Privacy Policy & Accessibility

Copyright

The copyright and other intellectual property rights in all text, information, graphics and any other materials on this website are owned by or licensed to the BVCA (British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association). You may print or download extracts from this website for your personal reference only, provided that you may not amend, alter or modify such materials. Neither this website nor any part of it may be otherwise copied, reproduced, distributed or retransmitted in electronic or other media, including without limitation, in any other website or database without our prior written permission.

Trademarks

The "BVCA", the "British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association" and the BVCA logo and any other names, images and logos identifying the BVCA are either trademarks or registered trademarks of the BVCA. This website may also contain the registered and unregistered trademarks and logos of third parties which are used on this website with the permission of such third party.

Liability

The content of this website is based on information available to the BVCA as at the time of editing and accordingly may not remain current. The information has not been verified by the BVCA and no responsibility is accepted by or on behalf of the BVCA for any errors, omissions, or misleading statements.

The website is provided as an information guide only and the BVCA is not responsible for any consequences arising out of the use of or reliance on this information, and does not accept any liability for any loss incurred. In particular, nothing herein constitutes specific legal or business advice nor should it be taken as such. Parties in need of such advice are urged to consult their legal advisers, bankers, brokers, accountants or other professional advisers.

No reference to any organisation, company or individual, whether on these pages or other websites to which these pages are linked shall imply any warranty as to its standing or capability on the part of the BVCA.

The website is provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis. The BVCA reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify, suspend or discontinue the website or any part of it without notice.

The BVCA hereby excludes to the fullest extent permitted by law, any warranty express or implied, as to the quality, fitness for purpose, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, performance or availability of this website or any part of it. The BVCA shall not be liable for any loss or damages, whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise arising from or in connection with this website, its contents, its unavailability or any interruption or delay in access to the website for whatever reason.

The BVCA does not seek to exclude its liability for death or personal injury arising from its negligence. This website contains materials produced by third parties and the BVCA accepts no responsibility or liability in respect of any such third party materials. This website also contains links to third party websites which are outside of the BVCA's control. The BVCA is not responsible for, and accepts no liability for, the materials appearing on such third party websites and does not endorse such websites or any goods or services referred to therein.

The Board of Directors and management of BVCA have committed to compliance with all relevant UK and EU laws in respect of personal data, and to protecting the “rights and freedoms” of individuals whose information BVCA collects in accordance with the retained EU law version of the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We are committed to protecting any information from which you can be identified ("personal information") that you share with us, including any information that you tell us about yourself, what we learn by having you as a customer, and the choices you give us about what marketing you want us to send you.

This policy explains how we use your data and how we protect you. It also tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Our commitment to privacy of your data

BVCA commits:

• To keep your data safe and private.
• Not to sell your data, with the exception of Member Directory Company Profile data as described in this Privacy Policy.
• To give you ways to manage and review your marketing choices at any time.

Your privacy is protected by law. This section explains how that works. Data protection laws and regulations require that we use your personal information only if we have a legitimate reason to do so. This includes sharing it outside of BVCA. The lawful reasons that we rely on for using and sharing your data are as follows:

• When we have received your consent: where you have given clear, informed, unambiguous consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose.
• When we have a contract with you: the processing is necessary for a contract you have with us, or because we have asked you to take specific steps before entering into a contract.
• When we are under legal obligation to process your data: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
• When we are performing a public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
• When we have a legitimate interest in processing your data: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests unless these interests are overridden by your rights. A legitimate interest for us is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, but we are required, however, to protect your rights and interests.

The primary lawful basis we rely on for processing your data is that we have a legitimate interest in doing so as we are communicating with you in a professional capacity for a legitimate business or commercial reason which is not outweighed by your rights and freedoms. In some instances we may require sensitive personal data from you, including for example, dietary or accessibility requirements to attend an event, in which case we rely on the need to protect your vital interests and/or your explicit consent for such processing.

Personal information that we collect from you

We may collect your personal information when you:

• register to use our website or services (including free trials); this may include your name (including business name), address, email address and telephone number. We may also ask you to provide additional information about your business;
• complete online forms (including call back requests), take part in surveys, download information such as white papers or other publications or participate in any other interactive areas that appear on our website or within our application or service;
• interact with us using social media;
• provide your contact details, username and login details to us when registering to use our services, including events and training courses, or becoming a member of BVCA;
• contact us offline, for example by telephone, fax, SMS, email or post;
• provide us with your business card at an event;
• apply for a job with us; and/or
• interact with us as part of your employment with another business (for example you may perform a courier service for us and we might be given your name and phone number as a result)

We may also collect your information where you only partially complete and/or abandon any information inputted into our website and/or other online forms.

