North West Fraud Forum

Privacy Notice

North West Fraud Forum Privacy Notice

Dated:

We, the North West Fraud Forum Limited (the “Forum”) processes your personal data when you engage with us or use our services, by means of this website or otherwise, or in the course of the provision of our services to our members or other activities to prevent fraud.

 

Membership/Account information

The Forum may process the following personal data relating to members and/or forum account holders or individuals who have expressed an interest in becoming members to allow us to manage your, or your employer’s membership or any accounts created as part of your (or your employer’s) membership, or where otherwise necessary to allow us to provide our services:

  • First and Last Name;
  • Postal Address;
  • E-mail Address;
  • Phone Number;
  • Employer;
  • Job Title;
  • Nature of Business;
  • Details of your membership or membership type that you are interested in;
  • Details of any accounts issued;
  • Any of your personal data contained in comments or postings you make;
  • Any of your personal data contained in any correspondence passing between us;
  • Information relating to your use of the website or other services or activities;
  • Payment details; and/or
  • Your user name and password.

This is processed on the basis that it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party (i.e. your membership) or in order to take steps at your request prior to becoming a member or on the basis of our and your legitimate interest in operating your account authorized by your employer, or in respect of any additional Forum events you wish to attend.

Additionally, we may also process your personal data where it is necessary:

  • for our or any third party’s legitimate interests, where these do not outweigh your fundamental rights, such as sending out new account information to individuals nominated by their employer;
  • to comply with any legal obligation imposed on us;
  • for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, i.e. preventing and/or detecting fraud; and/or
  • where you have given us your prior consent to do so.

 

Personal data relating to individuals who are not members or account holders

We may process personal data relating to individuals who are not members or account holders when shared by account holders, where it is necessary to allow us:

  • to respond to queries; or
  • to support the prevention of fraud, where this is done for our or any third party’s legitimate interests, and these interests do not outweigh that individual’s fundamental rights;
  • to comply with legal obligations imposed on us; or
  • where it is otherwise necessary to allow the Forum to meet its objectives in seeking to prevent fraud.

The member or account holder sharing this information with the forum is responsible for ensuring that they are lawfully entitled to do so.

This information includes information already in the public domain, such as press reports, and information provided to us by members or account holders, credit reference agencies or other anti-fraud organizations. Where appropriate, this processing may include sharing this information with other anti-fraud organizations, credit reference agencies or law enforcement bodies.

 

Criminal offences data

We may process personal data relating to criminal convictions and/or actual or alleged offences (“Criminal Offences Data”) committed by individuals, received from other members of the forum or from credit reference agencies where it is necessary for the purposes of:

  • preventing fraud;
  • preventing or detecting unlawful acts; and/or
  • protecting the public against dishonesty;

where it consists of the disclosure or processing of personal data by individuals as members of an anti-fraud organization (i.e. the Forum) or in accordance with arrangements made by us.

Where Criminal Offences Data is shared, it is done so on the basis that we are permitted, under the Data Protection Act 2018, to process information relating to criminal convictions and offences, where it is necessary for: 

  • preventing fraud;
  • preventing or detecting unlawful acts; and/or
  • protecting the public against dishonesty.

Any Criminal Offences Data will usually be retained for 7 years from the date it was posted unless there is a substantial reason for it to be retained for longer.

 

Sharing member or account holder personal data with third parties

We may give third parties access to your personal data where it is necessary for them to provide services on our behalf, such as to undertake statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, maintain our systems or provide customer support.

These third parties will be subject to contractual obligations to ensure that they keep any personal data they receive secure and that they can only use it for the provision of the contracted services.

We may also share personal data with third parties where permitted under the Data Protection Laws, such as where necessary to comply with a legal obligation imposed on us, such as a court order, or where necessary for the prevention and/or detection of crime or to exercise, establish or defend legal rights.

We may share member details with sponsors or partners involved in events that we organize, where it is necessary either:

  • for the performance of a contract that you a party to, i.e. to arrange your attendance at the event; or
  • for our, our sponsors, event partner(s), or other third party’s legitimate interests, where these interests do not outweigh that member’s fundamental rights.

 

Overseas transfers

We may process or transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom or countries deemed to have adequate data protection legislation.

Where we do so, the processor or recipient will be subject to contractual obligations, as approved by the United Kingdom, requiring them to implement appropriate safeguards to ensure the protection of any personal data and the data protection rights of the individuals whose personal data is transferred to that recipient. For further information, please contact us using the details below.

