Cogora Privacy Policy
Who are we?
This Customer Privacy Policy governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal information relating to potential and existing customers of Cogora Group Ltd, hereinafter referred to as ‘Cogora’, by the company and its affiliates within the Cogora group of companies, unless a separate and specific affiliate privacy policy applies.
Cogora is committed to abiding by this Customer Privacy Policy, as well as the requirements of applicable laws, in the operation of its business.
Please read this policy carefully as it explains the kinds of personal information we collect about you and how it is handled.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998, the data controller is Cogora Group Ltd, 140 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5DN, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)20 7214 0500.
What personal information do we collect?
Should you choose to visit our websites or interact with our services there are a number of ways you may provide us with your personal information, such as
- by completing a registration form on one of our websites
- by corresponding with us via email
- by registering for an event or
- by interacting with our other bespoke services
We collect basic information about you when you register with us, which may include personal details such as your full name, GMC number or other professional registration numbers, email address and payment processing information, as well as other non-sensitive personal information.
We also collect information when you voluntarily complete surveys, provide feedback for one of our products or services, participate in competitions or interact with one of our websites (please see ‘Website usage and cookies’ for more information).
How will we use information about you?
Personal data submitted on this website will be used for the purposes specified in this privacy policy or in relevant parts of the website.
We may use your personal information to:
- administer the website;
- enable your use of the account settings section available on our websites
- supply you with products and services requested or purchased via our websites, and to process your payments
- send you email notifications when action needs to be taken by you to maintain an uninterrupted service
- provide you with newsletters and other marketing communications relating to our business which we think may be of interest to you by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (please see ‘marketing’ for more information)
- deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the website or our services
- monitor usage of our websites (please see ‘website usage and cookies’ for more information)
- validate our users (please see ‘professional validation’ for more details)
We may also process your personal information where we are required to do so by law, and for the exercise or defence of legal claims.
From time to time, we may contact you for market research purposes, or to tell you about our special offers and other services in accordance with your contact preferences (see ‘market research and sponsored content’ for more information).
Cogora’s legal basis for processing personal data include:
- Consent of the data subject
- Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
- Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject or to take steps to enter into a contract
By your continued use of our services (including our web sites), you consent to the collection and use of your personal information for the purposes set out in this Customer Privacy Policy.
Professional validation
Certain content and restricted areas of our websites are only available to healthcare practitioners. This is to protect non-healthcare practitioners from accessing inappropriate content and to safeguard the quality of debate on our sites.
In order to ensure only registered healthcare practitioners can access these areas we require some users registering with our websites to provide a valid registration number, which is automatically cross referenced with the relevant database, such as the GMC’s List of Registered Medical Practitioners. These include, but are not limited to, GMC and NMC numbers.
Appraisal date
This information will never be share with anyone else. Users registering with our websites may be asked to provide the approximate date of their next appraisal. This information may be used to tailor the content made available to you over our websites and any marketing communications which you have consented to receive to ensure these best meet your needs.
With your consent, Cogora may from time to time send you updates about this product/service and other relevant Cogora products and services. If you do not wish to be contacted by email for direct marketing purposes, please email subscriptions@cogora.com with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject box.
Furthermore, with your consent Cogora may email you with details of other third party products, events and services that may be of interest to you. This third-party information may include promotional material from pharmaceutical and/or medical device companies. Your email will not be shared with third parties unless it is appropriate and you have given us your consent to do so.
Telephone
If you provide Cogora with a contact telephone number, we may from time to time contact you about this product and other relevant Cogora and third party products and services. This third-party information may include promotional material from pharmaceutical and/or medical device companies. Your telephone number will not be shared with third parties unless it is appropriate and you have given us your consent to do so.
If you do not wish to be contacted by phone for direct marketing purposes, please email subscriptions@cogora.com with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject box.
Cogora is aware of its obligation to not contact for direct marketing purposes any phone numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service, unless we have your explicit consent to do so.
Other marketing
You may at any time ask us to refrain from sending you marketing messages by sending us an email at subscriptions@cogora.com with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject box. If we contact you by email, each time you receive a message you will also have the option to decline to receive further information of that type from us by choosing to unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.
Making automated decisions
Cogora may use automated processing in order to provide you with a bespoke service, tailored to your individual interests, on your repeat visits to our websites.
Cogora will use a combination of web usage data, service and product uptake, email interactions, therapy interests (as indicated by the user at registration) as well as other non-sensitive personal information to analyse and/or predict (using mathematical and/or statistical procedures) user preferences and behaviour.
Results of this analysis may include:
- editorial content which is of greater interest to registered users
- tailored communications which coincide with each user’s interests and needs
- targeted events which are closer and of greater interest to registered users
- learning material which is of greater interest to registered users
Cogora may also be required to make automated decisions to fulfil compelling obligations imposed by law, in which case we will inform you of any such processing and provide you with an opportunity to object.
