Privacy at LEMMA (Learning environment for multilevel methodology and applications)

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Summary

This statement summarises how the Centre for Multilevel Modelling ("we" or "us") uses and protects personal information that you provide when you use this Site, according to UK data protection requirements.

This summary statement has been adapted from the Privacy statement of the Open University's OpenLearn website (https://www.open.edu/openlearn/).

We are established and based in the UK, comply with UK data protection law, but cannot confirm that we comply with local data protection/privacy laws in countries outside the UK.

If you do not agree to your data being dealt with in the manner described in this statement then please do not submit your personal details. However, please note that where you do not submit personal details that we request, your access to the services/materials offered by this Site will be restricted.

We may change this statement from time to time by updating this page. You should review this statement regularly. Your continued use of this Site after changes have been made will be taken to indicate your acceptance of the updated statement.

a) What information do we collect?

When you register to use this Site we will grant access to this Site. As part of the registration process you will be required to provide us with personal information, comprising:

  • your name and contact information, including e-mail address.
  • information regarding your professional interests, demographics, experiences with our products and services and contact preferences.

When you use this Site we may collect information comprising:

  • your scores in online quizzes (the quizzes are not compulsory)
  • which links you click on and how long you spend on them
  • information regarding the structure, composition and size of your research datasets, that you've disclosed by making "Have your say" votes (voting is not compulsory)

b) What do we do with the information we collect?

By registering to use this Site and providing your personal data you are giving your permission for your data to be held by us.

We will use the personal information you provide for the following reasons:

  • to improve our products and services to users;
  • to assist our funders the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC - under the National Centre for Research Methods - NCRM) in evaluating us;
  • to conduct and publish research into the learning of multilevel methodology and applications;
  • internal record keeping;
  • to contact you for research purposes including market research;
  • to analyse patterns and trends of use and the uptake of educational courses and facilities;
  • to check the effectiveness of our web pages and marketing at reaching our target audience.

c) Direct Marketing

We do not conduct direct marketing. However, when you provide your personal information to us you will be given the option to be added to the Centre for Multilevel Modelling mailing list.

You can change your mind at any time should you not wish to continue to receive emails sent to the Centre for Multilevel Modelling mailing list. Please contact info-cmm@bristol.ac.uk should you wish to unsubscribe.

d) Who do we share this information with?

We will not transfer, disclose, sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required to do so by law, with the exceptions given below:

  • We may aggregate your personal data with other users' into a form that would not allow anyone to identify you, and then publish it as part of research or evaluation of our online course
  • The NCRM (www.ncrm.ac.uk) may require we pass on contact details and biographical information about our users to them, so they can contact you as part of an evaluation of our performance

e) How to get copies of the information we have collected

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please follow the guidance provided at:

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/secretary/foi/request/

If you think that any information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete please write or e-mail us as soon as possible at:

freedom-information@bristol.ac.uk

We will correct or update any information as soon as possible.

f) Security of Data

We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect on-line. As long as your browser supports the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) any personal information transmitted from your browser to its web service, or from the service to your browser, will be encrypted to make it unreadable.

g) Linking

As outlined in the terms and conditions of use, we may link to other websites which are not within our control. Once you have left the Site we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

h) Cookies

We use cookies in relation to certain areas of the Site. Cookies are files which store information on your hard drive or browser which means that we can recognise that you have visited the Site before. Cookies can make it easier for you to maintain your preferences on the Site. By seeing how you use the Site we can tailor the Site around users' preferences and measure the general usability of the website. In particular we may use cookies to identify which pages are being most frequently used. This information is used for statistical analysis including the identification of patterns and trends in educational needs and demand.

You can, should you choose, disable the cookies from your browser and delete all cookies currently stored on your computer. You can find out how to do this for your particular browser by clicking "help" on your browser's menu. No information obtained from a cookie will be used for marketing purposes.


The LEMMA Privacy Policy in Full

We have developed this policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information.

1) Who are we?

LEMMA (Learning Environment for Multilevel Methodology and Applications) is produced by The Centre for Multilevel Modelling ("CMM", also "we" and "us"). CMM is made up of academics and administrators employed by the University of Bristol (UoB). We sell the software "MLwiN", but we are not a company in our own right.

Our contact details are:

Centre for Multilevel Modelling
University of Bristol
35 Berkeley Square
Bristol, BS8 1JA
UK

e-mail: info-cmm@bristol.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)117 331 4291

2) Why do we have a Privacy Policy?

We have developed this policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information. The Centre for Multilevel Modelling takes all reasonable care to prevent any unauthorised access to your personal information. It collects, holds and processes personal information in line with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016.

When we refer to "personal information" in this privacy policy, we mean information which identifies you as an individual, or is capable of doing so. Accordingly, we may hold and use data about you in your capacity as a learner or a customer.

Please read this privacy policy carefully if you are visiting our website or using any of our services. By continuing to do so, you indicate your agreement to our use of your personal information as set out in this privacy policy.

3) What does this privacy policy cover?

This privacy policy only applies to how LEMMA deals with your personal information. It does not apply to any other institution or company or to any other websites even if you access them through LEMMA. If you disclose your personal information to other websites or institutions or companies your information will be dealt with according to their privacy practices.

