Privacy Statement
Introduction
ABRSM Publishing and its parent organisation, The Associated Board, are fully committed to respecting your privacy and to protecting any personal information you provide to us. We make every effort to ensure that all information that you provide to us is protected.
This Privacy statement is designed to explain how ABRSM Publishing collects information from you when you visit our website and how this information is then used.
Please read this statement carefully and re-visit it from time to time to review any changes that may have been made.
Personal Information
In general you can visit ABRSM Publishing website without disclosing any personal information about yourself. There are times, however, when we may request information from you.
Mailing list opt-in
Users of www.abrsmpublishing.com have the option of joining the ABRSM Publishing mailing list. In order to join, we require the following information from our users:
Full name
Personal profile (i.e. student, teacher, parent, retailer or member of the
press/media)
Instrument(s) of interest (e.g. flute)
Email address
It is optional for users to provide us with their postal address, but encouraged so we can provide them with information of direct relevance to their area and personal music interests.
Opting to join this list and the submission of personally identifiable information is voluntary and not required to use other parts of the website.
Online ordering
The shopping basket facility on the ABRSM Publishing website is provided by our exclusive worldwide sales agent, Oxford University Press (OUP). To place an on-line order you will need to provide personal information, including your name and address and your credit card details. This information is transmitted to OUP over the Internet. All personal and credit card information is encoded using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology before being sent over the Internet. To protect your data further, your credit card information is always stored in an encrypted form in a database that is away from OUP’s and ABRSM Publishing’s website databases, so it isn't connected to the Internet. Credit card transactions are issued a digital certificate, ensuring that your data can only be read by OUP’s transaction system as long as your browser shows its secure mode symbol (such as a key or closed lock).
To make the most of the security on our site, we recommend using either Netscape Navigator® or Microsoft® Internet Explorer™ version 4.0 or higher, both of which enable SSL. We also recommend setting your browser's preferences to accept cookies and enable JavaScript™.
If you are concerned about transmitting your credit card details and other personal information over the Internet, please place your order off-line using one of the methods outlined on the Placing your order page. Under no circumstances should you disclose credit card information in an email.
Job Applications
You may opt to provide us with information about yourself, such as a résumé or curriculum vitae, in connection with a job application, whether advertised on the ABRSM Publishing website or otherwise. We may use this information throughout ABRSM Publishing and The Associated Board for the purpose of employment consideration. We will not store this information for any purpose other than that relating to your application or keep it longer than necessary without your written permission.
Making an enquiry/Contacting us
You may choose to contact ABRSM Publishing in order to make a general enquiry by using the email facility or other contact details provided on our website. In such instances your personal information will be used for the purposes of responding to your enquiry. If we wish to use your information for other purposes we will tell you and obtain your consent where appropriate.
Discussion Forums
If you choose to participate in an Associated Board discussion forum, you should be aware that the information you provide there will be available to others, both inside and outside the Associated Board, who also have access to that discussion forum unless you specify otherwise. Each participant’s opinion on a discussion forum is his or her own and should not be considered as reflecting the opinion of The Associated Board or ABRSM Publishing.
Aggregate information
Aggregate information is collected from users using our own web tracking software. This information includes users’ IP addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time of visit, number of clicks, error pages and number of unique visits. This information is collected to allow us to analyse visitor trends and use of our website, administer the website and to gather broad demographic information of our website users. This information is not linked to personal profiles or to personally identifiable information provided by users.
Information Use
Profile
We store information that we collect through cookies and log files. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that details their viewing preferences. This profile is used to tailor a user’s visit to our Website, to make navigation easier and to direct the user to information that best corresponds to their interests. Your profile, if shared, will be provided in aggregate form only.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your Internet browser’s help file directions.
ABRSM Publishing’s exclusive distributor, Oxford University Press (OUP) use cookies to store details of a user’s shopping basket (see above)
If you are concerned about Cookies, you can disable them in your browser. If you do this however, please note that you will have not be able to order publications via our website.
Log Files
Like most standard Website servers we use log files. This includes Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Communications from the Site
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email, post, fax or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.
Sharing
We currently DO NOT disclose any of the personally identifiable information that you give to us beyond The Associated Board. We do not sell or supply any of the information that you provide through our website to Third Parties. However, in the future, we may decide to supply carefully selected organisations with personally identifiable information collected via our website.
All users are given the opportunity to opt out of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our website at the point where we ask for that information. Please refer to the Choice/Opt Out section.
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Website.
Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
We occasionally share aggregated demographic information with organisations who are interested in either linking to or placing a link on our website and members of the press. This aggregated information will consist of user numbers, date and times of visits, user’s movement through the website in the aggregate and broad demographic information. This information will be provided purely to allow organisations to assess the suitability of our website for their own web audience when considering reciprocal links. This aggregate information is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
Choice/Opt-in
Our users are given the opportunity to ‘opt-in’ of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for that information.
Our mailing list registration form has an opt-in mechanism for users who do not wish their details to be passed on to Third Parties.
Users who no longer wish to receive promotional communications from ABRSM Publishing and the Associated Board may opt-out of them by contacting us:
Marketing Department
ABRSM Publishing
24 Portland Place
London W1B 1LU
UK
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7636 5400
Email: rholey@abrsm.ac.uk
Links
This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that ABRSM Publishing are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.
Security
We take every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, their information is protected both on-line and off-line.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online and we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. Personal information given by users beyond their name and address is restricted in our offices and made available only to the appropriate departments. All employees are provided with a unique username and password in order to gain access to this information. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are password protected and held in a secure environment, in a locked facility. Regular back ups are made of this data, and these are stored off site.
If users have any questions about the security on the ABRSM Publishing or Associated Board website, users can send an email to rholey@abrsm.ac.uk.
Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as post code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users’ personally identifiable information. This can be done by contacting us:
Marketing Department
ABRSM Publishing
24 Portland Place
London W1B 1LU
UK
Email: rholey@abrsm.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7636 5400
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.
If, however, we are going to use users’ personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users where possible via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner.
Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:
Marketing Department
ABRSM Publishing
24 Portland Place
London W1B 1LU
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7636 5400
Email: rholey@abrsm.ac.uk
Further useful links
Data Protection Act
Data Protection Commissioner
Microsoft's cookie guide
Foundation for Information Policy Research
UK Data Protection Forum