Privacy Policy

What is this document?

This document is our privacy policy, outlining the convention approach to data protection and compliance with relevant UK legislation.

Who are we and what do we do?

Scotiacon UK Limited is the legal entity which runs the Scotiacon convention. Scotiacon is primarily a not for profit members club that provides an annual convention for the furry fandom in Scotland. Other variations of the name may be used in trading.

This Scotiacon UK Limited policy (Scotiacon) explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, and how we keep it secure.

This policy is updated from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you are aware and happy with any changes. By using our website you agree to be bound by this policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to [email protected]. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the ICO for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would however appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

How and what information do we collect from you?

We do not collect specific information about you when you visit our website. Your browser may save preferences depending on your settings or pre-fill information; please check your browser settings for more information. If you choose to register for the convention, contact us about our operations, products and services, register to receive one of our newsletters or contact forms we will retain personally identifiable information limited to that required for delivery of those services or requests.

The personal information we collect may include your name, registered address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when. If you make a payment online, your card information will not be held by us and instead it is collected by our third party payment processors who specialise in the secure processing of credit/debit card transactions. This is a technical requirement of their services.

We may collect, use, and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

We do not collect the following Special Categories of Personal Data about you; details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership or biometric data. Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. We will collect medical information on a voluntary basis to allow the provision of first aid to be administered promptly and effectively. This information may be passed on to a doctor, medical professional or other emergency services as required for the protection and preservation of life.

How will we use your information?

We may use your information to:

• Process or administer your membership registration or application for membership.
• Carry out contractual obligations.
• Detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.
• Process an application to volunteer with our working team.
• Notify of changes to our event operations, service delivery options, changes to membership or any other changes affecting you.
• Seek your views or comments on the services we provide or have provided.
• Send communications which you have requested.
• Identify and return lost property.
• Produce statistical summaries for open publication.
• To improve our services.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis and are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity concerned, as long as legally required, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information?

Your personal information will not be sold to third parties nor will it be shared for marketing purposes. We may transfer your personal information to a third party if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, to enforce or apply our terms of use, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our staff and customers. When you are using our secure online registration pages your payment may be processed by a third party payment processor who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.

We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors, and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf. However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to technically deliver the service and we will ensure that they will be required to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

We will not release your information to third parties unless, as stated above, you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us via email at [email protected]

We will always take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Your choices and updating information

It is your choice whether or not you wish to receive information from us; generally all contact from us will be related to the direct delivery of membership to attend the convention. We will not contact you for marketing purposes unless you have given your prior consent. This may include specific interest areas such as those you indicate in the registration process, including but not limited to fursuiting events and the Dealers’ Den. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by postal methods. If you wish to change your preferences after selecting them at any time, please email us at [email protected].

Generally, to update your details you will need to log in to the registration system and amend whatever requires changing. Should the system be closed please email us at [email protected], email the registration team, or complete a contact form on the website.

Should you require a copy of the information held about you we may charge a £25 fee to cover the costs of providing the information held about you. However, we may refuse your request if it is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive.

Security precautions used

We use a wide range of appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard access to, and use of, your personal information and to ensure it retains its integrity and availability. These include structured access controls to systems, network protection, intrusion detection, physical access controls, and staff training. We also consider anonymising or pseudonymising personal data where practical. Sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) will not be held by us and payment service providers will be expected to use encryption and protection to the highest standards.

Once we receive your information we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems and only retain data as long as required for the purposes of processing or legal requirements. Password access will be used internally which should be kept secret and not disclosed to others, if you have a password to allow access to certain areas of our website we would advise you keep this safe and secure.

Website cookies

Most websites use cookies which are small text files that are placed on your device to help the site provide a better user experience. We suggest consulting the help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers as the subject is far too wide a subject to cover in this policy. You can choose to disable or delete cookies at any time; this may affect your ability to use our website.

Links to other websites

This privacy policy applies only to our website, so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on any other websites you visit when linked from our site. Please review their own privacy policy documents. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

Transferring your information outside of the UK

As part of the services offered to you through our website the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the United Kingdom (UK) or European Union (EU). Scotiacon will ensure that any service providers utilised to store or process your personal data outside of the UK/EU have themselves undertaken GDPR-compliant data protection policies of their own.

Where should questions on this policy be directed?

Please direct any questions on this policy to our dedicated inbox at [email protected].