Privacy statement

Last updated: 20 August 2020

Your privacy is very important to us, which is why we make sure you are always in control of what we do with your personal data.

The purpose of this Statement is to tell you what information we collect from you as a data subject, how and when it may be collected and what happens to it. For the purpose of this Statement “we”, “our” and “us” refer to The Royal Society of Chemistry (and each of its subsidiaries) as an organisation (also referred to as “RSC”). Transmission of data online is not 100% secure and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent to us in this way. Transmission of data over the internet is at your own risk.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is a data controller and our address for contact is:

Thomas Graham House
Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WF

Our Data Protection Officer is David Barr, he can be contacted via telephone (01223 420066), e-mail (DPO@rsc.org) or in writing at the address above. If you have a specific question about this Statement or how we use your personal data, you should contact us via the contact methods set out above. Please mark your communication as “Data Protection Enquiry”.

This Statement only applies to:

  • personal data processed by us or on our behalf.
  • Individual contacts/participants from within your business (for example Directors) or information about you as a sole trader or partnership

Third party websites and services we link to through our websites have their own privacy policies, independent of the Royal Society of Chemistry. We hold no responsibility or liability for those independent policies and encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third party website you visit.

This Privacy Statement explains in general terms how we seek to comply with data privacy laws and regulations, including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (“Regulation”).

The data we collect about you

We collect data to provide you with a better experience of using our websites and applications, amongst other reasons (see the “How will we use your data?” section below). In order to provide you with access to our services or data within our websites and applications, we may require that you provide certain personal data. This information may include:

  • Your name, postal address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, subscriber name or screen name, password used to access our services, country of residence and/or method of payment
  • personal and contact details you give us when subscribing to receive marketing information from us (for example name, role and email address)
  • data relating to your place of employment and affiliations
  • information we collect via cookies or similar technology stored on your device about how you use our websites (please see section below re use of Cookies)
  • your IP address, and home server and domain names
  • information from social media activity (such as likes, shares and tweets) when you interact with us on social media
  • information you provide if you report a problem with our website or service
  • your financial information, such as account name and account number

How we collect your personal data

This will depend on the reason we are processing your personal data. Our processes for collection are:

  • online via our various application platforms and databases that we use which are either wholly owned or used by us under license
  • via post
  • telephone
  • face to face
  • from publicly available sources, such as LinkedIn, institution websites
  • collected as a business contact
  • use of Cookies

Who we may share your personal data with, and why

  • Royal Society of Chemistry staff – to provide you with applicable services.
  • Banks, finance management, direct debit, and accountancy software systems – so that we can process payments with you in accordance with the appropriate transaction that you are entering into with us.
  • Reviewers and judges – in relation to an application for an award, scholarship, bursary, and grant funding.
  • Mentoring services – to provide you with the service you opt in for.
  • Telemarketing agencies – in order that they may assist us with our membership renewal process.
  • Mailing and delivery companies – to send you written communications and hard copies of newsletters, magazines etc as appropriate.
  • Electoral service companies – for assisting us with the running of our elections process.
  • Sponsors and external judges – for their assessment of participants in our events and competitions.
  • Third party legal, counselling and career services – to provide the contracted service (only on receipt of your completed contact form).
  • Social media – where you have submitted a community related news story to us and we have published it, publication may be via http://www.rsc.org/news-events/community/ and in the print version of Voice.
  • Print supplier companies – for fulfilment of external printing.
  • Travel booking systems, travel companies, taxi services and flight providers – where you ask us to make such arrangements on your behalf.
  • Venues where we are running an event, conference or symposium – when the venue requires personal details of attendees to make bookings, for example for hotel rooms.
  • Publishing software and solutions companies – your personal data may be processed in such software systems in order for us to generate royalty details.
  • Books sales agents, book distributors, shipping agents – in order to fulfil our sales obligations to you.

Our sources of personal data if it has not been supplied directly by you:

  • Our contracted editors – we may source your personal data via publicly facing websites, journal papers, institution websites and contracted 3rd party databases to collate recommended contact lists for potential authors and editors.
  • Applications for travel grants made through the Society of Chemical Industry website (SCI) – SCI provides us with personal data in order for application to be assessed and decision made.

