About this policy

This policy explains how we collect and use personal data from and about visitors and subscribers to our website.

Our objective is to ensure that you are never surprised by how your personal data has been used by us. You are therefore encouraged to read this policy, which sits alongside our Terms & Conditions.

As we make changes to our website, we may need to update this policy. If we make any important changes that affect your rights and interests, we will make sure we bring this to your attention and explain what this means for you.

If you have any questions in relation to this policy or wish to exercise any of Your rights under data protection law, you should email  enquiries@techforge.pub  [or call us on 0117 980 9020].

Who we are

This website and the TechForge Media portfolio and brand are owned and operated by TechForge Media Ltd. (we/us). We are a private limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 09194965 [We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office under number ZA377147. We are registered at 6 King Street, Bristol, England, BS1 4EQ.

The data we collect about you

Personal data means any data that identifies or can be used to identify a person. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

The types of personal we collect from or about you depends on which group you fall into. Personal information may include, email address, postal address, name, payment information, mobile or landline telephone numbers as well as other personal information you may provide to us.

Unless you specifically inform us (or it may be inferred, for example, from your dietary preferences or access requirements), we do not collect any details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

How your data is collected

The data that you may provide to us will generally be collected when you complete and submit forms on our website or contact us.

The data that we may collect about you may be obtained:

• • through the use of cookies and similar technologies (such as beacons and pixels) and server logs (see our Cookies Policy)

• • from third party analytics providers such as Google Analytics

How we use your data

By completing and submitting a form on this website you are consenting to your contact data being shared with third parties (event sponsors) who may contact you with products and services that may be of interest to you. You reserve the right to have your contact data not be shared by contacting the team on query@techforge.pub

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. We will generally rely on one of three legal grounds for using your personal data:

• • where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you (see our Terms & Conditions)

• • where necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided those interests do not override your fundamental rights and interests

• • where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal ground for using your personal data, except in relation to sending you marketing by email or text message. You have the right to withdraw your consent to marketing at any time either by contacting us, clicking the unsubscribe link in an email or replying to a text message with the required words notified to you in each text message.

Where your data is stored

Many of the service providers that we use in connection with our website and the services provided through it are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA), which means that certain personal data will be transferred outside the EEA. Whenever we transfer your personal data outside the EEA, we ensure that a similar degree of protection applies to your personal data in one or more of the following ways:

• • the country to which your personal data is transferred is deemed by the European Commission to provide a similar degree of protection for your personal data

• • we have entered into a specific contract with our service providers that has been approved by the European Commission as providing a similar degree of protection for your personal data

• • where any service provider is based in the US and they have self-certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework which requires them to provide a similar degree of protection for your personal data

How we keep your data secure

We have put in place appropriate security measures (for example, access to our website is secured using ‘https’ technology and access to payment card details is encrypted) to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. We also limit access to your personal data to those within our organisation that have a need to access it. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are required to keep your personal data confidential.

We collect your public profile data only from your consent that you grant before initiating Social Login, from the social network used to login at our website. This data includes your first name, last name, email address, link to your social media profile, unique identifier, link to social profile avatar. This data is used to create your user profile at our website. You can revoke this consent at any time by sending us an email.

We use Google Analytics to track social shares made at our website. Google automatically collect and store certain information in their server logs which includes device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL, cookies that may uniquely identify your browser or your Google Account, in accordance with their data privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

We embed a Facebook widget to allow you to see number of likes/shares/recommends and “like/share/recommend” our webpages. This widget may collect your IP address, your web browser User Agent, store and retrieve cookies on your browser, embed additional tracking, and monitor your interaction with the widget, including correlating your Facebook account with whatever action you take within the widget (such as “liking/sharing/recommending” our webpage), if you are logged in to Facebook. For more information about how this data may be used, please see Facebook’s data privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update

We use a Twitter Tweet widget at our website. As a result, our website makes requests to Twitter’s servers for you to be able to tweet our webpages using your Twitter account. These requests make your IP address visible to Twitter, who may use it in accordance with their data privacy policy: https://twitter.com/en/privacy#update

How long we keep your data for

We will only keep your personal data for as long as necessary in connection with the purposes we collected it for and to comply with any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. To determine how long we keep your personal data for, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the purposes for which it was collected and the potential risk of harm from us continuing to keep it.

We will retain personal data relating to email marketing data (see Marketing) until you unsubscribe or your email address has become permanently unavailable.

We will retain the analytical data collected about your use of our website for a period of 25 months before 25 May 2018 and [14] months on and after 25 May 2018.

We may retain any data that does not identify you indefinitely.

Email marketing

Our email marketing campaigns can track whether you click any of the links contained in our emails. This helps us to understand what the recipients of our emails have found interesting and to personalise the content of emails that we may send to you in the future.

We use tiny invisible images called ‘pixels’ that are contained within emails to enable us to see:

• • whether you opened an email

• • where in the world the device used to open the email was located (based on your device’s IP address)

• • the type of email client used to open the email

• • whether you shared the email on any social media platforms

• • whether you marked the email as spam

• • your overall level of engagement with our email marketing campaigns.

We use this data to improve the format and quality of our email marketing campaigns.

You have the right to withdraw your consent to marketing at any time either by contacting us or clicking the unsubscribe link in any email.

Your rights

You have a number of rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you:

• • Access: You have the right to request access to and be provided with a copy of the personal data held about you together with certain information about the processing of such personal data to check that are holding it lawfully

• • Correction: You have the right to ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data held about you

• • Deletion: You have the right to ask us to delete or remove any personal data held about you where there is no good reason for us to continue holding it or where you have exercised your right to object

• • Restriction: You have the right to ask us to restrict how we hold your personal data, for example, to confirm its accuracy or our reasons for holding it

• • Objection: You have the right to object to our holding of any personal data about you which is based on our legitimate interests or those of a third party based on your particular circumstances. You also have the right to object to our holding your personal data for direct marketing purposes

• • Portability: You have the right to receive or request that we transfer a copy of the personal data we hold about you in an electronic format where the basis of our holding such information is your consent or the performance of a contract and the information is processed by automated means

• • Complaints: You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or any other EU supervisory authority in relation to how we collect and use your personal data

You will not have to pay any fee to exercise any of the above rights though we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to comply with your request if any request is clearly unfounded or excessive. Where this is the case, we will let you know.

To protect the confidentiality of your personal data we may ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling any request in relation to your personal data.

If you have any questions about this policy or your personal information, please contact us by emailing  enquiries@techforge.pub or by writing to TechForge Media Marketing Manager, 6 King Street, Bristol, England, BS1 4EQ, or by calling  + 44 1179 980 9020.

We are constantly looking for new ways to improve this website and consequently we may amend this privacy and cookie policy from time to time.