About IFHS
The International Federation of Hydrographic Societies (IFHS) is a unique partnership of worldwide national and regional learned societies that acts to promote the hydrographic expertise and careers and to foster the world hydrographic community around common initiatives and projects.
The IFHS acts as an umbrella organisation to encourage:
- the establishment an international voice for hydrography and related disciplines.
- the application and dissemination of hydrography and related sciences.
- the broadest inclusion of people and organisations interested in hydrography.
- the fostering of technological innovation for the purpose of hydrography and related sciences.
Personal data is any information about any individual which can identify them such as their name, postal, address, email address and telephone number.
The Federation’s members are other not-for-profit organizations with similar aims and objectives to its own.
Individuals, corporate organizations and academic and research institutions are members of those national societies or associations, not IFHS. As such, the Federation rarely collects, stores or processes personal data.
IFHS takes the protection of all data it does hold very seriously. We aim to only collect the data we need to deliver the products or services you have requested. The information we gather depends on the reason for processing (using) it. We will not sell or share your data with other organizations, except when legally obliged.
You have the right to access, update or amend your personal data held by the Federation at any time. In some circumstances, you also have the right to object, request that we delete or restrict processing, to withdraw consent for your data to be stored and processed and to data portability. However, you should be aware that deletion or restricted processing of certain data may prevent the Federation from delivering even the most fundamental benefits of some of its other services.
This document sets out how we collect, use and protect your personal information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Who can you contact?
If you require any additional information about our data protection practices or your information rights, or you have any questions or concerns regarding our processing your personal data, please contact us by email sent to gdpr@hydrographicsociety.org
What personal data do we collect, why and what is the lawful basis?
All of the personal data we process is supplied to us by the individual to whom it applies. We only store and use personal data for the reason(s) we originally collected it and in ways you would reasonably expect us to. Namely, to provide services, products or information you have requested, for administration of those purposes or for future business planning (so that we can continue to provide you with those services and products).
We will never sell your details to third parties. If, other by being required by law, we share your data with anyone else (e.g. an external processor or another conference delegate) we will either ask for your permission first or it will be clearly stated as part of the service you have requested.
The personal data we collect primarily relates to delegates attending seminars, conferences and other events organized centrally by the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies itself (i.e. not by one of the member societies acting on behalf of IFHS, as is usually the case with Hydro conferences) Directors, Trustees, Board members and other Officers of the Federation and other relevant group of members or contacts.
Delegates
Data pertaining to delegates attending conferences, seminars and some other events organized by the Federation itself (i.e. not by one of the member societies acting on behalf of IFHS, as is usually the case with Hydro conferences) is collected as part of the registration process, following the GDPR provisions of legitimate interests, and consent. Registration for such events is frequently conducted via our website; delegates are also advised to read the relevant sections of the Privacy Policy for that site.
The Federation only collects the basic information required to administer delegates participation in that event and provide the associated benefits (e.g. communication of information, verifying membership of an IFHS member society and applicable discounts). During the registration process, delegates have the option to consent to their data being stored and processed for that event only and/or to consent to limited specified data (e.g. name, job title, employer) being published on the delegate list that may be accessed by other delegates attending the event.
Delegates may also be offered the option to consent to their personal data (first name, surname and email address) being added to one or more relevant mailing lists in order to be kept informed about future events or receive non-commercial communications from the Federation and/or its member societies.
Directors, Trustees, Board members and Officers of the Federation
As a UK registered company and charity, International Federation of Hydrographic Societies has a legal obligation, as defined in the GDPR, to collect and process personal data relating to Directors and Trustees. Such data is provided by the individual when they agree to serve in one, or both, of these capacities. The information is required for management and administrative purposes and is be used effectively, lawfully and appropriately to enable the Federation to comply with any legal requirements. If a Director or Trustee does not supply this data, in some circumstances, the Federation may be unable to comply with its obligations and will need to notify the individual of the implications of that decision.
Data typically collected from Directors and Trustees includes:
- full name, date of birth and nationality,
- home/correspondence address and country of residence, telephone number, email address, profession;
- details of directorships of other UK registered companies.
In addition, in pursuit of legitimate interests in accordance the GDPR, additional basic personal data is also collected and processed for these individuals, as well as other co-opted Board Members and Officers of IFHS (e.g. members of sub-Committees). This data is used to manage and administer the Federation and its sub-Committees, and to communicate with and keep everyone informed about their appropriate point of contact.
Data typically collected from Directors, Trustees, Board members and Officers of the Federation for legitimate interests includes:
- name and role,
- email address (depending on circumstances, this may be a private or business account)
- if appropriate, Skype/MS Teams/WhatsApp account name and/or telephone number
Directors, Trustees and Board members may request amendments to their data at any stage by contacting gdpr@hydrographicsociety.org. Other Officers of the Federation may request changes to their data by contacting the Operations & Publications Manager and/or the Chairman of the relevant sub-Committee, as appropriate.
Special categories
The GDPR refers to sensitive personal data as special category data. This may include information such as an individual’s race, ethnic origin, religion, politics, biometrics or health. Unless required to do so by law, IFHS does not process such data without an individual’s explicit consent.
An example of a purpose for which personal data may be collected and processed, with explicit consent, is to ensure that the access (or other special needs) or dietary requirements of delegates attending centrally organised events can be met. In certain circumstances, we may also need to process the nationality and passport details of a non-EU national requesting a letter from us in support of their visa application to attend such a conference.
Photographic material
In accordance with its legitimate interests, the Federation holds a photographic archive of many of its events, activities and key personalities. Historically, in many cases only the details of an event were recorded, although in some cases the individual(s) are, or may be, identified too.
An individual who does not wish to be photographed, or no longer wishes to have their photograph(s) stored or processed in any way, has the right to refuse and/or request that relevant images are deleted by contacting gdpr@hydrographicsociety.org.
IFHS Student Award nominees
In accordance with legitimate interests as defined by the GDPR, as part of the nomination process for the annual IFHS Student Award, the name of each candidate is collected together with the name of their current or former academic institution and the level and title of the course undertaken. This information is provided by the IFHS-member society nominating the candidate and is done so with the candidate’s consent.
Audio recordings
With the knowledge and consent of all participants, the Federation sometimes makes digital audio recordings of Board meetings, sub-Committee meetings and its Annual General Meetings. These files are used to assist in the preparation of Minutes and may also be referred to, if required, to clarify the more detailed discussions which gave rise to a particular decision recorded in the Minutes and/or to resolve any disagreements or misunderstandings arising from the Minutes.
An individual has the right to refuse to be recorded and/or later ask to have any/all copies of an audio file securely deleted by contacting gdpr@hydrographicsociety.org.
Miscellaneous
On occasion, the Federation may also store personal data relating to other contacts who have supplied their details when making enquiries, requesting information or advice, purchasing goods or services, submitting contributions to IFHS News or providing content for our website. Such data will only be processed in accordance with any consent given by the individual or legitimate interests or contract which applies.
Who has access to your data?
The majority of personal data collected by the Federation is held and processed by the Operations & Publications Manager. However, in order to fulfill their specific roles, legitimate interests may also require some or all of the Directors, Trustees, members of the Board or other Officers of IFHS to have access to this data.
As appropriate, Delegate data may be held and processed by the Operations & Publications Manager, Directors, Trustees, members of the Board, other Officers of the Federation or external contractors for the specific purpose of administering the event the individual has registered to attend. Personal data relating to the Federation’s Directors, Trustees and Board members is held and processed by the Operations & Publications Manager.
The Federation has a legal obligation to supply some of this data to external bodies including, but not limited to, Companies House, the Charity Commission and its auditors. Other Directors, Trustees and Board members may also have legitimate interests in accessing some of this data. In pursuit of its legal obligations, legitimate interests and the general management and administration of the Federation, a small subset of the data processed for the Federation’s Directors, Trustees, Board members and Officers may be publically available on the Federation’s website (www.hydrography.earth) and in some of its publications. This may include an individual’s name, role and, if appropriate, limited contact details. From time-to-time, the Federation may provide contractors with access to the data necessary to perform specific tasks. They may only process the data for the purpose intended and may not share it with any other person or organization. Some information will also be made available to organizations that act as data processors on our behalf e.g. its accountants.
With the individual’s prior consent for this specific purpose, the Operations & Publications Manager, Directors, Trustees, Board members or other Officers may share contact information for members involved in developing the Federation and its activities with other relevant external bodies or persons. Other than for the purposes and obligations described above, the Federation will not disclose or share personal data with any other individual or organization, unless it has a legal obligation to supply such information to an external organization or authority.
How is your data stored and protected?
The majority of the personal data processed by the Federation is securely stored on its computers and backup drives. Wherever possible, information is restricted to the key personnel only. We place great importance on the security of the data we hold and on the security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. All personal data is securely removed and the hard drives are destroyed before disposing of any old computers or other storage devices. Some hardcopy data records are also securely maintained by the Federation – either for legal reasons, general management, administration and backup purposes or for other legitimate interests. All paper records or other documents detailing personal data are shredded prior to disposal. In pursuit of its legal obligations, legitimate interests and the general management and administration of the Federation, some Directors, Trustees, members of Board and other Officers of IFHS may also store some data on their computers. Access to personal data is rigorously restricted according to the user/processor’s needs and any legal obligations. They may only store and process this data for the purpose intended, may not share it with any other person or organization and must securely delete it once that purpose no longer applies. In transferring such data to and between processors, additional data security measures (e.g. password, protection or encryption) are considered and taken as appropriate, based on the nature of the data involved and the risks posed. From time-to-time, some data (digital and hardcopy) is made available to organizations that act as data processors on behalf of the Federation e.g. our accountants. They may only store and process this data for the purpose intended and may not share it with any other person or organization unless legal obliged to do so.