Third parties

We will not sell your personal data.

We may disclose your personal data to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose or share it, in order to comply with any legal regulations, good governance obligations, in order to enforce or to protect our rights, property, or safety, that of other persons with whom we have a business relationship, or to purchasers or prospective purchasers in relation to a disposal of our business or assets.

We may use third party service providers to support our provision of our services. Such will relate to business functions, including (without limitation) IT support, hosting our data on cloud platforms, legal, accounting, audit, consulting and other professional service providers, and providers of other services related to our business.

Portions of our services may be provided by organisations with which we have a contractual relationship, including subcontractors, and, accordingly, your personal data may be disclosed to them. We only provide these organisations with the information that they need to be able to perform their services. We will have in place an agreement with our service providers which will restrict how they are able to process your personal data.

Our simple promise

  • We will never pass your personal details to anyone outside the RSC for them to use for their own marketing purposes unless you have previously provided us with your informed and specific consent.
  • We will make sure that our contact with you is relevant and in accordance with the preferences that you give us and in order to enable us to provide the service you require to you.
  • You can change your contact preferences at any time. All you need to do is update your preferences by contacting us at marketing@rsc.org. But remember, you may miss out on important news and developments in chemical sciences.
  • Your personal data will be stored safely and will remain secure at all times.
  • No statistical information which identifies you personally will be published.
  • No personal data will be kept any longer than necessary in order to fulfil the purpose it was collected for, and if you ask us to, it will be deleted.  We will collect and process your personal data in accordance with this Statement.

If you make an enquiry via our website, on the telephone or via email, or via any third party, we will collect the information you provide to us, together with any information provided by that third party.

How we will use your data

We will process your personal data:

  1. As necessary to perform our contract with you for the relevant service: to take steps at your request before entering into it, to decide whether to enter into it, to manage and perform that contract and to update our records.
  2. As necessary for our own legitimate interests: for example to monitor emails, record calls, and other communications to train staff and activities relating to your membership, or in dealing with a complaint that you raise.
  3. As necessary to comply with a legal obligation: for example when you exercise your rights under data protection laws and make requests, for establishment and defence of legal rights or obligations, for example in dealing with any complaint from you.
  4. Based on your consent: for example to send you direct marketing where we’ve asked for your consent to do so.

Marketing

We want to share information and news about our products and services with you. We can do this in various ways including e-mail, post, phone or social media (or such other method(s) as may become relevant) but only if you would like us to.

In accordance with applicable laws and lawful basis for processing, we may use your personal data to provide you with direct marketing about our products and services as well as those of third parties and to take part in our marketing research.

We will ensure that any direct marketing from us and which is sent by electronic means will provide a simple means for you to stop further communications, in accordance with applicable law. Once you have provided your express consent for us to contact you on our behalf, or on behalf of other organisations, there are a number of methods available to you in order to change your preferences, to correct or update your personal data at any time by:

  • clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any promotional e-mail you receive from us
  • contacting our product or service team where a correction is required
  • contacting us at marketing@rsc.org

In addition, if we need your consent for direct marketing under applicable law, and if you provide your consent, you will be able to change your mind at any time.

We use 3rd parties to conduct some of our email campaigns using their contact lists, such as for scientific research, scholarly publishing and scientific education and for reasons such as promoting our journal products to drive manuscript submissions and promotion of our education resources, etc. We will provide such 3rd parties with a stop list of those who have specifically opted out of receiving such emails on the proviso that this list is deleted after the campaign is completed.

In the instance that marketing material we send you is returned, we will remove your incorrect details from our systems, where possible.

If you complete a contact form on one of our websites, your query and data will be forwarded to our relevant internal team to answer and respond.

Publishing

Authors submit their manuscript and personal details via online submission and peer review systems. If a manuscript is accepted the files will be transferred to our Production system, including your personal data.

We may use your personal data to contact you to invite you to serve as a peer reviewer. We will refrain from doing this if you inform us that you do not want to take part in such activity.

Your personal information may be included in our internal tracking and archiving processes.

