Privacy Notice

Introduction

This privacy notice explains how we collect, share and use personal information about you, and how you can exercise your privacy rights.

This privacy notice applies to personal information you provide to us when:

  • you visit our website goodtrials.org (the “website”) regardless of where you visit it from;
  • you sign up to attend one of our events;
  • you provide us with feedback, either through this website or at an event;
  • you provide us with a testimonial or interact with us via a social media platform, telephone or in person.

Privacy notice updates

We reserve the right to modify this privacy notice at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated.

The Collaborative – who we are

The Collaborative was set up in June 2020, supported by Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The aim of the Collaborative is to develop and promote guidance to enable and promote informative, ethical and efficient Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs). 

The Collaborative is hosted by Protas (which is the trading name of Quality of Randomization Limited), a non-profit organization focused on the design and delivery of smarter clinical trials for better public health. Find out more about Protas by clicking this link https://protas.co.uk

Protas is the controller for the personal information we process unless otherwise stated.  If you have any questions about this privacy policy, you may contact Protas by post at the following address:

Quality by Randomization Limited, 2 New Bailey, 6 Stanley Street, M3 5GS, United Kingdom

Protas’ Data Protection Officer is Gaynor Dalton. You may contact her at [email protected] or via Protas’ postal address above. Please mark the envelope “Data Protection Officer”.

The type of personal data we collect

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

  • User data, including name, email address, geographical location and the type of organisation you work for.
  • Technical data including internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, language preference, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Usage data including information about how you use our website.

How we collect personal data

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your user data by filling in our contact form or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you contact us, sign up for updates, give us feedback or provide us with a testimonial.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns (and the type of information we collect will depend on which cookies we are permitted to set). We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. This would include analytics providers such as Piwik Pro and publicly available information on social media platforms such as Twitter or LinkedIn.

How we use your personal data

  • To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred non-personal Information, which we may use to provide and improve our respective services.
  • For the purpose of system security, when you visit our website, our web server temporarily registers the domain name or the IP address of the requesting computer as well as the date of access, the file request of the client (file name and URL), the HTTP response code and the website from which you are visiting us, and the number of bytes transferred during the session. We will also store some information in the form of ‘cookies’ on your PC so that we can optimise our web site according to your preferences. Please see the ‘Cookies’ section for more information.
  • If you choose to sign up for updates, we will process the information you share for the purpose of providing you with updates on the Collaborative only. We will not use the information for any other purpose.

Cookies

We collect only essential or functional cookies, listed here:

Name

Purpose

Duration

_pk_ses<appleID>.<domainHash>

Shows an active session of the visitor.  

30 minutes

_pk_id.<appleID>.<domainHash>

Used to recognize visitors and hold their various properties

13 months

_pk_cvar

Holds custom variables that were set during the previous page view

30 minutes

App_id

Used to pass a site or app ID between Piwik PRO’s modules: Analytics, Tag Manager, Audience Manager, Consent Manager, Administration

365 days

piwik_auth

Stores session information for Piwik PRO’s user interface.

24 minutes

PIWIK_SESSID

A unique session identifier

24 minutes

 

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the Settings icon. You can also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Disclosures of your personal data

From time to time, we ask third parties to carry out certain business functions for us. These third parties will process your personal data on our behalf (as our processor). We will disclose your personal data to these parties so that they can perform those functions. Before we disclose your personal data to other people, we will make sure that they have appropriate security standards in place to make sure your personal data is protected, and we will enter into a written contract imposing appropriate security standards on them. Examples of these third-party service providers include service providers and/or sub-contractors, such as our IT systems software and maintenance, back up, and server hosting providers and external legal providers.

In certain circumstances, we will also disclose your personal data to third parties who will receive it as controllers of your personal data in their own right for the purposes set out above, in particular:

  • if we transfer, purchase, reorganise, merge or sell any part of our business or the business of a third party, and we disclose or transfer your personal data to the prospective seller, buyer or other third party involved in a business transfer, reorganisation or merger arrangement (and their advisors); and
  • if we need to disclose your personal data in order to comply with a legal obligation, to enforce a contract or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees, Participants or others.

We may also share your personal data with third parties, as directed by you.

International transfers

If any of our processing activities require your personal data to be transferred outside the European Economic Area, we will only make that transfer if:

  • the country to which the personal data is to be transferred ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data;
  • we have put in place appropriate safeguards to protect your personal data, such as an appropriate contract with the recipient;
  • the transfer is necessary for one of the reasons specified in data protection legislation, such as the performance of a contract between us and you; or
  • or you explicitly consent to the transfer.

Data retention

We keep some types of personal data for longer than others. We will not retain your personal data for longer than we need it.  This will depend on a number of factors, including:

  • any laws or regulations that we are required to follow;
  • whether we are in a legal or other type of dispute with each other or any third party;
  • the type of information that we hold about you; and
  • whether we are asked by you or a regulatory authority to keep your personal data for a valid reason.

Our lawful basis for processing your personal data

Under the UK General Data Protection Act (UK GDPR) our lawful basis for processing your data is legitimate interests.

Your data protection rights

Data protection law provides you with certain rights relating to your personal data which are summarised below. The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information.

  • Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
  • Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
  • Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. Please contact us at  [email protected]  if you wish to make a request

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at [email protected].

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113 ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk