Privacy notice

[Privacy notice last updated on 4 June 2024]

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) operate the UKEOF Secretariat. As part of that role, this website is operated by UKCEH and the UKCEH privacy notice tells you what to expect when your personal information is collected. To understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will process, please read this privacy notice.

Our website is https:\\www.ukeof.org.uk. By visiting this website you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in the UKCEH privacy notice as well as any additional practices described below.

Cookie use on this website is also explained below.

Please also see the separate Terms of use.

1. Our newsletter service

Our e-news service is provided as a way to inform people by email about UKEOF and related activities. In order to provide this service to you, the minimum information we collect is your email. Detailed privacy information is provided on the sign-up form. The lawful basis by which this information is collected is consent. You will be advised as to how you can withdraw your consent when subscribing and when you receive a bulk email via the mailing list. Mailchimp (based in the USA) is currently the data processor for our e-news mailing list. Mailchimp is certified by the EU-US Privacy Shield. You can view Mailchimp’s privacy information at their website. This includes information about your rights such as withdrawing your consent or deleting your personal information.

2. When you register for certain events we organise

When we organise an event such as our annual conference we may use a third party event registration service. Previously we have used Eventbrite. You can view Eventbrite's privacy information on their website. When you register for an event using Eventbrite or a similar service you will be asked to provide sufficient personal information to enable us, as the event organiser, and the third party provider to process your registration and deliver your tickets and other information. Detailed privacy information will be provided when you log in and/or provide such information. The lawful basis by which this information is collected is consent. The third party's website will provide information on your rights such as withdrawing your consent or deleting your personal information.

3. When your details are added to the UKEOF master contact list

This purpose only applies to individuals involved in the operation of UKEOF, such as Management Group represenatives, Working Group members and Secretariat staff.

We maintain a contact list of key individuals involved in UKEOF. This is for the purposes of providing an efficient system for the UKEOF Secretariat to contact key persons. When we add you to this contact list the only personal information we will store is your name, your email address, your organisation (if relevant) and a phone number if provided. The list is compiled in a password-protected spreadsheet. The lawful basis by which this information is collected and used is legitimate interest.

3. Making a complaint

Initially, please raise your concern with the UKEOF Secretariat at UKCEH via email or telephone (see contact details). Any continuing concerns you may have can be raised with the UKCEH Data Protection Officer, Quentin Tucker.

Our use of cookies on the UKEOF website

When we provide web services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. This sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example, enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task; recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested; measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast.

Information collected is not shared with other organisations.

Cookies used on our website

First-party cookies

These cookies are used to remember selections or preferences that you've already made when using our website.

JSESSIONID

Purpose: Used to maintain an anonymous user session by the server.

Expires: At the end of a session (when you close your browser).

has_js

Purpose: Used to indicate whether or not the visitors browser has JavaScript.

Expires: At the end of a session (when you close your browser).

cookie_agreed

Purpose: Indicates that user has agreed to accept cookies.

Expires: Three months

SSO_CEH

Purpose: Used by internal web editors to sign in to our editing system

__cfduid

Purpose: Identifies individual clients behind a shared IP address in order to apply security settings on a per-client basis.

Expires: At the end of a session

Drupal.tableDrag.showWeight

Purpose: Used to handle the consistent navigation of tabbed pages and forms across a range of different browsers.  It is set when you use pages where information appears in tabbed format.

Expires: One year.

Google Analytics

UKCEH uses the Google Analytics service. Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This allows us to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast.

_utma

Purpose: Used to distinguish between users and sessions.

Expires: Two years

_utmb

Purpose: Used to determine new sessions and visits.

Expires: Thirty minutes

_utmc

Purpose: Used in combination with the __utmb to identify new sessions / visits for returning visitors.

Expires: At the end of a session (when you close your browser).

_utmt

Purpose: Used to throttle the request rate for the service - limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites.

Expires: Ten minutes

_utmz

Purpose: Used to identify the source of traffic to the site - so Google Analytics can tell site owners where visitors came from when arriving on the site.

Expires: Six months

_gali

Purpose: Automatically differentiates between multiple links to the same URL on a single page.

Expires: At the end of a session

_gat

Purpose: Used to throttle request rate.

Expires: One minute.

For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to their information.

Third party services

When you sign up to the UKEOF newsletter, your information is hosted by our email supplier Mailchimp.

When we organise an event such as our annual conference we may use a third party event registration service. Previously we have used Eventbrite.

Please see the relevant section of our privacy notice for further terms relating to these services.

Further information

Your web browser has settings which allow you to manage these small files yourself by removing or blocking cookies. Learn more about them through advice on the AboutCookies website.

You may encounter some of these terms if you read more about cookies:

Browser: Used to locate and display web pages via a software application.

Cookie: Message given to a web browser by a web server. The message is then stored by the browser at a location on the user's hard disc. Each time the browser requests a page from the server, this message is sent back.

Cookies are often used to identify users and personalise their visit by customising web pages for them for example by welcoming them by name next time they visit the same site. A site using cookies will usually invite you to provide personal information such as your name, e-mail address and interests.

IP (Internet Protocol): All networks connected to the internet speak IP, the technical standard which allows data to be transmitted between two devices. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is responsible for making sure messages get from one host to another and that the messages are understood.

IP address: If you are connected to the Internet you have one, for example it may look something like this: 198.184.98.9

Web Server: Delivers (serves up) web pages to your computer.

Active Server Pages: Dynamic (interactive) web pages which include web feedback forms, login pages and pages which connect to a database.

Session State: A way of remembering you between active server pages.