Privacy and cookies

This Policy explains how the Rothamsted group stores and uses all the personal information which it collects from you in a safe and secure manner, in compliance with and beyond the General Data Protection Regulations (commonly known as the GDPR). Rothamsted group (“we” or “our” or “us”) includes Rothamsted Research Limited, Charity number 802038 and Company number 02393175 of West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, Rothamsted Enterprises Limited (Company number 03726930), Rothamsted Scientific Services Limited (Company number 14433339) both of the same address and any other subsidiary companies of any of these entities. This Policy applies to all personal data collected through our websites at https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk, https://www.rothamstedenterprises.com (each a “Site”) or from any other sources.

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer to oversee our compliance with data protection laws and who has overall responsibility for data protection compliance in our organisation. If you have any questions about this Policy or what we do with your personal information, their contact details are set out in the "Contact" section below.

PRIVACY NOTICES

Collecting specific, relevant personal information is a necessary part of us being able to provide you with any services you may request from us or in providing services to our customers and members or just managing our relationship with you.

When we hold or use your personal information as adata controller (see below for a description of what this is) we will provide you with a privacy notice which sets out in detail what information we hold about you (such as your contact details, address, etc.), how your personal information may be used and the reasons for these uses, together with details of your rights.

Where we collect personal information from you directly, we will provide this privacy notice at the time we collect the personal information from you. Where we receive your personal information indirectly, we will provide this privacy notice when we first contact you, first pass the data to someone else or within a month, whichever is the earlier.

We will only provide this privacy notice to you once, generally at the start of our relationship with you. However if the applicable privacy notice is updated substantially, then we may provide you with details of the updated version. You are encouraged to check back regularly for updates.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DATA CONTROLLERS/PROCESSORS

A data controller is a person who controls how personal information is processed and used. A data processor is a person who processes and uses personal information in accordance with the instructions of a third party, i.e. the data controller.

This distinction is important. You have certain rights in relation to your personal information, for example the right to be provided with the personal information held about you and details of its use and the right to have certain of your personal information either erased or anonymised, commonly referred to as the right to be forgotten ( see below to see what rights you have). These rights can generally only be exercised against a data controller of your information.

In most cases we will be a data controller of your personal information. In any case where we are not a data controller this means that you cannot exercise these rights against us directly (i.e. where we only act as a data processor), but you can do so against the data controller (i.e. the person who controls how we process the personal information). In these cases we will endeavour to inform you who is the data controller of your personal information so that you can direct any such requests to them.

Also it is only a data controller that will provide you with a privacy notice about your personal information, so where we process your personal information as a data controller we will provide you with a privacy notice. Where we process your personal information as a data processor for a third party, that third party should provide you with a privacy notice which will set out details regarding the processing of your personal information, which should also include the processing to be carried out by us on their behalf.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We will use your personal information as described in the privacy notice provided to you, but, for example, we may use your personal information to administer any account(s) you have with us or to send you information we think you might find useful, provided you have indicated that you are happy to be contacted for these purposes . To see how we use your personal information, please see our current privacy notices, which can be accessed below:

WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH?

Details of how we disclose your personal information are set out in the relevant privacy notice provided to you, but generally it is where we need to do so in order to run our organisation (e.g. where other people process information for us) to provide services to you or to comply with agreements that we have entered into with you. In such circumstances, we may share your personal person information between ourselves to the extent that this is strictly necessary and we will put in place arrangements to protect your personal information. Outside of that we do not disclose your personal information unless we are required to do so by law.

If we transfer personal information about you outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we will let you know and ensure that all reasonable security measures are taken and that any third party processers will be required to process the information in accordance with information protection laws and we will notify you in your privacy notice if we are the information controller.

We do not sell, trade or rent your personal information to others.

HOW LONG DO WE HOLD ON TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Further details of how long we hold onto your personal information for are set out in the relevant privacy notice provided to you, but we will only hold your information for as long as is necessary or where you ask us to delete records we may delete it earlier.

The duration for which we retain your personal information will differ depending on the type of information and the reason why it was collected. However, in some cases personal information may be retained on a long term basis: for example, personal information that we need to retain for legal purposes will normally be retained for at least six years in accordance with usual commercial practice and regulatory requirements.

