Privacy
Our Privacy Policy outlines how Paces collects, manages, and processes data from its customers and website visitors. It details which information is kept confidential and what may be shared with third parties.
Privacy for Customers and Website Users
Am I reading the correct Privacy Notice?
To make things easy for our readers, we’ve created different versions of our Privacy Notice.
- If you’re a customer, interested in purchasing a Paces product, or simply browsing the website, this is the appropriate Privacy Notice for you—please continue reading.
- If you’re a third-party supplier, writer, editor, or another contributor/service provider, please refer to our Privacy Notice for Third Parties and Suppliers.
Who "we" are
We are Paces Ltd (Paces), a company offering online medical revision tools and books. We act as the Data Controllers for any personal data you share with us.
Where do we obtain your information?
We collect your information in the following ways:
- When you communicate with us in person, by letter, email, phone, or through direct messages on social media or live chat.
- When you join one of our mailing lists, participate in competitions, promotions, or surveys.
- When you subscribe to an online resource or purchase a book.
- When you use our websites or mobile apps, or engage with us on social media by messaging, posting, or providing your email address for additional information.
- Through audio, image, video, or data recordings.
- By gathering publicly available information from the internet.
What information do we gather about you?
We may collect the following data about you:
- Name, email address, mailing address, and telephone number.
- Visual and audio media, as well as images.
- Current level of study, job title or role, medical institution, and upcoming exam dates.
- Order, subscription, transaction history, and session usage data.
- Digital identification data, including browser type and version, cookies, app device ID, current device, operating system, version, internet service provider (ISP), IP address, domain name, and device screen resolution.
How do we use your personal information?
- To manage the purchase and delivery of our products and services.
- To share with selected third parties (Data Processors) to facilitate essential business functions. This may include sending you emails regarding your performance, delivering books, advertising on third-party platforms, or verifying your address. See below for our list of third parties.
- To provide website content, relevant advertisements, and communications tailored to you.
- For analytical, statistical, or survey purposes to enhance our services.
- To address and resolve inquiries.
- To mitigate risks for ourselves and our customers.
- To comply with laws and regulations.
- To exercise our rights as outlined in contracts and agreements.
What are our legal bases for using your personal information?
- To read more about the grounds for processing information, please visit the ICO website.
Consent
- To gather customer feedback, industry knowledge, and insights.
- To send you emails and targeted online advertisements from our non-customer mailing lists.
- To inform you of potential employment or contractual opportunities.
- To use quotes, images, or other personal data for our marketing and advertising purposes.
- To use your information for competitions and to contact you if you win.
- To compensate you when appropriate.
Legitimate Interests
- To address customer inquiries received via email, telephone, letters, social media direct messages, or live chat.
- To send marketing emails, surveys, and targeted online ads to website visitors, as well as current and previous customers.
- To inform current and previous customers of potential employment or contractual opportunities.
- To share information with relevant parties whose contact details are publicly available.
- In some cases, we will contact you using information we collect, especially if you are a student governor, med school representative, or another interested party.
- The information we may collect and process includes your name, email address, telephone contact details, Medical School/University/Hospital (if applicable), and job title/role.
- You can request removal from our mailing lists at any time by emailing DataControl@paces.com, and we commit to sharing only relevant news and resources with you.
- To implement cookies—our online ordering system uses a ‘cookie’ to store a unique reference on your computer, allowing us to track your order as you navigate the system. This cookie is valid for a single visit, and each new visit generates a new cookie that overwrites any previous ones.
- Most web browsers allow some control of cookies through their settings. To learn more about cookies, including how to see which cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
- If your internet browser is set to reject cookies, or if your network firewall blocks them, you will be unable to use our online store or services.
- To analyze website users through tracking services (Google Analytics, Hotjar).
- You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites using a browser extension provided by Google.
- You may opt out of Hotjar’s data collection when visiting a Hotjar-enabled site at any time by visiting the Hotjar Opt-out page and clicking ‘Disable Hotjar’ or by enabling Do Not Track (DNT) in your browser.
