Membership

BBTS Privacy Notice

The British Blood Transfusion Society (BBTS) is a professional membership organisation, and a registered charity (charity number 326374and company number 01723353). We provide products, services, publications, and representation to our members, and sometimes to non-members. This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the British Blood Transfusion Society (BBTS) collects personal information. Personal data or personal information is any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.

It applies to information we handle and collect about:

For the purposes of data protection legislation, we are responsible as ‘controller’ of the personal data we collect, and we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

How We Use Your Information

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a reason for doing so. We may process your personal data in connection with any of the purposes set out below on one or more of the following legal grounds:

Please note a legitimate interest is when we have a justifiable reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

We gather personal information (name, postal address, email address, our members’ job details, date of birth etc.) so that we can provide products and services to our members and to others. We also gather personal information for monitoring purposes; so we can check that our membership represents the profession, and that we are reaching all areas of the field of blood transfusion. More details on how and why we use your information is set out below.

BBTS Members and Former Members

When you apply to join the BBTS we require certain information about you, including your name, postal address and email address, in order to provide membership services. We also ask for certain information for monitoring purposes. This means that we sometimes process member information to see if our membership represents the profession across all areas: job roles, employer types, location and so on.

Your contact details will be held in our online membership database so that we can send you publications and information about the society and its activities. Holding your information in this way also allows you to login to the BBTS website. We ask you for your employment information for monitoring purposes, and so that we can send you information specific to your job role and employer type. We ask you for your date of birth for monitoring purposes, and so we can identify your member record when you contact us in the event that you have forgotten your unique membership number. If you have enrolled in a BBTS education course successful student names and grades (not percentages) are published in our membership magazine, Bloodlines.

If you allow your membership to lapse we will retain all personal information that you have supplied for one membership year after your membership has lapsed. This enables you to re-join the society easily without the need to re-apply.

After one year of lapsed membership, or if you with draw your membership in writing, we will retain only anonymised information in our membership database for monitoring purposes. We will not contact you once you have withdrawn your membership other than for reasons relating to membership, or unless you give us permission to do so.

Data Sharing /Disclosure of Personal Information

We use third parties to publish and print some publications and postal communications, and we give those third parties information including the name and preferred correspondence address of our members. They are only allowed to use this information to send out the publications. They are not allowed to use this information for any other purpose, including to send out other material, and they are not allowed to pass this information on to anyone else.

We sometimes use third party software and database providers to carry out the activities of the society. The companies or individuals who own and / or run such software are not allowed to access or share your personal data.

We outsource some other activities of the society to other organisations, such as conference organisers who run our events. You may be asked to give them some information about yourself if, say, you want to book on to an event, but we will not give them any information that we hold about you. Such third parties will only be permitted to use your personal information for purposes relating to the conference / event.

If you are a BBTS member and the postal addresses we hold for you is no longer valid, and you have not told us in writing of any change of address, we may email you to ask for a new postal address. Similarly, if the email address we hold for you is no longer valid, and you have not informed us of any change of email address, we may write to you to ask for anew email address. In the exceptional circumstance of your postal address and email address no longer being valid but you are still a BBTS member, we may search online for a different email address for you on sites such as LinkedIn. We will only do this as a last resort, to check if you wish to remain a member, and only if you pay a membership by a direct debit that you have not cancelled. 

Visitors to Our Website

When someone visits www.bbts.org.uk we use third party services to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be clear about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Our membership database also shows the name, workplace and email address of anyone who is currently logged in to the website, and those who have recently logged in. This information is only visible to BBTS office staff, is not recorded, and is only used to assess member engagement with the BBTS website.

People Who Make Purchases via the BBTS Website

If you purchase something on the BBTS website, we receive your contact information so that we can fulfil the order. We will only use your contact information for the purposes of fulfilling your order. We will not add your information to any marketing mailing list we hold when you contact us in this way, unless you give your express permission for us to do so.

When paying for items via the BBTS website your payment will be processed by a third party. This third party will only be allowed to use your personal information for the purposes of completing the financial transaction.

People Who Contact Us via an Online Contact Form

If you use a contact form on the BBTS website, we receive your communication in the form of an email. We will only use your name and email address for the purposes of responding to your query. We will not add your name and email address to any marketing mailing list we hold when you contact us in this way, unless you give your express permission for us to do so.

