Privacy Notice
The British Mycological Society (BMS) is a registered charity (No. 276503) promoting mycology in all its aspects by supporting scientific research, conservation issues, publications, meetings, workshops, education and related activities. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our members and those engaging with and participating in our activities.
This privacy notice tells you how we handle personal data and information. It applies to information we collect about visitors to our website and data collected or processed during the course of our business processes.
How your personal data is used
The BMS uses your personal information to provide you with information and / or access to membership benefits. Specifically, we use your information to help you complete any transactions or orders, to communicate with you, to update you on services and benefits.
The BMS provides a WorldPay form as a means of renewing a subscription. This process is carried out using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption on the WorldPay website. SSL encryption is designed to make the information unreadable by anyone else. This security measure is working when you see either the symbol of an unbroken key or closed lock (depending on your browser) on the bottom of your browser window.
When making subscription payments online with a credit/debit card through WorldPay, you will be transferred to the WorldPay secure payment servers to enter your financial information. By doing so, the BMS does not have access to your financial details.
The BMS will not sell, rent or lease your personal information to others. We will not share your personal information without your consent.
If there is any change to the information requested from you as part of membership, or to receive any communication from the society, please contact us.
Lawful bases for collection and processing of data
Our lawful bases for collection and processing of data are:
Legitimate interests
Managing BMS memberships, managing existing business relationships and establishing new relationships.
Taking part in market research and processing your personal information for our legitimate business interests.
Contract
To fulfil a contract with you or your organisation.
Consent
You may have given us your permission to contact you.
You may have given us your permission to participate in market research.
Collection, retention and storage of data
Managing your membership
We may collect the following information to manage your membership of the BMS and / or manage your journal subscription(s):
- name
- address and contact information including email address
- your journal preferences, your payment method
- information about your professional interests
- other information such as your reasons for joining the Society
- details of your subscription payments
We will retain your personal data for as long as it is required to complete the task for which it was collected, or for as long as there is another legitimate reason to do so, including managing your membership while you are a member of the BMS. Other than this, our standard retention period for personal data is 6 years. The retention period for data collected from our websites by Google Analytics is 26 months. After this, your personal data will be anonymised or deleted.
We use DropBox to store and transfer information and data - including personal data. You can find more information about DropBox security and privacy here.
We use EventBrite to take registrations (and occasionally payment) for BMS events and activities. EventBrite’s security and safety information can be found here.
We will, at all times, use appropriate technical and operational measures to safeguard the data from unauthorised or unlawful processing or accidental loss, disclosure, destruction or damage.
BMS Members can access and update their membership data by logging into their profile at www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/account/membership.
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you, and to ask us to correct, update or remove the information we hold. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us.
Online application forms (for BMS grants, awards, competitions, voluntary posts)
We collect information that you submit in online application forms hosted within our website. The details you provide are used to administer that application and are not used for any other purpose. Your data is retained for the period of time required to complete administration of the application and, where necessary, is stored securely for further use as appropriate to the purpose of the application.
E-mail for marketing and communications
We send e-mail to individuals for our own marketing purposes (for example, the promotion of events and activities) and in the course of conducting our own market research. You may opt-out of receiving such e-mail at any time, either by clicking the unsubscribe links provided in the e-mails or by contacting us directly.
We use MailChimp for sending bulk emails in relation to our business. We do not send you these emails unless you have subscribed by sending us your details using an online form. MailChimp’s privacy policy can be found here.
Participating in BMS market research
We occasionally conduct market research, such as surveys. We collect data for research purposes only and the information gathered is not used for marketing or sales. The details provided by individual participants are reported anonymously.
In our research, we may ask for your permission to share your identity and responses with us. We will always inform you of the reasons for asking for this permission, and with whom the information is being shared. You are not obliged to share your identity and responses; all responses remain confidential and anonymous unless you tell us otherwise.
When conducting our market research, we may ask you to provide contact information, demographic information about you or the organisation for which you work or volunteer, and open-ended answers or explanations of your opinion.
In online surveys, we may collect your IP address to verify your right to participate and prevent fraudulent participation. IP addresses are never used to identify individuals.
We use SmartSurveys to collect and process responses to market research surveys. The data collected by SmartSurveys is stored in the UK and is fully compliant with GDPR legislation and European Privacy Laws. SmartSurveys’ data security information can be found here.
Visitors to our websites
When you visit our websites - www.britmycolsoc.info, www.ukfungusday.co.uk and www.frdbi.info - we use Google Analytics to collect standard internet log information in an anonymous format.
Google Analytics uses cookies, and collects data related to the device, browser, IP address and visitor activities to measure and report statistics about visitor interactions on the website. We use this information to measure the number of visitors to the various parts of these sites, helping us understand what our visitors are most interested in and helping us to improve the sites.
This privacy notice does not cover other, non-BMS websites that we may link to.
Cookies
By using this website, you consent to our use of cookies.
A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies can be used by web servers to identity and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.
We use both session cookies and persistent cookies on this website.
A persistent cookie consists of a text file sent by a web server to a web browser, which will be stored by the browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date (unless deleted by the user before the expiry date).
A session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
We may send to you the following cookies:
a. __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmz, – We will use this persistent and session cookies to enable Google Analytics to measure how users interact with our website content.
b. CONCRETE5 – We will use this session cookie to enable the Concrete5 content management system used to operate our website.
When you use our website, you may also be sent third party cookies.
We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users' computers.
Cookies and personal information
Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but personal information that we store about you may be linked, by us, to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
Blocking and deleting cookies
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. For example:
- in Internet Explorer (version 9) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking "Tools", "Internet Options", "Privacy" and then "Advanced"
- in Firefox (version 16) you can block all cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options", "Privacy", selecting "Use custom settings for history" from the drop-down menu, and unticking "Accept cookies from sites"
- in Chrome (version 23), you can block all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Content settings", and then selecting "Block sites from setting any data" under the "Cookies" heading.
Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you may not be able to use all the features on this website.
You can also delete cookies already stored on your computer. For example:
- in Internet Explorer (version 9), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835)
- in Firefox (version 16), you can delete cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options", "Privacy" and then "Show Cookies", and then clicking "Remove All Cookies"
- in Chrome (version 23), you can delete all cookies by accessing the "Customise and control" menu, and clicking "Settings", "Show advanced settings" and "Clear browsing data", and then selecting "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" before clicking "Clear browsing data".
Again, doing this may have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.
Contacts
Person Responsible for Data Protection
Name: Norman Porrett
Job title: BMS Administrator
Email: norman@britmycolsoc.info
Tel: +44 (0)330 1330002
The British Mycological Society
c/o The Royal Society of Biology,
1 Naoroji Street, London, WC1X 0GB, UK
Registered Charity No 276503
Updating our privacy policies and privacy notice
We will regularly review our privacy policies and this privacy notice and update them when necessary, to ensure good business practice.
This notice was reviewed: 27 June 2023