Privacy and Terms of Use
TSIS Privacy Policy
This page contains the Third Sector Internship Scotland (TSIS) privacy policy. The policy describes how we use and protect the personal information that we may collect about you over the course of the project. It also tells you how you may access and update your information.
If you do not agree to your data being dealt with in the manner described below, please do not submit your personal details. However, please note that your access to the services and resources offered by TSIS will be restricted as a result.
Data Protection Act 1998
TSIS (“we” or “us”) is a partnership between three separate organisations: Queen Margaret University, the Open University in Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. The TSIS project is funded by the Scottish Funding Council for Further and Higher Education (SFC).
The TSIS partner organisations are established in the United Kingdom (UK), and as such comply with European Union (EU) and UK data protection law. All three partners are registered separately under the UK's Data Protection Act 1998 and have provided appropriate notifications to the Information Commissioner.
If you are resident outside the EU, we cannot confirm that our collection and treatment of personal data is compliant with your local data protection / privacy laws.
Information that we collect
We may collect the following personal and / or organisational information from you:
a) General
Log-in details
If you wish to access and use certain areas of this website, you may need to create an online account with us. We will ask you to supply your name, a valid email address and a password in order to create and administer your account.
We strongly recommend that you do not divulge your user name or password to anyone. Please always remember to log out of your account and close your browser window when you have finished using the website. This ensures that others cannot access your personal data especially when using a shared or public access computer terminal.
Cookies and browser information
We use cookies in relation to certain areas of the website. Cookies are small files which store information on your hard drive or browser, which means that we can recognise that you have visited the website before. Cookies can make it easier for you to maintain your preferences on the website and for forms (such as your application form) to be prepopulated with some details you have previously entered.
TSIS uses Google Analytics to gather statistics in connection with your use of this website. By seeing how you use the website we can identify patterns and trends in user needs and demand. This will allow us to tailor the website around users' preferences and measure the general functionality of the website. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous manner. This information is transmitted to and stored by Google. Google Analytics uses only first-party cookies for data analysis. This means that the cookies are linked to the website’s domain and Google Analytics will only use that cookie data for statistical analysis related to your browsing behaviour on the website. According to Google, the data collected cannot be altered or retrieved by services from other domains Additionally, Google Analytics collects your Internet Protocol (IP) address to provide TSIS with an understanding of the location of its website users. An IP address is a unique number assigned to every computer and device connected to the Internet.
TSIS will not use these web analytics to collect or track any of your personally identifiable information, nor will it associate any data gathered with any personally identifying information from any source as part of your use. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. For more information on Google Analytics, please visit: http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/privacyoverview.html
If you choose, you can disable cookies from your browser and delete all cookies currently stored on your computer. On Microsoft Internet Explorer this can be done by selecting "Tools/Internet Options" and reviewing your privacy settings or selecting "delete cookies". You can find out how to do this for your particular browser by clicking "help" on your browser's menu. No information obtained from a cookie will be used for marketing purposes. However, if you choose to disable cookies on your web browser, you may not be able to use the site as effectively, nor be able to log in to apply for internships.
Correspondence and meetings
If you choose to correspond with us via email, post or any other means we may retain personal information about you (or your organisation), such as the content of your messages, your email or physical address and copies of our correspondence with you. Similarly, if you choose to contact us by phone or to meet with us face-to-face, we may take and keep written notes on any conversation that we have with you. We may ask you for further personal or organisational information, if it is required in order to respond to your questions, comments and requests. All personally identifiable data will be deleted by six years after the end of the project
b) Internship applicants
Your application for an internship
As part of the application process, we will ask you for such personal information as is needed to assess your suitability for an internship and to process your application. This information will include, but is not limited to, your name and contact details, employment and study histories, references and evidence of your suitability for the post.
You will also be asked to complete a skills self-audit, which is used to capture information about the skills needs of applicants. This provides data for monitoring the TSIS programme and for research purposes, but is not used during the selection process.
Equal opportunities monitoring
TSIS has a commitment to equality and diversity. We aim to ensure that no internship applicant receives less favorable treatment on irrelevant grounds and that applicants are not disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justified and relevant to the job.
We will ask you for certain information that can help us to identify potential sources of discrimination. Questions will cover (but are not limited to) topics such as nationality, ethnicity, religious beliefs and any disabilities that you may have. We appreciate that you may not wish to share this information with us and have therefore provided a ‘‘prefer not to say” response option for all questions of this type. Please be assured that use of this option does not imply any particular response.
The equal opportunities monitoring form will additionally ask for your date of birth. This is needed both for equal opportunities monitoring purposes, and to ensure that you are old enough to legally participate in the TSIS programme.
