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Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy
 

This is the privacy notice of B Forum Ltd. T/A SheffieldForum.co.uk. We respect your privacy and are determined to protect your personal data. The purpose of this privacy notice is to inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from). We’ll also tell you about your privacy rights and how the data protection law protects you.

 

This privacy notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below.

 

  1. WHO WE ARE AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION
  2. THE PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
  3. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA
  4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
  5. WHO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH
  6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
  7. DATA SECURITY
  8. DATA RETENTION
  9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
  10. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES
  11. QUERIES, REQUESTS OR CONCERNS

1. WHO WE ARE AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION 

What is the purpose of this privacy notice?

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you register for an account, join our newsletter, opt-in for forum notifications and use and browse the forum.

 

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

 

You must read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

 

Data controller(s)

B Forum Ltd. T/A SheffieldForum.co.uk is the controller and responsible this website and for your personal data (collectively referred to as B Forum Ltd., "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy notice.) For all data matters contact our Data Protection Officer on office@sheffieldforum.co.uk.

 

Third-party links outside of our control

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements.

When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

 

2. THE PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. You can find out more about personal data from the Information Commissioners Office.

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity Data includes title, first name, last name, username, date of birth, gender.
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address, telephone number, social media username(s).
  • Profile Data includes your username, purchases or orders made by you, your forum signature, your interests, preferences and feedback.
  • Technical Data includes IP addresses, details of your web browser, your location, type of device and operating system and/or software.
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you, details of products and services you may have purchased from us.
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties/your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect your personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

 

3. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Directly. You may give us you data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
    • Create an account on our website;
    • Fill in optional information within your forum profile;
    • Subscribe to forum or newsletter notifications;
    • Request marketing to be sent to you;
    • Give us a feedback or send us a query;
    • Choose to register or login to the forum using your social media account.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data and Usage Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy (found below) for further details.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
    • Technical Data, Usage Data from analytics companies such as Google.
    • Technical Data from advertising partners such as Google Adsense, Criteo, Vibrant Media.
    • Identity Data and Contact Data when you optionally choose to login or register on the forum using your social media account.
    • Transaction Data, Technical Data from technical, payment and delivery partners.

 

4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Performance of Contract this means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
  • Legitimate Interest this means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting our data protection officer at office@sheffieldforum.co.uk.
  • Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation this means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

 

PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE WILL USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, with the legal bases we rely on to do so.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Purpose/Activity

Type of data

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest

To register you as a new customer/user.

Identity

Contact

Profile

Performance of a contract with you

To manage our relationship with you which will include:

Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy.

Dealing with your enquiries, feedback and any issues you have.

Identity

Contact

Profile

Marketing and Communications

Performance of a contract with you

Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of support, to resolve issues, to maintain and improve customer satisfaction, to maintain our records)

To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data).

Identity

Contact

Technical

Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)

Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

To process and deliver your order including recording your order details, managing payments, fees and charges. Collect and recover money owed to us. Assist with fraud detection and prevention. Keeping you informed about the order status.

Identity

Contact

Technical

Transaction

Financial

Performance of a contract with you

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)

To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you.

Identity

Contact

Profile

Usage

Marketing and Communications

Technical

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)

 

To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences

 

Technical

Usage

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)

To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you

Identity

Contact

Profile

Usage

Technical

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)

Marketing

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you. You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us, or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, warranty registration, product or service experience or other transactions.

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy (found below).

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

 

5. WHO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

  • Internal Third Parties - Other companies within the B Forum Ltd. group of companies (within the EU) acting as joint controllers or processors to carry out analysis, planning, decision making and provide IT and system administration services.
  • External Third Parties
    • Service providers acting as processors based within the EEA and the USA who provide data analytics, email, hosting, IT and system administration services.
    • Distribution, fulfilment and delivery service providers and partners within the EEA.
    • Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based within the EEA who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
    • Third party payment processors including those within and outside of the EEA (we do not store payment information).
    • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the EEA who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
    • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

 

6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

Some of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by implementing safeguards:

  • We will only transfer data to a country on the EU Commission’s list of countries or territories providing adequate protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in connection with the processing of their personal data.
  • We will ensure appropriate safeguards can be provided for by model contract clauses or binding corporate rules (BCRs).

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

 

7. DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

 

8. DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by using the details on our contact us page.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see 9. Your legal rights below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

 

9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Unless subject to an exemption under the data protection laws, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  • The right to request a copy of the personal data which we hold about you;
  • The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary to retain such data;
  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time, where consent was the lawful basis for processing your data;
  • The right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), where applicable i.e. where our processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or where we process your data by automated means);
  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
  • The right to object to our processing of personal data, where applicable i.e. where processing is based on our legitimate interests (or in performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing or processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics).

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact our Data Protection Officer using the details found on our Contact Us page.

No fee required – with some exceptions

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable admin fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

 

10. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES

This version was last updated on 24/05/2018.

Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current.

 

11. QUERIES, REQUESTS OR CONCERNS

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints in relation to this policy or any other data protection matter between you and us, please in the first instance contact our Data Protection Officer using the details found on our Contact Us page.

If this does not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office on 03031231113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, England, UK.

Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
  • Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  • Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
  • Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

Cookie List (Compiled at 25/05/2018)

Cookie

Name

Purpose

Google Analytics

__utma

__utmb

__utmc

__utmt

__utmz

Used to collect traffic and usage information about how visitors use our site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form.

Cookie Consent

cookieconsent_status

Used to determine whether you've chosen to accept the cookie policy message.

vBulletin

bblastactivity

bblastvisit

bbsessionhash

bbcpsession

bbforum_view

bbuserid

bbpassword

Used by the forum software to track when you last visited the site, when you last posted and whether you are currently logged in or not, your user ID and what forum or content you are currently viewing.

Google Ads/DoubleClick

Examples:

DSID

IDE

d

mc

View more >

Cookies used by Google to make advertising more engaging to users and more valuable to publishers and advertisers. You can choose to opt out of Ad Personalization on this page.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

You block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

You can opt-out of Google Analytics tracking by using their tool found at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, you can visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Third Parties

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google utilizes the Data collected to track and examine the use of this website, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services.
Facebook Pixel
Facebook Ads conversion tracking is an analytics service provided by Facebook, Inc. that connects data from the Facebook advertising network with actions performed on this Application.
Spam Defense
The IPS Spam Defense Service passes the email address and IP address of the registering member to the service to determine the likelihood a registering account is a spam source.
SendGrid
SendGrid is used by this website to process and deliver emails.
reCAPTCHA V2
This site uses a CAPTCHA to ensure humans are performing certain actions. The CAPTCHA provider may set a session cookie and get information about your internet browser and device accessing this website.

Important Information

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