Privacy Policy

We, West Midlands Growth Company, respect and wish to protect your privacy. This Privacy Policy lets you know:

• when we collect information from you when you use the Website;
• who exactly collects that information;
• how that information is used and by whom;
• what security measures are in place to protect this information;
• your rights in relation to this information;
• how this policy may change and how we will notify you of any changes; and
• how to contact us if you have any queries about this policy.

If you have any comments on our privacy policy as set out in this document, please email us at: dataprotection@wmgrowth.com.

WHEN AND HOW DO WE COLLECT DATA FROM YOU?

We collect data from you by you providing it to us:

i). when you order brochures or other materials from the Website;

ii). when you register on the Website that you are happy for us to send information to you in the future;

iii). when you register your details on the Website;

iv). when you correspond with us by letter, fax, telephone or e-mail;

v). when you enter competitions or polls;

vi). when you use our Interactive Services

Please note that if you communicate with us electronically, including by e-mail, telephone or fax, this communication may be monitored and/or recorded to protect the interests of our business and our stakeholders and for quality control purposes.

We also collect data from you:

vii). via data capture devices using cookies and studying which pages you have visited most frequently

WHAT DATA IS COLLECTED?

The data we collect may be personal data and may include your name, e-mail address, telephone number and country of residence, (Personal Information).

GOOGLE

Google’s advertising requirements can be summed up by Google’s Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users. https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/1316548?hl=en

We have implemented the following:

We, along with third-party vendors such as Google use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.

OPTING OUT:

Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on.

COOKIES AND SYSTEM LOGGING

You can find out what a cookie is and how to manage cookies from https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/.

The pages on that website are produced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

Although we use cookies on the Website we do not rely on their use. You can turn off our cookies on your computer and this will not affect your use of the Website – see the ICO’s website to find out how to do that. We do not use details relating to a particular computer's Internet Protocol address in order to administer the Website or to otherwise track the movement of users through the Website.

We do, however, record certain information regarding use of the Website on our own internal systems. This information is, however, used solely to enable us to administer the Website, to rectify errors and to hold details of a user who has added to or amended information in a particular archive. By disclosing Personal Information to us you consent to the collection, storage and processing of information in the manner described in this Policy.

WHO COLLECTS THE INFORMATION?

The information is collected by us, West Midlands Growth Company Ltd registered in England and Wales, Company number 01631329. Registered office, 16 Summer Lane, Birmingham, B19 3SD. Correspondence address, The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus, Queensway, Birmingham, England, B4 6AT.

HOW IS THE INFORMATION USED AND BY WHOM?

Our intention is to collect and use Personal Information as is reasonably necessary in order to enable you to make the most of the activities available on our Website including to provide you with the services, to contact you in the event of an emergency and to contact you if we experience problems in processing a payment, and for the purposes of maintaining customer/service quality standards, detection of and/or prevention of crime and to ensure that our employees comply with legal obligations and our policies and procedures (including our customer relations practices).

From time to time, if you have provided us with your e-mail address and at that time you did not refuse to receive information from us, we may also send a newsletter, information about events, competitions and other services to your e-mail address. This would include information on new features and services in relation to the Website.

We may disclose your Personal Information to others only in the following circumstances and/or purposes:

• to provide you with the services that you have requested (including the request of brochures, newsletters or other materials)
• where we are required to do so by the courts or to comply with other legal, statutory and/or regulatory obligations including accounting and taxation requirements;
• to help prevent and/or detect crime, apprehend or prosecute offenders, or assess or collect any tax or duty or similar; in reliance on any other exemption that applies to us under data protection law, such as for research purposes;
• to help with the administration of justice or the exercise of certain public offices or functions;
• in reliance on any other legal ground that applies to us under data protection law, for us to perform an order contract to which you are party or take steps at your request with a view to such a contract, to protect your vital interests, to pursue our legitimate interests (such as selling our business or any part of it or to protect our property rights), for fraud prevention, or in connection with legal proceedings, legal advice or any legal rights;
• where we believe that you may be interested in the specialist supplies, products and services offered by carefully selected third parties.

