Privacy Policy

Privacy and Data Protection

Silicon South Dorset Ltd is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This privacy policy sets out the basis on which your personal data will be processed by us as the data controller of your personal data for the purposes of relevant data protection legislation (including the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016). Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how they will be treated by us. We may collect and process the following data about you:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on the site. This includes information provided at the time of registration or at the time of posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a competition or promotion sponsored by Silicon South or when you report a problem with the site.
• Information that other people (usually your employer) provide to us about you and your membership. We will send you an initial communication asking you to verify this information and confirm your consent to us using your information as set out in this Policy. You may grant, amend, withhold or withdraw your consent at any time.
• If you contact us we may keep a record of that correspondence.
• Silicon South may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes although you do not have to respond to them.
• Details of your visits to the site and the resources that you access.
• We may collect information about your computer including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. These are anonymous data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns and do not identify any individual.

For the same reason we may obtain information about your general Internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer – see our Cookies Policy for details.

Please note that our advertisers may also use cookies over which we have no control.

Transfer of Personal Data Outside of the EU: The data that we collect from you may be transferred to and stored at a destination outside the European Economic Area. We will always ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the privacy of your personal data in accordance with the standards set out in relevant data protection legislation.

Risks Involved in Transmitting Personal Data over the Internet: Transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. So, whilst Silicon South will do its best to protect your personal data, we cannot ensure the security of data transmitted by you to the Site. Any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information we will use appropriate security procedures and features to prevent unauthorised access to it. We will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.

Uses made of the information

We may use information held about you in the following ways to provide you with member services and carry out our other reasonable functions in our role as a creative network and member organisation (see https://siliconsouth.org.uk for details)

• in accordance with our legitimate interests
• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract
• to provide you with information, products and services that you request from us with your consent (including where we can rely on “soft opt-in” under relevant data protection legislation e.g. where we are contacting you in respect of the same or similar goods or services as those we have previously supplied to you or discussed with you)
• to ensure that the Site’s content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer
• to respond to the contents of your email or other correspondence to us;
• to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service where you choose to do so
• to notify you about changes to our service
• to comply with our legal obligations;
• We will not disclose your personal information to third parties except:
• in the event that we offer to sell any assets in which case we may disclose your personal data to the potential purchaser of such assets
• if substantially all of Silicon South’s assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by us about our customers will be transferred to such third party
• if we are required to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or in order to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions or any other agreement; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Silicon South, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for protection against credit risk and fraud.

We may also use your data or permit selected third parties to use your data to provide you with information about goods and services which may be of interest to you where you have clearly and specifically notified us that you wish to receive such information from such third parties. You have the right to request us not to disclose any of your personal data or information or to pass information to third parties. We will inform you before collecting your data, if we intend to disclose your information to any third party and you can exercise that right by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also notify us by contacting us at [email protected].

We do not disclose individual information to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate anonymised information about our users. We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target. We would comply with our advertisers’ wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience using the personal data we have collected from you and from others.

We will hold your personal data for as long as:

1. your membership with us remains valid and for 12 months after expiry; and/or
2. any contracts you make with us are live; and/or
3. is necessary to comply with our legitimate business interests; and/or
4. is necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

We will review your data every five years to establish whether we are still entitled to process it. If we decide that we are not entitled to do so, we will send you one further email notifying you of our decision and asking you to positively indicate whether you wish us to continue processing your data.

Unless we receive a positive indication, we will cease processing your data except that we will retain your data in an archived form in order to be able to comply with future legal obligations.

Your rights: You have the following rights in respect of your personal data held by us:

1. to access your personal data
2. to be provided with information about how your personal data is processed (this information is set out in this Policy)
3. to have your personal data corrected where necessary (please contact us promptly should you become aware of any incorrect or out-of-date information)
4. to have your personal data erased in certain circumstances (please refer to the appropriate data protection legislation or consult the ICO for details)
5. to object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
6. to have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business

You have the right to take any complaints about how we process your personal data to the Information Commissioner: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ 0303 123 1113.

For more details, please address any questions, comments and requests regarding our data processing practices to [email protected] or Silicon South, c/o THIS Workspace, The Echo building, 18 Albert road, BH1 1BZ

The site may from time to time contain links to and from partner and/or affiliate websites. If you follow a link to their sites, please note that these sites have their own privacy policy and Silicon South does not accept any responsibility or liability for protection of personal data which you may submit to a third party’s site. You are recommended to check the wording of the relevant privacy policies before you submit any personal data to those sites.

Silicon South reserves the right to change this policy as we may deem necessary from time to time or as may be required by law. Any changes will be immediately posted on the Site and you are deemed to have accepted the terms of the policy on your first use of the Site following the alterations. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our policy.

Accessibility Silicon South aims to provide advertising, marketing, media and PR information that is accessible to all user groups. The following features aim to enhance navigation for screen reader users, keyboard navigation and users of text-only browsers.

Structured, semantic markup This site’s markup (HTML) is semantically correct, usingHTML elements for their given purpose. Well structured HTML has semantic meaning for a wide range of user agents (browsers without style sheets, text browsers, PDAs, search engines etc.)

Images All content images used in this site include descriptive alt attributes. Purely decorative graphics include empty alt attributes.

Font sizes You may change the font size of this document to your preference through your browser:

Style sheets This site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for visual layout. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the use of structured semantic markup ensures that the content of each page is still readable and clearly structured.

