Commitment to Privacy

PCI College recognise that you care how information about you is used and shared, and the College appreciate you trusting that we will do so carefully. To better protect your privacy, we provide this Privacy Policy explaining our practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used by PCI College. The information below explains our policy regarding your privacy, both online and offline. By visiting www.pcicollege.ie or sharing personal information with the College you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

What personal data is being collected?

Personal data means any information that can be used to identify directly or indirectly a specific individual.

We ask for personal information so that we can fulfill your request and return your message. Your information, including your personal data, consists of the details provided in the application form, together with any other information that is furnished to us in connection with this account. This information is retained and used in accordance with existing laws, rules, regulations, and other policies. PCI College does not collect personal information from you unless you provide it to us. You are not required to provide PCI College the personal data that we request, but if you choose not to do so, we may not be able to provide you with our products or services, or with a high quality of service or respond to any queries you may have.

We may collect personal data from a variety of sources. This includes:

• Application & Booking – When you apply to one of our courses, we will collect personal data as necessary to offer and fulfil the services you request.  Depending on the services you choose, we may require you to provide us with your name, postal address, telephone number, email address and identification information to establish a student account. In addition, we collect payment information, so we can proceed with the booking. We may require you to provide us with additional Personal Data as you use our Services.
• Other information we collect related to your use of our sites or services – We may collect additional information from or about you when you communicate with us or contact our student service team.
• Personal data that you choose to provide us in surveys and questionnaires in relation to the college and courses. We will provide you with a separate notice at the time of collection, if the use of that Personal Data differs from the uses disclosed in this Privacy Policy.  

Why Do We Retain Personal Data?

We retain Personal Data in an identifiable format for the least amount of time necessary to fulfill our legal or regulatory obligations and for our business purposes. We will also retain your personal information as long as necessary to comply with our legal obligations. We will continue to use and disclose such Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

What purpose do we use your data for and how we process it?

When you supply information about yourself for a specific purpose, we use the information for only that purpose (such as to provide the service or information you have requested). We collect, process and disclose your personal data only for specific and limited purposes. For example, to process your booking, to process your payments, to assess and handle any enquires or complaints, to develop and improve our services, communication methods and the functionality of our website, to provide personalised communications and targeted advertising as well as course/workshop recommendations to you. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete that order.

When you visit our website or make a payment online or offline, you may provide us with personal information (such as name, address, email address, telephone numbers, credit or debit card for bookings) that you knowingly choose to disclose, which is collected on an individual basis for various purposes. Credit or debit card information given for any transaction is only retained long enough for that specific transaction to process. We do not retain credit or debit information beyond that single transaction.

These purposes also include registering to receive email newsletters, or other materials, requesting further information from us about courses, workshops or conferences, making requests, submitting a booking on our website, or simply asking a question. We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way, whether it is online or offline. You can register with our website if you would like to receive updates on our courses and services. Information you submit on our website or over the phone will not be used for direct marketing unless you ‘opt-in’ specifically.

We collect, process and disclose your personal data for the following purposes:

• To understand and assess the interests, wants, and changing needs of consumers, to improve our website, our current services, and/or developing new services
• To process and assess the application(s) and any applications for products and services that you may request from PCI College or PCI College may provide to you in the future;
• To manage and administer your Account(s), policies, and any other educational products and services, which you are enrolled on with PCI College or PCI College may provide to you from time to time;
• To enable PCI College manage, on a holistic basis, its relationship with you through maintaining a single view of your accounts and any products or services that we may provide to you and any interaction with us;
• To review your complete position with PCI College which will include (where relevant), debit balances, credit balances and any other relevant information which we hold;
• To carry out statistical analysis, market research, predictive/analytical modelling, and to develop and assess products and services;
• To allow PCI College to conduct quality control checking and compile management information for internal reporting throughout PCI College; and
  In accordance with your preferences, for marketing purposes.