If you provide us with your personal data, we will ask you if you would like to receive information from us about our other activities, products and services. If you choose to opt-in to receiving this information then we may contact you regarding journal news, journal symposia, themed Issues, nominations for lectureships and awards. You will not be automatically opted-in and if you do opt-in you can opt-out at any time.

Fundraising

Your personal information may be reviewed by RSC staff to help us deliver our charitable activities and raise funds.

Profiling and automated decision making

RSC does itself carry out automated decision making or profiling. We will share email addresses, which have been given directly to RSC by data subjects, or browsing information,   obtained in ways such as pixel tracking, to enable us to show tailored adverts on a third party platform, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google, who may perform profiling.

Photography and Video

We have a procedure in place in relation to our use of images through use of photographs and video, including process for consent to use (as applicable), retention and deletion. For more information please contact our Data Protection Officer at the address shown above.

RSC operates CCTV surveillance cameras at Thomas Graham House and at Burlington House. Surveillance is monitored through a live feed by RSC staff within our Facilities Management and Hospitality teams. Off-site/remote access to surveillance footage is only granted to designated staff and is provided securely through our IT system, subject to our off-site working practices and policies.

Surveillance cameras are located in public access areas such as meeting rooms, post rooms, corridors, cafes, canteens, libraries, stairs, lifts, reception areas and fire exits. Surveillance cameras on these sites record images only; there is no recording of sound.

Designated RSC staff have 24 hour access to the surveillance feeds and may access them during out of office hours in the case of an emergency, incident or alarm activation at our sites. 

Surveillance footage is stored securely for a period of 60 (sixty) days in our UK based servers, after which time the surveillance footage is automatically deleted.

In the event of an incident or accident at either site, the footage may be downloaded by our staff and stored securely on our UK based servers in the interests of preserving evidence for any potential investigation and/or claim(s). Any such downloaded footage may also be shared with the relevant authorities, including the police, where we are required to do so by law. We may retain footage that is downloaded and/or stored for these purposes for a period up to 6 (six) years to take into account the statutory limitation periods for any potential investigation(s) and claim(s). Once any potential investigation(s) or claim(s) has concluded, we will delete the relevant footage.

Access to the surveillance footage is limited to staff and those third party contractors that are required to perform maintenance and servicing of the surveillance camera equipment, including ADT Fire and Security PLC (“ADT”). ADT are our chosen third party contractors for this service at both sites, however, alternative third party contractors in the same industry may be used by us to maintain and service our surveillance camera equipment in the event of an emergency or a change in our requirements. ADT, or any such third party contractor, will not have access to the surveillance footage off-site/remotely.

Cookies

What is a cookie?

A cookie is text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server. Each cookie contains anonymised information about how you use our websites and applications, which allows us to improve your experience of using our products and services.

Show me more about cookies

Cookies by themselves cannot be used to identify you.

Several types of cookie are used on our websites and applications:

Session cookies

These are temporary cookies that are saved on your computer or mobile device until you leave our website. They carry information across pages of our websites and applications, for instance:

  • Remembering items in a shopping basket
  • So you can remain logged in as you browse our web pages

Persistent cookies

These cookies remain on your computer for much longer (though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie). They are used to:

  • help us recognise you as a unique visitor (just a number) when you return to our website and allow us to tailor content based on your previous preferences
  • compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us improve the website
  • ensure you are not invited to complete website questionnaires too often or after you have already done so.

Third-party cookies

These cookies are produced by third party services we use to support your website experience. They are used to:

  • serve advertisements on our sites and track whether these advertisements are clicked on by users
  • control how often you are shown a particular advertisement
  • tailor content to your preferences
  • count the number of anonymous users of our sites
  • provide security within shopping baskets, eg to pay for a membership subscription or a journal pay-per-view.

Disabling cookies

If you prefer, it is possible to disable cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features on our websites if cookies are disabled.

Show me how to disable cookies

The following table provides guidance on disabling cookies on a variety of browsers and mobile devices.