If you would like further details of who we share your Personal Information with and for what purposes, please contact us by e-mail at dataprotection@wmgrowth.com or by writing to West Midlands Growth Company, The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus, Queensway, Birmingham, England, B4 6AT.

HOW LONG IS THE INFORMATION KEPT?

We keep your Personal Information until you tell us to destroy it. If you decide that you no longer wish to receive newsletters, promotional and marketing emails, please send an email to dataprotection@wmgrowth.com stating this fact.

WHAT SECURITY MEASURES DO WE HAVE IN PLACE TO PROTECT THIS INFORMATION?

As required by the Data Protection Act 1998, we follow strict security physical and logical/technical procedures in the storage and disclosure of information that you have given to us, in order to prevent, as far as possible, any unauthorised access. However, no data transmission over the internet, and no data stored on equipment that is connected to the internet (such as our Website servers) can be entirely secure, so we are unable to provide any guarantee that information stored by us will not be subject to unauthorised access. The use of our Website is at your own risk.

YOUR RIGHTS IN RELATION TO THIS INFORMATION

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at dataprotection@wmgrowth.com. You have the right to ask us to provide you with details of the Personal Information which we are processing about you. To protect our customers' Personal Information, we follow strict storage and disclosure procedures, which means that we will require proof of identity from you prior to disclosing such information. We may charge a small administration fee of £10 in relation to any requests for access to personal information. Please direct any such request to our Business Support Team by post to West Midlands Growth Company, The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus, Queensway, Birmingham, England, B4 6AT.

LINKING

Our Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

You may not make links from any other website to our Website (or any other information held on our computers which are linked to the internet) without our written permission.

ACCURACY OF INFORMATION

Please help us to keep your Personal Information current and accurate by using the facilities available on the Website to check if your Personal Information is or becomes inaccurate and/or out-of-date and amend your Personal Information.

Alternatively, you may decide that you would like to begin to receive newsletters, promotional and marketing emails.

Please note, however, that we cannot backdate any changes that you make. This means that you could continue to receive information from a particular third party where we have already provided your details to that third party. You will therefore have to contact each such third party if you no longer wish to receive newsletters, promotional and marketing emails directly from them.

POLICY CHANGE

As e-commerce horizons are changing at an ever increasing rate, we request that you refer to the Website on a regular basis to ensure that you are aware of our most recent policies (including this Privacy Policy) and Terms of Use of the Website. The policy that applies to you, however, will be the policy in force at the time that you give us your Personal Information.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions about this document or our procedures, please contact us at dataprotection@wmgrowth.com, or by post to West Midlands Growth Company, The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus, Queensway, Birmingham, England, B4 6AT.

Privacy Policy & GDPR / Indian Personal Data Protection Bill

This Privacy Policy sets out how West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) uses and protects any information you give us when registering for a programme, event or webinar hosted by WMGC, our partners or our webinar platform.

We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. When providing certain information by which you can be identified when registering for a programme, event or webinar, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this Privacy Statement. From time to time, we may change this policy by updating this page. You should regularly check this page to ensure you are happy with any changes.
All personal data processed and stored is done so in accordance with the European GDPR and India Personal Data Protection Bill.

Your information may be shared with West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) partners (Department for International Trade (DIT), VisitBritain, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), based on your interests in the West Midlands, UK, and its sector opportunities.

Information we may collect about you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

• When registering, we will keep a record of the submitted data.
• We may also ask you to complete surveys we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
• The nature of your interest in WMGC and the West Midlands as a region so that we can send you details that may interest you.

With regard to the attendance of our event or webinar(s), we may automatically collect the following information;

• Information about the way you use our digital platform(s). We only collect this information in an anonymous form, which means that it cannot be used to identify you.
• Information about your computer, including where your IP address, operating system, and browser type are available, for system administration and to report aggregate information to those involved in our organisation. This information is collected in an aggregated, statistical form and cannot be used to identify you.