This policy explains how we may collect information about you and then use it in order to satisfy your particular requirements. It also outlines some of the security measures that we take in order to protect your privacy and gives certain assurances on things that we will not do.

When we first obtain personal information from you we will give you the opportunity to indicate if you do or do not (as applicable) wish to receive information from us about other services. This may be done by:

• a tick box on an on-line or paper registration or application;
• verbal confirmation by a telephone adviser.

You may revise the choice that you have made at any time by writing to us informing us of the change.

Some of the personal information we hold about you may be sensitive personal data within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998 - for example, information about your health or ethnic origin. We will not use sensitive personal data about you other than for the specific purpose for which you provide it.

1. Collection of information

   We may collect personal information about you from a number of sources, including:

   • from you when you agree to take a service from us in which case this may include your contact details, date of birth, details of your qualifications;
   • from you when you contact us with an enquiry or in response to a communication from us, in which case this may tell us something about your preferences;

   from publicly available sources.

2. Use of information

    

   2.1

   Information you provide or we hold about you (whether or not under our contract(s) with you) may be used by us and/or our agents to:

   • identify you when you make enquiries;
   • help administer, and contact you about improved administration of, any services provided by us previously, now or in the future;
   • carry out marketing analysis and applicant profiling (including with transactional information) and create statistical and testing information;
   • help us to prevent and detect fraud or loss; and
   • contact you by various means (including mail, e-mail, telephone, text or multimedia messages) about other services offered by us, and our contracted partners. We will only contact you in this way if you have previously indicated your consent. In addition, we will only contact you by e-mail, text or multimedia message about other people's services, or services which are not similar to those you have sought from us, if you have explicitly opted in to receiving such material.

    

3. Disclosure and transfer of information

    

   3.1

   We may disclose your information to other related education sector bodies such as the Department for Children, Schools and Families, for them to carry out any of these purposes as set out in clause 2.1 above.

   3.2

   Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 we may be required to release information held by the TDA to any requesting body. This may include collated statistics from information you have provided us with, but it will in no way affect your right to privacy under data protection.

   3.3

   We may disclose information we hold about you to third parties where legitimately requested for legal or regulatory purposes, or as part of legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings.

   3.4

   We may also find it necessary to transfer your personal information to third parties located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This may happen where companies who process data on behalf of TDA are based outside of the EEA. The data protection and other laws of these countries may not be as comprehensive as those in the UK or the EU - in these instances we take rigorous steps to ensure an adequate level of protection is given to your information.

    

4. Monitoring

   You should also note that communications with you (including phone conversations and e-mails) may be monitored and recorded by us for quality assurance, legal, regulatory and training purposes.

5. Protection of information

   We maintain strict security measures in order to protect personal information. This includes following certain procedures, for example to check your identity when you telephone us, encrypting data on our websites and in order to ensure compliance with all applicable legal requirements.

6. The internet

    

   6.1

   If you communicate with us via the internet then we may occasionally use e-mail to contact you about our services. When you first provide personal information to our website we will normally give you the opportunity to indicate whether you would prefer us not to contact you in this way. However, you can contact us at any time to change your preferences.

   6.2

   Please be aware that communications over the internet, such as e-mails/webmails, are not secure unless they have been encrypted. Your communications may route through a number of countries before being delivered - this is the nature of the World Wide Web/Internet. We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information that is beyond our control.

   6.3

   We may use "cookies" to monitor website user traffic patterns and site usage. This helps us to understand how our applicants and potential applicants use our websites so that we can develop and improve the design, layout and functionality of the sites. A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer's hard drive and which records your navigation of a website so that, when you revisit that website, it can present tailored options to you based upon the stored information about your last visit. You can normally alter the settings of your browser to prevent acceptance of cookies.

   6.4

   If you do not want us to deploy cookies in your browser, you can set your browser to reject cookies or to notify you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. However, rejecting cookies may affect your ability to use some of the services at our Web site.

    

7. Turning off Cookies in different Browsers

    

   7.1

   Internet Explorer 5.0

   1. From your browser menu, select 'Tools'.
   2. Then select 'Internet Options'. This will bring up the 'Internet Options' Dialogue Box.
   3. On the top of the dialogue box, select 'Security', then 'Custom Level'. This will bring up the 'Security Settings' box.
   4. Scroll down using the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the box, until you come to the section carrying the title 'allow cookies to be stored on your computer'
   5. Of the options available, select 'Disable', and then select the 'OK' button on the bottom of the menu box.

   7.2

   Internet Explorer 6.0

   1. From your browser menu, select 'Tools', and then 'Internet Options'. This will bring up the 'Internet Options' Dialogue Box.
   2. On the top of the dialogue box, select 'Privacy'. This will bring up the 'Privacy Settings' box.
   3. On the Privacy tab, move the slider up for a higher level of privacy or down for a lower level of privacy.
   4. Move the slider to the top to block cookies from all web sites.
   5. Following these instructions will stop your computer from accepting cookies in future. You may reconfigure your computer to accept cookies again by following these instructions, but by selecting 'Enable', and the 'OK' button on the bottom of the menu box (Internet Explorer 5.0); or by selecting on 'Default' button (Internet Explorer 6.0).

   7.3

   Internet Explorer 7.0 

   1. Click on 'Tools' and then 'Internet Options'.
   2. Click the 'Privacy' tab. 
   3. Click on 'Advanced'.
   4. Tick 'Override automatic cookie handling'
   5. Tick 'Always allow session cookies'

   7.4

   Netscape 4.7

   1. First, on your top menu, select 'Edit', and then 'Preferences'. This will bring up the 'Preferences' menu box.
   2. From the options on the left-hand side, select 'Advanced' which will bring up another menu.
   3. Halfway down, you will see a section on cookies, and if you wish to turn cookies off, you should select 'Disable', and then the 'OK' button on the bottom of the menu box.
   4. You may reconfigure your computer to accept cookies again by following these instructions, but by selecting 'Accept All Cookies', and then selecting the 'OK' button on the bottom of the menu box.

   7.5

   Netscape 6.0

   1. First, on your top menu, select 'Tasks', and then 'Privacy & Security'.
   2. From here you have the option to 'block cookies from this site', 'unblock cookies from this site' or view and remove and prevent cookies from being reaccepted from selected sites.

    

   We also have information on disabling cookies in other browsers.

8. Pixels and GIF files

   The TDA uses pixels, or transparent GIF files, to help manage online advertising. These GIF files are provided by our advertising management partners, Advertising.com, Accelerator Media and DoubleClick. The files enable our partners to recognise a unique cookie on your browser, which lets us know which advertisements bring users to our website. The cookie is placed by us, or by another advertiser who works with one of our partners.

   With both cookies and Spotlight technology, the information we collect and share is anonymous and not personally identifiable. It does not contain your name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address. For more information about our partners, Advertising.com, Accelerator Media and DoubleClick, including information about how to opt out of these technologies, go to:

   http://uk.advertising.com/privacy/index.php

   http://www.doubleclick.net/us/corporate/privacy

   http://www.accelerator-media.com/privacy.html

9. Links

   This website may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected on this website.

10. Further information

    If you would like any further information or have any comments on our Privacy Policy then please write to us or send us an e-mail at data_protection_officer@tda.gov.uk. We may amend this policy from time to time in which case the amended version will be published on our website and a copy may be obtained by writing to the address below.

    Data Protection Officer
    Training and Development Agency for Schools
    151 Buckingham Palace Road
    London SW1W 9SZ

    This policy applies to personal information held about individuals. It does not apply to information we hold about companies and other organisations.