4) What personal information do we collect about you, and when do we collect it?

There are two types of information we collect about you:

a) information we ask you for directly.

We will ask you for information to enable us to provide a service (e.g. the LEMMA online course) to you, and we collect this information via a website, and also by telephone, or written or electronic correspondence. We will ask you for information including:

  • your name
  • email address
  • a user-name
  • a password

Our services are subsidised by the ESRC (through the NCRM), and the NCRM requires us to ask you about your:

  • name
  • email address
  • title
  • disciplinary area of expertise
  • highest qualification
  • gender

In addition, we will ask for information which helps us and our funders to evaluate the take up and performance of our online course among our intended user group; we will ask for your:

  • University's name (if you are in a University)
  • Department's name
  • Your research interests

We may ask you for other information that helps us to better disseminate the statistical techniques ("multilevel methods") that we develop, including:

  • How you heard about the course
  • Why you've chosen the course
  • What you'll be using it for

We may also ask you from time to time about what use you make of the services we provide, your feelings about our services, what other services you would like us to provide in the future, and for other information for research purposes.

As part of research projects we may ask you fill in quizzes and questionnaires.

For example we are researching the teaching and learning of Multilevel Modelling. During the online course we may provide you with quizzes about statistics knowledge, questionnaires about your confidence in your ability to learn and use statistical methods, and 'votes' that both ask you to generalise from the learning materials to your own research, and also ask about your use of the online course. These quizzes, questionnaires and votes are NOT COMPULSORY.

b) information we collect about you automatically when you visit our online course.

Information is automatically recorded by two parties:

When you use our online course, we capture information each time you log in to it and store this information against your user-profile (including your real name and contact details). We log:

  • when you log into and out of the course,
  • how long you spent on each page,
  • what links you clicked within the online course (including links to PDFs and datafiles),
  • your answers and scores on quizzes, questionnaires, votes, etc...
  • additional information (see below)

If you click on a link whilst using our online course, you may assume that it is being recorded. We use this information to assess the performance of our online course - among other things to look at:

  • which modules are used and how much,
  • what are learners' typical routes and timings through our material,
  • which modules work well (as measured by quiz and questionnaire results) and which do not work so well, etc.

The additional information collected by both us and UoB computer services is not personal information, but personal information may be derived from it. The information recorded includes:

  • your computer's IP address, from which can be derived your:
    a) country, state, city, and
    b) internet service provider - which may sometimes be the same as your institution.

If given to your ISP /institution, the IP address could be used to identify your computer. Combined with the other information collected, it may be possible to identify you personally.

We do not use any of this information to analyse your visits to any other websites.

The UoB's central computer services log network traffic across UoB's computer networks. Because our online course is inside the UoB network, UoB's computer services make a record when you visit one of our web pages. The information they record could be used in co-operation with your internet service provider or IT support department to identify you.

The UoB's central computer services usually log:

  • your IP address, and source port number
  • the IP address you connect to, and destination port number
  • the time of the connection.

However, UoB's computer services reserve the right to examine any electronic data (including web site traffic and email) that is transmitted from your computer to us, or transmitted from us to your computer. This right is generally exercised in a limited set of circumstances (e.g. investigation and detection of computer misuse or crime, etc.). However, the electronic data may be examined during routine computer service tasks. You can read UoB's Policy for the investigation of computers at:

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/infosec/documents/ISP-18.pdf

5) What personal information does LEMMA collect about you from other companies and organisations?

  • We do not collect personal information about you from 3rd parties.
  • However, when you visit our online course from any part of the CMM website, we collect some information about your computer and the time of your connection from http://www.statcounter.com and http://www.google.com/analytics/. Please see the CMM privacy and cookie policy (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/style-guides/web/policies/legal/privacy/) for more details (e.g. "Information that we collect from you and your use of this website")
  • At all times where your information is disclosed to us we will protect it in accordance with this policy and keep it secure.

6) Do we share your personal information with anyone else?

a) ...we share online course registration details with the NCRM

The online course is run as part of our LEMMA project, which is part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)'s National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM - http://www.ncrm.ac.uk). The NCRM has subsidised the development of this course so that you can use it for free. If you register for the course, we are obliged to pass your personal details to the NCRM, so that they may contact you as part of evaluating our performance. However, you have no obligation to communicate with the NCRM.

b) ...we may share details of online course use and quiz responses with the NCRM

Our online course in Multilevel Modelling is run and made available to you as part of our LEMMA project. If you 'attend' or use this online course, we will pass on your registration details (excluding your password) to the NCRM / ESRC to help them evaluate our performance. If you fill in our quizzes and questionnaires, we *may* also pass on a summary of your responses and/or your responses to individual questions, to the NCRM / ESRC for the purposes of evaluating the course.

c) ...we may share aggregated data from online course and quiz use with the academic community, or with the wider community.

Data collected for research purposes may be depersonalised through aggregation, then reported in academic papers or other academic fora. For example, statistical tables may be presented showing that X% of our respondents scored Y or above in quizzes and questionnaires, and that quiz scores correlated with questionnaire scores by a certain amount, etc.