 

Monitoring

Access to the website’s members’ areas will be monitored to identify any unauthorized access, where necessary:

  • to allow us to ensure compliance with any legal obligations imposed on us;
  • for our legitimate interests, such as allowing us to investigate any complaints, where these interests do not outweigh that member’s fundamental rights; and/or
  • the performance of the agreement between you and us, to ensure that you or other account holders are complying with the website terms of usage.

 

Marketing

We may send members information about promotional offers and events organized by us where you have given us permission to do so.

If you would like to stop receiving marketing or promotional communications via email from us, you can unsubscribe from these marketing emails by following the instructions included in the marketing email.

Please note that this will not stop you from receiving emails from us relating to the operation of your membership or account, for example, to remind you that your membership or account is ending or any changes to the operation of the website or your membership or account (see Service Delivery Information below).

 

Service delivery information.

Unless you have objected, we may send members of the Forum or their employer, via email, announcements, alerts, confirmations, reminders, surveys, and/or other emails relating to the operation of your membership or account. This is done on the basis that it is necessary for our legitimate interests where these interests do not outweigh your fundamental rights, such as to assist us in improving and developing our services.

 

Cookies 

The forum website uses “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your device by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer.

As of the date of this notice, the forum does not use any cookies other than the following third-party cookies necessary to allow the website to operate:-

WordPress cookies. These are used to authenticate users of the website.

For further information please see https://wordpress.org/support/article/cookies/

Woocommerce cookies. These are used to manage access to the forum.

For further information please see https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-cookies/. 

 

Your rights

You have the right to request that we:

  • Provide you with a copy of your personal data and further information about how and why we have processed your personal data (the right of access);
  • Correct any incorrect personal data we hold (right of rectification);
  • Delete your personal data where we no longer need to process it (the right of erasure, also known as the right to be forgotten);
  • Provide you, or a third party, with an electronic copy of your personal data that you or that third party can reuse (right to data portability);
  • Consider your objection(s) to the processing of your personal data where it is being processed solely on basis that our (or any third party’s) legitimate interest where you claim that these legitimate interests do not override your interests, rights and freedoms (right to object); and/or
  • Restrict the processing of your personal data whilst we respond to any claims that your personal data is:
    • inaccurate;
    • being processed unlawfully;
    • is no longer required to be processed (other than for the purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights); or
    • is subject to an objection on the basis that the legitimate interests relied upon to process your personal data does not override your interests rights and freedoms.

 

Not all of these rights are absolute, and if we are unable to comply with your request, for example, where any of the above rights do not apply to personal data processed for the purposes to which the right relates, we will let you know when responding to your request(s).

We may require additional information from you, but we will endeavour to respond to your request within 1 month of receipt of either your request or, where appropriate, proof of your identity or receipt of any additional information we require to comply with your request. If we are unable to meet this deadline, due to the complexity of your request and the volume of requests we are handling, we will contact you within the first month and provide you with a new deadline and the reasons why we are unable to comply with your request within the initial month.

In addition, you have the right to withdraw any consent to process your personal data that you have previously given us. In such situations, the withdrawal of your consent will not affect the legitimacy of the processing of your personal data undertaken prior to the withdrawal of your consent.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner if you are unhappy with our processing of your personal data. For information on how to make such a complaint, please see: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. 

 

How long will your personal data be held by us?

We will not retain your personal data for longer than 7 years from the end of your membership or account or, if you are not a member, from the date of collection or posting of your personal data by a forum member unless there is a lawful reason for us to retain it for longer, such as to comply with a legal obligation imposed on us, or where there is a dispute or a potential dispute that may require the use of your personal data. We may delete your personal data before this time in accordance where appropriate to comply with our obligations not to process (including store) personal data for longer than is necessary.

 

Links

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.

 

Changes to this Statement

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Notice from time to time.

We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account, by placing a prominent notice on our website, and/or by updating any privacy information.

 

Contact us

We welcome any questions or comments you may have regarding this Privacy Notice.

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information or wish to exercise any of your rights as set out in this Privacy Notice, please contact us at:

North West Fraud Forum Ltd

Unit 10 Weston Centre Business Hub, Weston Road, Crewe CW11 6FL

Email Address:

contact@northwestfraudforum.org.uk

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone number: 0303 123 1113

or via their website: ICO.ORG.UK