Virus Bulletin :: Privacy Policy

This document was last updated on 15 May 2023.

Virus Bulletin's commitment to privacy

Virus Bulletin Ltd takes your privacy very seriously and we are committed to protecting your personal information. This notice sets out our online information practices and explains the ways in which your personal information is collected and used.

About this privacy policy

This is the privacy policy of Virus Bulletin Ltd ("Virus Bulletin"), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 2388295 whose registered office is at Manor House - Office 6, Howbery Business Park, Wallingford, OX10 8BA, United Kingdom and whose VAT registration number is GB 532 5598 33.

As a visitor to our main website (www.virusbulletin.com), our extranet (extranet.virusbulletin.com), our virtual conference site (vblocalhost.com) or any other site hosted on the virusbulletin.com domain ("the Sites") your privacy is very important to us. This privacy policy explains what personal information we may collect about you, how we may use it, and the measures we take to safeguard your privacy. We also explain your rights in respect of your personal data.

Please read the following policy to understand how we use your personal data. Whenever you give us personal data, you are consenting to its collection and use in accordance with our privacy policy.

Other than in the instances specifically outlined in this document, we will not share your personal information with third parties without your consent unless required by law.

How to contact us about your personal data or this privacy policy

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, if you want to request any information about your personal data, if you believe that we are holding incorrect personal data on you, or if you would like to request deletion of your personal data, please email us on [email protected] or write to us at:

Virus Bulletin Ltd
Manor House - Office 6
Howbery Business Park
Wallingford OX10 8BA
UK

What data does Virus Bulletin collect?

Both when you visit our main website and when you visit our extranet site, we only collect your IP address and information provided by your browser. These details are recorded temporarily in our webserver logs, but the logs are deleted after 4 weeks.

If you subscribe to our newsletter we will collect your email address.

If you want to use any of the extranet site's features, you must register as a user of the extranet, at which point we collect the following personal data:

your name
your email address
your company/affiliation
your job title
your country

In the rest of this document, we refer to this set of details (your name, email address, company/affiliation, job title and country) as the "extranet user" details.

If you register for a Virus Bulletin conference, in addition to the "extranet user" details listed above, your attendance of the conference will be recorded (your name and the event you attended), and we may also collect:

Your dietary requirements (if applicable)
The name of a partner you intend to bring to the conference (if applicable)
Your partner's dietary requirements (if applicable)
Your feedback on the conference (if you provide it)

If you submit an abstract (a proposal) for a Virus Bulletin conference paper, in addition to the "extranet user" details listed above we will collect:

Your telephone number

And we may collect

The names, affiliations, email addresses and telephone numbers of any co-authors (if applicable)

If you forward information to us electronically or as a hard copy, we will collect that information and use it for the purposes for which you have provided it. We will never collect sensitive information about you without your explicit consent.

Job applicants (whether applying for an advertised position, or speculatively)

Whether you apply for a position advertised by Virus Bulletin or send us your details speculatively, we will keep the information you have provided to us – including but not limited to: your CV, any details you have provided on your employment history, your qualifications, and any relevant disability – for one year after receipt.

Should your application be successful and you subsequently become a Virus Bulletin employee or contractor, your data will be kept until 6 years after the end of your employment by or contract with the company.

Applicants for free student tickets for the VB Conference

If you apply for a free student ticket for the VB Conference (during the years when VB operates such a scheme) we will collect the following personal data:

your name
your email address
the name of the university or academic institution at which you study
details of what you study
whether you are a full-time or a part-time student
details of your research interests

and we may also collect

details of your LinkedIn or other social media profile
your resume
other information you choose to share with us

If you apply for a free student ticket for the VB Conference the data you submit will be shared with the company that sponsors the free student tickets (the "NextGen sponsor").

Your data will be retained by Virus Bulletin for a period of 12 months. If your application is successful and you subsequently become a conference delegate, your information will be used and retained in line with Virus Bulletin's policy on the use of conference delegate data, as detailed in this Privacy Policy.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of information that is sent to your browser by a website, allowing the website to store information on your computer's hard drive and retrieve it later. The VB extranet uses cookies for the purpose of allowing users to login and for keeping users logged in between sessions.

