The UK Government revised the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which came into force in the UK on 26 May 2012, to address new EU requirements. Our Privacy and Cookies policies reflects these changes.
The following statement explains the Healthcare Communications Association’s (HCA) policy regarding use of personal information that is collected about you when you visit hca-uk.org
From time to time, you may be asked to submit personal information about yourself (e.g. name and email address) in order to login, register or use services on our website.
By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable HCA and its authorised third party providers to supply you with the services you select. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. When using your personal information HCA will act in accordance with current legislation and aim to meet current Internet best practice.
Use and storage of your personal information
Any information you provide to us will only be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Email
Where you contact us by email, your data is transmitted via a publicly accessible network. Should you use personal information online you need to be aware that this is done at your own risk. We accept no liability for any damages to you or others as a result of the loss of confidentiality of any such information.
Use of Cookies
A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier that is sent to your browser from a website computer and stored on your computers hard drive. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browsers preferences allow it but, depending on how your browser is set up to protect your privacy, it may only permit a web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.
There are two main types of cookies:
- Session cookies - these only exist for the duration of your site visit and are deleted on exit. These cookies help to maintain security when you access your online account.
- Persistent (or permanent) cookies - these stay on your machine until they expire or are deleted. These cookies often store information meaning that you don't need to remember membership details. We do not store your login user name and password as cookies.
Cookies can also be:
- First party cookies - these are owned and created by this website
- Third pary cookies - these are owned and created by an independent company, usually a company providing a service to the website owners, such as Google.
We may use both types of cookies.
Your consent to use of cookies
We are required to tell you about cookies and to give you the choice as to which of your online activites are monitored in this way.
The cookies we use do not in themselves identify the individual, they only record which areas of the website have been visited by the computer and for how long. They are read only by the server that placed them and are unable to execute any code or virus.
What we use cookies for
We use cookies to:
- ensure your privacy in our secure sites such as the login areas
- enable you to view and use these areas to protect your financial and personal information
- temporarily store input information
- monitor and manage website traffic
- identify you when you visit the website, to personalise the content of the website for you and to enable you to both carry out transactions and have access to information about your membership or registration
- analyse how our site is used through recording site traffic data via Google Analytics (please see below)
- save your preferences, such as text size
We use both our own (first party) and partner company's (third party) cookies to support these activities. We don't use cookies to track peoples Internet usage after leaving our sites and we don't store personal information in them others could read and understand. We will not sell or distribute cookie information without your prior consent.
Block or disable cookies
If you don't want us to capture information about your use of our website, most internet browsers allow you to disable cookies, block all cookies or receive a warning before a cookie is stored.
You may prevent the use of cookies by changing the setting on your browser but please note that this may hinder some of the website functionality, such as secure areas of this website.
If you choose to delete cookies from your computer, follow the information provided by your browser which is usually located within the 'Help', 'Tools' or 'Edit' facility. Alternatively, an external resource is available at www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies providing specific information about cookies and how to manage them to suit your preferences.
Google Analytics
In addition, we may use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"), to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, to help the website analyse how users use the site. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google's privacy policy is available at: www.google.com/privacypolicy.html
The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of:
- evaluating your use of the website
- compiling reports on website activity for website operators
- providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage
Please view the Google Privacy statement (please see the link above) for more information. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.