Contractual
If you are a customer who has subscribed online or purchased a book, we use your personal data for the following purposes:
- To conduct customer feedback surveys.
- To serve tailored website content and advertisements to specific customers.
- To manage our website and online products, including the app.
- To notify customers of products or special offers that may be of interest.
- To back up your data for disaster recovery purposes.
- For statistical or survey purposes to enhance the website and services for users.
- To store and back up user-generated content.
It is a contractual requirement that you provide all necessary data during the subscription process. If you fail to provide data or request erasure or restriction of processing during a subscription, we may be unable to deliver the service.
Legal Duty
For instance, to ensure compliance with various regulations, such as taxation administered by HMRC.
Vital Interests
If we have serious concerns about your wellbeing, we may disclose your information to the police or other relevant authorities.
How long may we retain your personal information?
- As a customer, we will retain your data for as long as necessary to manage your subscription or deliver a book. After that, we may keep your records on file for up to ten years for legal reasons and to contact you about relevant products, services, and opportunities. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time; however, this may affect your experience with an online subscription.
- As an active subscriber to our mailing lists, we will keep your data indefinitely or until you request its deletion.
- If you reach out to us via our enquiries email inbox, we will retain a record of that inquiry for up to two years. If you contact us through live chat, we will keep a record of that inquiry for up to 365 days. Social media direct messages are kept indefinitely, but you can request the deletion of your data from those platforms at any time.
- If you provide your details based on consent, we will inform you at that time how long we will keep your data.
Will we transfer your personal information outside of the EEA?
- In limited cases, we may share your data with selected, GDPR-compliant companies located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). We will obtain your explicit consent before doing so.
- If your online subscription was purchased by a university, medical school, or other educational institution outside the EEA, we may share certain personal identification data, such as your name and email address, with that institution. We will clarify this at the time you sign up for a subscription.
- For deliveries outside of the EEA, we will provide your delivery information to selected, GDPR-compliant third-party distributors or couriers to facilitate the delivery of your items.
Do we use automated systems to make decisions about you?
No, we do not use automated systems to make decisions about you. If this changes in the future, we will notify you and obtain your specific consent for this purpose.
Security
- We strongly advise against sending any confidential information to us via email. While we have stringent procedures and robust security features in place to protect the information we receive from you, it is crucial to prioritize your security.
- We also emphasize the importance of logging out of public devices. Please ensure that any device you use to access our online subscriptions or apps is secured (e.g., with a PIN code) to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your personal data.
Updates to our Privacy Notice
This privacy notice was last updated on 28 October 2024 to revise our list of Third-Party Suppliers and clarify the use of personal data.
Privacy for Third Parties and Suppliers
Am I looking at the correct Privacy Notice?
To keep things straightforward for our readers, we have created different versions of our Privacy Notice.
- If you are a third-party supplier, writer, editor, or another equivalent contributor or service provider, this is the correct Privacy Notice for you—please continue reading.
- If you are a customer interested in purchasing a product from Paces or simply browsing the website, please refer to our Privacy Notice for Customers and Website Users.
Who "we" are
We are Paces Ltd, a company that provides online medical revision tools and books. We serve as the Data Controllers for any personal data you share with us.
Where do we obtain your information from?
We collect your information through the following methods:
- When you communicate with us in person, via letter, email, telephone, or direct message through social media or live chat.
- When you sign up for one of our mailing lists, participate in competitions, promotions, or surveys.
- When you subscribe to an online resource or purchase a book.
- When you use our websites and mobile apps, or engage with us through social media.
- Through audio, image, video, or data recordings.
- By compiling data that is freely available on the internet.
What information do we gather about you?
We may collect any of the following information about you:
- Name, email address, physical address, and telephone number.
- Visual and audio media, including images.
- Current level of study, job title or role, current medical institution, and upcoming exam dates.
- Order history, subscription details, transactional history, and session usage data.