Research data may also be depersonalised through anonymisation - individual responses to quizzes or questionnaires may be stripped of identifying features like name, age and sex of person, institution, email address, then reported verbatim to illustrate general findings.

d) ...we may share information to prevent and detect crime, and to safeguard national security..

We do not sell your data to any 3rd parties.

We may provide your personal information, in response to properly made requests, for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime and the apprehension or prosecution of offenders. We may also provide information for the purpose of safeguarding national security. In either case we would do so in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016.

We may also provide information when required to do so by law, for example under a court order, or in response to properly made demands, under powers contained in legislation.

If you believe the personal information we hold on your is incorrect you may amend it by following the procedure set out below in "How can I change the personal information LEMMA holds about me?”.

7) For how long does LEMMA keep personal information?

The time period for which we keep information varies according to what the information is used for. In some cases, there are legal requirements to keep data for a minimum period. Unless there is a specific legal requirement for us to keep the information, we will retain it for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data was collected or for which it is to be further processed.

8) How can I find out what personal information LEMMA holds about me?

If you want specific information please tell us and give us any relevant information to enable us to locate the information about you because this will speed up our reply. We may be able to provide the specific information you want without you having to make a formal "subject access request".

You can make a formal subject access request under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 if you want to know what personal information LEMMA holds about you. In this case, please make a written request as detailed at:

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/secretary/foi/request

9) How can I change the personal information LEMMA holds about me?

If the information we hold about you is inaccurate, please contact us and we will make the necessary amendments and confirm that these have been made.

Our contact details are:

Centre for Multilevel Modelling
University of Bristol
35 Berkeley Square
Bristol
BS8 1JA
UK

e-mail: info-cmm@bristol.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)117 331 4291

10) How can I manage LEMMA's contact with me for marketing purposes?

LEMMA and the CMM do not engage in direct marketing. We have a newsletter, but you must explicitly register for it to receive it.

You will not be contacted by UoB's Public Relations department or any other UoB department as a result of registering with the LEMMA online course. You may however be contacted by us or by our funders the NCRM as part of an evaluation of our performance. However, you have no obligation to communicate with us or the NCRM.

11) How do we protect your personal information?

We are serious about guarding the security of your personal information and the details of any transactions made. We take appropriate measures to protect your data against unauthorised disclosure or processing.

12) How do you find out about changes to our privacy policy?

We may change our privacy policy from time to time. New policies will be published on our web site. Your use of the online course is taken to mean that you accept the privacy policy published at the time of your use.

13) Does the LEMMA privacy policy protect me when I use the Centre for Multilevel Modelling´s websites?

The privacy policy for the LEMMA online course is a smaller sub-set of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling´s privacy policy. More data is collected about you when you visit other CMM websites, and more personal data may be asked of you. If you visit any other websites owned by CMM (e.g. with URLs starting with http://www.cmm.bris.ac.uk/, but not including those starting with http://www.cmm.bris.ac.uk/lemma), then you should check the CMM privacy and cookie policy, at:

http://www.cmm.bris.ac.uk/privacy.shtml.

Draft LEMMA Cookie Policy in Full

14) When do we use Cookies?

The online course in multilevel modelling uses a virtual learning environment called "Moodle" (see http://moodle.org), which requires learners to have an account and login to it, and which uses two cookies.

Of these two cookies, the essential one is the session cookie, usually called MoodleSession, which provides continuity and maintains your login from page to page. When you log out or close the browser this cookie is destroyed (in your browser and on the server).

The other cookie is purely for convenience, usually called something like MOODLEID. It remembers your username within the browser, so that when you return to the online course the username field on the login page will be already filled out for you. It is safe to refuse this cookie - you will just have to retype your username every time you log in.

If you come to the LEMMA online course from a CMM webpage, then other cookies and tracking technology will have been used on your computer. Please see the CMM Privacy and Cookie policy, at http://www.cmm.bris.ac.uk/privacy.shtml.

15) How can I prevent information being collected about me automatically when I go to the LEMMA course web pages?

To prevent information being collected about your computer when you visit our web pages you need to do the following in your web browser:

  • Disable all Cookies

However, disabling these will prevent you from using the online course. Instructions for disabling cookies are given in the following section.

16) How do you disable Cookies?

Detailed instructions are available at http://www.aboutcookies.org/.

All types of cookies can be removed from your PC but there may be some deterioration in the service you receive (for example, in many websites you may receive many pop up boxes containing the same advertisements or you may not be able to access a page you earlier personalised). Disabling all cookies will interfere with your use of our online courses in multilevel modelling.

Your browser lets you choose whether to accept, not to accept or to be warned before accepting cookies. These settings can be found in the browser preferences. 

17) Are third party sites covered by this policy?

Third party Internet sites that you can link to from the LEMMA course website are not covered by our privacy policy, so please be careful if you go to them and enter any personal information online. Neither CMM or the University of Bristol accepts any responsibility or liability for these sites.

The University of Bristol 's website has it's own terms and conditions policy, which also apply if not mentioned here.

Last modified: Wednesday, 23 January 2019, 11:02 AM