Terms & Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting the Visual Arts South West website. Please read our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (“Terms”) before using the website. By using the website you are deemed to have accepted these Terms.

Visual Arts South West is the supplier of the services available on www.vasw.org.uk, and the controller of and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as "VASW”, “we", "us" or "our" in these Terms).

VASW makes every effort to keep the content on this website appropriate and correct. It is for general information and use only, and it is subject to change without notice. Please ensure that you review these Terms regularly as you will be deemed to have accepted a variation if you continue to use the website after any variation has been posted.

Any reliance that you may place on the information on the website is at your own risk. Except for any legal responsibility that we cannot exclude in law or arising under applicable laws relating to the protection of your personal information, VASW accepts no responsibility for loss or damage that occurs as a result of using this website and the information provided on it. As a condition of your use of the website, you agree:

• not to use the website for any purpose that is unlawful under any applicable law or prohibited by these Terms;
• not to use the website in any way that is fraudulent or has any fraudulent purpose or effect;
• not to use the website to transmit unauthorised advertising or promotional materials;
• not to use the website to distribute viruses or malware or other similar harmful software code;
• not to attack our website with a denial-of-service attack;
• not to use the website in any manner that disrupts the operation of our website or other users;
• not to use the website to gain unauthorised access to or use of computers, data, systems, accounts or networks; and
• not to attempt to circumvent password or user authentication methods.
  

Nothing in these Terms grants you any legal rights in the website other than as necessary to enable you to access the website and the services available to you.

All materials on this website, including the design, text and images, are copyrighted by or licensed to VASW. Intellectual property rights means rights such as: copyright, trademarks, domain names, design rights, database rights, patents and all other intellectual property rights of any kind whether or not they are registered or unregistered (anywhere in the world). We and our licensors reserve all of our and their rights in any intellectual property in connection with these Terms. This means, for example, that we and they remain owners of them and free to use them as we and they see fit.

When you submit content to this website as one of our service users, you commit to ensuring that you hold the right or license to submit said content for circulation by VASW.

Reproduction of any content on this website is prohibited without prior written consent – please contact VASW at info@vasw.org.uk or the relevant user account holder to request permission.

It is important that you read this privacy policy so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. VASW respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact the VASW team at info@vasw.org.uk.

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you subscribe to our newsletter OR use our services, and aims to inform you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and it is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

3.1. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND WHY

We hold basic personal information provided at the time of registering for our website, subscribing to our newsletters, voluntarily uploading content, or requesting further information and services. We don’t collect any special categories of personal data, as defined under the GDPR, and we don’t help other companies do that. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to.

3.1.1. Website users
If you create a user account as an individual, we store your email (which also serves as your username), your real name, your professional status (optional), and the answers you fill into submission forms when you upload the events and opportunities to use our listings service.

If you create a user account as an organisation, we store your email (which also serves as your user name) and any details about your organisations that you choose to share with as part of your public profile.

We record the last time you logged in so we can disable inactive accounts. We may disable accounts that have been inactive for more than 24 months and we shall inform you before doing so.

We may ask you to participate in user surveys that we use for research when planning our regional programme, or to collect feedback on your experience of our online services. Of course, you’re in no way obliged to take part.

If you contact us to report a problem or give feedback, we may keep a record of our correspondence with you for quality control purposes.

3.1.2. Newsletter subscribers
If you have only subscribed to our newsletter, we hold your email address and your newsletter preference. You can update your newsletter subscription or unsubscribe from our newsletter any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in our emails or emailing us at info@vasw.org.uk.

3.1.3. Other data
We may use the information you’ve given us to notify you about changes to our service. In an anonymised way, we may include content viewed or searched for, page response times, lengths of visit, devices and browsers used, traffic data, and weblogs. It’s a long list, but this is all for statistical purposes used solely for improving our platforms and is not associated with your account.

We only collect or use your personal data where it is necessary by law or if we require it in order to provide goods or services. If under these circumstances, you are unable to provide the data when requested, we may not be able to provide the goods or services. In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3.1.4. Cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our site by recording activity on the website. This helps us provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allows us to improve our site. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.