We may collect information from your devices (including mobile devices) and applications you or your users use to access and use any of our websites, applications or services (for example, we may collect the device identification number and type, location information and connection information such as statistics on your page views, traffic to and from the sites, referral URL, your IP address, your browsing history and your web log information) and we will ask for your permission before we do so. We may do this using cookies or similar technologies.

The BVCA also gathers information about how the site is used. For instance, our web server automatically collects each visitor's domain name (the internet name of the organization through which the visitor connects to the site). We also collect aggregate information about users' visits; such as when the site is visited most often and which areas of the site are accessed most often. We use the automatically collected information to analyse how to improve our site.

Our website and services may contain technology that enables us to:

• check specific information from your device or systems directly relevant to your use of the websites, applications or services against our records to make sure that our website is being used in accordance with our end-user agreements and to troubleshoot any problems;
• obtain information relating to any technical errors or other issues with our website;
• collect information about how you and users use the functions of the features of our website.

Personal information that we receive from other sources

We may collect personal information about you from your organisation’s website or other professional websites.

We may receive information from third parties who collect personal information from you and pass it on to us. This may include someone booking a place at an event for you and inviting you as their guest.

Where a third party passes on personal information to us the third party is responsible for letting you know that they will pass your information to us in order to ensure you are happy with the ways in which your personal information will be used. One example of this is where a member of our staff gives our HR team your contact details because you are that staff-member's next of kin. We will use that sort of information only for the reason it was provided.

If you intend to give us personal data about someone else, you are responsible for ensuring that you comply with any obligation and consent obligations under applicable data protection laws. In so far as required by applicable data protection laws, you must ensure that beforehand you have their explicit, informed, unambiguous and freely given consent to do so and that you explain to them how we collect, use, disclose and retain their personal information or direct them to read our Privacy Policy.

We may from time to time, whether on our own or partnering with third parties, produce questionnaires to assess diversity within the venture capital and private equity industry in the UK. These questionnaires will ordinarily not require you to state your name and we will therefore receive data which does not name an individual or which is in aggregated form. In some instances, it may however be possible for us to deduce personal information from that aggregated information. In such circumstances, your personal information will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

What we do with your personal information

To the extent permissible under applicable law, we use your information to:

• provide any information and services that you wish to use or purchase;
• compare information for accuracy and to verify it with third parties;
• provide, maintain, protect and improve membership applications;
• manage our relationship with you (for example, customer services);
• monitor, measure, improve and protect our content and the website to provide an enhanced user experience for you;
• undertake internal testing of our website, applications, systems and services to test and improve their security and performance. In these circumstances, we would anonymise any information used for such testing purposes;
• provide you with any information that we are required to send you to comply with our regulatory or legal obligations;
• detect, prevent, investigate or remediate, crime, illegal or prohibited activities or to otherwise protect our legal rights;
• process a job application you may have made with us;
• protect and look after our staff; and
• where you have explicitly consented at the time we collected your personal information or where we otherwise have a right to do so, we may contact you to see if you would like to take part in our research activities, including statistical and other studies.

From time to time, we may use your information to contact you about products, services and offers that are relevant to you and/or inform you about important changes or developments to our services, by post, telephone and e-mail. Each piece of communication will have a clear opt-out option to enable you to stop receiving further communication from us.

If you attend a BVCA event or training course we may film or take photographs at the event that BVCA staff may subsequently use online and in print. We will notify attendees at events if filming or photography is taking place and ensure that there are measures in place to ensure that individuals who do not consent are not filmed or photographed.

If you change your mind about us using your personal information in the ways described in this Privacy Policy, please let us know by contacting us at:

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44(0)20 7492 0400.

You may also opt out of receiving marketing emails from us by following the instructions outlined in the marketing emails.

How we share your personal information

Where it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or for our internal business processes, we may share your personal information with 3rd parties who process your data on our behalf, such as the entities that host our website and provide certain IT services to us, and entities who provide services relating to our events.

If our business enters into a joint venture with, purchases or is sold to or merges with another business entity, your Personal Information may be disclosed or transferred to the purchaser, our new business partners or owners or their advisors.

