Privacy notice

We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal information. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

This privacy policy relates only to our members or previous members ("you", "your"). If you are not a member or previous member please see our FAQs.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation, which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as 'controller' of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

Key Terms

We / Us / Our CMA Collaborative UK Limited (trading as CMAC), a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales under company registration number 12872782. Our registered office is at 21 New Square, South Horrington Village, Wells, Somerset, United Kingdom, BA5 3JS.

Data Protection Officer Amy Watkins

Personal Information Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.

Special Category Personal Information Personal information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership. Also genetic and biometric data, and data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Personal Information We Collect About You

We may collect and use the following personal information about you:

  • Your name and contact information, including email address and telephone number and Statutory Body registration details, and where relevant, details of your practice and/or employer.
  • Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, such as your date of birth and professional registration number.
  • Your billing information, transaction and payment card information via our secure third-party payment gateway.
  • Information from accounts you link to us.
  • Information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems.
  • Information about how you use your membership.
  • Your responses to surveys, competitions and promotions.

This personal information is required to provide services to you. If you do not provide personal information we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

How Your Personal Information Is Collected

We collect most of this personal information directly from you — in person, by telephone, text or email and/or via our website. However, we may also collect information from:

  • Publicly accessible sources, such as the General Medical Council or Nursing and Midwifery Council.
  • Cookies on our website. For more information, please see our cookie policy.
  • Via our website.

How and Why We Use Your Personal Information

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so. These reasons are:

  • To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
  • For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
  • For our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
  • Where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

The following sets out what we use your personal information for and our reasons for doing so.

Providing our services to you Legal basis: Performance of our contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

Preventing and detecting fraud against you Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to minimise fraud that could be damaging to us and to you.

Complying with professional, legal and regulatory obligations (e.g. health and safety regulations or rules issued by our professional regulator) Legal basis: Legal and regulatory obligations.

Gathering and providing information required by audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies Legal basis: Legal and regulatory obligations.

Ensuring business policies are adhered to (e.g. policies covering security and internet use) Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you.

Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price.

Ensuring the confidentiality of sensitive information Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information; and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Statistical analysis to help us manage our business (e.g. in relation to our performance, membership base or other efficiency measures) Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price.

Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging to us and to you; and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Updating and enhancing membership records Legal basis: Performance of our contract with you; legal and regulatory obligations; and legitimate interests — making sure that we can keep in touch with our members about existing services and new products.

Statutory returns Legal basis: Legal and regulatory obligations.

Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments Legal basis: Legal and regulatory obligations; and legitimate interests — to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you.

Marketing our services and where relevant those of selected third parties to existing and former members, third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services, and third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings. Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to promote our business to existing and former members.

External audits and quality checks (e.g. for ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts) Legal basis: Legitimate interests — to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards; and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

The above does not apply to special category personal information, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

Promotional Communications

We may use your personal information to send you updates by email, text message, telephone or post about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information for promotional purposes. This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal information with the utmost respect and never sell it to other organisations for marketing purposes.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

  • Contacting us at office@cmac.world
  • Using the 'unsubscribe' link in emails or 'STOP' number in texts
  • Updating your marketing preferences on your CMAC Account

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Who We Share Your Personal Information With

We routinely share personal information with:

  • Third parties we use to help deliver our services to you, such as payment service providers.
  • Other third parties we use to help us run our business, such as marketing agencies or website hosts.
  • Third parties approved by you, such as social media sites you choose to link your account to.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect it. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you. We may also share personal information with external auditors and where relevant for the audit of our accounts.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a restructuring. Usually information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

Where Your Personal Information Is Held

Information may be held on secure servers compliant with data protection regulations at our offices and those of our third-party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above.

Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal information when this occurs, see the section below on transferring your personal information out of the UK and EEA.

How Long Your Personal Information Will Be Kept

We will keep your personal information while you have an account with us or we are providing services to you. Thereafter, we will keep it for as long as is necessary to:

  • Enable you to continue to access your account to renew membership or download certificates.
  • Respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf.
  • Show that we treated you fairly.
  • Keep records required by law.

We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal information. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal information, we will delete or anonymise it.

You may contact office@cmac.world at any time you wish to cancel your account and have your data deleted.

Transferring Your Personal Information Out of the UK and EEA

To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal information outside the UK and/or European Economic Area — for example with service providers located outside the UK/EEA, if you are based outside the UK/EEA, or where there is an international dimension to the services we are providing to you.

These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law. We can only transfer your personal information to a country or international organisation outside the UK/EEA where:

  • The European Commission has issued an adequacy decision in relation to that country or organisation.
  • There are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects.
  • A specific exception applies under data protection law.

European Commission adequacy decision

The European Commission has the power to determine whether a country or international organisation provides an adequate level of protection for personal information. Where such a decision has been issued, personal information can flow from the UK/EEA to that country without any further safeguards being necessary. Only a small number of countries currently benefit from an adequacy decision.

Transfers with appropriate safeguards

We may transfer your data to a third country or international organisation where we are satisfied the transfer complies with data protection law, appropriate safeguards are in place, and enforceable rights and effective legal remedies are available. The safeguards will usually include standard data protection contract clauses approved by the European Commission.

Transfers under an exception

In the absence of an adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards, we may transfer personal information where an exception applies under relevant data protection law, for example:

  • You have explicitly consented after being informed of the possible risks.
  • The transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between us or to take pre-contract measures at your request.
  • The transfer is necessary for a contract in your interests between us and another person.
  • The transfer is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We may also transfer information for the purpose of our compelling legitimate interests, so long as those interests are not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms.

If you would like further information about data transferred outside the UK or EEA, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Your Rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge.

Access — the right to be provided with a copy of your personal information.

Rectification — the right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information.

To be forgotten — the right to require us to delete your personal information in certain situations.

Restriction of processing — the right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, for example if you contest the accuracy of the data.

Data portability — the right to receive the personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and/or to have that data transmitted to a third party in certain situations.

Right to object — the right to object at any time to your personal information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling), and in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information, for example processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.

Right not to be subject to automated decision-making — the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

For further information on each of these rights, please contact us or see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals' rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer and:

  • Provide enough information to identify you (e.g. your full name, address and membership reference number).
  • Provide proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill).
  • Let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

Keeping Your Personal Information Secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

How to Complain

We hope that our Data Protection Officer can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union or European Economic Area state where you work, normally live, or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner, who may be contacted at ico.org.uk/concerns or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This privacy notice was published on 14 December 2020. We may change this privacy notice from time to time. When we do, we will inform you via our website.

How to Contact Us

Please contact us and/or our Data Protection Officer by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.

Address: 21 New Square, South Horrington Village, Wells, Somerset, United Kingdom, BA5 3JS Email: office@cmac.world

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