To object to automated processing of your data, request human intervention, express your point of view or obtain an explanation of the decision and challenge it, please email info@cogora.com.
Market research and sponsored content
Cogora may from time to time contact you for market research purposes.Cogora is committed to conducting market research compliant with British Healthcare Business Intelligence Association (BHBIA) and Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) guidelines. As a full member of the BHBIA Cogora must abide by BHBIA Legal and Ethical Guidelines for Healthcare Market Research and ABPI/BHBIA adverse event reporting guidance.
Market research and sponsored content will always be clearly indicated. Market research may be presented to you in several ways, including online polls, online advertisements and email communications. We will always ask for your consent before including you in market research of any kind.
If you do not wish to be contacted by email for market research purposes, please email insight@cogora.com or unsubscribe from market research content by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
Website usage and cookies
Web activity
If you are using our web sites, we will use your personal information to help you to log on to your account and into restricted areas of our web sites, to permit future use of our web sites and to provide you with more tailored information when you return to our web sites.
We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, or to administer our web sites. We may conduct analyses of user traffic to measure the use of our sites and to improve the content of our web sites and our services. These analyses will be performed through the use of IP addresses and cookies.
When someone visits one of our websites we will use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. Google Analytics mainly uses first-party cookies to report on website interactions. These cookies are used to store non-personally identifiable information; it is not possible for Google to identify individual visitors to our websites.
We may use additional software to collect website usage information for each of our registered users. This information will be used to personalise your repeat visits to our website and to help us get to know our users in order to provide a more relevant and improved service.
Third party cookies
Most of the advertisements that you see on our web sites are generated by third parties who may use cookies to track viewing of their advertisements and for other purposes specified in their own privacy policies. We have no access to or control over these cookies (although we may use statistical, non-identifiable information provided to us to improve the targeting of these advertisements).
We may also use the Google Analytics Advertising Features Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing Ads to promote our products and services, as well as sponsored content, online. Google ADwords uses first-party Google Advertising Cookies to record online transactions and Bing Ads similarly uses cookies. To prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics click here and download The Google Analytics opt-out add-on.
You can obtain further information about third party privacy policies or disable their cookies by visiting their web sites.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser. Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but usually you can alter the settings of your browser to prevent automatic acceptance. If you reject the use of cookies, please note that the efficient operation of the web site that you are using may be affected.
For more information about cookies, please visit AboutCookies.org or AllAboutCookies.org
Clear GIFs
From time to time we may employ a software technology called “clear gifs” (also known as Web Beacons/Web Bugs). Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of site users. Clear gifs are not tied to users’ personally identifiable information.
In addition, we use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
Will your data be shared with third parties?
We will only disclose personal information about you internally and to third parties for processing purposes associated with payment processing, the supply of goods and services, for web site administration, or elsewhere when you have consented to such disclosures, or where such disclosures are required or permitted by law. These third parties are contractually bound only to use personal information to perform the services that we hire them to provide.
Events
Should you choose to attend an event, you may encounter exhibitions or stands which are sponsored and/or provided by third parties. Should you choose to interact with a third party the information you provided to us may be shared with one or more third parties.
Generally, your information will not be shared unless you, as the user, consent to having your badge scanned by the exhibitor or third party representative. We will let you know at the time of registration if an event is sponsored and when your details will be shared.
Transfer of data
Third party data processors, advertisers, exhibitors and other such business relationships outside of the EEA, are required to take adequate technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information. We also take measures to ensure that personal information transferred by us outside of the EEA is adequately protected.
How do we keep your data safe?
We use administrative, technical, and physical measures to safeguard personal information against loss, theft and unauthorised uses, access or modifications. Certain areas of our web sites may be password protected. If you are a user of our web sites and have a password, you can help to preserve your privacy by ensuring that you do not share your password with anyone else.
Payments made via our web sites are processed in a secure environment using software provided by third party providers.
We take steps to regularly validate the personal information we hold to ensure that the information is accurate and, where necessary, up to date. Information that is no longer required for any valid business purpose, and that we are not required to keep pursuant to any applicable law, will be routinely destroyed by secure means.
How can I access my personal information?
You may renew and update personal information that we hold about you at any time by contacting us directly by email (contact info@cogora.com) or by post (see ‘How can you contact Cogora?’ for more information). If you are registered with one of our websites it may be possible to update your information by accessing your online account settings.
How can I contact Cogora?
If you have any questions about this privacy policy you can write to the Data Controller, Cogora Limited, 140 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5DN, United Kingdom or call +44 (0)20 7214 0500.
Changes to privacy policy
We reserve the right to add to or amend this privacy policy at our sole discretion, without prior notice to you. Please review our privacy policy on a regular basis to make sure you have read the latest version and you understand what we do with your personal information. Your continued use of our services or our web sites following the posting of changes to these terms means that you consent to those changes.
This version of the privacy policy is effective as of the 28th November 2016.
