Privacy
Privacy

The Third Pole Privacy Notice

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the China Dialogue Trust collects personal information.

Visitors to our websites

​When someone visits any of our websites (www.chinadialogue.net,  www.chinadialogueocean.net,  www.thethirdpole.net,
www.indiaclimatedialogue.netwww.dialogochino.net) we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

Use of Cookies by China Dialogue Trust

You can read more about our use of cookies in our cookies policy notice

Search Engine

The search functions on our sites are powered by WordPress.

Search queries are logged anonymously to help us improve our website and search functionality. No user-specific data relating to search queries or results is collected by either China Dialogue Trust or any third party.

Comments

The comments function on The Third Pole website is powered by WordPress. 

We store the name and IP address of users who place a comment on our website. The name is stored so that it can be displayed on our website beside the user’s comment. The IP address is stored in order to help us identify authentic visitors to our website and filter out spam. In order to help us block spam from the site, we use Akismet. For more information, please see Akismet’s privacy notice.

Newsletter

We use a third party provider, Mailchimp, to deliver our fortnightly e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our newsletter. For more information, please see Mailchimp’s privacy notice.

Hosting

The data stored on our website’s servers is owned by the China Dialogue Trust and is held for the purpose of producing our websites. The data stored there is not analysed, used, shared or sold by the hosting companies.

 

China Dialogue Trust Donors

When individuals make electronic donations to China Dialogue Trust, they are redirected to PayPal where they will enter their location, payment card details and billing address, email address and a contact telephone number. These payment details are stored by PayPal and accessed by China Dialogue Trust from Paypal. For future communications, we keep a record of donor names and email addresses. Donors are able to opt out of future communications at any time, including at the point of donation. For more information on how PayPal stores and uses personal data, please see their privacy notice.

 

Respondents to Our Readership Survey

We use Survey Monkey to deliver our annual readership survey. Participation is voluntary. All information provided by respondents and collected by Survey Monkey (including IP addresses for the purpose of limiting multiple responses) will be stored for two years and analysed by China Dialogue Trust in order to improve our services and share general audience trends and feedback with our partners and funders. Any information shared with a third party will be anonymous and unidentifiable. For more information about Survey Monkey, please see their privacy notice.

 

People who use China Dialogue Trust services

We have to hold the details of the people who have requested a service, such as our newsletters, in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about people who visit our websites and receive our newsletters to carry out a survey to find out if they are happy with the level of service they received. When people do subscribe to our services, they can cancel their subscription at any time and are given an easy way of doing this.

 

Job Applicants, current and former China Dialogue Trust Employees

The China Dialogue Trust is the data controller for the information you provide us, unless otherwise stated. If you have any queries about the process or how we handle your information, please contact [email protected].

Job Applicants

What will we do with the information you provide us?

All the information you provide to us will only be used for the purpose of processing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements where necessary.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes. The information you provide will be held securely by us whether the information is in electronic or physical format.

We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

What information do we ask for and why?

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You don’t have to provide what we ask for but it might affect your application if you don’t.

Application stage

We ask you for your personal details including name and contact details. We will also ask you about your previous experience, education, referees and for answers to questions relevant to the role you have applied for. Our recruitment team will have access to all of this information. This information will not be made available to any staff outside of our recruitment team, including hiring managers, in a way which can identify you.

Assessments

We might ask you to participate in assessment days; complete tests or occupational personality profile questionnaires; to attend an interview; or a combination of these.

Information will be generated by you and by us. For example, you might complete a written test or we might take interview notes. This information is held by China Dialogue Trust.

If you are unsuccessful following assessment for the position you have applied for, we will retain your details for a period of six months.

Conditional Offers

If we make a conditional offer of employment we will ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks to progress to a final offer. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

You will therefore be required to provide:

  • Proof of your identity – you will be asked to attend our office with original documents, we will take copies.
  • Proof of your qualifications – you will be asked to attend our office with original documents, we will take copies.
  • We will contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application, directly to obtain references.

If we make a final offer, we will also ask you for the following:

  • Bank details – to process salary payments
  • Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work
  • Membership of a Civil Service Pension scheme – so we can send you a questionnaire to determine whether you are eligible to re-join your previous scheme.

If you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 6 years following the end of your employment.

If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for 6 months from the closure of the campaign.

Information generated throughout the assessment process, for example interview notes, is retained by us for 6 months following the closure of the recruitment process.

Equal opportunities information is retained for 6 months following the closure of the recruitment process whether you are successful or not.

Current and Former Employees

Post start date

We will maintain records relevant to employee performance, training and development and which are necessary to enable us to fulfil the contractual obligations to staff as employees including:

  • Training records
  • Appraisal records
  • Records of holiday and sickness taken
  • Grievance and disciplinary records

Personal data that may be required to provide reference requests will also be retained after your employment finishes.

If you are employed by China Dialogue Trust, your details will be provided to Xero, our accounting software, and our bank in order to process your pay. Paid employees’ details employed before 1st April 2018 will also have been shared with MoneySoft Payroll Manager, which was used to process staff payroll prior to that date. The information shared will be your name, date of birth, address, bank details, National Insurance number and salary. Likewise, eligible employees’ details will be provided to Aviva who are the administrators of China Dialogue Trust’s pension scheme. The information shared will be your name, date of birth, address, National Insurance number and salary.

For freelance staff, your details will not be shared with Aviva and will not have been shared with MoneySoft Payroll Manager, but your name, address and bank details will be stored on our accounting software.

This information will be retained for the minimum period required to satisfy financial regulations, currently six full financial years after any claims have been paid.

We will also ask you to provide emergency contact details so that in the unlikely occurrence of a serious accident or emergency happening, we are able to inform family members or friends and can ensure you receive the support you may need in such an event. This information will be stored on our shared drive where only appropriate staff will be able to access it. It is not a contractual or legal requirement for us to hold this information and can only be stored with your explicit consent, given when you share the information with us. At any time, you can revoke this consent and the information will be deleted from our records. This information will not be retained after your employment with China Dialogue Trust ends.

Volunteers

Unpaid volunteers who claim expenses will be asked to provide financial details which will be be provided to Xero, our accounting software, and our bank in order to process expense claims. This information will be retained for the minimum period required to satisfy financial regulations, currently six full financial years after any claims have been paid.

Your Rights

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you.

You can read more about these rights here.

Complaints or Queries

China Dialogue Trust cares about your data security and works to maintain high standards when collecting and using personal data. If you believe that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or appropriate, please contact us directly at [email protected]

This privacy notice does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of China Dialogue Trust’s collection and use of data, but intends to be clear and concise. We are happy to provide additional information or more detailed explanations should they be requested at the email address above.

If you want to make a complaint about how we have collected and used our personal data, you can do so at the email address above, or full contact details given below, or you can make a complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the data protection regulatory body at www.ico.org.uk/concerns

Access to Personal Information

Individuals can find out if we hold any of their personal data by submitting a ‘Subject Access Request’. If we hold information about you we will:

  • Give you a description of it;
  • Tell you why we are holding it;
  • Tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
  • Let you have a copy of the data in a recognisable form.

Subject Access Requests must be submitted in writing to [email protected]

Links to Other Websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site to other websites. If you visit other websites, you may wish to read their privacy notices also.

Changes to This Privacy Notice

We review our privacy notice regularly. It was last updated on 11/6/2020

Contact Details

By email:
[email protected]

By post:
China Dialogue Trust
15 Printing House Yard
Perseverance Works
London
E2 7PR
United Kingdom

By telephone:
+44 (0) 20 7683 2985

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