Privacy and Cookies Policy

Introduction

The Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies (CPDS) respects privacy and your rights to control your personal data. Our principle guidelines are simple; we will be clear about the data we collect and why. We carefully protect your data. We do not and will not sell your data to third parties.

The prime purpose of collecting your data is to improve your experience of using our services.

This Privacy Statement (‘the Statement’) explains the personal information we collect from you when you make contact with us (as an associate, client, course participant or website visitor), and how we will use it. Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you or that we can link to you. The Statement also elaborates on the choices you can make about the data we collect, and how you can control these decisions.

Please read this Statement carefully to understand how CPDS may collect, use and share your personal information. The terms ‘we’, ‘us’, or ‘CPDS’ are each intended as reference to the Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies Limited.

It is important that you read this Statement together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal information. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

If you have any questions or concerns about what is stated here, you are welcome to contact us at [email protected]

Who we are

CPDS designs and conducts programmes of professional development for diplomats, civil servants and corporate executives. Our training is interactive, offering opportunities for developing individual and team skills. Exercises are based in current international issues in real time. We operate in both the UK and international markets, with our offices based in London. Our website address is: https://cpds.training.

The types of personal information we collect

Information you provide to us

We collect information you voluntarily provide to us, such as your name, phone number and email address; for instance, when you contact our team with an enquiry, when you are enrolled in one of our training programmes, or when you provide feedback on our services.

We currently do not automatically collect information about you online via cookies or similar technologies.

Information obtained from other sources

We may receive information about you from other sources, including third parties, such as partners with whom we offer co-branded services. We may also receive information about you from social media platforms, for instance, when you interact with us on those platforms. We protect data obtained from third parties according to the practices described in this Statement and we also apply any additional restrictions imposed by the source of data.

Information of children

Our services are not intended for any user under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect or request data relating to them.

Interactions with CPDS and how we use personal information

CPDS uses the data we collect to provide you with the Services we offer, which includes using data to improve and personalise your experiences. We also use the data to communicate with you, for example, informing you about new Services which may be of interest to you.

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to.

To make the information in this Statement easy to understand we have highlighted different occasions when CPDS could potentially collect personal information.

  1. Finding out about CPDS

As you gather more information about CPDS you may virtually or physically visit a site that we own. For example, browsing our website, emailing us through our contact form or physically attending a CPDS course or event. To learn more about our Services, you may voluntarily provide personal information, such as such as your identity (first and last name, company and job title) and contact data (email address, telephone numbers and registered address).

We may collect: your name, email address, telephone number, organisation.

Why: We use this information to share news about events and Services offered by CPDS. It is our legitimate interest to process your personal data for these purposes.

  1. Enrolling in or attending a CPDS course

When you are enrolled in one of our training programmes you may provide personal information, such as your identity and contact data by filling in forms, or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise.

We may collect: your name, email address, telephone number, job title and organisation.

Why: We use this information to provide you with the Services we offer, to ensure that you have the relevant information ahead of the training, to improve your experience by tailoring the course content so that it is as relevant as possible for your current role, and to carry out any follow up after the course.

  1. Providing feedback on our services

When you attend one of our training programmes you may provide personal information such as your identity with your written feedback about the course. This does not include data where your identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect: your name, organisation.

Why: We use this information to further improve the services that we provide and to analyse the impact of our Services.

  1. Working as an associate of CPDS

When you are contracted by CPDS to provide training services you may provide personal information, such as your identity, contact data, financial data (bank account details for invoice payments) and transaction data (details about payments to/from you)

We may collect: your name, email address, telephone number, registered address, financial data and transaction data

Why: We use this data to perform the contract that we have with you.

Third-party links

Our website may include links to third-party websites. Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

CPDS uses the data for the following purposes:

Provision of Services

We use data to provide and support the Services we offer. This processing is necessary for the performance of the agreement we have with you (or your organisation).