Most Internet browsers allow the user to enable or disable the use of cookies. For specific instructions to enable or disable cookies on your computer, please refer to the documentation for your browser software.

Links to other sites

The Virus Bulletin website contains links to other websites. Please be aware that this privacy policy only applies to Virus Bulletin's sites (www.virusbulletin.com, extranet.virusbulletin.com,and any other sites hosted on the virusbulletin.com domain). Virus Bulletin is not responsible for the content or privacy policy of any other sites. If you go to another website from this one, you are advised to read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.

How does Virus Bulletin use your personal data?

In broad terms, Virus Bulletin uses your personal data in the following ways: to provide goods and services to you, to communicate with you about the services you have requested, for record-keeping purposes, and to let you know about other Virus Bulletin goods and services in which you may be interested.

Virus Bulletin also uses non-identifying and aggregate information in order to improve the design and functionality of the Site and to share with advertisers. For example, we may tell an advertiser that X number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, but we would not disclose anything that could be used to identify those individuals.

Every time a user visits the Site we store a log of the visit that shows: the IP address of the machine used to access the Internet, the browser used, the time and length of the visit, the pages visited, the referring site (where appropriate), and whether any page requests were unsuccessful.

This information is collected and processed in aggregate, and no attempt is made to link this information back to the user, or to identify them from the information provided. The data is used to help us to understand which areas of the Site are popular, as well as identify which pages are not being requested. It also tells us how many people are visiting the Site in total. We may also use this information to block IP addresses where there is a breach of the Terms and Conditions for use of the Site.

Conference delegates

When you use this site to purchase a ticket to a VB conference, Virus Bulletin will collect personal details including your name, company name, job title, country, and email address. Virus Bulletin will collect this information both for purchasers of tickets (who are registered users of the extranet) and for every VB conference attendee (who may not be registered users of the extranet).

When you purchase a ticket to a VB conference, you will also need to submit your credit card details; these are entered directly on our online payments processor's web interface and are not processed or held by Virus Bulletin. Our online payments processor is currently SagePay.

When you register as a delegate for a Virus Bulletin conference (whether you do so yourself or someone else does this on your behalf), Virus Bulletin uses your personal details in the following ways:

Your name and company name are used to produce a name badge to be worn at the event.
Your name, company name and country are included on a list of delegates ("delegate list"), which is made available to all attendees of the event in question and may also be shared (after the event) with potential customers. (Should you wish to opt out of having your details included on this list, you can do so by sending us an email on [email protected].)
Your email address may be used to send you information both about the conference and about other Virus Bulletin services (for example future conferences). You may opt out of receiving information about other Virus Bulletin services either during the registration process or by sending us an email on [email protected].
Your partner's name (if applicable) is used to produce a name badge for them to wear at the event.
Your dietary requirements (if applicable) are noted and passed onto the conference venue, but not in a personally identifiable fashion – we collect details of special diets required and pass on the numbers only.
If you provide us with feedback about the conference, Virus Bulletin will use this to help with the planning of future events. Virus Bulletin may contact you about the feedback you have provided, but will not share it with any third parties.
Your company, job title and country may be used, in a non-personally identifiable way, to provide demographic information about the conference audience both to potential sponsors of the event and to local government agencies (for example, when the event runs in Canada we may inform the Canadian authorities as to the percentage of conference attendees that come from Canada).

At the conference itself, Virus Bulletin takes photographs to record the event. These photographs are kept as a record of the event and may in some cases be used in promotional material, to promote and advertise similar future events. Delegates who do not wish to be included in photographs are asked to make their wishes known to the photographer/VB team and Virus Bulletin will endeavour to honour such requests.

Submitting abstracts

When you use this site to submit an abstract (a proposal) for a Virus Bulletin conference paper, Virus Bulletin will use your personal details in the following ways:

Your name, email address and telephone number will be used to contact you about the submission you have made.
The name, email address and telephone numbers of co-authors listed (if applicable) will be used to contact those people about the submission they are associated with.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Our legal basis for collecting and using personal data will depend on the personal data concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.

However, we will normally collect personal data from you only where we need the personal data to perform a contract with you, or where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms, or where we have your consent to do so.

If we collect and use your personal data in reliance on our legitimate interests other than as described in this privacy policy, we will make clear to you at the relevant time what those legitimate interests are.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal data, please contact us on [email protected].

