Data Science Connects Online Privacy Policy

Introduction

The security and protection of your personal information is very important to us. This policy sets out what we do with your information and what we do to keep it secure. It also explains where and how we collect your personal information, as well as the rights you have over the personal information we hold about you.

We’ll only use your personal data on relevant lawful grounds as permitted by the General Data Protection Regulation and the Privacy of Electronic Communication Regulation. When we refer to ‘the legislation’ elsewhere in this policy, we are referring to those regulations.

This policy applies whether you’re a member of the OR Society, Data Science Connects, customer, employee, or a user of any of our services, or visit our website, or email, call, or write to us.

We’ll never sell your personal data and will only share it with organisations we work with when it’s necessary to do so and the privacy and security of your data is assured.

Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to [email protected] or write to us at The OR Society, Seymour House, 12 Edward Street, Birmingham, B1 2RX.

Who we are

When we say ‘we’ or ‘us’ in this policy we are referring to The OR Society, which is a trading name of The Operational Research Society. The OR Society is registered in England as a company limited by guarantee No. 663819 and a registered charity No. 313713. The registered address is Seymour House, 12 Edward Street, Birmingham, B1 2RX.

How we collect information from you

We may obtain information about you when you use our website or contact us in other ways. Examples could include but are not limited to when you contact us about services, register for an event or training course, sign-up to one of our mailing lists, or join the society as a member.

We may also collect information from you when we meet face to face at an event. When we do this we will explain why and what the information will be used for.

We also collect information using external submission websites, for example manuscript central, which is used to track all of the submissions to our journals.

What type of information we collect

The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when. If you purchase a product or service from us, your banking information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.

We may also ask for some extra information such as your job title, organisation and business address, which will help us to provide services that are more tailored to suit you and help deliver our charitable objectives by helping the community we serve.

We ask for special category data such as gender and ethnicity that will be completely optional and in using this we will keep it strictly anonymous.

If you are submitting an article or abstract to a conference, journal or magazine we will ask for your and your co-authors contact details and affiliations in order to properly and ethically process your submission.

How we use your information

Personal data provided to us will be used for the purpose or purposes outlined at the time of collection, for a legitimate interest or to fulfil a contract.

Your personal data may be collected and used to help us deliver our charitable activities or to complete your order or request. Below are the main uses of your data which depend on the nature of our relationship with you and how you interact with our website and our various services and activities.

We use your information to:

• Process any orders that you have submitted;
• Carry out obligations arising from any contracts or agreements entered into by you and us;
• Seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
• Notify you of changes to our services;
• Send you communications which you have requested or that may be of interest to you;
• Processing job or accreditation applications;
• Processing submissions to our journals, events and magazines;
• Help us identify where we need to focus our resources. Including monitoring diversity to better achieve our charitable goals.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We will only hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who we share your information with

We will not sell your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

We may have to share information with some third party service providers in order to provide that service, for example, when taking any payments your details are processed using a third party payment processor. Any third party that we have to share information with in this way will not use your information for their own business purposes, unless you have explicitly consented to the use of your personal information in this way.

If you are submitting an article or abstract to a conference, journal or magazine we may need to share your information with editors, reviewers and publishers. This is so we can successfully process your submissions. When your work is published your name and contact details may appear alongside your article.

If asked by the police, or any other regulatory or government authority investigating suspected illegal activities, we may need to provide your personal data.

Your choices

You have a choice about whether or not you want to receive information from us. You can opt-out of any mailing list that you have joined by managing your preferences or selecting the unsubscribe option.

Should you wish to receive a copy of the data we hold on you or to ask us to delete anything we hold on you please let us know by emailing us at dpo [at] theorsociety.com. We will delete anything you ask us to unless there is an overriding legitimate interest.

If you aren’t happy with anything we do with your personal data please talk to us directly so we can resolve any problem or query. You also have the right to contact the Information Commissions Office (ICO) if you have any questions about Data Protection. You can contact them using their help line 0303 123 113 or at www.ico.org.uk.

Photography at events

If you have consented to have your photograph taken at an event the images will be used only to share news about the event, or publicise the next event. They will be stored securely until the next event, after which the images will be deleted. If you would like to see the images of you, or have any deleted please contact [email protected]

Keeping information accurate

The accuracy of your information is very important to us and we will always try to keep it up to date. If the information we hold about you is incorrect then please either update your online profile or let us know by emailing the membership team at membership [at] theorsociety.com.

Security

Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. In addition, all sensitive information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.

We implement a variety of security measures when a user enters, submits, or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information.

Use of cookies

Like many other websites our website uses cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. They help us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website. Please see our full cookie policy.

Links to external websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our organisation and website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

Children

We do not process the personal data of any person under the age of 16.

Reviewed January 2025