Browser guidanceMobile device guidance

Internet Explorer cookies

How to delete cookies in Internet Explorer

iOS cookies

How to delete cookies on Apple devices

Chrome cookies

How to delete cookies in Chrome

Android cookies

How to delete cookies on Android devices

Safari cookies

How to delete cookies in Safari

Windows phone cookies

How to delete cookies on Windows phones

Firefox cookies

How to delete cookies in Firefox

Blackberry

How to delete cookies on Blackberry devices

Opera cookies

How to delete cookies in Opera

 

To opt out of your personal information being collected by Google Analytics, please view the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

To find out more about cookies please view the Information Commissioner’s Office guide to cookies

List of cookies we use

This list of the cookies used on our websites provides a brief explanation of why they are used.

Show me the list of cookies

Cookies in use on Chemistry World ( www.chemistryworld.com)

Cookie nameDescription

. ASPXAUTH

Indicates the user is logged in. Contains user specific information such as user ID in encrypted form

ADConCtrlCookie

Used to support content access for logged in users. The cookie contains no personally identifiable information. It is created when a user successfully logs into the website.

ADFEAuthCookie

Used to authenticate user when they log in to the site

ADmessage_[x]

Related to subscription renewal message

ADmessage_session_[x]

Related to subscription renewal message

AgentCookie

When logged in, used to identify user’s browser and device

ai_session

Application Insights - monitors site performance

ai_user

Application Insights - monitors site performance

AnonUserCookie

Managing session state when not logged in

CONSENT

Some users are required to complete additional data consent questions prior to site usage. This cookie is added to improve the website’s performance, ensuring this check is not made on every page of the site and for every visit. The cookie contains no personally identifiable information. It is created when a user completes the consent form.

CT_CookiePolicyAccepted

Dropped when cookie policy has been seen and accepted

IP_Message_Accepted

Dropped when a user closes a notification message to prevent it from showing again in the same session

_MadgexTracking

Used to support display and customisation of jobs widget (provided by Madgex)

mb__closed

Dropped when a user closes a notification message to prevent it from showing again in the same session

sp_

Spam filter

_AntiXsrfToken

Stores session information used to guarantee the origin of JavaScript request

__cfduid

Related to GetClicky web statistics tool

_bizo_bzid

_bizo_cksm

_bizo_np_stats

Related to Bizo advertising network (owned by LinkedIn)

Cookies commonly used across our websites

Cookie nameDescription

_ga
_gat
__utma
__utmt
__utmb
__utmc
__utmz
__utmv
__utmx
__utmxx
__gads
__gid

 

These cookies are created by Google Analytics and are used to collect information about how visitors use our websites, our applications, and the content we produce. They do not store personal information, and none of your personal details are shared with us or with Google as a result of us using these cookies.

We use the information we collect to help us understand how our websites and applications are used, so that we can improve them. We also use it to compare the popularity of different pieces of content on our websites and applications, and different versions of these.

Google may combine the data captured in these cookies with data from other cookies. We may combine the information we collect using these cookies with other information available to us.

For more details about the purpose and nature of these cookies, please see this page from Google: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage

RecentSearches

This cookie will save recent searches on the Publishing Platform

Branding

When you log onto the Publishing Platform, this cookie will display the name of your institution

OAX

OAXki_u

ki_t

ki_s

KissInsights is used to ask our website visitors their opinion on our website and their user journey, cookies are used to ensure visitors do not receive multiple questions or surveys

APISID

HSID

NID

OGPC

PREF

SID

Served by Google as part of Google Custom Search Engine, which is used to support our website search function.

Google also combines the information collected through these cookies with other cookie information.


ASP.NET_SessionId

This cookie will speed up the loading time of pages

AuthSystemSessionID

Authenticates users in secure areas of the website. This will be removed when the browser is closed

X-Mapping

This cookie will help users have the best customer experience by routing the user to the best back-end server. It does not store any personally-identifiable information

dpging_Roles

This cookie will remember your log in details onto the Publishing Platform. They will be removed when you close your browser

ASPSESSIONID

 

This cookie will store information for each client session. This cookie is removed once the browser is closed

CFID

This cookie will speed up the loading time of pages

CFTOKEN

Remembers the items you have added to your shopping cart

is_returning

Used to remember if you have requested the site to remember your log-in details

AthensID

Stores the ID of the customer when logging into secure areas of the site. This is removed when the browser is closed.

