The Society for the Study of Addiction aims to comply with current data protection legislation in the processing of all personal data. It is committed to safeguarding and preserving the privacy of anyone whose personal data we process. Any personal information, such as your name or email address, that you supply, is stored securely and will not be disclosed unlawfully to any other person or organisation.
What information do we collect?
When you use services on our website it will require information about you to fulfil your request. This information may include, but is not limited to, details such as your name, your address and your credit card details. In order to process financial transactions such as membership fees we may ask to enter your bank or card details. This is done through a secure area of our site, and your card details are not stored on our systems.
User data that we may collect and process from our website includes Information about your use of our site including details of your visits such as pages viewed and the resources that you access. Such information includes traffic data, location data and other communication data. This is information that is provided voluntarily by you.
The SSA uses social media (including X/Twitter and LinkedIn) to keep our members, those working in addictions, healthcare and interested general public informed about our work, new resources, research, conferences, training and other events. If you engage with the SSA via social media your personal data may be stored on that social media site’s servers, which are outside our control.
The following table explains in more detail the types of data we collect and the legal basis, under current data protection legislation, on which this data is processed.
| Purpose | Data (key elements) | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiring about our organisation and its work | Name, contact details, message | Legitimate interests – it is necessary for us to read and store your message so that we can respond in the way that you would expect. |
| Subscribing to email updates about our work | Name, contact details | Consent – you have given your active consent. |
| Signing up as a member or associate | All information required to manage memberships/ associateships including name, contact details, payment information, job title / occupation, relevant academic/professional experience or qualifications, relevant biographical details | Legitimate interests – it is necessary for us to process this information to determine eligibility for and manage memberships/associateships. Contract – by paying your membership/associateship fees you have entered into a contractual relationship with us as set out in our membership terms and conditions. Consent – we ask applicants to consent to processing of personal information in case they choose to include special category data in their application. |
| Employment, volunteering or trusteeship (for successful and unsuccessful candidates) | All information required for employment, volunteering or trusteeship, which may include, as appropriate: • Name • Contact details • Pay details • Annual leave details • Sick leave details • Performance details • Contact details • Qualifications • Employment history • Ethnicity • Disability details • Contact details • Qualifications • Employment history • Ethnicity • Disability details |
Contract – for staff it is necessary to process this information to fulfil your employment contract. Legitimate interests and legal obligation – this information is necessary for us to meet legal obligations associated with employment, volunteering or trusteeship and/or to enable us to support trustees, staff or volunteers appropriately. |
| Journal publication | All information required to manage submission, review, publication and promotion of papers in the Society’s journals, including name, contact details, photographs, videos & audio recordings, information on affiliations & interests | Legitimate interests – it is necessary for us to process this information to correspond with authors, editors and others involved in publication and promotion of journals, including to protect the scientific and ethical integrity. Consent – we ask authors to consent publication of contact details in press releases and to publication and archiving of interview recordings and transcripts. |
| Academic schemes and awards (including bursaries, studentships, fellowships, scholarships, grants and prizes) | All information required to review applications, make payments and monitor schemes/awards including name, contact details, payment information, job title/ occupation, relevant academic/professional experience or qualifications, relevant biographical details. | Legitimate interests – it is necessary for us to process this information to review applications, make awards etc and monitor their use. Contract – by accepting an award, grant or similar you have entered into a contractual relationship with us as set out in our terms and conditions. Consent – we ask applicants to consent to processing of personal information in case they choose to include special category data in their application. |
| Conferences, symposiums and other events organised by the Society | All information required to organise events and communicate with delegates and speakers including name, contact details, payment information, dietary information, relevant biographical details, photographs, photographs | Legitimate interests – it is necessary for us to process this information to manage events effectively. Contract – paying to attend an event you have entered into a contractual relationship with us as set out in our terms and conditions. Consent – we ask applicants to consent to processing of personal information in case they choose to include special category data in their application. Vital interests – we process dietary information to ensure that everyone attending an event is protected from harm. |
| Website functionality | Website activity collected through cookies | Legitimate interests – it is necessary for us to store a small amount of information, usually through cookies, to deliver functionality that you would expect, such as remembering the contents of your order before you have fully completed the process. Consent – we ask all website users to consent to the SSA using cookies in this way. You are able to reject cookie collection before using our website. |
What are cookies and how do we use them?
