Privacy Policy

BIEE – Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out why we obtain, and how we use and protect personal information.

It sets out the basis on which the BIEE collects personal information from you (as a member, contact, speaker, sponsor, event attendee or author) or that you provide to us through this website or otherwise in relation to our activities, and the specific purposes for which the data is used and by whom. The privacy policy is accessible to all visitors to the website.

Please read the policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it.

By visiting and continuing to use this website you are consenting to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not continue to use the BIEE website to submit personal information to us.

You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time.

It is possible that the policy may be amended from time to time, so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you are happy with any changes. The date of the most recent revisions will appear on this page.

The BIEE is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998. This privacy policy is designed to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Who We Are

The British Institute of Energy Economics (BIEE) is a company incorporated in England and Wales limited by guarantee (company number 1874015), and is registered as a charity No. 3262875.

BIEE’s registered address is Haines Watts, Milton House, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8EA.

This Privacy Policy relates to information about you (“personal data”) which is obtained by BIEE and for which BIEE is the Data Controller.

BIEE’s Purpose

The BIEE aims to

• Provide a platform for high quality, informed debate of key energy issues in the UK
• Encourage the exchange of ideas and information between energy professionals from different disciplines and different sectors of the energy industry.
• Support the use of economics and research as a basis for good decision making and sound policies.

We do this by

• Convening a regular programme of meetings, seminars webinars and conferences held in London Oxford Scotland and other locations and also  online
• Publishing presentations, papers, and discussion summaries from our meetings and conferences.
• Helping to develop the next generation of professionals, by offering students low cost membership, and travel grants.
• Contributing to wider international energy debates through association with the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) and its regional affiliates.

Why we hold and process personal data

We hold and process personal data for a number of reasons:

• To keep a record of our members, their subscriptions and other donations and our wider network of contacts, sponsors, speakers, authors and delegates, including our communications with them
• For membership service administration – to register new members both individual and corporate, to accept and record subscriptions, and to renew memberships; also for the purposes of submitting joint applications for membership of the International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE) and BIEE, and to make payments to the IAEE for those registered as BIEE/IAEE dual members
• To send you marketing information about our events, annual conference and third party partner events, where we have your consent to do so. You may withdraw or modify your consent at any time. Please see ‘Rights to Access and Control Your Personal Data’

• To record our event activities and outputs including speaker and attendee information
• To record information about and communicate with authors who submit abstracts for selection and presentation at our research conferences
• To make offers of membership and invite people to become involved in our organisation
• To ensure we do not send unwanted information to our contacts or members who have informed us they do not wish to be contacted.
• To claim gift aid on member donations
• To fulfil contractual obligations entered into with sponsors and funders
• To administer the BIEE website
• To meet our charitable reporting duties

Our members also share their professional identities, engage with the network, exchange knowledge and find opportunities through the members section of our website. Conference delegates can choose to share their professional identities with other delegates via our conference app.

BIEE will only use your personal data where it has an appropriate legal basis, such as: (1) where the processing is in our own legitimate interest; (2) it is in compliance with a legal obligation; (3) it is necessary to perform a contract between us and you; and/or (4) you have consented to our use of your personal data.

Information we collect

You provide data to us when you join as a member, attend our events, sign up to receive emails, submit an abstract or use our website.

Joining as Member

All Members who join the BIEE are asked to give their name, email address, postal address, phone number, organisation affiliation, job title, sector and specialisation. BIEE members may choose whether or not to appear in the Members directory. Student members are asked to provide the name of their course, its start and finish dates and the name of the institution they are studying at. BIEE does not collect or store credit card or bank details of any of its members.

Attendance at Events

We gather information on those who attend our events including your name and e-mail address, job title and the organisation you are affiliated with.

Email Sign Up

To sign up for email updates through the website or social media you will be asked to provide data including your name, email address and organisation.

Abstract Submission

If you are an author submitting an abstract for one of our research conferences you will be asked to provide your name, email address, organisation, job title as well as those of your co-authors, whose consent you must obtain in order to share their personal data with us.

Website Use

We may collect information about your computer, including where possible your IP address and browser type for systems administration and to collect aggregate information relating to our visitors. This is statistical data about our users browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual.

Other

We occasionally introduce new features and services, which may require the collection of new information. If we collect materially different personal data or materially change how we use your data, we will give you the option of opting out and may also modify this Privacy Policy.

Special or Sensitive Categories of Personal Data

We may hold limited information about you which includes sensitive personal data, such as special needs requirements or health conditions. We will only hold this data when we need to for the purposes of the product or services we provide to you or where we have a legal obligation to do so. When we ask you for this data we ask for your consent to hold it.