NSC_d16efm_qppm_iuuq

Served by our advertising engine to display adverts on our websites.

RecentlyViewed

Enables recently visited pages to be displayed in the footer of www.rsc.org.

hasVisitedBefore

Cookie used to define whether our cookie policy displays or not.

search_id

Remembers radio button selection in our search function.

 

International transfer

The Royal Society of Chemistry is a global organisation with subsidiary companies located around the world. This Statement establishes our global principles for the collection, use and disclosure of information gathered through our websites and applications. The country in which you are doing business with us or where the website you are visiting is located/hosted may have specific requirements concerning personal data.

On occasion, the information you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). By way of example, this may happen where any of our servers or those of our third party service providers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EEA. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. Where possible, we will seek to work with service providers whose servers are located within the EEA.

If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this policy. These steps include imposing contractual obligations on the recipient of your personal information or ensuring that the recipients are subscribed to ‘international frameworks’ that aim to ensure adequate protection.

We have not set out the specific circumstances when each of these protection measures are used. You can contact us at DPO@rsc.org for the details as to how we protect specific transfer of your data.

Children’s Data

We recognise any individual under the age of 18 years old as being a child. We take safeguarding of children (including the protection of their personal data) seriously and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that children are provided with sufficiently clear information on how we will collect, process and store their personal data, and that children and their guardians understand the nature of the processing of their personal data together with their rights in respect of the same.

Save for photography and filming, children under 18 years old may be able to provide consent in their own right to the processing of their personal data depending on their maturity and ability to understand the nature of the processing of that data. We will take reasonable steps to assess a child’s maturity and ability to understand the nature of data processing before determining whether a child can reasonably consent to processing in their own right. Further information on how we will assess a child’s ability to consent in their own right can be supplied on request via our contact details above.

Special categories of personal data

We may collect special categories of personal data if it is provided to us by you, or on your behalf, with your consent and it is appropriate to the service that we will provide to you. By giving us this information, you agree that we may use such data as set out in this Statement.

Data anonymisation and aggregation

We may anonymise or aggregate your personal information in such a way as to ensure that you are not identified or identifiable from it, in order to use the anonymised or aggregated data, for example, for statistical analysis and administration including analysis of trends, to carry out actuarial work, to tailor products and services and to conduct risk assessment and analysis of costs and charges in relation to our products and services. We may share anonymised or aggregated data with third parties.

Your rights

We also offer the following controls:

  1. You may request access to, or copies of, the personal data that we hold about you. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us at DPO@rsc.org or the RSC designated address above;
  2. If you believe that any data we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, or have concerns as to how we are using your data please contact us at DPO@rsc.org as soon as possible. We will take steps to seek to correct or update any data if we are satisfied that the data we hold is inaccurate.
  3. You may request that your personal data is deleted, where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it is being processed and provided there is no other lawful basis for which we may continue to process such data;
  4. If we are processing your personal data to meet our legitimate interests, you may object to such processing. If we are unable to demonstrate our legitimate grounds for that processing, we will no longer process your personal data for those purposes;
  5. You may withdraw any consent given to processing (this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal); or
  6. If we are processing your personal data automatically, for the purposes of performing our contract with you, or based on your consent you may have the right to request that the personal data we hold about you be transferred to a third party data controller.

If you consider that we are in breach of our obligations under data protection regulation, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Retention

We have criteria in place in relation to how we determine the period for which we use your personal data, as well as a process for their deletion at the end of the relevant retention period.  For more information please contact our Data Protection Officer at the address shown above.  In certain circumstances, we may be required to retain your personal data for longer where such retention is required by law or record-keeping requirements, including managing our relationship with you, defending any claims, or for tax purposes.

Changes to this Statement

This statement is not a contract, and it does not create any legal rights or obligations. We may change this Statement from time to time in order to reflect changes in the law and/or our privacy practices. We will update the date at the top of the Statement accordingly. We encourage you to regularly check this Statement online for changes.