CSconnected Limited keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this webpage.
Purpose of this notice
This notice explains how CSconnected Limited collects and uses your personal data through your use of our website, participation in our activities and events, membership engagement, involvement in grant and funding programmes, and any other interactions with us, including when you fill in forms, sign up for news alerts, register for events or download documents.
Who we are
CSconnected Limited is a not-for-profit organisation supporting the UK compound semiconductor ecosystem. We are based in Wales and are the data controller for the personal data we collect.
Our Data Protection Officer is Chris Meadows. You can contact us at any time at info@csconnected.com.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. We always welcome the chance to resolve any concerns directly first.
Who this policy applies to
This policy applies to anyone who interacts with us, including:
- visitors to our website;
- members and prospective members;
- people who attend our online and in-person events;
- people who contact us with an enquiry; and
- participants in programmes, funding or grant activities we manage or support; and
- third parties including partner organisations, suppliers, speakers and collaborators.
What data we collect and why
We only collect personal data that we actually need. Depending on how you interact with us, this may include your name, job title, organisation, email address, phone number, communication preferences and information relating to memberships, events or programmes you participate in. We may also collect contact details from publicly available sources such as LinkedIn or company websites where we believe the information is relevant to our activities and the person would reasonably expect to hear from us.
For events, we may also collect dietary or accessibility requirements and keep an attendance record. Events may be photographed or recorded for communications, promotional or reporting purposes. If you do not wish to appear in photographs or recordings, please let a member of the CSconnected Limited team know and we will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your request. We sometimes manage events on behalf of other organisations. In these cases, the organising body may also receive relevant attendee information such as names and contact details.
When you visit our website, we collect basic technical information (such as your IP address and browser type) to help us keep the site running and understand how people use it.
We use your data for the following purposes, and only where we have a proper legal reason to do so:
Membership and events
We process membership and event data because it is necessary to deliver the services you have signed up for, or because we have a legitimate organisational interest in managing those relationships. This covers things like processing registrations, managing attendance, sharing attendee names with other participants for networking, and communicating with members about their membership. Where we manage events on behalf of other organisations, relevant attendee information may also be shared with the organising body in order to deliver the event.
Newsletters and updates
If you have subscribed to our mailing list, we send you newsletters and updates on the basis of your consent. If you are a member or have an established relationship with us, we may send relevant communications on the basis of our legitimate interest in keeping you informed, you can opt out at any time.
Grant and programme activities
Where you participate in a programme or grant activity we manage, we process the data needed to deliver and report on that programme. In some cases we are legally required to share information with funders such as the Welsh Government or Innovate UK as a condition of the grant. We will tell you when this applies. CSconnected also participates in collaborative projects led by partner organisations. In those cases, your data may be shared between project partners where it is necessary to deliver the work. We will always be transparent about who we are working with on any project you are involved in.
Responding to enquiries
When you get in touch with us, we keep a record of the communication so we can respond and maintain a history of our contact with you; this includes messages sent to us via social media platforms such as LinkedIn. We do this because we have a legitimate interest in managing our communications properly.
Photography and recordings
Events may be photographed or recorded for communications, promotional or reporting purposes. If you do not wish to appear in photographs or recordings, please let a member of the CSconnected Limited team know and we will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your request.
Cookies
We use cookies to keep our website functioning, understand how it is used and, where relevant, to support marketing activity. When you visit our site you can choose whether to accept or decline non-essential cookies. Analytics cookies can be controlled separately. You can update your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the cookie settings link on our website, or by adjusting your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the site.
We use three types of cookies:
Essential cookies
These are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They do not store any personally identifiable information. You do not need to consent to these.
Analytics cookies
We use analytics cookies (such as Google Analytics) to understand how visitors use our website, which pages are most visited and how people navigate the site. This helps us improve the website. These cookies collect information anonymously and we only use them with your consent.
Marketing and third-party cookies
Some content on our website, such as embedded videos or social media buttons, may set cookies from third parties such as YouTube or LinkedIn. We do not control these cookies and they are only active if you consent to marketing cookies. Please refer to the relevant third party’s privacy policy for more information.
Tools and services we use
We use third-party tools to help us operate. These include HubSpot for contact management, Mailchimp for newsletters, Eventbrite and Microsoft forms for event registrations. Where necessary to deliver our events, we may also share relevant details such as names and dietary or accessibility requirements with venues and suppliers.
These providers handle data on our behalf and are contractually required to keep it secure and use it only for the purpose we set. Some of them are based in the United States, but they all operate under legally recognised arrangements that protect your data.
We do not sell your personal data to anyone.
How long we keep your data
We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it. This will depend on why it was collected, but we may retain certain information for up to six years where required for legal, financial or reporting purposes. We may also keep information where necessary to respond to enquiries or disputes, or to maintain appropriate records of our activities.
If you unsubscribe from our mailing list or ask us to delete your data, we will do so promptly, subject to any legal obligations we have to retain certain records.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights:
- Access; you can ask for a copy of the data we hold about you.
- Correction; you can ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete.
- Deletion; you can ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
- Restriction; you can ask us to pause processing of your data while a concern is resolved.
- Portability; you can ask us to transfer your data to another organisation in a usable format.
- Objection; you can object to us processing your data where we rely on legitimate interests, including for direct marketing. We will always honour an objection to marketing.
- Withdrawal of consent; where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@csconnected.com. We will respond within one month.
Links to other websites
Our website contains links to other sites we do not operate. This policy only covers what we do with your data, other sites have their own privacy policies and you should read those separately.
Changes to this policy
We review this policy regularly and will post any updates on our website.