The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy

Proprietor

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 we confirm that the proprietor and operator of the website at www.riba-knowledgecommunities.com (the 'Website') is The Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place, London, W1D 1AD, United Kingdom ('we', 'us', 'our' or 'RIBA'). The RIBA can be contacted via the ‘contact us’ section on the Website.
The RIBA respects the privacy of each user accessing the Website ('you', 'your') and is committed to protecting your privacy. The RIBA ensures that any personal information provide by you to the RIBA will be processed in accordance with the eight principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy set out below.

Processing of Personal Data

Personal data about you will be collected when you register for the RIBA Knowledge Communities. This will include your first and last names, your email address, a username and password which should be kept private.

Purpose Specification

We may use your personal data to communicate with you, provide information to you and provide contact details of Third Party Providers to you pursuant to your requests. Contact with Third Party Providers will be at your discretion. The RIBA may also use your email address of telephone number (if provided) to follow up your information requests. The Website will send out automatically generated emails as notifications of website activity that by registering you have elected to receive. These notifications can be managed and disabled once logged on to the Website under your personal settings. You hereby consent to these uses of your personal data.

We may also use your personal data to better understand who uses our Website and the pages they access so as to be able to improve the Website. If you have elected to receive information from the RIBA on your areas of interest, from time to time, we may use your personal data to contact you with information relevant to your Knowledge Communities membership and for market research or survey purposes, but we will always give you the opportunity to opt-out of this mail. We will otherwise ensure that your personal data will not be disclosed to other organisations and authorities unless required by law.

You agree to the use of your personal data or other personal data you have provided to us for the above purposes. If we wish to use your personal data or other personal data you have provided to us for new or different purposes, other than for which it was originally supplied, we will request your written permission first. We take seriously the trust you place in us.

You agree that if the management of the Website or the RIBA transfers to a third party we may also transfer your personal data or other personal data you have provided to us and any other information about you to such third party, provided such third party agrees to observe this policy.  

Security of Personal Data

Transmission of data and information via the Website or by email is not a secure or encrypted transmission method for sending your personal data, unless otherwise indicated on the Website or otherwise arranged between us. Accordingly, your attention is drawn to the fact that any information and personal data carried over the Internet is not secure. Information and personal data may be intercepted, lost, redirected, corrupted, changed and accessed by other people.

We set security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to your personal data once we have received it and wherever possible we will use adequate software and working procedures to ensure the security of your personal data. To prevent unauthorised access, maintain accuracy, and ensure proper use of personal data, we have employed physical, electronic, and managerial processes to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Any personal information you decide to publish in your online profile on the Knowledge Communities may be visible to all Knowledge Communities members depending on the access setting you have chosen. The RIBA does not take responsibility for the security of this data. The RIBA expects you to use caution and common sense when using the Website and when giving out personally identifying information about yourself.

Third Party Websites

Parts of our Website contain links to third party websites not owned by the RIBA ('Third Party Websites') for your convenience and information. If you use these links, you will leave the Website. When you access a Third Party Website, please understand that we do not control the content of that Third Party Website and are not responsible for the privacy practices of that Third Party Website.

We suggest that you carefully review the privacy policies of each Third Party Website that you visit. The RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices of those Third Party Websites linked to our Website. Third Party Websites may send their own cookies to users, collect personal data, or solicit personal information. Third Party Websites may operate very different privacy practices to this Website. Links to Third Party Websites on the Website do not imply that the RIBA endorses those Third Party Sites or agrees with any of the views or information set out on such Third Party Websites. 

Automatic Collection of Data

All networks connected to the Internet communicate in 'IP' (Internet Protocol), which is a technical standard that allows data to be transmitted between two devices. 'TCP/IP' (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is responsible for making sure messages get from one host to another and that the messages are understood. An IP address is a string of code which identifies your personal computer and tells the Internet that you are connected.

The Website does not automatically store or capture personal data except for logging your IP address. This information is not retained after you have logged off. We do not link information automatically logged in this way by any means with personal data about specific individuals.

Cookies are messages given to an Internet browser by an Internet server. The browser then stores the message. Each time the browser requests a page from the server, this message is sent back. A cookie's main objective is to identify users and personalise their visit by customising web pages for them, for example by welcoming them by name next time they visit the same website. We may use cookies for collecting information on the Website.

Subject Access Rights

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, we have to provide you, as a 'data subject' with a readable copy of all personal data which we may hold about you, within 40 days of receiving your written request for us to provide it. The Data Protection Act 1998 allows us to charge a fee of £10 for this. Evidence or proof of your identity (for example, a copy of your passport, driver's licence or current bills) will be required.

It is both in our interest and yours to store and process accurate personal data. If the data we hold about you is inaccurate in any way, where appropriate, you may have your personal data corrected by us on request by having it:

1. completed
2. amended, and/or
3. erased.

Please contact us to update any of your personal data or to request access to your personal data by addressing the Research and Development Department at the following address or email address:

Research and Development Department
The Royal Institute of British Architects
66 Portland Place
London
W1D 1AD
research@inst.riba.org

We reserve the right to refuse to provide you with a copy of your personal data based on the exemptions set out in the Data Protection Act 1998, but if we do refuse we will give full reasons for our refusal and allow you to challenge our decision. 

Feedback

If you have any feedback or questions about the RIBA's use of your personal information or about this online the RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy, please send an email to research@inst.riba.org

If you send us personal data via email, we will use it to respond to your information request. If you email us, or give us your email address, we will keep a record of it. We will not give your email address to any unauthorised third parties. Note that communications via email or otherwise are governed by and subject to the RIBA Knowledge Communities Terms of Use set out on the Website.

When you email us please remember that the content of your email is not secure and could be intercepted. Accordingly, please keep the amount of confidential or personal information to a minimum and we will do likewise when we reply.

Changes to the RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy

The RIBA will post any changes to the RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy on the Website from time to time. Please be sure to regularly check the RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy before using the Website. Regardless of any changes we make to the RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy, we will always use your personal data in accordance with the RIBA Knowledge Communities Privacy Policy in place at the time you provide your information and the Data Protection Act 1998, unless you give your express consent for us to do otherwise.