Customer Support

We use data to respond to client enquiries and provide other support services. This processing is necessary for the performance of the agreement we have with you (or your organisation), as well as to serve our legitimate interest.

Service improvement and development

We use data to develop and improve our Services, including maintaining and improving the performance of our Services and developing new courses. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest.

Communication, Marketing and Advertising

We use the data we collect to deliver and personalise our communications with you. For example, we may contact you by email or telephone to inform you about new Services which may interest you. This processing is necessary to serve our legitimate interest. You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by emailing us at [email protected]

To give you a better understanding of the personal information we collect and use in different occasions you may interact with CPDS, please see the sections below.

How we may share personal information

CPDS does not and will not sell personal information about our clients. We disclose your data only as described in this Statement. We may share information with the following types of third parties:

CPDS-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries

We share information with CPDS-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries for business purposes, such as, internal administration, promoting our Services and providing clients with our Services. It is our legitimate interest to process your personal data for these purposes.

Compelled Disclosure

When legally required, strictly necessary for the performance of the Services or to protect our rights, or the rights of our affiliates or users, we disclose your personal information to law enforcement authorities, investigative organisations, our affiliates or in legal proceedings.

Sale or Merger

We may share your personal information in the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets. Of course, in such event we shall notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website and inform you of your rights.

The legal bases for using personal information

Performance of a contract

The use of your personal information may be necessary to perform the agreement you have with us. For example, to register your attendance in one of our training courses, to ensure that you receive the course documentation, or to respond to your requests.

Legitimate interests

We may use your personal information for our legitimate interests. For example, we rely on our legitimate interest to analyse and improve our Services and the content on our website, to send you communications about our Services or to use your personal information for administrative, fraud detection or legal purposes. We do not use your personal information for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).

Where we process your personal information based on our legitimate interest and no opt-out mechanism is available to you, you may exercise your right to object by sending an email to [email protected].

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal information.

Security and retention of personal information we collect

Security

CPDS is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. However, while we take reasonable precautions to guard the personal information we collect, no security system is impenetrable.

While no service is completely secure, CPDS takes precautionary measures to help prevent information about you from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. For example, we store the personal data you provide on computer systems that have limited access and that are in controlled facilities. We limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

If you have any questions about the security of your personal information you can contact us at [email protected].

International transfers

We do not currently transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA), however we may employ services based in markets outside the EEA, where we ensure that they hold data protection legislation that is adequate to comply with our contractual obligations.

Retention

CPDS will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

All personal information we retain will be subject to this Privacy Statement and our internal retention guidelines. We are required by law to keep basic information about our clients (including identity, contact information, financial and transaction data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes. If you have a question about a specific retention period for certain types of personal information we process about you, please send an email to [email protected].

Your rights

We want you to be in control of how your personal information is used by us. Subject to local law, you can do this in the following ways:

  • you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
  • you can inform us of any changes to your personal information, or if you want us to correct any of the personal information we hold about you;
  • in some circumstances, you can ask us to erase, block or restrict the personal information we hold about you, or object to particular ways in which we are using your personal information (please note that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request); and
  • in some circumstances, you can also ask us to transfer your personal information to a third party.

Where we are using your personal information on the basis of your consent, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time. Moreover, where we process your personal information based on legitimate interest or the public interest, you have the right to object at any time to that use of your personal information.

We rely on you to ensure that your personal information is complete, accurate and up to date. Please do inform us promptly of any changes to or inaccuracies in your personal information by contacting [email protected].

We will respond to your request as soon as possible but certainly within 30 days.

We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern you may have about our use of your personal information. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern, you may have the right to file a complaint with the data protection authority in your country (if one exists in your country) or supervisory authority.

Contact us

Should you need to contact us in regards to your data rights mentioned in this Statement, you can contact us directly at [email protected]

Changes to our Privacy Statement

This Statement was last updated on 20th May 2018.

CPDS may modify or update this Statement when necessary, or to reflect customer feedback and changes in our Services.