Your Information may be processed, recorded and retained by us in electronic form. PCI College may communicate with you electronically in relation to your account(s), and that it may rely on such electronic communications, records, originals and documents in any dealing with you. We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive, to receipt any transactions or if follow-up for that specific function is required. Such addresses are carefully guarded by PCI College for their specific purpose and are not shared with outside parties. The College does not sell, rent, give-away or share its email addresses or other personal contact information with outside sources.

We may make such enquiries about you, as we may from time to time consider appropriate and may provide information provided by you in the application for Client Work and information in relation to your conduct. Garda Vetting information will be kept for a period of at least one year after your graduation.

In some cases, we rely on legitimate interest for processing your personal data. A legitimate interest could exist for example, when you sign up for a course and we use the personal data collected to conduct data analytics to improve our services. This ground will only be used where it is necessary to achieve a legitimate interest, for example to assist in the performance of a contract, or to optimise a service, and does not outweigh your rights as an individual. This legal basis will only be relied upon where there is no less intrusive way to process your personal data. We can assure you that if legitimate interest is used as a ground for processing your personal data, we will keep a record of this and you have the right to ask for this information.

We also process your personal data when we have a legal obligation (e.g., tax or social security obligations) to perform such processing. For example, a court order or a subpoena may require us to process personal data for a particular purpose, or we may be compelled to process personal data to report suspicious transactions under the local anti-money laundering rules.

Do we share personal data?

We may disclose your Personal Data or other information about you with others in a variety of ways as described in this section of the Privacy Policy. We may share your Personal Data or other information for the following reasons:

• With our partners, legal and other advisers, service providers and contractors: We share Personal Data with third-party service providers that perform validation to our courses and accreditation to our BSc & MSc students, such as Middlesex University and IACP, at our direction and on our behalf.  These third-party service providers may, for example, assist in processing transactions and validation of your degree and accreditation for recognised standards of professional competence;
• In the context of a sale of the whole or part of our business and/or account;
• Where we are required by any regulatory body, law enforcement agency, court or other legal process;
• Where necessary to verify the authenticity of documentation provided to us.

What Are Your Rights?

We are accountable to our students who must be able to manage their own information in accordance with their preferences. Please contact us via our email address, phone number or address provided below if your personal details change at all so that we keep an accurate record of our students.

Under the Data Protection Acts, you have the right, subject to certain exemptions, to receive a copy of all “Personal Data” and to have any inaccuracies in your Personal Data corrected. To find out what information we hold in relation to you, to have your personal information updated, amended or removed, or to request a copy of such information, please email us at dataprotection@pcicollege.ie, or write to PCI College, Corrig House, Old Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, Ireland. Any such requests may be written and subject to the fees prescribed under the Data Protection Acts.

All visitors to the website have the option to unsubscribe from communications from us. If you do not wish to continue to receive correspondence from us you can opt-out by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link in any emails which we might send you or by contacting us via our email address, phone number or address provided below.

How Do We Protect Your Personal Data?

Personally identifiable information is stored on our server and is not publicly accessible. Further, personally identifiable information is only accessed by PCI College personnel on a “need to know” basis. To prevent unauthorised access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. We follow best practice industry standard measures, to provide an additional level of security.

Your personal information is protected by a secure system both online and offline. Your information will be stored on a secure, computerised database which seeks to prevent loss, misuse, unauthorised access or disclosure, alteration or destruction of this information. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to any of our websites; any transmission is at your own risk. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service ("DDoS") attack, viruses, malware or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of this website or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. When possible, encryption is used, both in transit and storage. Access controls within the organisation limit who may access information.

Contact Details of the Data Protection Officer

PCI College has a Data Protection Officer contact point at dataprotection@pcicollege.ie

Changes to this Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement may change without prior notification. We therefore encourage users to familiarise themselves with the contents of this Privacy Statement on a regular basis.

Further information in respect of your rights is available at the website of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, www.dataprotection.ie.