Privacy Statement
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple
Privacy Statement
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple ("the Inn") is committed to protecting the privacy of its members and customers.
Personal Information
The Inn may collect personally identifiable information such as name, postal address, telephone number, e-mail address, institution affiliation, credit card number, current account number, or date of birth through various activities of the Inn. This personal information is collected, and used by the Inn’s staff for the purpose of facilitating commercial relationships or transactions.
Payment details will be passed in an encrypted session to a payment gateway, certified as secure for the purpose. The payment gateway will expressly not be able to use this information to facilitate a relationship. The Inn will not hold credit card payment details, but may use any non-financial information provided by members including, but not limited to; Year of Birth; Year of Call; Sponsorship relationships; Pupil Master/Pupil relationships; Institutional affiliation; Attendance on the same Training Course; contemporaneous Tenancy in Chambers; shared Legal specialism; Geographical Proximity; to enable or facilitate relationships either between Members, or between Members and the Inn.
The Inn’s website resides behind a firewall and uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer, the industry-standard security protocol used to communicate with browsers) to transmit personal information. Data is strongly encrypted during transmission to ensure that personal and payment information is secure. Industry-standard data encryption techniques are used to protect personal information on the Inn’s computers. SSL-capable browsers typically have a symbol on the browser window to indicate when they are in a secure mode. In addition, the URL will begin with "https:" for all browsers.
The Inn does not sell or rent e-mail addresses to other organizations. Certain e-mail addresses may be published in both print and electronic format within the Inn’s publications, including its website. The Inn may generate e-mail for the following types of communication:
· Notification e-mail to which the individual may subscribe and unsubscribe.
· Transactional e-mail, which is the result of a business transaction initiated with the Inn.
· Relationship e-mail, which is sent as an informational service because of a relationship with the Inn.
· Commercial e-mail, which is sent to promote an Inn product or service (you may opt not to receive this type of e-mail).
Correspondence from the Inn’s staff as a result of a communication initiated by a member or customer.
E-mail that has a provision for opt-out will include instructions on how to do so. All inquiries regarding subscription-based e-mails should be directed to the address shown in an email.
As a matter of policy, the Inn will not share email addresses or other contact details with another organisation unless in facilitating a business transaction without first gaining the permission of the individual to do so and will never sell or rent contact details with Third parties. An assumption will be made in all cases that permission is withheld.
Mailing Lists
The postal mailing lists comprising full name and postal address, will not be sold to other organizations for either one-time promotional or informational use.
The Inn may occasionally send informational or promotional materials to members and customers. You may choose to exclude yourself from all, none, or only non-Inn mailings by contacting the Treasury Office (see ‘Inn’s Contact Information’).
Third-party Agents
The Inn uses third-party agents for several business purposes, including credit card validation, hotel registration, and shipping. These agents are permitted to use your personal information only to provide the Inn with a specific service and not for any other purpose. Please contact the Treasury Office (see ‘Inn Contact Information’) if you believe this policy has been violated.
The Inn makes every effort to preserve your privacy, but we may need to disclose personal information when required by law. The Inn may also disclose personal information if it believes in good faith that such action is necessary.
Non-personal technical Information
Non-personal information is collected behind the scenes by the Inn web server and is used to compile general website usage statistics or facilitate access to restricted website services. Such information includes:
· IP address of computer
· Browser-related information
Locations visited on the websiteHTTP cookies
IP address
IP address is used to verify access rights of licensed subscribers to Inn products that require license agreements. They also aid in the general administration of the website.
HTTP Cookies
A HTTP Cookie is a piece of data that is stored by your browser in either your computer's memory or on your computer's hard drive. The Inn uses cookies to keep track of user session identity on the website, such as maintaining access to restricted website services. Cookies are also used to track the effectiveness of various services provided on the Inn website. Browsers generally allow you to disable cookies. Services on Inn website that require a login to an the Inn web account require that cookies are enabled.
Public Forums
Public forums may be hosted on the Inn’s website in due course. The inherent public nature of these forums dictates that the Inn assumes no responsibility for protecting the information disclosed on them by users. Please exercise caution when disclosing personal information in public forums.
Private Forums
Private forums will be hosted on the Inn’s website in due course. Access to these forums will be controlled by username and password. Each Forum will indicate the user Community of the Forum prominently, i.e. “MTSA”, “Middle Temple Barristers”, “Practicing Barristers”. The Inn will exercise due diligence in ensuring the provenance of users of each Forum and that users are given an appropriate level of access.
Should access be granted to non-Middle Templars, e.g. Barristers of other Inns, it will be on the basis of their “bona fides” being vouched for by two Middle Temple Barrister Members. Information published on these forums will be private.*
External Links
The only domain covered by the Inn’s privacy policy is the www.middletemple.org.uk. The Inn website may contain links to other sites, however, and the Inn is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those external sites.
How can you update your personal Information?
Registering Online (ensuring the currency of your contact information).
Contacting the Inn Customer Services;
Many academic institutions only give .ac.uk email address to current students.
Student Members are advised to use a persistent email address.
The Inn Privacy Statement is subject to change and was last modified on 21st January 2009.
*A policy decision may be required to reflect how private Barristers communicating freely can be.