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?

Full details of your rights set out in the relevant privacy notice provided to you, but you are entitled by law to ask for a copy of your personal information at any time. You are also entitled to ask us to correct, delete or update your personal information, to send your personal information to you or another organisation and to object to automated decision making. Where you have given us your consent to use your personal information in a particular manner, you also have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.

To exercise any of your rights, or if you have any questions relating to your rights, please contact us by using the details set out in the "Contact" section below. You can also unsubscribe from any direct marketing by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the marketing messages we send to you.

You should note that some of your rights may not apply as they have specific requirements and exemptions which apply to them and they may not also apply to personal information recorded and stored by us. However your right to withdraw consent or object to processing for direct marketing are absolute rights.

If you are unhappy with the way we are using your personal information you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office or your local data protection regulator. More information about your legal rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/ . However, we are here to help and would encourage you to contact us to resolve your complaint first.

LINKING WITH THIRD PARTY SITES

Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our commercial partners, other regional bodies or funders. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and they will be a data controller of your personal information. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies and you should check these policies before you submit any personal information to these websites.

In addition, if you linked to this Site from a third-party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners or operators of that third-party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site and contact its owner or operator if you have any concerns or questions.

SECURITY

We employ a variety of technical and organisational measures to keep your personal information safe and to prevent unauthorised access to, or use, or disclosure of it. Unfortunately, no information transmission over the Internet is guaranteed 100% secure nor is any storage of information always 100% secure, but we do take all appropriate steps to protect the security of your personal information. We take information and system security very seriously indeed.

COOKIES

Certain parts of our Site use "cookies" to keep track of your visit and to help you navigate between sections. A cookie is a small data file that certain websites store on your computer's hard-drive when you visit such websites. Cookies can contain information such as your user ID and the pages you have visited. The only personal information a cookie contains is information that you have personally supplied.

We use cookies on our Site to enable us to deliver content that is specific to your interests and gives us an idea of which parts of the Site you are visiting and to recognise you when you return to the Site. Reading cookies does not give us access to other information on your computer's hard-drive and our Site will not read cookies created by other websites that you have visited.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. If, however, you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of the Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you access the Site.

Please note providers of third party content may also use cookies over which we have no control. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see the table at the end of the policy.

LOG FILES

In common with most websites, our Site logs various information about visitors, including internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP) information, referring / exit pages and date / time stamp.

We may use this information to analyse trends, administer the Site, track your movement around the Site and gather broad demographic information.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

Any changes we may make to this Policy in the future will be posted on our Site and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. When we change this Policy in a material way, we will update the version date at the bottom of this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Policy and should you object to any alteration, please contact us as set out in the "Contact" section below.

CONTACT

In the event of any query or complaint in connection with the information we hold about you, please email Louise.Warren@Rothamsted.ac.uk or write to us at:

Data Protection Officer
West Common
Harpenden
Hertfordshire
AL5 2JQ

Whilst this privacy policy sets out a general summary of your legal rights in respect of personal information, this is a very complex area of law. More information about your legal rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/ .

Version Date: 11 August 2020

COOKIES

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, your computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies, and JavaScript code. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you, for example, by:

• enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
• recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
• measuring how many people are using our services, so they can be made easier to use and there is enough capacity to ensure they are fast
• analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with our services so we can make them better

You can manage these small files and learn more about them from the Directgov article, ' Internet browser cookies - what they are and how to manage them'.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you visit our site.

For more information on deleting and controlling cookies visit AboutCookies.org.

Similarly you can set up your browser to disable JavaScript – please see your browser’s help pages for instructions on how to do this.

FIRST-PARTY COOKIES

We use a session cookie which is used to identify users on the website. This is anonymous, unless the user is a registered user logged into the site.

THIRD-PARTY COOKIES

We use a number of suppliers who may also set cookies on their websites' on its behalf.

COOKIES FOR IMPROVING SERVICE

Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This is to ensure that we provide a fast service that is available when you want it. You may wish to visit Google's Privacy Center.

HOW TO CONTROL AND DELETE COOKIES

We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.

However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The 'Help' function within your browser should tell you how.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit AboutCookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.

If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.

For information on how to do this on the browser or your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.

To opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.