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Data Protection Policy

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT?

The Irish Taxation Institute trading as “Irish Tax Institute” (Institute, our, us or we) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use the personal data of individuals we do business with (also referred to in this notice as ‘you‘). This includes our current, former and prospective:

members, affiliates, students
council members/directors
lecturers, tutors or speakers on courses, conferences, seminars or events run or hosted by the Institute as well as contributors to our magazines, books and publications
student mentors
purchasers and subscribers to our magazines, books, publications and products/services (including online) as well as registrants for continuing professional development training courses or other courses, events and seminars
representatives from employers of affiliates, students and members as well as representatives of member firms and service providers
examiners, invigilators and moderators as well as editors of our publications and books
complainants and enquirers

This notice does not form part of any contract to provide services. We may update this notice at any time.

We have a separate privacy notice for our staff and those wishing to become our employees which can be accessed at the time of applying to the Institute.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such data.

Data Controller

The Institute is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

THE KIND OF DATA WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

“Personal data” means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). There are “special categories of personal data” which require a higher level of protection. These include information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health or condition or sexual life.

We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

	Category of Personal Information	Examples
A	Identity Data	first name, last name, title, date of birth, PPS number, gender, Institute ID number, membership number, student number, customer number, job title, position in your firm
B	Contact Data	work address, home address, email address, telephone number, mobile number, place of work
C	Profile Data	username, password, employment and educational history, professional / educational qualifications, purchases/orders made by you, your dietary requirements, attendance needs, accessibility requirements where you attend our events; your queries and complaints, your interests, preferences and feedback responses, records of our communication with you, social media posts, details about how you use our products/services, any contraventions by you of our rules and regulations, criminal convictions and offence, CPD compliance history
D	Course Data	details of courses being/previously taken and of the Institute assessments including assessment scripts, exam scripts, candidate number and results of examinations taken by you or exam adjustments, your attendance at our courses, events and seminars (including those held online)
E	Video Data	individual or group photographs or videos including those taken at our conferring ceremonies, seminars, events or courses for use on our website, training materials or publications as well as video and audio recordings taken of you while taking our online exams (including your on-screen activities, flags indicating suspected non-conformance by you with our exam rules and regulations, your IP Address (last octet removed), your System Information (browser, cpu, ram, internet connection), any URLs viewed by your during the exams, video recordings of you verifying your identity by showing a valid identification document bearing your photograph and image of that ID document; video and audio recordings of you at our online classroom sessions, tutorials, lectures or other events (including your online user name and any questions raised by you during the online event); video and audio recordings of any lecture, talk, seminar, tutorial or classroom session given by you
F	Financial Data	bank account details, payment card details
G	Transaction Data	details about payments to and from you and other details of products/services you have purchased from us
H	Marketing Data	your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third party service providers and your communication preferences
I	IT Data	information about your use of our information and communications systems and website as well as the recording and broadcasting of our seminars, conferences, lunches, conferring ceremonies, events, lectures and courses which you attend (including those held online), CCTV footage and other information obtained through electronic means including your use of our Learning Management System and our online seminars, lectures, courses and classroom sessions
J	Council Data	information about each director of the Institute for inclusion on the Companies Office Register including first name, last name, residential address, date of birth, nationality, list of directorships, business occupation

We may also collect, store and use the following special categories of personal information, namely information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records.

During the working relationship with you, we may also collect, store and use information about criminal convictions and offences.

HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?

We will collect data directly from you (for example from application and/or registration forms, student forms, membership forms, direct debit forms, CPD forms, contributor’s forms, sales order, change of details forms, at events, during online exams, through communication with us and via our website and by telephone) and will create some data internally (e.g. when we assign you an Institute student/member ID or you become a council member or determine assessment results or exchange correspondence with you).

We will also collect additional personal data throughout the period you remain a council member, member or student of the Institute or you continue to interact / work with or provide a service to us or purchase products/services from us.

We may also collect some data from external sources. For example:

Employers may provide the Institute with relevant information on you where you are employed by and/or training with them, including where they are registering you with us as a member or student, registering you for a course or paying your membership, course and/or examination fees or confirming your employment status with us for the purposes of your CPD obligations
Institute’s service providers (e.g. lecturers, tutors, mentors, contributors, moderators, examiners and invigilators and suppliers of online assessment and online invigilation systems as well as IT providers) will send the Institute information relevant to the service they are providing
The general public may provide information to the Institute in relation to complaints and/or investigations
We may obtain data about you from publicly available resources such as the Companies Office Register, the website of and/or publications issued by the Revenue Commissioners

HOW WE WILL USE DATA ABOUT YOU

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal data, which is likely to be rare, where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).