- Digital identification data, such as browser type and version, cookies, app device ID, current device, operating system and version, internet service provider (ISP), IP address, domain name, and device screen resolution.
How do we utilize your personal information?
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
- To manage the purchase and delivery of our products and services.
- To share your information with selected third parties (Data Processors) to facilitate key business functions.
- To provide website content, relevant advertisements, and communications tailored to you.
- For analytical, statistical, or survey purposes to enhance our services.
- To address and resolve your queries.
- To manage risk for both ourselves and our customers.
- To comply with laws and regulations.
- To exercise our rights as outlined in contracts and agreements.
What are our legal bases for utilizing your personal information?
To learn more about the grounds for processing information, please visit the ICO Website.
Legal Grounds for Using Your Personal Information
1. Consent
- To collect customer feedback, industry knowledge, and insights.
- To send you emails and targeted online ads from our non-customer mailing lists.
- To inform you of potential employment or contractual opportunities.
- To use quotations, images, or other personal data for marketing and advertising purposes.
- To use your information for competitions and contact you if you win.
- To process payments when appropriate.
2. Legitimate Interests
- To address customer inquiries received via email, phone, letters, social media direct messages, or live chat.
- To send marketing emails, surveys, and targeted online ads to website visitors and current and previous customers.
- To inform current and previous customers of potential employment or contractual opportunities.
- To share information with relevant parties whose contact details are publicly available.
- To contact you if you are a student governor, medical school representative, or another relevant interested party.
- The information we may collect includes your name, email address, phone number, medical institution, and job title/role.
- You can unsubscribe from our mailing lists at any time by emailing DataControl@pastest.com.
3. Contractual
- If you are a customer who has subscribed online or purchased a book, we use your personal data for:
Conducting customer feedback surveys. - Serving content and advertisements tailored to specific customers.
- Administering the website and our online products, including the app.
- Notifying customers of products or special offers of interest.
- Backing up your data for disaster recovery purposes.
- Conducting statistical or survey purposes to improve our website and services.
- Storing and backing up user-generated content.
- Providing all required data during the subscription process is contractual. Failure to provide data or requesting its erasure may hinder service delivery.
4. Legal Duty
- To ensure compliance with various regulations, such as taxation administered by HMRC.
5. Vital Interests
- If we have serious concerns about your wellbeing, we may disclose your information to the police or other relevant authorities.
How Long Can We Retain Your Personal Information?
- As a customer, we will retain your information as long as necessary to manage your subscription or deliver your purchased book. Afterward, we may keep your records for up to ten years for legal purposes and to reach out regarding relevant products, services, and opportunities. You can opt out of marketing emails at any time, though this may affect your experience with your online subscription.
- If you are an active subscriber to our mailing lists, your data will be stored indefinitely or until you request its deletion.
- For inquiries sent through our email, we will maintain a record for up to two years. Inquiries made via live chat will be kept for up to 365 days. Direct messages on social media are retained indefinitely, but you can ask for your data to be deleted from those platforms at any time.
- If you provided your information based on consent, we will inform you at that time about how long we will retain your data.
Will your personal information be sent outside the EEA?
- In specific situations, we might share your data with chosen companies outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) that comply with GDPR.
- We will seek your explicit consent before doing this. For shipments outside the EEA, we will provide your delivery details to selected third-party distributors or couriers who are also GDPR-compliant to ensure your items are delivered.
Do we utilize computers to make automated decisions regarding you?
No. If this changes in the future, we will inform you and seek your explicit consent for this purpose.
Security
We highly advise against sending any confidential information to us via email. We maintain strict procedures and extensive security features to safeguard the information we receive. Additionally, we want to emphasize the importance of logging out of public devices. Please make sure that any device you use to access our online subscriptions or applications is equipped with adequate security measures (such as a PIN code) to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your personal data.
Modifications to our Privacy Notice
This privacy notice was revised to refresh our list of Third-Party Suppliers and to clarify the usage of personal data. The latest update was made on 28 October 2023.
