CPD Central® Privacy Policy and Cookies

At the National Technician Development Centre (NTDC), we do our best to protect and respect your personal data. This privacy policy explains how we collect that data, why we use it and how we keep it safe.

Who are we?

CPD Central is a software developed by the National Technician Development Centre. The NTDC is your centre: a one-stop shop, providing organisations and their technical communities with access to information, expertise and a range of research and tools (including the nationally recognised NTDC toolkit). These are specifically designed to support the delivery of high-quality technical services across all areas, including Creative Industries, Science, Engineering and Medicine. The National Technician Development Centre is self-sustaining and not-for-profit. The NTDC is run, for the benefit of, and with input from, individual institutions, the technical community and the wider sector as a whole. For general queries or more information in relation to data protection, please contact enquiries@ntdc.ac.uk.

How do we collect your information?

We obtain information about you when you make contact with us. This happens when you:

  1. Register as a new member / affiliate via our website, or via a professional body;
  2. Subscribe to CPD Central and NTDC hosted webinars or events;
  3. Attend an event or a conference that we are supporting;
  4. Subscribe to our newsletter or contact form.

What types of information do we hold?

Members

The minimum information we collect from you is your name and email address. We may also collect additional information about you to enrich your CPD portfolio, which is optional to you as an end user. This includes your postal address, job title, employer, interests, communication preferences, qualifications, work history and statements specific to your governing / professional body.

Our system provides you with the ability to add a CPD diary, task or objective within your own profile for the purposes of capturing a full CPD record. This information, along with any attached files are stored securely within your profile.

Webinars, Events and Conferences

In attending one of our webinars or events, we will ask you to provide your name, email address and contact preferences. This will enable us to identify participants for the purpose of issuing event tickets, printing of event badges and sending you any CPD certificates of attendance. We will only store your information on our contacts database if this is selected within your contact preferences when signing up to an event. This will enable us to send you useful information relating to special offers, upcoming webinars and new product features.

Why do we collect your information?

We only use your information in accordance with the law. This gives us various powers to use your data. These are effectively the reasons for our processing and are:

Collecting and using your data will mean we are able to manage your membership, process any orders or requests you have and to provide you with relevant and topical information relating to your interests. For example, changes to our services. It will enable us to ask for your views on our services and matters relating to your CPD. Data protection applies to personal data held about individuals.

Who has access to your information?

Staff of NTDC will have controlled access to your information to enable us to provide you with services and support. Volunteers of NTDC will not receive access to your personal information without your consent or, very occasionally, in defined circumstances under the direct supervision of NTDC staff.

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for them to market to you. We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, subcontractors and other associated organisations to provide services on our behalf (for example, to send you certificates). However, when we use third parties, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we require them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

We have a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the web developer who requires access to information only to troubleshoot, recover files and to assist in the maintenance, support and continual development of CPD Central. They will abide by the privacy policy and only use information when given strict consent to do so.

Your choices

You have a choice about whether and how you wish to receive information from us. You will be asked to make your preferences clear when we collect your information. For most users, this will be when they register online. Your preferences can be updated at any point. The accuracy of your information is important to us. Please do regularly check and update your information in your account settings. You have various legal rights over your information, which we will always respect. Further detail is available from the Information Commissioner. www.ico.org.uk

How do we protect your data?

Security is our top priority and we take several steps to protect your data. We provide a system with high-levels of security, which is designed, maintained and updated by a dedicated team of IT professionals. We use only https forms and data retrieval servers. You can check our site safety by clicking here - click here.

All staff receive data protection training and our premises are secured. We have contracts with providers requiring them to protect your information in line with industry standards. If we transfer your data outside of the EU we will ensure that extra checks are in place.

In relation to data recovery, each submission you send to CPD Central using the diary entries, tasks and objectives forms are securely backed up. This ensures that we are extremely unlikely to lose any of your entries.

Use of 'cookies' and automated decision-making

Like most websites, CPD Central 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. Cookies make it possible for your browser to remember your setting and preferences. Cookies also collect statistical data about your browsing and do not identify you as an individual. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a more personalised service for you. We do not use your data for external marketing, or third-party sales generation purposes. It is possible to switch off cookies in your browser preferences. We do not have systems that use your information for automated decision-making.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to websites run by other organisations. This privacy statement applies only to our site and we are not responsible for the policies and practices of other sites.

16 or Under?

We particularly wish to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission before you provide us with personal information.

Review of this statement

We keep this statement under review as part of our overall Data Protection Policy. It was last updated in January 2020. You have a choice about whether and how you wish to receive information from us. You will be asked to make your preferences clear when we collect your information. For most users, this will be when they register online. Your preferences can be updated at any point. The accuracy of your information is important to us. Please do regularly check and update your information in your account settings.