How we share information

We will only use your personal data within BIEE for the purposes for which it was obtained.

BIEE does not share your data with third parties unless there is a legal obligation to do so, or in a strictly controlled way to certain Service Providers working on our behalf set out below.

We may need to share your data when we believe it’s required by law or to protect your and our rights and security.

We will not share or sell your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes, and you will not receive marketing from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us.

Access to the Website

Access is primarily by the BIEE administrators.

Access will also be available to officers of the BIEE and to the website computer maintenance personnel.

Members will have protected access to the website to view/edit their own details.

As a member, any information you consent to share in the Members Directory will be seen by other members.

Any content you post or social action you take on our website (e.g. likes, follows, comments, shares) and online tools will be seen by others.

Administrators who receive data and operate on the BIEE’s behalf receive appropriate training.

Service Providers

Where necessary, your personal information may be shared with other organisations to deliver, support or evaluate our services. This might include event venues and IT providers.

They will have access to your information as reasonably necessary to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for other purposes.

You can read more about how our main  IT service providers comply with GDPR through the following links: Mailchimp, Salesforce, Eventbrite Whova Exordo

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Data processed outside of the EU

BIEE operations are based in the UK and we store our data within the European Union. Some organisations which provide services to us (particularly IT providers) may transfer personal data outside of the EEA, but we will only allow them to do if your data is adequately protected.

For example, some of our systems use Salesforce products. As a US company, it may be that using their products result in personal data being transferred to or accessible from the US. We will allow this so long as we are assured personal data will still be adequately protected. The Salesforce privacy notice can be accessed here

If you take out joint membership of BIEE and IAEE, your data will be passed to the IAEE and this will involve the transfer to and storage of your personal data to the USA by us.

Legal Disclosures

It is possible that we will need to disclose information about you when required by law, warrant, or other legal process or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (1) investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies; (2) enforce our agreements with you, (3) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, (4) protect the security or integrity of our Service (such as by sharing with companies facing similar threats); or (5) exercise or protect the rights and safety of the BIEE.

Your Rights and Obligations

Data Retention

We keep most of your personal data while you remain actively engaged with us.

How long information will be stored for depends on the information in question and what it is being used for. For example, if you ask us not to send you marketing emails, we will stop storing your emails for marketing purposes (though we will keep a record of your preference not to be emailed).

We retain your personal data even after you cease to be a member or a contact who has stopped receiving mailings, to comply with legal obligations, meet our regulatory and financial requirements, resolve disputes, and maintain security.  Lapsed members and contacts will be deleted from our database after 3 years.

Rights to Access and Control Your Personal Data

The accuracy of your information is important to us.

BIEE members, contacts and sponsors should notify the BIEE if any information held on the website needs to be corrected or updated or amend the information directly online.

BIEE will not accept responsibility for inaccurate or out of date data supplied to it by any person.

You can access or delete your personal data. You are entitled, in accordance with applicable law, to object to or request restriction of processing of your personal data, and to request access to, rectification, erasure and portability of your own personal data. We want to ensure that we are able to communicate with you in ways that you are happy with, and to provide you with information that is of interest.

You can change your mailing preferences here  or unsubscribe from our emails by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us.

If you have any questions about how the BIEE collects, stores and uses your information or have any questions about this policy please contact the administrator at Admin@BIEE.org.

BIEE’s data protection registration number is Z1883510.

Other Information

Security
BIEE’s website maintenance provider Electric Studio implement security safeguards designed to protect your data, such as HTTPS. They regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks.

BIEE has in place technical and organisational security measures to ensure that data held on the database is secure from loss, misuse or external access

Whilst BIEE has used its best efforts we cannot guarantee the absolute security of its database or any internet-based transactions and will not be held responsible for claims, demands, costs and expenses incurred by any person arising from any breach of the security of the website.

Content provided by Third Parties published on our website

We publish and link to reports, blogs and articles written by members and others who are not members of staff of BIEE. We are not responsible for the accuracy of either the content or any personal data contained within such content.

Email Disclaimer

The information in any e-mail (and/or document attached) sent by or on behalf of the BIEE is confidential and may be legally privileged and/or contain copyright material of BIEE. This information is intended solely for the use of the named addressee. If you are not the named addressee of an email from BIEE please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose, copy or distribute the contents to any other person.

Any contractual representations contained therein on behalf of the BIEE must not be taken as final, and are entirely subject to contracts signed formally by an authorised representative of this organisation.

Whilst the BIEE takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that e-mails from BIEE are virus free, no responsibility will be taken for viruses transmitted from its systems.

Last updated 09/07/2021