Forms All forms follow a logical Tab sequence.

Job Advertisements

1.1 Silicon South Dorset Ltd has rules regarding the content and format of Job Advertisements whose purpose is to ensure that users who search the Site jobs database get results which are presented as clearly and informatively as possible. You agree that Silicon South Dorset Ltd may, at its discretion and without liability to you, remove from the Site any Job Advertisement which is posted in breach of these rules. The rules may change from time to time and you are advised to refer to them regularly.

The rules are:

1. No duplicating of jobs at the expense of other clients’ jobs.
2. No gratuitous use of keywords in job descriptions or job titles. Gratuitous means deliberately inserting words, strings of words, or repeating job titles, with the intention of influencing position in the results listing, or increasing the number of page views.
3. Job Advertisements placed must be for genuine vacancies only, and not for other products or services, either relating to or unrelated to recruitment.
4. URLs or email links (live or text only) are not permitted in the body copy of the job description page. Email links are permitted from the ‘send an email’ link and url linking is permitted from the ‘apply online’ link.

1.2 Job Advertisements which appear to discriminate on grounds of age, sex, race or disability are illegal and may result in proceedings being taken against both the advertiser and the publisher. If Silicon South Dorset Ltd believes that a Job Advertisement may be discriminatory it may at its discretion either amend the advertisement or remove it from the Site without liability to you to make any refund of amounts paid or due to be paid in respect of the posting or otherwise and will inform you accordingly.

1.3 You agree to deal fairly and professionally with individuals who may respond to Job Advertisements that you have posted and Silicon South Dorset Ltd does not guarantee any response to your Advertisements or that responses will be from individuals suitable for the job advertised. It is your responsibility to carry out such checks and procedures as are necessary to ensure that candidates are suitable for the job advertised and have the required qualifications and personal characteristics.

1.4 Job Advertisements that you post may also appear on third party recruitment websites pursuant to agreements from time to time between Silicon South Dorset Ltd and the proprietors of such websites.

Content of All Advertisements

2.1 All Advertisements must comply with the following terms and conditions:

1. You warrant to Silicon South Dorset Ltd that any Advertisement is your own original work and that you own the copyright and any other relevant rights.
2. You warrant that any Advertisement that you submit and the language that you use in it is not obscene, abusive, hateful, offensive, defamatory of any person or otherwise illegal or which will harass, distress or inconvenience any person or which might restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of the Site by any person.
3. You agree not to post any Advertisement which is deliberately intended to upset other users, to breach confidence, to compromise privacy or to process personal data in an unauthorised manner.
4. You agree not to post any Advertisement which may encourage criminal conduct or which may give rise to civil liability, or which is otherwise unlawful.
5. You agree not to place within any Advertisement any links where those links take users to unlawful material or material that contravenes these terms.
6. You agree not to post any Advertisement which contravenes the relevant codes of conduct imposed by the Advertising Standards Authority.
7. You agree not to post, upload or otherwise transmit any Advertisement which:
   1. a. infringes the rights of any person or which is unlawful in any other respect;
   2. b. will compromise the privacy or data protection rights of any person; or
   3. c. may bring Silicon South Dorset Ltd into disrepute.
8. You agree not to use the Service for:
   1. a. the posting, uploading, emailing or other transmission of any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail”, “spam”, “chain letters”, “pyramid schemes”, “affiliate schemes”, or any other so called “business opportunity” or any other form of solicitation or commercial exploitation;
   2. b. for the posting, uploading, emailing or other transmission of any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, restrict, destroy, limit the functionality of or compromise the integrity of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.

1. You acknowledge that any breach of the terms/warranties given above may cause Silicon South Dorset Ltd damage or loss and you agree to indemnify Silicon South Dorset Ltd in full and permanently against any third party liabilities, claims, costs, loss or damage that it incurs as a result of publishing material that you submit to it, including consequential losses.

1. Silicon South Dorset Ltd may publish and make available to the public by any means any Advertisement that you submit, post, upload, email or otherwise transmit to it at their sole discretion and they shall be entitled to make additions or deletions to any such material prior to publication.

1. If your Advertisement links to another website via our external apply online option or otherwise, you are responsible for maintaining the links and for the content of your Advertisement and the linked website. Silicon South Dorset Ltd may remove from the Site any Advertisement which contains content or links to a website which, in Silicon South Dorset Ltd (SSD)’s opinion, is defamatory, illegal or objectionable or will bring Silicon South Dorset Ltd into disrepute. You will indemnify Silicon South Dorset Ltd from and against any claims or liability arising from the content of websites that are linked to from your Advertisement.
2. Silicon South Dorset Ltd reserves the right to remove your Advertisements completely if Silicon South Dorset Ltd believes that you are abusing the Service in any way.

Refunds Policy

If you decide within seven days of paying for membership, that Silicon South membership is not for you and you have not taken advantage of any of our services, including advertising jobs, you can cancel your contract with us and your payment will be returned to you.

If you have paid to attend a workshop or event and cancel up to ten working days before the event is due to take place, your payment will be returned to you. If you cancel within ten working days of the event taking place, we are unfortunately not able to refund your payment.

All refunds will be made via Stripe.

Silicon South Dorset Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Our company number is 8783518. Our registered office address is at; 37 Commercial Road, Poole, Dorset, BH14 0HU