Cookies are small amounts of information that are sent from a web server to your browser, stored on your computer’s hard drive and contain basic information relating to an internet site you have visited. We may use cookies to store information about you in order to personalise your contact with us and may gather information about your use of our website through the cookie. Such information will not identify you personally; it is statistical data that does not identify any personal information. Your computer settings can be set to decline any cookies and this can be done through the ‘settings section of your computer. Further advice on this can be found at AboutCookies.org.
Google Analytics is used to allow us to track site visits and to record usage trends over time. Google Analytics uses a cookie to help track which pages are accessed. The cookie contains no personal identifiable information, but it does use your computer’s IP address to determine where in the world you are accessing the site from, and to track your page visits within the site.
Security of personal data
All the data we collect from you on our site is protected against unauthorised access. In addition the information you give us is held on a database in an encrypted system. Appropriate security measures are in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site. Unfortunately, the sending of information via the internet is not totally secure and on occasion such information can be intercepted. We cannot guarantee the security of data that you choose to send us electronically, sending such information is entirely at your own risk.
How do we use your information?
We will only use your data in a manner that is appropriate considering the reasons for which that data was collected, as set out in the table above.
For example, we may use your personal information to:
• reply to enquiries you send to us;
• handle transactions that you initiate;
where you have specifically agreed to this, send you marketing communications by email relating to our work which we think may be of interest to you.
We will only pass your data to third parties in the following circumstances:
• you have provided your explicit consent for us to pass data to a named third party;
• we are using a third party purely for the purposes of processing data on our behalf and we have in place a data processing agreement with that third party that fulfils our legal obligations in relation to the use of third party data processors; or
• we are required by law to share your data.
In addition, we will only pass data to third parties outside of the EU where appropriate safeguards are in place as defined by data protection legislation.
We use return email addresses to answer emails we receive. Such addresses are not shared with outside parties, nor are they used by the SSA for newsletter or other large scale emails. They may, on occasion, be used on an individual basis by the SSA to approach people according to their expertise and in relation to SSA activity and where it is in our legitimate interests to do so.
Where there are links on our site to other sites, the content of those linked sites is not covered by this privacy policy. These other sites will have separate privacy and data collection practices. We do not have responsibility or liability for these independent policies.
We may disclose information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, enforce or apply our terms of business, or protect our rights and those of our users.
As part of the registration process for the SSA newsletter and emails sent to members, we collect personal information. We use that information to keep you informed about SSA activities. We do not rent or trade SSA email lists with other organisations and businesses.
We use a third-party provider, MailChimp, to deliver our newsletter. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks to help us monitor and improve our newsletter. For more information, please see MailChimp’s privacy notice.
You can unsubscribe to general mailings at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails or by emailing us.
How long we keep your data
We take the principles of data minimisation and removal seriously and have internal policies in place to ensure that we only ever ask for the minimum amount of data for the associated purpose and delete that data promptly once it is no longer required.
Rights you have over your data
You have a range of rights over your data, which include the following:
Where data processing is based on consent, you may revoke this consent at any time and we will make it as easy as possible for you to do this (for example by putting ‘unsubscribe’ links at the bottom of all our marketing emails).
• You have the right to ask for rectification and/or deletion of your information.
• You have the right of access to your information.
• You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner if you feel your rights have been infringed.
• A full summary of your legal rights over your data can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website here: https://ico.org.uk/
If you would like to access the rights listed above, or any other legal rights you have over your data under current legislation, please get in touch with us.
Please note that relying on some of these rights, such as the right to deleting your data, will make it impossible for us to continue to deliver some services to you. However, where possible we will always try to allow the maximum access to your rights while continuing to deliver as many services to you as possible.
Access to your Information
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to obtain confirmation that the SSA has information about you, access to this information and any other supplementary information that we hold relating to you. We aim to keep member information up-to-date.
Should you wish to access any personal information that the SSA holds about you or to correct any inaccuracies, please contact us in one of the following ways:
• Email our Website Editor, Natalie Davies
• Write to us at: Society for the Study of Addiction, Room 5, Rothersthorpe House, 4 Billing Road, Northampton, NN1 5AN
Requests for such information will be dealt with within one month.
If you would like to make a complaint about how we handle your data, please see our concerns and complaints policy for information on who to contact and what to expect next.
If this does not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office on 03031231113, or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/, or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, UK.
Modifications
We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time and will publish the most current version on our website. If a modification meaningfully reduces your rights, we’ll notify people whose personal data we hold and is affected.
Policy last updated December 2023.
