Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice sets out the basis on which we will process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us.

 

1. Who we are

Biological Records Centre (BRC) is a national focus in the UK for terrestrial and freshwater species recording. The BRC works closely with the voluntary recording community, principally through support of national recording schemes and societies, and is part of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH).

BRC provides website and mobile application hosting and support for many biological recording projects and schemes.

  • BRC, established in 1964, is a national focus in the UK for the capture, quality assurance, synthesis and analysis of wildlife sightings.  BRC is supported by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and UKCEH (through National Capability funding via Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)).
  • UKCEH is an independent, not-for-profit research institute and is a registered Charity in England & Wales (number 1185618) and in Scotland (number SC049849), and a registered Company Limited by Guarantee in England & Wales (number 11314957).
  • UKCEH is strategically funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

BRC also benefits greatly from a number of expert volunteers affiliated to National Recording Schemes and Societies.

UKCEH is the controller for all processing of personal data for the purposes of BRC. The UKCEH Privacy Notice is here.

 

2. Why are we collecting your information?

UKCEH is collecting your personal data to administer, run and share results of biological recording projects hosted by the BRC. When you submit records to BRC websites, your name will be included alongside the survey information (including location and time of record) to form the ‘biological record’. Your email address may be used to contact you with queries about the records you provide for the purpose of validating and verifying the survey data.  We use the iRecord verification system to  review BRC-hosted survey data for species and you may be contacted by an expert working with iRecord for this purpose.

We will collect the following personal data about you:

  • Name (as a recorder or as a verifier)
  • Email address
  • Location and date of any biological records you submit

In data protection terms we are using the ‘lawful basis’ of ‘legitimate interest’ for collecting, processing and sharing your personal data.

All data held by UKCEH is compliant to UK data protection legislation and the basis on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, is covered by the UKCEH privacy notice

In addition to information we ask you to provide through the website, we also collect information automatically about visits to the site using Google Analytics and in our server logs. This does not include any personal data but does include:

  • Your IP address
  • The pages you request, when you request them, and how you interact with them
  • The type of device and browser you use

We use this information to support our work in various ways including monitoring performance, improving design, protecting against malicious behaviour and supporting funding applications.

 

3. How are we storing your information and will we share it?

All personal data that we collect will be stored securely in a database for as long as you are signed up with projects hosted by the BRC. If you no longer wish to be registered with any project hosted by the BRC, please contact brc@ceh.ac.uk to let us know. The component of your personal data that forms part of the biological record (i.e. your name as a recorder or as a verifier, and the location and time of the record) will be kept permanently as part of the scientific dataset.

Sharing your email address with others

We will not openly publish your email address.  Expert volunteers working with us, who we appoint to the role of verifier, will have access to your email address in order to carry out their role in support of iRecord and the work of their National Recording Scheme or Society.

Projects that make use of iRecord may give you the option of providing consent to receive further information; if you choose to provide consent your email address will be available to the organisations running those projects. You can request to unsubscribe from such projects at any time.

Sharing your name that forms part of the biological record

Biological records produced by the BRC will also be shared with other organisations and individuals worldwide for purposes of scientific research. Your name will be included as part of the scientific records in these datasets.  Once BRC or iRecord datasets are published it will be freely available for redistribution. As use of BRC data is for research in the public interest it is retained as part of our work and your personal data (recorder and verifier name) will remain public; open data can be downloaded, remixed, and redistributed by third parties.

Where data is openly published it will be available to anyone and it will be available for use anywhere.

Other than as set out above, and except where we have a legal obligation to so do, we will not share your personal data with anyone else and will always adhere to current UK Data Protection Legislation.

 

4. Your rights and our contact details

You are entitled to access any of your personal data that we hold. Please contact brc@ceh.ac.uk with as much detail as possible on the information you would like us to provide, and we will aim to respond within one month.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where we have relied on legitimate interest as the lawful basis for processing. You also have the right to request that we restrict or stop processing, rectify or delete your personal data (with the exception of names from datasets that have already been published openly). Where the personal data we hold has not been supplied by yourself, you are entitled to ask how we obtained the personal data. You can request that your iRecord user account is cancelled at any time by emailing irecord@ceh.ac.uk.

Please contact cehdataprotection@ceh.ac.uk if you wish to progress any of these rights.

If you have any concerns about how your personal data is being used, we will try to answer any questions you have. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You also have the right to an effective judicial remedy against decisions of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 

5. Changes to the Privacy Notice for BRC

This Privacy Notice may be updated from time to time. The latest version will always be available at www.brc.ac.uk/privacy-notice If changes are made to this Privacy Notice in the future, a prominent notice will be posted on the website.