In addition, it may be necessary to disclose your personal information if we are under a duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, enforce any agreement, or protect the rights, property, or safety of BVCA, BVCA's group companies and our contractors, directors, employees or other personnel. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and prevention.

Where necessary, we will ensure that appropriate contracts are in place with the third parties to whom we will transfer personal information.

If you are a delegate attending one of our events or training courses we may share your name, job title and company name with other attendees. If you receive any delegate lists, please note that these should not be used for the purposes of generating a commercial database of contacts to be used for unsolicited mailings. Any use of such delegate lists must be done in accordance with your company or organisation's own privacy policies and the BVCA will not be liable for any misuse of a delegate list by you or any third party in breach of the terms of this Privacy Policy.

If you would NOT like your personal data being shared with other event attendees, please email [email protected] prior to the event.

At the BVCA events, where name badges can be scanned by the BVCA or by sponsors (including upon entrance to sponsored event content sessions), scanned attendee names and email addresses will be shared with sponsors. Those who give their consent to have their badge scanned, may be contacted by sponsors with relevant updates, no later than one month post event. Your data will not be shared by BVCA with any other related third parties or subsidiaries of a sponsor’s firm. If you do not wish to be contacted, you can opt out of badge scanning on the day or in advance of the event by contacting [email protected].

Our security and data retention measures, and any transfers we make outside of the UK

The personal information you provide to us will be transferred to and stored securely on our servers in the UK and we take steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, and in accordance with our internal retention schedules we retain information about you after the closure of your account or membership. We will hold that information for as long as we reasonably require and, in any event, for as long as permitted for legal, regulatory, fraud prevention and legitimate business purposes.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and, although we will take steps to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted via the website; any transmission is therefore at your own risk.

We will only send your data outside of the UK to:

• Follow your instructions;
• Comply with a legal duty; or
• Obtain services from a supplier based outside the UK or obtain advice from an adviser based outside the UK.

If we do transfer information to our suppliers, agents or advisers outside of the UK, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws when it is processed in, or other accessed from, a location outside the UK. This means that we will only transfer your personal information to third parties outside the UK if that third party (a) is situated in a country that has been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data, or (b) has agreed (by way of written contract) to provide all protections to your personal information as required by applicable data protection laws.

Accessing and updating your personal information

Under the UK GDPR, you have certain rights regarding the personal information that we hold on you and these are:

1. The right to be informed about the data we hold on you
2. The right of access to the data we hold on you
3. The right to have your personal information rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
4. The right to have your personal information erased
5. The right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
6. The right to obtain and reuse the personal information we hold relating to you in a portable format in certain circumstances
7. The right to object to certain forms of processing of your data by us
8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling of your data by us and our 3rd party data processors.

You can manage your privacy settings within your browser or our applications and services (where applicable). Or you can contact us at [email protected] if you want to exercise any of the above rights. Should you wish to take any complaints or queries further, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office regarding such issues. You may choose not to give personal information but we may need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you. If you choose not to give us the required personal information, it may delay or prevent us from meeting our obligations. It may also mean that we will not be able to perform activities needed to run services for you. It could also mean that we cancel a service you have with us. Any data collection that is optional will be made clear at the point of collection.

BVCA Members' Data

Our members' contact details and company data are available on this site through a specific search engine which is accessible to registered BVCA members and BVCA Member Directory subscribers. This contact data cannot be downloaded as a file for unsolicited mailings and the BVCA prohibits use of this data for this purpose under its terms and conditions.

The data contained in our member firms' BVCA Member Directory profiles (hereafter referred to as 'Company Profiles') are managed by a designated administrative contact ('Main Contact') at each Member Company; this Main Contact is confirmed by the Member Company at the time of their application for BVCA membership, and can be changed by the Member Company by notifying us during the subscription period. The Main Contact is authorised under the terms of BVCA membership to add or remove key information about the Member Company, including key contacts and their Member Company's associated email addresses, to the BVCA Member Directory. The data is supplied entirely at the discretion of the Member Company and will only be published where the BVCA has consent from the relevant individuals to do so. The Member Company is responsible for obtaining the relevant consents from any individuals whose personal information is uploaded to or available on the site to ensure that they are happy with, and provide explicit consent to, their personal information being processed in this way. By becoming a member of the BVCA, the Main Contact and Member Company thereby agree to comply with this Privacy Policy and the BVCA Acceptable Use Policy outlined below and to take full responsibility for the factual accuracy and integrity of the data contained in their Company Profile.

