Privacy Policy
The Emerald Cultural Institute (ECI) fully respects your rights to privacy and are committed to strict adherence to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which become fully effective on 25 May 2018 as well as the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Who we are and what we do
We are an English Language College with offices in Palmerston Park, Rathgar, Dublin 6. This Privacy Notice is primarily directed to individuals who wish to or may wish to avail of our services in seeking academic studies, activities and who wish to be placed in student accommodation or for those who wish to or are providing services as a host family. If you wish to contact us on any issue regarding your data protection, the following are the contact options.
Post: GDPR Representative, Emerald Cultural Institute, Palmerston Park, Rathgar, Dublin 6
Phone: GDPR Representative at Palmerston Park, Rathgar (01)4973361 Email: GDPR@eci.ie
This Privacy Statement sets out how Emerald Cultural Institute uses and processes any information that you give to us. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Statement explains how we collect, transfer, process, use and disclose your data and sets out our security practices.
What we collect
We collect personally identifiable information (PII) that you provide to us, which is information that identifies you as an individual. We only do this when you have provided us with the information and you have given your consent that we can use it in your interest for the purposes set out in this Privacy Statement. For students who are currently availing of our services this PII may include your name, address, phone number, email address, financial information, references verifying your identity, curriculum vitae, next of kin details and passport information. For students who are not currently availing of our services the PII may include your name, address, email address and phone number. For Host families it may include your name, address, description of your house, phone number, email address, financial information, references verifying your identity and Garda Criminal Record Clearance Certificate.
How we use your Personal Information and the Legal basis for doing so
Any personal data you volunteer will be used for the purpose for which you supply it and will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, strictly in accordance with Data Protection Act 2018. The Emerald Cultural Institute collects and uses your personal information (PII) to deliver the Academic studies or related services you have requested or if you are not currently availing of our services, we will continue to keep your data as outlined above, for the purpose of contacting you to keep you informed of any services which you may be interested in. Your information will only be used for matching you with suitable accommodation or studies and will only be disclosed to the appropriate student ETO with your express consent. For host families, your information will only be used for matching students with your accommodation and will only be disclosed to the relevant Student ETO.
By providing your PII, and where you have agreed to receiving communications from us, we may use the information:
Host Families
to consider your application to become a host family
to consider students’ suitability for placement in your accommodation
to contact you regarding your accommodation services or in emergency situations
to respond to your requests
to seek your views on our services
to improve our level of service
to send you Marketing Updates regarding host family vacancies that might be of interest to you
to share your information with prospective student/student ETO to increase your chances of securing a suitable student to stay at your accommodation
Existing or Potential Students
to consider your application for study with Emerald Cultural Institute
to consider your application for placement in student accommodation
to respond to your requests
to contact you regarding your accommodation or studies or in emergency situations
to improve our level of service
to seek your views on our services
to send you Marketing Updates on services that may be of interest to you
to share your information with prospective student accommodation residence to increase your chances of securing the accommodation you want.
The legal basis for processing your personal information is that you have explicitly given your consent to us. This consent can be given at the time of initially seeking our services or having read the company’s Privacy Statement providing explicit consent to our continuing use of the personal data you have supplied us.
Retention Period
Subject to other applicable legal requirements, we intend to hold your personal data for the duration of your studies and accommodation stay with us or whilst providing Host Family services, from the date you have given consent to us to use it on your behalf. Your name, address, email and phone number will be stored indefinitely for marketing purposes unless the student chooses to unsubscribe or the Host Family advises the GDPR Representative that they no longer wish to be stored on our register. Each individual has the right to withdraw their consent and have their personal information erased at any time.
Your Rights
Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you in accordance with Section 86 of the Data Protection Act 2018;
Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete in accordance with Section 87 and Section 89 of the Data Protection Act 2018;
Right to erasure – in certain circumstances, you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records in accordance with Section 87 and Section 89 of the Data Protection Act 2018;
Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing in accordance with Section 87 and Section 89 of the Data Protection Act 2018
Right of portability – subject to certain restrictions, you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation where we hold it in electronic form. This right of data portability applies to: (i) personal data that we process automatically (i.e. without any human intervention);
(ii) personal data provided by you; and (iii) personal data that we process based on your consent or in order to fulfil a contract.
Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.
All of the above requests can be directed to the Emerald Cultural Institute contact points listed in this Statement. They will be forwarded on should there be a third party involved in the processing of your personal data.
Complaints
In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by us or how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the supervisory authority:
Data Protection Commissioner: Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Canal House, Station Road, Portarlington, Co. Laois, R32 AP23, Ireland. Phone +353 (0761) 104 800 | LoCall 1890 25 22 31 | Fax +353 57 868 4757 | email info@dataprotection.ie
How we protect your PII
The Emerald Cultural Institute will take appropriate legal, organisational, and technical measures to protect your personal information. When the Emerald Cultural Institute uses a third-party service provider, that provider will be carefully selected and will be contractually required to use appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality and security of personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your PII from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet or a mobile phone network connection is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your PII, we cannot guarantee the security of the PII you transmit to our website. Any transmission is at your own risk. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration to data will not occur during transmission, once we have received your information, we will employ appropriate technical security measures to protect your data.
The Emerald Cultural Institute takes its obligations very seriously and adopts the strongest line in relation to the misuse of customer information by any of its staff. Any breach of trust regarding the confidentiality of information is treated as serious misconduct under the Disciplinary Code and can lead to sanctions up to and including dismissal.
Sharing PII with third parties
To provide you with an efficient service, your information may be shared by employees working within the Emerald Cultural Institute nationwide. We may also disclose your information to contracted companies who act as “data processors” on our behalf. Our data processors include external consultants, professional advisers such as lawyers, software and technical support providers, IT consultants and marketing technology platforms and suppliers. We only share information with third parties who help us in the delivery of our services to you. These third parties may not use that information for any purpose other than assisting us in providing these services. Any contact information that you provide through our system will not be sold/ rented/leased to any third party for selling or marketing to you. We will only provide third party companies with the personal information they need to deliver the appropriate service.
We require all companies providing such support services to meet the same standards of data protection as our own. They are prohibited from using the information for their own purposes. We do not allow service providers to use your PII for their own activities.
Where the Emerald Cultural Institute transfer your data to countries outside of the EEA, (European Economic Area), the Emerald Cultural Institute ensures that the third parties have an adequate level of data protection and adhere to GDPR.
Information from outside sources
We may also collect legally obtained information from third parties to add to our existing user databases, for example, references. Such Information will only be collected and used by us to fulfil our services to our students, host families.
Links to other websites
Our website may from time to time provide links to or embed third party websites. This Privacy Statement does not apply to those websites. If you choose to enter such a linked site, you agree that we are not responsible for the availability of such websites and do not review or endorse and shall not be liable, directly or indirectly, for:
how these websites treat your PII
the content of such websites
the use that others make of these websites.
Please ensure you check the legal and privacy statements posted on each website or mobile application you access before entering any PII.
The Emerald Cultural Institute uses cookies or similar technologies on our website. To find out more see our Cookie Policy below. By using our website, you agree to our use of cookies.
Changes
We may occasionally update this Privacy Statement. If the changes we make are material, we also may post a notice regarding the changes on our website. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Statement to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the PII we collect.
ECI Privacy Statement created 25th May 2018
Cookie Policy
Read the full details about our use of cookies in our Cookie Policy.