Privacy Policy

Institute of Economic Development Privacy Policy 

This privacy policy sets out how the Institute of Economic Development (the IED) uses and protects information that you submit to the IED when you use our website or give us information over the phone or in person. 

The IED is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. All information collected will be used in accordance with this privacy policy. 

We may need to update this policy in the future, so please do keep checking this page for further updates. Whenever we do complete an update notice will be given in our monthly e-bulletin which goes out to all members and other bulletin subscribers. 

If you have any queries about this policy please email us at admin@ied.co.uk in the first instance. 

What data do we collect? 

When an individual or an organisation joins the IED, we ask for the following pieces of information: 

• Name (title, first name, surname) 
• Postal Address (these can either be work or home address, but sometimes a member may provide both)
• Email address 
• Telephone number 
• Job title 
• Employer 
• If the member is a “consultant” member 
• If the member works in the public or private sector 
• The geographical region in which the member works 
• Level of work experience and qualifications attained 
• Username and password 

When a member submits this information via the website, there is a consent box which must be ticked in order for the user to submit the form. There is also an accompanying statement informing the user how their information will be used and stored. 

We store this information on our members database (also known as the CMS). In addition, when a member fills in a submission/application form on the website, the contents are emailed to a designated email address within our company. This email is deleted from our records as soon as the sign up process is complete. 

Within the members database we also store additional information: 

• What level of member you are (individual/corporate, associate, full, fellow, student) 
• Method and amount of payment. We do not store any other financial information. All card payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe, and as such you are asked to sign up to their terms and conditions when you set up payment. These can be found here. 
• Date of joining/date of resignation (if applicable) as well as any reasons given for joining or leaving 

Only 2 named IED employees have access to the members database, as well as the subcontractor who manages our website and CMS (Triad Ltd). 

What do we do with the data we hold? 

We use the data we hold in various ways: 

• Membership management processing (creation of invoices, reminder emails re paying membership fees) 
• Membership management information (e.g. calculating the number of members in a certain region or sector) 
• Communication. We communicate with the vast majority of our members by email. This is either done on a one-to-one basis or via group marketing email campaigns. An example of a group marketing email campaign may be an email to all members about an upcoming event (either run by the IED or a partner organisation, or maybe emailing geographically relevant members about a regional event). 
• In every email we send via a group marketing campaign we offer an unsubscribe service. 
• From time to time we communicate with our members by telephone or by post. 
• Connecting members to other members. At the time of joining, a member is asked if they are happy for their contact details to be shared with other IED members, in a secure “members only” area of the website. A member must specifically consent to this and can of course change their mind at any time, either by contacting us or by updating their preferences in the member only area of the website. 
• The provision of a Consultant’s Directory. When a “consultant” member joins the IED, they are asked for consent to share their company details in a live, downloadable Consultant’s Directory, so they can advertise their services. Consultant members can update their information in the secure members only area of the website. When a member updates their consultant directory entry, an email is automatically created and sent to an IED employee who will check it for sense and then immediately delete. Members who have previously signed up to the consultants directory who no longer wish to be part of it, can be removed at any time, either by contacting us or by updating their preferences in the member only area of the website. 

Sharing your data 

When a member joins, they are asked for specific consent if they are happy for their contact details to be passed on to IED partner organisations who from time to time may wish to contact you (e.g. IED Board members; our conference organisers, Regen Events; our PR consultant, Phil Smith; associated bodies such as EDAS or the LEP Network or other professional membership bodies with aligned interests to economic development. 

Even if you have agreed to this when you have signed up, you are free to change this preference at any time by making contact with us at the IED or updating your preferences in the secure members only area of the website. 

We will NEVER pass on your personal information to any for profit commercial organisations. 

What are we doing to ensure the security of your personal information? 

Online security is a key concern and an area that our chosen website provider, Triad Ltd, invest a lot of time to ensure the uptime and provision of your websites and server. 

A key element of the any website is the Content Management System (CMS). The CMS is the backbone of the website and stores all the user data, core templates and the content. 

It is therefore vital this is kept up to date with security patches and updates. The CMS has recently been updated to the most recent version and regular security updates are scheduled. 

How long do we store your data for? 

We hold all personal information for 6 years, regardless if a member has resigned, lost touch or is deceased. This is so that member records can be reconciled with our accounting records. In addition, members often resign and then rejoin and the administrative process is easier and cheaper for the customer if we still have their information on record. After 6 years, all non members are permanently deleted from our records. 

All non members within that 6 year window may be contacted from time to time via email, as part of marketing efforts to encourage re-joining. However, at the time of resigning, all members are asked if they wish to be excluded from such marketing campaigns and/or deleted from the records entirely. 

Our Cookie Policy 

Cookies are small files that are automatically added on your computer as you browse the web, these are text files that are locally stored and can easily be viewed and deleted. 

Cookies are used for analytics (such as Google Analytics), and any other functional services such as Login, Contact Forms etc. 

For any website that has the potential to store ‘Cookies’ on a user’s device they must be shown an alert message (usually via a small banner) giving them a warning that cookies will be used as part of using the website and option to accept. 

Should a visitor choose not to accept this will force the website not to store the information and could mean parts of the website will not function correctly. This will also mean that any statistical information (such as Google Analytics) will not record traffic and will potentially alter your monthly stats report. 

Any sections of the website(s) that feature code/third party functions that will create Cookies (e.g. Stats, Video Embeds, Form) will be updated so they do not work if a customer has denied access. 

A request to accept cookies is clearly visible in the footer of the website) when you first visit the site. You can therefore choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline them if you prefer. This may prevent you taking full advantage of the website. Our cookie policy can be found at the end of this document. 

Links to other websites 

On our website, we do provide links to other websites of interest. We do not have control over any other website other than our own and as such cannot be held responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which your provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy policy. 

Controlling your own personal information 

We rely on our members to let us know if their personal information changes, so that we hold the most up to date and accurate information. This includes such information as a change of job title, employer and of course key contact details. We communicate with our members on a regular basis and remind members to update such details either by emailing or telephoning us directly or by updating their own details in the secure members only area of the website, using their username and password. 

IED Cookie Policy 

Strictly Necessary Cookies - None! At IED, we are aware of privacy and data protection issues and have crafted our website in such a way that visitors can look at the website used without placing any cookies on your computer at all. If you are a member and wish to view the Member Login section; you will be required to Accept Cookies in order to do this. This also applies if you wish to Join the IED, our application form will require you to Accept Cookies. 

Preference Cookies - 'triad_gdpr_consent' our own cookie which simply stores 'yes' if you have granted us consent to store it, and the other cookies described below. 

Benign Cookies - Various cookies begnining 'exp_'. These are set by our content management system,and contain data such as the last time you visited our website, and previous pages you have looked at. We do not store or utilise this information in any way. 'exp_csrf_token' is a unique and random sequence of numbers and letters which protects our website forms from spam. 

Performance Cookies - Various cookies placed by third parties such as Google. Third party cookies which are placed when third party components load such as Google Analytics. The third parties use these cookies to monitor the performance of their content. If you happen to have an account with one of these third parties, and are gged in' your activity on our website may be recorded in your account with the third party. The IED has no access to this third party information.