LDA Privacy Statement

Introduction

The London Development Agency (LDA) is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers and website visitors. Our relationship with you is valuable and we understand the importance you place on the privacy and security of information that personally identifies you. We take your privacy seriously. Please read the following in order to learn more about our Privacy Policy and information-gathering and dissemination practices.

This Privacy Policy sets out the data processing practices carried out through the use of the Internet and any other electronic communications networks by the LDA. If you have any requests concerning your personal information or any queries with regard to these practices, please contact us at 0207 593 9000 or info@lda.gov.uk.

Information collected

The LDA provides a variety of on-line offerings, including information about LDA products and services, business information and publicity. While you are not required to provide us with personal data in order to browse our website, we do collect personal information from visitors who register with this website, or use our on-line forms or services, or e-mail us their details.

When we ask you for information, we will comply with the law, including the Data Protection Act 1998. We are a data controller for the purposes of that Act. Our entry in the register of data controllers is Z8832694.

Registration

Some areas of our website require you to register with us prior to obtaining access to its content or to certain services. Our registration process requires you to give your name, address, telephone and fax numbers and an e-mail address. We may also request some optional information about your family, lifestyle, employment status and social circumstances. We use this information to provide you with the service you have requested or to respond to your enquiries.

Promotions and Events

Personal data may be required to keep you informed of developments in new or existing activities, guidance services and facilities, promotions, conferences, seminars and training offerings.

Free software download

When you download software from our website we may request your contact information in order to process your order.

Subscriptions and newsletters

Users of our website may register for e-mail newsletters and news updates. This service is entirely optional and you may unsubscribe at any time.

Contests and surveys

From time to time we may offer users the option of participating in contests or surveys. Participation is entirely optional. Any information you provide during the course of a contest or research will be used to improve facilities and services or to award prizes. Additional terms and conditions may apply to contests, which will be notified to prospective applicants.

Optional Information

We may request optional information from you on our registration forms. We request this optional information so that we may serve you better (for example to provide more tailored products and services to you) and so that we may understand our users better (for example through internal research, data analysis, market research and product research). If additional information is requested, it will be identified as optional.

Information from other sources

In the normal course of our business, the LDA supplements the contact information provided by our users with information from third party marketing firms. We use this additional information (for example demographic and census information) to improve our service by, for example, appropriately targeting our offers, promotions, services and events.

Job opportunities

Details of job opportunities with LDA and local enterprise companies are posted on our website. If you apply for one of the available positions, you are required to provide us with contact details to enable us to enter into correspondence with you. These details, together with the contents of your curriculum vitae, will be treated as private and confidential, and will only be used for the purposes of considering you for a particular position.

Discussion forums

Users of our website are offered the opportunity to participate in discussion forums and to post news, comments and other content on our message boards. These services enable users to interact easily with our staff and with other visitors about the LDA and its products and services. The discussion forums and message boards are not private forms of communication. The general public may access any information that is posted on them.

Use of cookies

A cookie is a small piece of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enables the server to collect information from the browser. The only personal information a cookie can obtain is the information that you supply. A cookie cannot read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. However, cookies enhance our website performance by providing a secure way for us to verify your identity during your visit to our website and to personalise your experience on our site, making it more convenient for you to use.

The LDA website uses cookies to identify you when you visit the website, to keep track of your browsing patterns and to build up a demographic profile. Our use of cookies allows registered users to be presented with a personalised version of the site, to carry out transactions and to have access to information about their account.

You do not need to have cookies turned on to successfully use our service. You can refuse cookies by turning them off on your web browser. However, switching off cookies will restrict your use of our website. If you want to know how to do this please look at the help menu on your browser.

You can find out more about the use of cookies on CookieCentral website.

Use of Web beacons

The LDA Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes called "single-pixel gifs" - that allow the LDA to count the number of users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. Web beacons are not used to access your personally identifiable information on the LDA site. They are a technique used to compile aggregated statistics about the LDA website usage. Web beacons collect only a limited set of information including a cookie number, the time and date of a page view and a description of the page on which the Web beacon resides.

Website usage data

With or without cookies, our website keeps track of usage data such as the source address of a page request (i.e. your IP address and domain name), the date and time of the page request, the referring website (if any) and other parameters in the URL (e.g. search criteria). We use this data to better understand the use of our website by visitors and to identify user preferences. This information is stored in log files and is used for aggregated and statistical reporting, but is not attributed to you as an individual.

Security

We recognise industry standards and employ security safeguards to protect information from unauthorised access and misuse. We use the most accurate and current information you provide in order to process your request. Furthermore, whenever you transmit sensitive information such as billing or credit card information to us through our website, we provide you access to our secure server that allows encryption across the Internet.

User submissions

Any material, information or other communication that you transmit or post to our website (other than your personal information) will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary, unless we are advised to the contrary. You are accordingly requested not to post confidential or proprietary information to our website. The LDA and its designees (including the local enterprise companies) will be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use the communications in all data, images, sound, text and other things embodied therein for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Users of our website are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from this site any unlawful, threatening, libellous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate any law.

Information-sharing

We may be required to share the information we learn from you with other parties. We do not sell or rent this information to others but may send personally identifiable information about you to other parties in the following circumstances:

Agents

The LDA may share your information with professional advisors, strategic partners, survey and research organisations, the Greater London Authority, local enterprise companies and other individuals and organisations employed by us to perform functions on our behalf. Examples of these functions include the delivery of packages, postal mail, faxes and e-mails, providing marketing assistance in data analysis, handling credit card transactions, fulfilling orders, providing services (including but not limited to careers and employment services) and following up on enquiries (by phone, e-mail, post or fax). These agents may have access to personal information in order to perform their functions, but they may not use it for any other purpose.

Legal compliance

We will release personal information where we are required to do so by law, or by the regulations and other rules to which we are subject (including auditing requirements). We may also exchange information with other organisations, agencies and companies for the purposes of fraud protection and reduction of credit risk.

Consent

Other than in the above situations, you will receive notice from us when your personal information may be disclosed to third parties and you will have the opportunity to decide not to share that information.

Other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites which are outside our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. If you access other sites using the links provided, the operators of these sites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their privacy policy, which may differ from ours.

Internet-based transfers

Given that the Internet is a global environment, using the Internet to collect and process personal data necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis. Therefore, by browsing this website and communicating electronically with us, you acknowledge and agree to our processing of personal data in this way.

Access right

You have a right of access to the personal data held about you, and to request a copy of the information held by us in our records (for which we may charge a small fee). You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information. To obtain a copy of the personal information we hold about you, please write to us at:

Public Liasion Unit
London Development Agency
Palestra
197 Blackfriars Road
London
SE1 8AA

Changes to privacy policy

We may review and edit this policy from time to time. If we make any substantial changes we will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on our web pages.

Questions or suggestions

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this policy, or have any concerns about our website practices, or believe that we are not adhering to our privacy policy, please contact us. Should you at any time wish us to remove your personal details from our database please contact us by post, fax or e-mail.