The BVCA makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy of the information contained on the website. The BVCA expressly disclaims all liability and responsibility for any reliance placed on content posted on the website by Main Contacts or other individuals at Member Companies. The BVCA expressly disclaims all liability and responsibility for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user arising from any reliance placed on content posted on the website by Main Contacts or other individuals at Member Companies or incurred by anyone who may be informed of this content, whether directly or indirectly, resulting from inaccuracies, defects, errors (whether typographical or otherwise), omissions, out-of-date information or otherwise. Direct, indirect or consequential loss and damage shall include but not be limited to loss of profits or contracts, loss of income or revenue, loss of business, loss of goodwill and wasted expenditure or management time.

As with all contacts the BVCA communicates with, BVCA members may choose to update their communication preferences at any time via the website or links in emails received from the BVCA, or by contacting the BVCA directly. Each piece of communication will have a clear opt-out option to enable you to stop receiving future communications.

Cookie Policy

The BVCA site uses cookies for identification within the shopping facility.

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. In particular, we use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website.
• Analytical/performance cookies. We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. Information collected by these cookies is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how the website works. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. We may also give you options on our website from time to time regarding the acceptance of specific cookies.

You can find more information about the specific cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table attached to this Privacy Policy. You can also find more information about cookies generally here: www.allaboutcookies.org

How to block or remove cookies

You have the ability to change the settings on your internet browser to accept all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is set, or not to receive cookies at any time, although this may mean that some services on our sites cannot then be provided to you.

If you want to delete any cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to the instructions for your file management software to locate the file or directory that stores cookies.

For guidance regarding the deletion of GKN cookies please refer to the following links:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Safari
• Opera

Please note that by deleting our cookies or disabling future cookies you may not be able to access certain areas or features of our site and you will prevent us from obtaining valuable analytics information that helps us improve the content and functionality of our site.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. However we will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy. We will always update this Privacy Notice on our website, so please try to read it when you visit the website.

Our acceptable use policy sets out the terms between you and the BVCA under which you may access the website www.bvca.co.uk (referred to as the 'website'). This acceptable use policy applies to all users of the website.

By accessing the website, you agree to abide by our acceptable use policy. We may revise this acceptable use policy at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are legally binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in this acceptable use policy may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on the website.

Prohibited uses

You may use the website for lawful purposes. You may not use the website:

• in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation
• in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect<
• to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our privacy policy
• to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam)
• to transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or code designed to affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

You agree to the following terms:

• not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of the website in contravention of the provisions of our terms of use
• not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt any part of the website, any equipment or network on which the website is stored or any software used in the provision of the website.

Content standards

These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to the website (including but not limited to the BVCA Member Directory and member-only sections of the website) and to any interactive services associated with them. As a user of the BVCA website, you agree to abide by the following content standards.

All material contributed to the website:

• must be factually accurate and must not misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or company
• must comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted
• must not contain any material which is defamatory of any person
• must not contain any material which is obscene, offensive, inflammatory, violent or sexually explicit
• must not infringe any copyright, database right or trademark of any other person
• must not be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party
• must not promote any illegal activity
• must not be threatening, abusive or invasive of the privacy of other users
• must not give the impression that it emanates from, or is representative of the views of, the BVCA, if this is not the case
• must not advocate, promote or assist in any unlawful act such as copyright infringement or computer misuse.

Suspension and termination

We will determine at our discretion whether there has been a breach of this acceptable use policy through your use of the website. When a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

Failure to comply with our acceptable use policy constitutes a material breach of the terms and conditions of use of the website and may result in the BVCA taking all or any of the following actions:

• Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use the website
• Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to the website
• Issuing a written warning to you
• Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach
• Further legal action against you
• Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.

We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of this acceptable use policy. The responses in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

This website including these Legal Notices are governed by English law and the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising from or in connection with this website.

You may be subject to additional terms and conditions if you use any of our other services.

If you have any queries related to our Legal Notices, please contact us:

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44(0)20 7492 0400.

The BVCA has made every effort to ensure that this website is accessible to a variety of users. If you have any questions regarding the accessibility of our website, please contact us:

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44(0)20 7492 0400.