With whom might Virus Bulletin share your personal data?

Other than the instances listed below, Virus Bulletin will not pass your personal data to any other companies or organizations without your express permission. Unless we have your permission, we will not disclose your personal information except where we are obliged to do so or allowed to do so by law.

If you do not wish us to pass your information to any other companies, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected].

Email service provider: We may use your name and email address to contact you about Virus Bulletin services that you may be interested in and/or to send you our newsletter (if you have subscribed to it). When we do this we use a third-party email service provider to send the emails on our behalf. We will therefore pass your name and email address to the email service provider. Currently, our email service provider is Brevo (formerly sendinblue).
Printing company: When you have registered to attend a Virus Bulletin conference, your name and company name (and your partner's name, if applicable) will be used to produce a name badge to be worn at the event. We will therefore pass your name and company to the printing company we use to produce the badges.
Other conference attendees & potential customers: When you have registered to attend a Virus Bulletin conference, your name, company name and country are included on a list of delegates ("delegate list"). This list is made available (in PDF format) to all attendees of the event in question, and may also be shared (after the event, also in PDF format) with future potential customers. You may opt out of having your details included on this list.
Google: Virus Bulletin uses the G Suite service provided by Google, which means that all emails are handled via Google's servers and in stored in Google's cloud, and in some cases data will be stored (usually on a temporary basis) in apps that are hosted in Google's cloud.
Conference organiser: If you are involved in some way with the Virus Bulletin conference - for example as a speaker, chairperson or exhibitor, or if there is a particular organisational issue about which we need to contact you - we may pass your email address to the contractor we use to assist with the organisation of the conference.

Security of information

Sending information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and even though all our services use HTTPS, we can't guarantee the security of your data while it's in transit.

Any data you send is at your own risk.

We take the security of your personal information seriously. We have security procedures in place to protect our paper-based systems and computerised databases from loss and misuse, and only allow access to them when it is absolutely necessary to do so, and then under strict guidelines as to what use may be made of the personal information contained within them.

We currently store data on secure servers in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Where a password is required to access certain areas of our Site(s), you are responsible for keeping your password secure and confidential. Please do not share or disclose your password to any other person.

For how long will Virus Bulletin keep your personal data?

In general, we will securely retain your information for as long as is reasonably necessary and in accordance with applicable law.

More specifically, your extranet account and all personal data associated with the account will be deleted after 3 years of inactivity.

Email guidelines

Virus Bulletin abides by the following guidelines for email delivery:

All emails sent to you by Virus Bulletin will clearly identify Virus Bulletin as the sender.
The subject line of emails sent by Virus Bulletin will always provide an as accurate as possible description of the subject matter of the email.
All emails sent to you by Virus Bulletin for marketing purposes will include an option to unsubscribe from future email messages.
All emails sent to you by Virus Bulletin will include our physical postal address: Virus Bulletin Ltd, Manor House - Office 6, Howbery Business Park, Wallingford OX10 8BA, United Kingdom.
Any third party partners will be required to comply with legislative requirements on unsolicited emails and the use of data.

We may use a third-party email service provider to send the emails on our behalf. Currently, our email service provider is sendinblue.

Links contained in emails sent via our email service provider may be personalised and will be redirected through sendinblue for statistics purposes.

Individuals who are involved in the Virus Bulletin conference - for example speakers, chairpersons, exhibitors - may on occasion be emailed by the contractor we use to assist with the organisation of the conference.

More about your information – your rights

You may correct or update your personal information at any time by emailing us at [email protected] or by editing your details in your extranet user account. We encourage you to update your personal information promptly if it changes.

If you wish to submit a request that your data be deleted, please write to us at the above address.

You have the right to receive a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. Please write to us at the address above if you wish to exercise this right.

Notification of changes

We aim to provide the highests standards of privacy and security, and as such our policies and procedures are constantly under review. From time to time, we may change this privacy policy: the revised policy will apply from the date posted on the Site. We recommend that you check this page periodically in order to review the latest version.

Where to make a complaint

If you have a complaint regarding any aspect of your personal data or this privacy policy, please write to us at the above address. If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you may write to the Information Commissioner's Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
United Kingdom

You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office using their online form.