People Who Contact Us via Social Media

We occasionally use third party providers, including Hootsuite and Tweet Deck, to manage our social media interactions. If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message may be stored by these third party providers. It will not be shared with any other organisations.

Communications sent via social media may not be private. You are advised to be aware of the privacy policy of the social media platform you are using, and to be aware of your own privacy settings.

People Who Contact Us via Email

If you contact the BBTS by email (sent to any email address ending in @bbts.org.uk) we will only use your name and email address for the purposes of responding to your query. We will not add your name and email address to any marketing mailing list we hold when you contact us in this way, unless you give your express permission for us to do so.

Any email sent to us, including any attachments, may be monitored, stored and used by us for reasons of security and for maintaining an audit trail.  Email monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send to us is within the bounds of the law.

Cookies

Cookies are files or pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive, these files can only be read by the website which wrote them. BBTS may use cookies to collect information and identify your viewing behaviour, such as the particular site areas you visit. We collect this information to better tailor our site to your interests and needs. 

Cookies are also used to help speed up your future activities at our site. For example, our site can recognise that you have provided personal information to us and refrain from requesting the same information a second time. Most browsers are initially set to accept a cookie, but you could set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. Refusal of cookies may result in an inability to visit certain areas of the site or to receive personalised information when you visit the site. 

The Help feature on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie and how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons by changing the add-on's settings or visiting the website of its manufacturer.

Outgoing Email Marketing Communications

In addition to sending emails directly from the BBTS office, we also use third party software, Dotmailer, to contact members and non-members about events, offers and news from the BBTS. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using Dotmailer to help us monitor and improve our email communications. Dotmailer is not allowed to use any of the information that we upload to their systems for any of their own purposes.

Telephone Communications

When you call the BBTS office we do not record your call. We will only use your name and telephone number in relation to the reason that you are calling us. Whilst we may sometimes find it necessary to contact members and non-members in relation to BBTS matters, such as education programmes, membership subscription payments, text book orders and so on, we do not make marketing calls.

If you are a BBTS member and you call the BBTS office we may ask you to confirm certain details to verify your identity e.g. your name, membership number, date of birth.

People Who Use BBTS Services

The BBTS offers various services to BBTS members and to the public. We have to hold the details of the people who have requested a service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about people who have purchased a publication to carry out a survey to find out if they are happy with the level of service they received. When people do subscribe to our services, they can cancel their subscription at any time and are given an easy way of doing this.

Job Applicants, Current and Former BBTS Employees and Volunteers

When individuals apply to work or volunteer with BBTS, we will only use the information they supply to us to process their application and to monitor recruitment statistics. Where we want to disclose information to a third party, for example where we want to take up a reference, we will not do so without informing them beforehand unless the disclosure is required by law.

Personal information about unsuccessful candidates will be held for 12 months after the recruitment exercise has been completed, it will then be destroyed or deleted. We retain de-personalised statistical information about applicants to help inform our recruitment activities, but no individuals are identifiable from that data.

Once a person has taken up employment with the BBTS, we will compile a file relating to their employment. The information contained in this will be kept secure and will only be used for purposes directly relevant to that person’s employment. Once their employment with BBTS has ended, we will retain the file in accordance with the requirements of our retention schedule and then delete it.

Complaints or Queries

BBTS tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was written to be brief and clear. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of BBTS’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.

How long we keep your data for

We will keep your personal data for no longer than is necessary for the purpose(s) it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, accounting or reporting requirements.

We keep your data for the minimum period we consider necessary to resolve any queries and to ensure legal and regulatory compliance and in line with industry practice.

Further details of the periods for which we retain data are available on request.

Your Rights 

AccessThe right to be provided with a copy of your personal data
RectificationThe right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
To be forgottenThe right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data - in certain situations
Restriction of processingThe right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data - in certain circumstances e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data
Data portabilityThe right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party
To objectThe right to object:
at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing: and
in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

Maintenance and security of your personal information

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. We endeavour to ensure that your data is stored securely and to prevent unauthorised access. We have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online, which we monitor regularly.

We limit access to your personal information to those individuals who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Right to withdraw consent

If you have provided your consent to the processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent. If you wish to do so, please contact us.

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose(s) to which you originally consented unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for further processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within our website that connect to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in December 2020.

How to contact us

If you want to request further information about our privacy policy you can email us at bbts@bbts.org.ukor write to:

BBTS
Unit 22, Enterprise House
Manchester Science Park
Manchester
M15 6SE