3.2. HOW WE COLLECT YOUR DATA AND WHY

3.2.1. Direct interactions
We use different methods to collect data from and about you. Through direct interactions you may give us your identity and contact data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by email, post or otherwise. This includes personal data you may provide when you;

• create an account on our website;
• use our listings services;
• subscribe to our newsletter;
• enter a survey; or
• give us feedback or contact us.

3.2.2. Third-party services
We also use a few third-parties that help us provide specific services.

We use MailChimp to deliver our monthly newsletters and manage our newsletter subscriptions. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks to help us monitor and improve our newsletter. For more information, please see MailChimp’s privacy policy.

We use Google Forms to collect information for occasional surveys. For more information, please read Google’s Privacy Policy.

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how our site is discovered and used, collecting aggregate numbers for page views and interactions. We’re using Google Analytics as a measurement tool only. For more information on the Google Analytics Cookie we use, please see our Cookie Policy.

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal or other requirements.

3.3. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The personal account information that we hold is accessible strictly by VASW staff only, all of whom are under a legal obligation to refrain from disclosing this to third parties. We do not sell or rent information about you.

3.3.1. Changes to VASW
If we ever transfer or merge parts of VASW or our assets, if we have a change in partners, or if a change happens to our organisation, we will let you know so that you can choose to opt out of your personal data being shared with new partners or owners.

3.3.2. Analytics
We may also share anonymised data with a select few, including authorised editorial and administration staff, subprocessors or partners, but this is for analytics only, and anyone we share this data with will be under a legal obligation to keep your information secure. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Any party entrusted with your information has provided their own privacy policies for processing data which we have linked to above. We further have agreements in place with every company or group we share data with, and we keep track of their GDPR compliance of cloud services and subprocessors.

3.3.3. Your visibility to other users of the VASW website
As an individual user, your profile is private. Having a private profile means that other users cannot search for you. However, if you choose to submit your own events or opportunities to our listings service, the information about these events and opportunities will be public to other website users.

As an organisation user, your profile will be public and automatically part of our public directory of organisations. The registration form for organisations is primarily intended for compiling non-personal data that will tell about your organisation and its activities. Therefore the information that you submit about your organisation’s aims, location or contact details will be visible on your public profile.

We will never share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes without your express opt-in consent.

3.4. KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SAFE

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. To ensure that your information is safe, we use HTTPS, password encryption, and we store your provided personal account information on secure servers.

In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Data is leaky in nature and there is no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to information security. What we can guarantee instead is that we take data protection seriously and that we do the utmost to ensure the information stored on our website is protected against foreseeable security breaches.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

3.5. THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

The VASW website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications and websites of our partner networks. VASW has no responsibility for their content and we accept no liability for the content or services available on external websites; your use of them is at your own risk. Clicking on these links or enabling these connections 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 policy of every website you visit.

3.6. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have the following rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.

3.6.1. Request access to your personal data ("data subject access request")
This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. As a registered user, you can view and update any information we hold about you by accessing your user profile.

3.6.2. Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you
This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

3.6.3. Request erasure of your personal data
This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, 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. To delete your profile or any associated information, send us an email at info@vasw.org.uk.

3.6.4. Object to processing of your personal data
You can object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. A legitimate interest means the interest of VASW in conducting and managing our services to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data 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). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

3.6.5. Request restriction of processing of your personal data
This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

• If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
• Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
• Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

3.6.6. Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party
We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

3.6.7. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data
However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

3.6.8. Complying with your request
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the above rights). However, we can refuse to comply with your request if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We reserve the right review and vary the Terms and our Privacy Policy regularly. These Terms were last reviewed on 11 March 2020. Any changes we may make to these Terms will be displayed on the website. By continuing to use and access the website following such changes, you agree to be bound by any variation made by us. It is your responsibility to check these Terms from time to time to verify such variations.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us by email at info@vasw.org.uk.