Privacy

PPLI Privacy Notice

1. Who are we?
Post-Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI) is a Department of Education funded unit which supports and promotes the teaching and learning of Modern Foreign Languages in Post-Primary education. PPLI is situated on the 3rd Floor of The Grainstore, Roe Lane (off Thomas Street), The Digital Hub, Dublin 8, D08 KC81.
This Privacy Notice explains how we collect and process information, particularly personal data that we receive from you. Please read the following carefully to understand our approach and practices regarding your personal data and how we treat it. Please do not use our website, products or services if you do not agree with the ways in which we will process your personal data and other information.

2. What information do we collect about you?
PPLI will gather and process personal data in order to carry out its function and to fulfil its legal basis as a unit supporting and promoting the learning and teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in Post-Primary education including employing staff and dealing with students, subcontractors and relevant professional individuals/bodies. In cases where personal data is not submitted we may not carry out our functions
Depending on the particular circumstances, we may collect and hold a range of different information about you. This can include your name, date of birth (minors), address, email address, phone number, nationality (where relevant), PPS number, medical data (where relevant) and financial information (where relevant e.g. staff or subcontractors). This list is not exhaustive and we may sometimes need to collect additional information for relevant purposes, for example references, garda vetting etc. All personal data is relevant to the purpose for which it is collected and no excessive personal data will be collected.

3. How do we collect your information?

We may collect and process information about you in a number of ways, including:

  • directly from you or through contacting us with a request, complaint or query
  • directly from you if you are an employee, student, subcontractor or a relevant professional individual/body
  • when you visit our website which information includes, but is not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data and any resources you may access
  • from publicly available sources of information
  • when legally authorised to do so, for example, when we need to undertake background checks e.g. garda vetting

4. What do we use your information for?

We use your information for a range of different purposes, including:

  • to administer and manage the courses and services we provide including keeping relevant and up-to-date files
  • to provide you with information that you request from us about our courses and services
  • to assist you with enquiries and to provide you with better customer service
  • to provide newsletters and other information
  • to verify your identity, or to conduct appropriate checks if you are teaching
  • to manage staff and subcontractors
  • to conduct research and analysis to further enhance and improve the quality of the courses and services we offer. We endeavour to ensure that we de-personalise any personal data before using such data for research and development purposes as authorised or required by any law applicable to us or arising from your interaction with us.
  • to achieve for historical purposes (e.g. minutes of meetings)

5. How do we share your information?
Any information which you provide is not made available to any third parties, and is used by PPLI only in accordance with the purpose for which you provided the information and will only be retained for as long as required for the purpose. By submitting personal data, you give your consent to this transfer, storing or processing of your personal data by us. We will not share, sell or distribute your personal information to third parties for advertising or marketing products or services. Personal data is not transferred outside the EU, however you should note some data is stored in Google Suite and Dropbox.
Where permitted by law we reserve the right to release personal data without your consent and/or without consulting you, when we believe that this is appropriate to comply with our legal obligations, to protect the security of our website and related technologies, to prevent and minimise the effects of fraud, and otherwise to protect our legitimate interests and/or the legitimate interests of our customers.

6. Where do we store your information?
PPLI takes its security responsibilities seriously by employing the most appropriate physical and technical measures which are regularly reviewed and updated, including staff training and awareness. We may store your information in hard copy or electronic format behind locked doors which we operate ourselves. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.

7. For how long do we retain your personal data?
We retain your personal data for so long as is necessary with regard to the purposes for which it was collected or lawfully further processed, or for so long as may be necessary in light of our legal obligations. Data may be retained for different periods of time depending on its purpose (e.g. employee data retention period depends on the period of employment whereas student data retention period depends on period of course participation). We follow the Department of Education and Skills guideline in applying a retention period of seven years in general.

8. How do we keep your information safe and accurate?
We will take all steps we deem to be reasonably necessary to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Notice. We seek to ensure that we keep your personal data accurate and up to date. However, you are responsible for informing us of any changes to your personal data and other information (such as a change in contact details). We store information you provide to us on secure servers and deploy appropriate technical and organisational security measures in the storage and disclosure of your personal data to try to prevent unauthorised access or loss.

9. What are your rights?
You have the right to access information held about you, and to request that we update, correct or delete any inaccuracies in your personal data.
You have the right to withdraw your consent to your personal data being held.
You have the right to complain with the supervisory authority if you are unhappy with the implementation of any of this criteria.
You have the right to data portability.
You have personal privacy rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

10. Automated decision-making
PPLI does not conduct automated decision-making.

11. Cookies
Similar to other websites PPLI utilises a standard technology called “cookies” and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the websites visited just before and just after ippn.ie. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.

What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognise the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user’s web browser on the user’s hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that web site by the same user or to use the information to streamline the web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.

What Cookie settings do we use? Our default settings include the Necessary, Preferences and Statistics settings. By clicking them you can see which categories and domains are included. You can deny the settings by leaving the appropriate box unticked.

How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies? We use Web site browser software tools such as cookies and Web server logs to gather information about our Web site users’ browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our Web site and better serve our members. This information assists us to design and arrange our Web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our Web site to better meet the needs of our members. We use the Statistics information to determine what areas of our website are of most interest to our users.

12. Social media platforms
PPLI maintains a presence on social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. Any information, communications or materials you submit to us via a social media platform is done at your own risk without any expectation of privacy. We cannot control the actions of other users or platforms themselves. Your interactions with social media platforms are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them.

13. Third party websites
Our website includes links to other websites such as Eventbrite and SurveyMonkey which have their own privacy policies and are likely to use cookies. Please observe their privacy policies. We currently use MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) to help us deliver our newsletter.

14. Changes to our Privacy Notice
PPLI Privacy Policy and Privacy Notice have been updated to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. Any changes we may make to our Privacy Notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.

15. Contacting us
If you have any questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Notice you should address all correspondence to the Data Protection Officer, PPLI, 3rd Floor, The Grainstore, Roe Lane (off Thomas Street), The Digital Hub, Dublin 8, D08 KC81 or info@ppli.ie or 01 215 0280.