Changes to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy was last updated on 20 September 2023.
The British Institute of Radiology (BIR) is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information.
This privacy policy tells you how the BIR collects information about you and what we do with it.
This document
This Privacy Policy is intended to be as brief as possible, and as clear as possible. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of the BIR’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide additional information or explanation needed.
How we use your information
Website visitors
We use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect and log internet information such as how many people visit our websites, which pages are visited, and what the behaviour and usage patterns are. This information does not identify any individual person. We do not attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website, or permit Google to do so.
If we wish to collect information that identifies you we will be clear about this and ask you directly, for instance through a form which asks for your name, email address, specialty etc. when you register to receive a service. If we do this, we will make clear what we intend to do with the information.
Cookies
Information about how we use cookies is contained in our Cookie Policy: https://www.bir.org.uk/about-us/cookies/
Search engine
We use Google Custom Search to help you search for information within our website.
IP Address
We may collect information about your device and/or computer within the MyBIR area of our website, including your IP address, browser or operating system for administrative purposes and to help diagnose problems with our database.
Email newsletters and alerts
Our email newsletters, and other information we provide about scientific, medical or industry news, jobs, events, etc are delivered by a third-party e-marketing tool, Upland Adestra. We collect statistics to find out information about usage and behaviour patterns, such as the number of people who have accessed our emails or selected links. We use standard technology to do this, including clear gifs. For further detail see Upland Adestra’s privacy notice.
Online surveys
From time to time we conduct surveys to help us make sure our services are in line with the needs of our members and the wider community we serve. These are normally conducted using Survey Monkey. For further information see Survey Monkey’s privacy policy. We may download information from the survey platform into spreadsheets, word processing or presentation packages or PDF’s. These will be held only by people directly involved in analysing the results of the survey. Information identifying individual survey respondents will not be shared without the respondent’s permission.
WordPress
Our blog is published by a third party, WordPress, which is run by a company called Automattic Inc. Anonymous information on usage and behaviour patterns is collected about visitors to the blog. WordPress also asks commenters to provide a name and email address. For further detail see Automattic's privacy notice.
People who contact us via social media
We use a number of applications to manage our social media interactions.
People who email us
Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.
BIR Members, customers, platform and service users
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons: signing up to our website, newsletter, to register for educational content, receive publications, or purchase merchandise. We store all data securely and where possible allow you to control your own information for accuracy through our various online platforms.
We use the information you give us to deliver educational content and professional services. The BIR provides a range of educational platforms, products and services. We only share your information with other organisations and third parties to fulfil requests for publications, materials, and merchandise; we also use some third party platforms to support our educational programme, but they are only permitted to use the information for the specific purpose of fulfilling a service to our delegates or customers, or with specific consent from you. The service will usually require access to a third-party platform or technology to amplify the learning experience.
We may also receive your information indirectly in the instance that the BIR has been asked to provide you with a service or product through another purchase or your Organisation or Department has enrolled you on to their Corporate or Group Membership Plan.
Institutional subscriptions to our publications are processed by a third party, Wiley. Customer details are held by them in line with their agreement with the subscriber, and passed to the BIR as required. The BIR reserves the right to provide such information to a further third party if that third party takes on responsibility for managing institutional subscriptions to our publications.
If you are a user of one or more of our online publications, we will process and store information about what publications you subscribe to and your level of access, together with information about your identity. We may also use data about the content you have accessed in order to signpost related content. If you provide us with information about your profession, interests, and other detail relevant to your consumption of professional information we may also store and use that information to provide you with a user experience more tailored to your needs. This information may be held on our internal databases and on that of our third party platform, Atypon, which is owned by Atypon Systems, LLC. For further information see Atypon’s privacy policy.
If you are a member of the BIR, we may process and store information about your identity, membership type, and level of access to BIR services and content. We may also request your address details so we can send you important membership communications. We may also use data about the content you have accessed in order to signpost related content. If you provide us with information about your profession, interests, and other detail relevant to your consumption of professional information we may also store and use that information to provide you with a user experience more tailored to your needs. This information may be held on our internal databases and on that of our third-party platform, Salesforce.com. For further information see the Salesforce.com privacy policy. BIR members will receive notices and communications about membership services and updates to ensure we are fulfilling our subscription service.
Personal Data may occasionally be transferred to third parties who act on behalf of the BIR to handle mailings and the distribution of publications which form part of the BIR’s membership offering, and any other relevant membership communication.
We have to hold details of members, service users and purchasers in order to provide our products and services to them. We use these details to provide the requested product or service and for closely related purposes.
Award and grant nominations
Any personal information provided as part of an award or grant nomination will only be used for the purpose of reviewing the nomination, communicating with nominees, and publicising the award or grant, unless we are given permission by the subject to use it for other purposes. Biographical information and information about the activity that has given rise to the award or grant may be used to publicise the award or grant, but this will not include contact information, unless you give specific permission for that to be shared, and we will not share information that has been identified as confidential.
Job applicants, current and former BIR employees
Information you provide during a job application process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, contacting you, assessing your suitability as a candidate, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements. We will not share the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes.
You are not required to provide the information we request, but it might affect your application if you don’t.
You will be asked to provide equal opportunities information, but this is not mandatory, and it will not affect your application if you don’t provide it.
This information will not be made available to staff who are not involved in the recruitment process or the recruitment decision, other than in the form of anonymous statistics.
If you are unsuccessful we may retain your details in case further suitable vacancies arise.
If we make a conditional offer of employment we may ask for further information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability. We may therefore request references from previous employers or people who know you, proof of your identity, and proof of your qualifications. We may also ask you to complete a questionnaire about your health to establish your fitness to work.
You may also be asked to complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions, and we may contact you to complete an application, or complete an application ourselves, for a Criminal Record check via the Disclosure and Barring Service, Access NI, or another appropriate agency, which will verify your declaration of unspent convictions.
If we make a final offer, we will also request the following details:
Bank details, which we will store to process payments to you such as salary and expenses
Emergency contact details
Your P45, P60 or similar documentation for tax purposes
If you are employed in a senior position, you may also be asked to declare if you have any potential conflicts of interest. If you complete a declaration, the information will be circulated to the BIR Council and to the BIR Audit Committee.
How long is the information retained for?
If you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 6 years following the end of your employment. This includes your criminal records declaration, fitness to work, records of any security checks and references.
If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for 12 months from the closure of the campaign.
Information generated throughout the assessment process, for example interview notes, is retained by us for 12 months following the closure of the campaign.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right to rectification- You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure- You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing- You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing- You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, will commit to responding within 30 days.
Complaints or queries
People who make a complaint to us
If we receive a complaint we may create a file with the details of the complaint and the complainant, and other parties involved.
Depending on the nature of the complaint, we may have to disclose the complainant’s identity to the party who is complained about. We will normally seek to limit disclosure of both the complainant and the party complained about to those people who need to know in order to process and resolve the complaint. If the nature of the complaint requires a wider group of people to be informed about the complaint and/or its outcome, we may do so.
If you have concerns about the way we have processed your personal information, you can contact us for queries or complaints at:
Membership and Communications Department – Complaints
Audrey House, 16-20 Ely Place
London EC1N 6SN
Links to other websites
This Privacy Policy does not cover all the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.
How to contact us
If you want to request information about our Privacy Policy you can email us at membership@bir.org.uk or write to:
Membership and Communications Department
British Institute of Radiology
Audrey House, 16-20 Ely Place
London EC1N 6SN
