Licence, privacy and security

This statement applies to:

British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU), registered charity 249877 (England and Wales) and SC044850 (Scotland)

Licence and your use of this website, our online services and our e-newsletters
The BOU grants you a non-exclusive licence to use this website, our other online services and e-newsletters as outlined in this document. The BOU may terminate this licence at any time.

Our website, other online content and e-newsletters contain material which is owned by or licensed to the BOU. This material includes, but is not limited to, the structure and content of surveys, data and research results, trademarks, graphics and the design, layout, look, and appearance of the website. It is protected by intellectual property laws including, but not limited to, copyright and trade mark law, and cannot be copied or reproduced without prior permission from the BOU.

You may view, use, download and store the material from this website, our other online services and our e-newsletters for personal, research and non-commercial educational use only. Commercial use is not permitted. If you are a teacher, educator or student, you may make a reasonable number of copies of materials on the website for use in your classroom (unless those particular materials are marked as “no copying permitted”), provided that you acknowledge the BOU as the source and copyright owner of the materials. Except for such limited classroom use, the re-distribution, re-publication, or otherwise making available of the material on this website to third parties without the prior written consent of the BOU is prohibited. If you would like to request permission to reproduce any materials on this website, please contact the BOU Webmaster: webmaster@bou.org.uk.

Unauthorised use of any material may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence.

Information on this website, our other online content and our e-newsletters is given in good faith and for general information and interest only. It is subject to change without notice. The BOU is not responsible for any inaccuracies and makes no representation and gives no warranty as to its accuracy.

The information should not be relied on and does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation. By using any of our services you confirm that you have not relied on any such information. Any arrangements made between you and any third party named or referred to on the website are entirely at your sole risk and responsibility.

Apart from the sections relating to membership of the BOU or in the provision of any goods or services for which you are making payment (e.g. booking for a conference) nothing on this website is intended to be nor should be construed as an offer to enter into a contractual relationship.

Your privacy and security
We are committed to protecting your privacy and security. Whenever you provide personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy, current UK Data Protection legislation and Internet best practice.

You can use most of the features of this site without disclosing any personal information. A few optional features of this site, such as membership enrolment forms and sign-up for e-newsletters, ask you to provide some personal information (eg. name and address, e-mail address).

We will analyse information provided by you in order to determine which communications are most effective. If we wish to use your personal information for an additional purpose, we will always ask you to agree at the point of collection.

Your data
The BOU is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and our nominated Data Controller is Leila Walker.

We collect data from the following groups:

  • Members – supplying contact information as part of their membership on joining the BOU
  • Non-members – supplying contact information when subscribing to our e-newsletters or other services via our website
  • Authors – supplying data on submission of a manuscript to IBIS (via Clarivate Analytics ScholarOne Manuscripts service on behalf of our publisher, John Wiley & Sons (Wiley) (under the imprint Wiley Blackwell), and ourselves)

If you have already supplied us with personal information, you can change your instructions on how we use your data to contact you (i.e. choose to be contacted by email, telephone or post) at any time by contacting us via this website, by email bou@bou.org.uk or by writing to us at BOU, PO Box 79, Pembroke, SA72 9AX, UK.

Uses of personal data
The BOU will use your details for:

  • Administering your membership
  • Administering your journal
  • Communications about our work
  • Fundraising
  • Marketing
  • Fulfilment of orders for goods and services ordered
  • Administration of donations and legacies
  • In-house research and analysis

Disclosure of data
Where other companies are used to capture data or undertake fulfilment services on our behalf, these activities are carried out under contract in compliance with data protection requirements.

Consent
By providing data you consent to it being processing as described in this Privacy Policy. The first time you are asked to submit your personal details you will see the following notice:

We respect your privacy and will not sell or share your personal data to any third party.

The BOU will use your details to run your membership; to run our journal; to tell you about our work; to conduct analysis and to contact you for research purposes.

For further information on the full range of our activities and your privacy choices, contact us via this website, by email bou@bou.org.uk or by writing to us at BOU, PO Box 79, Pembroke, SA72 9AX, UK.

Under 18s
If you are aged under 18 years of age, then please ensure you obtain your parent or guardian’s consent before sending any personal information to this website. Please note that the BOU will not accept online donations or orders for goods or services from persons aged under 18 years.

Parents and guardians
We encourage you to be aware of the activities in which your children are participating in both offline and online, particularly with regard to third party websites. If your children voluntarily disclose information, this may encourage unsolicited messages. We suggest that you discourage your child from providing any information without your consent.

Access to your own information
You can contact us anytime by letter or telephone to change or update your details, or obtain a copy of your record.

If you have any problems or queries about your data, please contact us via this website, by email bou@bou.org.uk or by writing to us at BOU, PO Box 79, Pembroke, SA72 9AX, UK.

