Privacy Policy

The  Design  Society  is  an  international  non-governmental,  non-profit  organisation  whose  members  share  a  common  interest  in  design.  The Society includes Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and regional Chapters.

The Design Society is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

The Design Society may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy was last updated in May 2018.

What information do we collect about you?

We may collect the following personal information from members:

• Name and job title
• Contact information including email address
• Demographic information such as postcode, year of birth, gender, preferences and interests
• Other information relevant to membership
• Links to LinkedIn, Research Gate and ORCID profiles if you consent to this

We may also collect the following data from all web users:

• Click stream data (the type of computer and browsing software you use, the address of the website from which you linked, etc)
• HTTP protocol elements (your server address and top level domain name (eg .com, .gov etc), date and time of visit, etc)
• Search terms

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand our membership and web site visitors and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

• Internal record keeping.
• Improvement of our products and services.
• We may periodically send newsletters and promotional emails about new DS events, or other related DS information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.  Members are able to opt out of this if they wish.
• Completion and support of the current web site activity.
• Website and system administration.
• Research and development.
• Web access logs are used for statistical purposes only (e.g. to measure the use/performance of the site) except in the event of a security breach when they could be used for the purpose of tracing the breach. No information gathered from web logs is given or sold to any third party.

Members can also choose whether to make some or all of this information available on the member profile page.  This makes your profile available for other members to view and contact you by email.  All members are able to opt in or out of this at any time.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

Once your membership has expired, we will keep your information on our systems for 5 years.  The 5-year period has been selected in order to be able to reach you with information about upcoming events such as the next two ICEDs. This will also allow you to re-join the society easily if you wish without re-entering your personal information. 

We will occasionally keep you informed about our upcoming events after expiry if you have consented to receiving newsletters.  If at any time you would like to have your account deleted and all your information removed from our systems, please contact admin@designsociety.org and we will ensure this is done promptly.

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct emails and newsletters, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at admin@designsociety.org

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to admin@designsociety.org.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, you are able to check this against your membership profile on this website. You are also welcome to write to us as soon as possible, at the following address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

Design Society Administration
109 Dundee Drive
Glasgow
G52 3HL
United Kingdom