Design and Technology Association

The Design & Technology Association – Privacy Policy

The Design and Technology Association – Privacy Policy 

In compliance with UK and European data protection regulations, including GDPR, this privacy policy explains what personal information we collect from you when you visit our website or are a recipient of our services.

The Design and Technology Association is committed to processing personal information about its customers in ways that comply with its legal and regulatory obligations, and to being clear with customers about what it does with their personal information.

Lawful basis for processing

We communicate with customers either on the basis of contract, where the customer has purchased good or services or agreed to participate in specific activities, or on the basis of legitimate interests, where we believe the information we provide will genuinely be of interest.

Data collection

The Design and Technology Association may collect personal information which we receive when:

  • you use our website
  • you use our services
  • you purchase a product
  • you contact us or connect with us
  • you are a recipient of our services

We may collect the following types of information:

  • your name, address, email address, telephone number(s) and other contact details
  • information required to provide you with a service, and details of our services that you have used
  • your organisation’s name, your position in the organisation; the organisation’s address, organisation’s email address and telephone number
  • your payment information such as credit or debit card details and bank account details. Please note the D&T Association does not store or retain any card details.

Why do we collect this information and what do we use it for?

We collect your personal information to:

  • provide you with services that you may request from us
  • meet our legal and regulatory obligations
  • keep you informed of D&T news and developments
  • for the operation and improvement of our websites
  • promote our services using social media channels

How do we collect this information?

We collect personal information:

  • directly from customers: e.g. when a customer signs up to receive our services or registers on our website
  • from publicly available sources: e.g. school websites, social media, internet services.
  • From purchased lists, for example schools data

Keeping your information safe and secure

The Design and Technology Association is committed to keeping customers’ personal information secure to protect it from being inappropriately or accidentally accessed, used, shared or destroyed, and against it being lost. We are IASME accredited (which includes Cyber Essentials) and this confirms and demonstrates our commitment to data security.

Third party access

Access to your personal information is only allowed when required by law.

Access to your personal information is only allowed when required by law or is required as part of fulfilling our service obligations.

We do not, and will never, sell or share your personal information with third parties except when processing orders/information as necessary.

For our general day to day data processing activities, we use the following to help us administer and monitor the services we provide:

  • for database management of our clients, staff and office administration
  • for payroll and financial accounting
  • to share newsletters, promotional detail, industry news or other information that maybe of interest to you
  • for the administration of our website and customer interactions
  • for any legal guidance in the provision of our services

For full details of the third party suppliers we use please contact us at info@designtechnology.org.uk 

International Data Transfers - It is our objective to not share data outside the EEA. However, in any circumstances where this may become necessary it will be undertaken in full compliance with the legal requirements

We are a UK company and following Brexit we will continue to store and process personal information mainly in the UK or EEA.

Please note though that your data may be exported to as well as stored and processed in countries outside of the UK or EEA where we use a third party, including, without limitation the United States. 

For data subjects residing in the UK or EEA, this means that your personal information may be exported, stored, and processed outside of the UK or EEA. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK or EEA, we ensure a similar degree of data privacy and protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • we will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK and European Commission; or
  • where we use service providers who are not in territories approved by the UK or EU commission, we will look to implement additional safeguards such as a detailed review of security measures and the use Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the UK and or European Commission

To receive information on the recipients of your data or if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK or EEA, please contact us at info@designtechnology.org.uk

How long do we keep personal information?

We will only retain customers’ personal information for as long as needed to carry out a particular purpose or meet a particular obligation, in line with our retention policy. This may be different for various data assets as requirements may be different.

Keeping you informed 

We plan to keep you updated on Design and Technology education related matters including training and other events, resources to support teaching, curriculum and other projects or lobbying activities. You can opt out of these at any time by following the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails.

Marketing

Marketing & Promotions

We use a variety of methods to send information we think may be of interest to you including post, telephone and electronic channels.

Electronic

Electronic communication may include the use of:

  • Email
  • Text messages

We will provide information relevant to your interests based on legitimate interests. You can always tell us, at any time, if you no longer want to receive these communications

Social media

We use social media to communicate with existing and potential customers and share information about our lobbying work, resources, training, membership and anything else relevant to design and technology education. For example, we currently use Google and Facebook to disseminate information to our target audience of D&T teachers and others interested in D&T education. You may choose to “like” or “follow” or interact with these.

We take your privacy and rights seriously and we use the basis of legitimate interests to communicate with you in various ways as we believe the information we communicate, which will relate to design technology education, will be of interest to you. Therefore we will not ask for your permission/consent but you can always unsubscribe from emails by clicking on the link at the bottom, or you can contact us via info@designtechnology.org.uk

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, you should note that we do not have any control over these other websites. Once you have used any of these links to leave our site, therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting these sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement.     

Access to personal information

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please let us know as soon as possible. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under UK Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) in relation to your personal information. You may have the right to:

  • access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with data protection law
  • object to us processing, or ask us to restrict our processing of your personal information for any of the purposes listed in this policy, at any time
  • ask us to update and correct any out-of-date or incorrect personal information that we hold about you free of charge
  • ask us to erase or delete your personal information (in certain circumstances). We will do our best to respond to such requests, but these are subject to certain limitations such as legal requirements
  • Request a transfer of your personal information (in certain circumstances).

If you wish to exercise any of the above rights or to review, verify, correct or question anything detailed in this policy or are unhappy with any aspect of how we use your data please contact us at info@designtechnology.org.uk 

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office by telephone on 0303 123 1113, or by using the live chat service which is available through the Information Commissioner’s website www.ico.org.uk.

We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

This policy was last updated November 2023