Cookies and tracking
A cookie is a piece of data about a website that is stored in your web browser. Cookies are often used to store choices about how you use the site and allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The BOU website makes use of cookies in this way.

Most browsers will allow you to control how cookies are handled, whether they are accepted and how long they are stored for. All browsers do this differently, but if you’re concerned about privacy and security then please have a look in the ‘help’ documentation for your particular browser.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. This practice is strictly in force. We know that people have concerns about cookies, but we believe that the benefit we both gain from their proper use is worthwhile. You may set your web browser (Microsoft internet explorer or Netscape navigator) to notify you of cookie placement requests or decline cookies completely. You can delete the files that contain cookies – those files are stored as part of your internet browser.

See our full cookies policy

Financial security
All BOU forms which request credit card or bank details are collected by WorldPay and use industry standard SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol for encryption. Most browsers (Microsoft Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc) support SSL. The link between your browser and the server is secure if your browser displays a small padlock or key symbol somewhere in the frame, or the address bar shows a web address beginning https:// (rather than https://).

Discussion Forums
Where the BOU offers a moderated discussion forum on this website, such forums are open only to registered users. If you wish to participate in the discussion forum, you must register through the form provided on that section of the website. You will be required to submit your e-mail address and any other information specified on the form, all of which will be treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy. The BOU reserves the right to deny access to the discussion forum and/or to remove any of your posts at any time in its sole discretion.

By submitting a contribution to the discussion forum, you grant the BOU a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual licence to reject, impend or publish your contribution on the website and to use, reproduce, distribute, translate and adapt your contribution for any other purpose consistent with BOU’s charitable objectives. You agree with respect to such uses by the BOU to waive all rights that you may have in your contribution, including any moral rights that you may have under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The BOU reserves the right to reject, impend or publish your contributions to the discussion forum. However, you are solely responsible for the legality of your contribution and for any legal claims or liability that may arise in connection with your contribution. By submitting a contribution to the discussion forum, you confirm that your contribution is your own original work and complies with all applicable laws, including without limitation laws relating to defamation, privacy, and intellectual property rights such as copyright, trade mark and database rights. You agree to indemnify (that is, to pay in full) the BOU for any expense or liability that the BOU incurs as a result of the actual or alleged illegality of any contribution that you submit to the discussion forum.

Links to third party websites
The BOU website, other online content and e-newsletters contain hyperlinks to other websites. This information is supplied in good faith, in case it is of interest, or use, to our website users. The BOU is not responsible for the content or functionality of any external website – but please let us know if a link is not working (use the ‘Contact us’ link at the top of every page). Visitors to the BOU website should be aware of the following:

It is good practice to read the privacy policy of any website at which you are considering registering any personal information. If an external website requests personal information from you (eg. in connection with an order for goods or services), this information is supplied to, stored and used by the company concerned – it is not covered by the BOU’s privacy or data protection policies.

In purchasing goods or services from any of the companies to which BOU content links, you are forming a contract with the company(s) concerned (agreeing to their terms and conditions), not the BOU.

Notification of change of Privacy Policy
We are currently updating our systems and processes, if you have any queries regarding this policy please contact us via this website, by email bou@bou.org.uk or by writing to us at BOU, PO Box 79, Pembroke, SA72 9AX, UK.

The BOU reserves the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time. Notice of any change will be posted on our website and will be deemed effective on publication. Your continued use of this website after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.

Liability
The BOU does not guarantee that use of this website will be compatible with all hardware and software which may be used by visitors to the site.

The BOU will be under no liability to you whatsoever whether in contract, tort, (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, restitution or otherwise for any injury, death, damage or direct, indirect or consequential loss (all three of which terms include, without limitation, pure economic loss, loss of profits, loss of business, depletion of goodwill and like loss) howsoever caused arising out of or in connection with the use of this website or the use, accessing, downloading or relying on any information, data, software or other materials contained in this website, including, without limitation, as a result of any computer virus.

These terms and conditions do not exclude the BOU’s liability (if any) to you for personal injury or death resulting from the BOU’s negligence, for fraud or for any matter which it would be illegal for the BOU to exclude or to attempt to exclude its liability.

These terms and conditions contain all the terms which you and the BOU have agreed in relation to the use of the website.

This website, other online content and e-newsletters are controlled and operated by the BOU from its offices in England. The formation, existence, construction, performance, validity in all aspects whatsoever of these terms and conditions or of any term of these terms and conditions or any dispute in relation to the materials contained in this website shall be governed by English law. The English and Welsh courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any disputes which may arise out of or in connection with these terms and conditions or use of the website.

Your continued use of this website indicates your acceptance of these terms and conditions and any subsequent terms and conditions that may be posted here from time to time.