Any information that you supply will not used during the selection process but may be used for research purposes.
c) Interns
Research questionnaires
At several points during your internship you will be asked to complete questionnaires reflecting on your experiences so far. The final questionnaire will be sent to you six months after completing your internship. At the end of your internship, you will also be asked to complete a second skills audit. If you change your address during this time, please notify us.
Case studies
If you agree, TSIS staff will prepare a detailed case file about your experience as an intern. This may include an interview, a written summary of your internship experience, photos, film or audio footage, and other resources as discussed and agreed with you.
TSIS will use these case files to prepare academic papers, media articles, presentations, publicity on the TSIS website and in TSIS publications, and for other promotional purposes as required. However, no information from your case file will be used until you have reviewed the contents of the file and explicitly consented to their use in writing.
If requested, we will protect your identity by giving you a pseudonym in papers.
d) Third-sector organisations
Expression of interest
If you are interested in hosting an internship, we ask you to fill in the expression-of-interest form on this website. This captures information about your organisation including, but not limited to, your contact details, the size, nature and location of your organisation, the type of internship that you wish to host and your organisation’s previous internship experiences.
If you go on to host an internship, we will also ask you to provide the following:
Financial and Other Administrative Information
To allow the disbursement and management of funds we will require specific information to assist the administration of funding.
Research questionnaire
At several points during the internship, your organisation will be asked to complete questionnaires reflecting on your experience of hosting the internship so far. The final questionnaire will be sent to you six months after the internship has ended.
Case studies
If you agree, TSIS staff will prepare a detailed case file about your organisation’s experience of hosting an internship. This will include interviews with key staff members, a written summary of the internship experience, photos, film and audio footage, and other resources as discussed and agreed with you. Anonymity will be provided if required regarding employees, but the name of the organisation will be visible.
TSIS will use the case files to prepare academic papers, media articles, presentations, publicity on the TSIS website and in TSIS publications and for other promotional purposes as required. However, no information from your case file will be used until your organisation has reviewed the contents of the file and explicitly consented to their use in writing.
Storage and Disclosure of Personal Information
Information submitted to this website is stored on a UK-based server owned by our current web-site hosts, Lumison. If this server moves to outside of the UK we will notify this change. It may additionally be downloaded and stored, either in electronic or hard-copy format, at any of the three partner organisations.
Your information may be accessed by TSIS project staff, their administrative and IT support staff and by staff at the companies responsible for maintaining and hosting this website.
All organisations that have access to information have to be compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Certain personal information submitted by students, such as application form data, may be transferred to the third-sector organisations hosting the internships.
We will not transfer, disclose, sell, distribute or lease your personal or organisational information to any other third parties unless we have your explicit written permission or are required to do so by law.
In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect on-line. We will not transfer any personal or organisational data outside of the EU.
Anonymised data, such as tables of summary statistics, may be made publically available. Examples of this use include, but are not limited to, academic research reports and reports to the Scottish Funding Council.
Use of Personal Information
In addition to any specific cases given above, we may use the personal and organisational data you provide for the following reasons:
• to plan, administer, monitor, and improve the TSIS programme and for internal record keeping
• to assess an organisation’s eligibility to be part of the TSIS programme
• to facilitate the recruitment and selection of interns
• to carry out equal opportunities monitoring in order to identify potential sources of discrimination and to take remedial action, where appropriate
• to evaluate the success of the TSIS programme and to provide reports to our funders and steering group
• to carry out research in order to contribute to relevant academic and policy debates
How to get copies of the information we have collected
You may request details of personal or organisational information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act. A fee of £10 is payable prior to the disclosure of this information. If you would like a copy of the information held about you or your organisation, please write to:
The Data Protection Coordinator, TSIS
Queen Margaret University
Queen Margaret University Drive
Musselburgh
EH21 6UU
If you think that any information we hold is incorrect or incomplete, then please email us as soon as possible at info@3rdsectorintern.org.uk or write to the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
Links to third-party websites
Certain links on the website lead to other web-sites which are not within our control. These websites will have separate privacy and data collection practices and we have no responsibility or liability for those third party policies. We recommend that you exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
Privacy policy changes
We may change this statement from time to time by updating this page. You should review this statement regularly: your continued use of this website after changes have been made will be taken to indicate your acceptance of the updated statement.
Freedom of Information
All partner organisations are subject to the Freedom of Information Act (2002). We will use the personal data exemption should information be requested from us which relates to your personal data but we may be required to release other information relating to TSIS.
Effective date of this privacy policy
This policy is effective from 28th September 2011.