How long is your data stored?
All personal data and archival material held by IFHS is usually kept in accordance with our retention policies, based on the purpose(s) for processing, minimum retention periods required by law or regulation and our legitimate interests and demonstrable business reasons for doing so. Except when legally required to do so, we will consider all requests for personal data to be deleted. However, we may still wish to retain some or all of the data if erasure is likely to render impossible, or seriously impair, the achievement of processing for our statistical analysis or archival purposes pertaining to the Federation’s history and development. Certain data, particularly data relating to the Federation’s finances and statutory obligations, must be retained for the legally required or recommended periods.
What are your rights?
The GDPR gives you rights relating to the way we process your personal data. These are defined as the:
Right to access
You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. We will generally provide this information free-of-charge, unless your requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Right to rectification
You have the right to ask us correct any inaccurate or incomplete data we may hold about you.
Right to erasure
Under certain circumstances, you have the right to ask us to erase the personal data we hold about you.
However, that right only applies where:
- we no longer need to use the data to achieve the purpose for which we collected it
- we have relied on your consent as the lawful basis for holding your data and you withdraw that consent
- you object to the way we use your data and there is no overriding legitimate interest for us holding it.
Right to restrict processing
Under certain circumstances, you have the right to ask us to restrict or suppress our processing of the personal data we hold about you. That right will apply where, for example:
- you dispute the accuracy of the data we hold
- you would like your data to be erased, but we need to hold it in order to stop processing it
- you have the right to erasure but would prefer us to restrict processing instead
- we no longer need to use the personal data to achieve the purpose for which we collected it, but we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest in holding it for archival or statistical purposes. We will generally do this free-of-charge, unless your requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Right to object
You have the right to object to us processing your personal data, including for the purposes of direct marketing.
Right to data portability
You have the right to obtain the personal data we hold about you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (e.g. comma-separated values, CSV). You also have the right to ask us to transfer this information to another organization.
Right to withdraw consent
Where we have relied on your consent as the lawful basis for holding and processing your data, you have the right to withdraw consent.
Rights related to automated decision-making, including profiling
The Federation does not make any decision or conduct any profiling based solely on automated means. If we did, you would have the right to a human review of that decision.
Requests with respect to any of these rights may be made verbally, by email or in writing. However, to avoid confusion or ambiguity, we would prefer them to be submitted to gdpr@hydrographicsociety.org.
You should be aware that deletion or restricted processing of certain data may prevent us from delivering even the most fundamental benefits of some of our other services.
Security
The Federation is committed to ensuring that all personal data is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure we operate appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the data we collect from you, including its disposal.
Websites and social media
Cookies
A cookie is a small file that asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. It helps to analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual, tailoring its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We do not use cookies on our website, nor do we have any third party scripts in place that set such cookies.
Anonymous data
When you visit our website, it automatically collects some information which is stored in web server traffic logs. These contain a history of page requests. Information including the client IP address, request date/time, page requested, HTTP code, bytes served, user agent and referrer are added. A statistical analysis of the server log is used to examine traffic patterns by time of day, day of the week, referrer or user agent. The software used to analyze server logs is AWStats.
HTTP Secure
Our website makes use of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) for authentication of the accessed website and protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data.
Links
Our website, social media and other media e.g. IFHS News and Publications may contain links to other websites or social media we feel might be of interest. The International Federation of Hydrographic Societies takes no responsibility for the content of external sites. The existence of a link from any other organization’s website or social media to the Federation’s website or social media does not imply that the IFHS endorses the activities or views of that organization.
This privacy policy only governs the IFHS and its products and services. We are not responsible for the privacy policies that govern third party websites, even where we have provided links to them. If you use any link on our website or social media, or which is quoted in other Federation media or publications, we recommend you read the privacy policy of that organization/website before sharing any personal or financial data.
If you wish to link to our website, prior consent must be obtained. Any such links must not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, and you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.
Content moderation
We moderates comments on our website and social media to protect those who view them. We will challenge, rather than delete, inaccurate comments or data and remove anything that is slanderous, libellous, discriminatory, abusive or contains offensive language.
Complaints
If we have got anything wrong, we hope you will let us know so that we can put it right. However, you have the right to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe that we have not complied with the requirements of the GDPR or the (UK) Data Protection Act (2018) with regard to your personal data.
For further information please contact use on gdpr@hydrographicsociety.org