly online. While we may have official profiles on social media platforms users are advised to verify the authenticity of such profiles before engaging with, or sharing information with such profiles. We will never ask for user passwords or personal details on social media platforms. Users are advised to conduct themselves appropriately when engaging with us on social media.
There may be instances where our website features social sharing buttons, which help share web content directly from web pages to the respective social media platforms. You use social sharing buttons at your own discretion and accept that doing so may publish content to your social media profile feed or page. You can find further information about some social media privacy and usage policies in the resources section below.
How we protect your personal information
We use a variety of technical and organisational measures to help protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction consistent with applicable data protection laws.
Your rights regarding your personal information
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable data protection laws provide certain rights for data subjects.
You are entitled to request details of the information we hold about you and how we process it. You may also have a right in accordance with applicable data protection law to have it rectified or deleted, to restrict our processing of that information, to stop unauthorised transfers of your personal information to a third party and, in some circumstances, to have personal information relating to you transferred to another organisation. You may also have the right to lodge a complaint in relation to our processing of your personal information with a local supervisory authority.
If you object to the processing of your personal information, or if you have provided your consent to processing and you later choose to withdraw it, we will respect that choice in accordance with our legal obligations.
Your objection (or withdrawal of any previously given consent) could mean that we are unable to perform the actions necessary to achieve the purposes set out above (see ‘How we use your personal information’) or that you may not be able to make use of the services and products offered by us. Please note that even after you have chosen to withdraw your consent we may be able to continue to process your personal information to the extent required or otherwise permitted by law, in particular in connection with exercising and defending our legal rights or meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.