At Manchester Digital, we’re passionate about ensuring your privacy rights are protected.
That’s why we’ve put together this privacy policy, as a way of explaining just what we do with the personal data we receive as a result of you using our site.
Please be aware that on occasion we may decide to update our privacy policy, we recommend checking this from time to time.
If you have any queries regarding this policy, and our practises, please send them to either info@aotai-tech.com, call us on 0161 238 8642 or by writing to us at:
Manchester Digital, Tech Incubator, Manchester Technology Centre, Oxford Road, M1 7ED.
Who are we?
Manchester Digital is a non-for-profit organisation that exists to support the development of its member's businesses by providing a range of specialist support services and products. It also works hard to develop the industry as a whole tackling strategic issues such as talent development, infrastructure and finance. It supports a wide range of digital businesses, from start ups through to global ecommerce companies.
Why do we collect your data?
In order for us to understand the needs of our members and website users, we need to know certain details about them in order for us to offer the services our members require as well as relevant communications.
By having this information, we are able to send information we think may be of interest to you by post, email, or other means and send you marketing communications relating to our business.
We may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, we do not transfer your Personal Information to the third party.
We will never sell your personal information to any third party.
What information do we collect from you?
We collect browsing information on your IP address, what pages are accessed and when. This is done via cookies.
We collect personal information such as your name and email address when you sign up to our newsletter, or to one of our events.
We collect personal information such as your name, email address, postal address and phone number when you become a member of Manchester Digital.
We do not store payment information. If you pay your membership subscription using Direct Debit, credit or debit card, the details of your card or account are not stored on our systems but are transmitted directly to our third party payment processors: GoCardless, Stripe or PayPal, each of whom specialise in the secure online capture and processing of payment transactions.
How is your information used?
We use your information to:
Process a subscription to become a member of Manchester Digital
Notify you of changes to our services
Promote our services to you and share promotional and informative content, including news and updates about Manchester Digital members
Provide other companies with statistical information about our users – but this information will not be used to identify any individual user
Send information to you regarding changes to our Customer Terms of Service, Privacy Policy (including the Cookie Policy), or other legal agreements
Send you email newsletters, and invitations to events and sponsorship
Monitor how you use the website, and how you got to the website
Understand the views of members and supporters who take part in surveys
Create targeted social media ad audiences based on our website user’s demographics
We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.
When signing up to an event, you are consenting to receive information from Manchester Digital regarding the logistics of this event and a follow-up email post-event, we may also need to share any dietary or access requirements you have provided with a 3rd-party such as the event caterer or venue. After we have sent your follow up event email we will only hold your data for 1-month during this time we will not share your information or contact you. Keeping your data for a month will only be to explicitly recap on the success of our campaign. After the one month period, the information you have provided will be deleted. If you wish to be contacted regarding other events and services that Manchester Digital produce then you will need to specifically opt into our mailing list here.
Who has access to your information?
We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.
We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf
We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process subscriptions and send you mailings). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.
When working with third party service providers, Manchester Digital acts as the data controller, determining the purposes and means of processing personal data relating to our services. As the controller, we are responsible for ensuring our data processing activities comply with applicable laws.
Manchester Digital uses the following Third Party Service Providers:
Google Analytics
Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc.. Google Analytics uses cookies, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how visitors use the site.
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 to be looked at by Manchester Digital, and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
Iomart
Our website is hosted by Iomart, a cloud-based hosting company. This means that personal details of supporters and members including name, email address and membership status are stored on UK-based Iomart servers.
For more information, please refer to their privacy policy which can be found here http://www.iomart.com/privacy-policy/.
Mailchimp
We use Mailchimp to send email newsletters to our supporters and members. This means that personal details of supporters and members including name, email address and membership status are stored on Mailchimp’s servers in the USA.
Mailchimp is a US company that specialises in the transmission of email to large mailing lists. Mailchimp has comprehensive systems to ensure that subscriber details are kept secure. We also use Mandrill to send renewal emails out to our members which is owned by Mailchimp.
As per Mailchimp's Data Processing Addendum (DPA), we transfer European personal data to Mailchimp in the United States and permit Mailchimp to lawfully process that data on our behalf.
Mailchimp has certified its compliance to both the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-US Privacy Shield Framework since 2016.
For more information, please refer to their privacy policy which can be found here http://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.
International Data Processes
On occasion, we transfer certain personal data across borders to service providers located outside of the UK, typically the United States (as in the case of Mailchimp above). Whenever we transfer personal data outside of the UK, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the data as required by UK law.
For transfers to service providers based in the United States, we rely on EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield certifications where the provider has self-certified compliance with the Privacy Shield principles regarding the collection, use and retention of personal data.
Your choices
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. We give subscribers and supporters the option to opt in to receiving email newsletters from us about our campaigns and general activities.
We will not otherwise contact you for marketing purposes by phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent.
You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: info@aotai-tech.com or telephone on 0161 238 8642.
You can also opt out of receiving email newsletters at any time using the ‘unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of every email sent.
How you can access and update your information
The accuracy of your information is important to us.
If you are a Manchester Digital member you can update your information by logging into the website and editing your profile.
If you are not a member but wish to update your email address please follow the link at the bottom of every email from us.
Alternatively, please email info@aotai-tech.com, call us on 0161 238 8642 or by writing to us:
Tech Incubator, Manchester Technology Centre, Oxford Road, M1 7ED.
Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information
When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. Any sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) is encrypted. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on your web browser.
Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Use of 'cookies'
Like many other websites, the Manchester Digital website uses cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by the web server to your computer and stored to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They enable the website to collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to remember the whether you have logged in.
We seek your consent to use cookies when you first access our website, however please note that if you decline, you may not be able to use the full functionality of our website.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.
In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.
16 or Under
We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.
Your rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) you have a number of rights with regard to your personal data. You have the right to:
Be informed about the collection and use of your personal data
Access to your personal data
Rectification of your personal data
Have the personal data we hold on you erased
Restrict the processing of your personal data
Object to the processing of your personal data
Have your personal data transferred to another controller/processor
Identity and contact details of controller and data protection contact
Manchester Digital is the controller and processor of data for the purposes of the DPA 18 and GDPR.
If you have any concerns as to how your data is processed you can contact: Thom Docking (Data Protection Contact) at thom@aotai-tech.com or you can write to this individual using the address of:
Manchester Digital, Tech Incubator, Manchester Technology Centre, Oxford Road, M1 7ED.
If you are unhappy with how we are using your information and are unable to resolve the issue with us, you can raise the matter with the Information Commissioner’s Office by calling 0303 123 1113 or visiting ico.org.uk/concerns.
Review of this Policy
We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated in April 2024.