Privacy Policy statement for the Education UK website
Introduction
1.1 This Privacy Policy sets out the data processing practices carried out through the use of the Internet and www.educationuk.org. This website is owned by the British Council (registered as a charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland)).
1.2 We understand the importance of keeping your personal information private. We set out our privacy practices and policies in this Privacy Policy. Please read it in conjunction with our terms of use as the terms incorporate this Policy.
1.3 You do not need to give us any information to browse our website, but in certain circumstances, we do recommend you register with information about yourself so you will receive a better experience or before you can interact with specific functions.
1.4 By completing the registration form and submitting it, you confirm that you agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of our website. If you do not provide your consent, you should not complete the registration process.
1.5 By 'opting-in' to receive newsletters and / or other communications from Education UK you agree to allow Education UK to contact you for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
1.6 If you have any requests concerning your personal information or any queries with regard to these practices please contact us at educationuk.website@britishcouncil.org.
Personal information we collect about you
2.1 As a un-registered user of our website, you can browse without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself.
2.2 When you register on our site, we may collect some or all of the following information about you: your name, username, email address, password; your postcode; information about your current educational status; and your subject areas of interest.
2.3 In this Privacy Policy, we refer to the information above and any other personally identifiable information that we may request from you and that you may provide to us (including your Profile) as "Personal Information".
Our use of your personal information
3.1 By registering with Education UK, you are accepting that we may use information about you for all or some of the purposes below:
- Providing enquiry and application services to accredited UK education providers;
- Administering orders and accounts relating to transactions;
- Identifying potential customers or subscribers;
- Maintaining information as a reference tool or general resource;
- Carrying out research (e.g. scientific, social, economic and market research);
- Conducting market research surveys; and
- Providing you with information about products and services we offer.
3.2 By agreeing to our Privacy Policy, you indicate your consent for us to use your Personal Information in the ways set out above. However, if you do not wish to receive certain newsletters and other mailings from us relating to our own products and services and those of organisations with whom we have a strategic relationship, please email educationuk.website@britishcouncil.org.
Disclosures
4.1 Your Personal Information may be passed to and used by our contracted service providers in connection with providing services to you over our website and delivering or making our services available to you. Please note that some of our contracted provider's group companies may be located overseas in countries which do not have as extensive data protection laws as in the United Kingdom - for example, our contracted provider's software developers require certain test data (which may consist of Personal Information) and they are based in India.
4.2 We may also disclose your Personal Information in the following instances:
(i) if we are required to do so by applicable law or under a court or similar order;
(ii) as deemed necessary, in our discretion, to protect our legal rights or property or the legal rights or property of a registered user or third party, or to prevent personal injury; and/or
(iii) in connection with a sale, merger, assignment, joint venture or other transfer or disposition of a portion or all of our assets or stock or our affiliated entities (including, without limitation, in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
Hyperlinks to other web sites
5.1 This website contains hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties which are beyond our control. For example, when you use our search engine for certain courses, the search results will provide links to other sites from our website's pages that take you outside our website. These other sites have their own privacy policies and we urge you to review them - because this Privacy Policy will not apply. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.
5.2 We generally do not object to you linking directly to the homepage of our website, although we reserve the right to refuse our authorisation to such linking at our sole discretion. We do not permit our pages to be loaded into frames on your website - our web pages must load into the user's entire window.
5.3 We reserve the right to move or change our website URL at any time in order to meet changing business needs and to continually improve our online service. External websites link to our website at their own risk.
Cookies
6.1 When you view or use our website we may store information on the hard drive of your computer in the form of a "cookie" (essentially a small text file). Cookies allow us to tailor our website to your interests and preferences. For example, a cookie might contain information about the web pages you have visited on our website, which could allow us to customise your next visit to our website. However, cookies do not allow us access to the rest of your computer and we do not use them to collect personally identifiable information about you.
6.2 Most internet browsers enable you to delete cookies or to receive a warning before a cookie is stored on your hard drive. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about how to do this. However, should you decide to disable any cookies we place on your computer you may not be able to use certain services or facilities on our website.
6.3 You may occasionally get cookies from our advertisers or other third parties with links on our website. We do not control these cookies. The use of advertising cookies sent by third-party servers is standard in the Internet industry.
Search Engine
7.1 When you use our search engine, we may collect certain non-personally identifiable information through the use of cookies and other tracking technologies described above. For example, when you use our search engine, we may keep track of which search terms are popular. If we display advertising to you on our website (including the search results pages displayed after any searches you may run), such advertising may be related to the search terms you entered. We may present search result links in a format that enables us to understand whether they have been followed and we may monitor click-throughs. We use this information to understand and improve the quality of our search technology. For instance, this data helps us determine how often users are satisfied with the first result of a query and how often they proceed to later results.
Community areas and user-generated content
8.1 Our website allows you to upload content and to leave comments. These are open to the public and if you choose to disclose personally identifiable information or reveal your Profile to other users in these areas you are consenting to its unrestricted distribution in a public forum throughout our website and to and by other users of our website. We therefore cannot be responsible for the protection or security of such information, regardless of its sensitivity. You disclose all such information entirely at your own risk. We strongly recommend you use caution regarding publishing any personal information on un-secure web pages.
8.2 Please do not disclose personal information about third parties on our website- it is prohibited, and we reserve the right to revoke your registration from our website if you breach this rule.
Updating Your Personal Information
9.1 To the extent that you do provide us with Personal Information, we wish to keep it up-to-date. Please let us know if your Personal Information changes by updating your ‘My Account’ area.
Your right to see your Personal Information
10.1 You have the right to request a copy of the Personal Information that we hold on you and to have any errors in that information corrected. We may charge a reasonable fee for such requests as permitted by UK law. Please address your request to educationuk.website@britishcouncil.org.We will use reasonable efforts to supply, correct or delete Personal Information about you on our files.