Situations in which we will use your personal data

The table below describes the legal basis that applies to our purposes for processing your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, more than one legal basis may apply.

Purposes	Category of Personal Data	Lawful basis for processing
Managing our relationship with you including notifying you of changes to our terms or privacy policy or asking you for your feedback on our services/products, recording our communications with you, for regulatory purposes, for membership purposes (including retention of our online public database of members), delivering our services to you	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests to maintain our relationship with you, keep our records updated, to study how you use our products/services and ensuring that our services are provided; and Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To register you on our courses including (a) managing and processing payments, fees and charges for such courses; and (b) collecting and recovering money owed to us	Categories A,B,D,F,G	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests to recover debts due to us
Verify your identity as the test taker/exam candidate, to ensure compliance by you with our Student Regulations, for any investigations and appeals and to contact you to provide assistance during the online exams	Categories A,B,E	Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interests for running and maintaining our business, performance of our examination function and ensuring compliance with our Student Regulations
To run our online examinations and ensure that you (as the test taker/exam candidate) comply with our Student Regulations	Categories D,E	Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interests for running and maintaining our business, performance of our examination function and ensuring compliance with our Student Regulations
Administration, organisation, planning and monitoring the delivery of seminars, conferring ceremonies, training and events, such as to reserve a place for you at such events and to ensure that the events are properly hosted and attended; communicating with you in relation to our events; prepare and produce table/seating plans; prepare and produce attendee lists and/or conferring booklets; seeking your feedback	Categories A,B,C,D,E	Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interest in running, planning and monitoring the delivery of our events to ensure the needs of attendees as well as operating and growing our business Necessary for the legitimate interest of companies who host, run or cater our events to ensure that they run smoothly
Administration, organisation, planning and monitoring the delivery of our educational courses, seminars, tutorials, lectures, classroom sessions and events (including online), noting and recording your attendance at our courses and events, taking video and audio recordings of these events, live streaming our online courses and events, making recordings of these courses and events available on demand and online, dealing with any IT issues you may encounter when attending our online events	Categories A,B,C,D,E,I	Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interest in running, planning and monitoring the delivery of our educational services, ensuring compliance with our Student Regulations, in performance of our examination function as well as operating and growing our business Necessary for the legitimate interest of companies who provide IT, webcasting and hosting services to ensure that the online events run smoothly
Taking individual or group photographs of you at our events for use on our website and in our publications; recording and/or broadcasting our events	Categories E and I	Necessary for our legitimate interest in running and growing our business.
Your dietary requirements so as to determine the food and beverages to be served at our events and/or to determine your accessibility or attendance needs (including disability hearing or speech needs) and to facilitate your attendance at our events	Category C	Consent
CCTV footage of you at our events or on our premises for safety and security purposes	Category I	Comply with our legal obligations regarding safety Necessary for our legitimate interests to ensure safety and security at our events.
Assignment of mentors to students (at their request) to provide them with educational support	Categories A, B	Consent
Performing enquiries, investigations and complaints and gathering evidence for possible disciplinary hearing	Categories A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H,I	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interest for running, maintaining and growing our business
Administration of the Learning Management System which monitors students’ participation in our courses	Categories A,B,C,D,E,I	Performance of a contract with you
Respond to your queries and assist you with your requests	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G, H,I	Performance of a contract with you
Managing subscriptions to our products and services including Tax Find and Daily Tax News	Categories A,B,C,F,G,I	Performance of a contract with you
Managing our relationship with your employer / member firm where they pay your membership fees or course or examination fees to include providing data to them on your engagement with our courses as well as information on your attendance at our assessments and courses and your assessment results as well as working with them in relation to your compliance with our Student Regulations (including CPD requirements) and in the cases where you contravene our Student Regulations (to include providing them with any personal data or documents containing personal data that may indicate contravention of such regulations)	Categories A,B,C,D,E, I	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interest for running and maintaining our business, ensuring compliance with our regulations and studying the engagement with our courses; Necessary for legitimate interest of our member firms for running, maintaining and growing their business
To process and deliver orders for our products/services including (a) manage payments, fees and charges; (b) collect and recover money owed to us	Categories A,B,C,D,F,G,I	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests to recover debts due to us
To send you relevant communications including marketing and to make suggestions and recommendations to you about products/services that may be of interest to you	Categories A,B,C,D,E,H,I	Necessary for our legitimate interests to develop our products/services and grow our business
Administering the contract we have entered into with you	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H	Performance of a contract with you
Business operation, management and planning, including accounting and auditing	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G, H,I,J	Necessary for our legitimate interests for running, managing and growing our business; Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
Education, training and development requirements	Categories A,B,C,D,E	Performance of a contract with you
Dealing with legal disputes	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G, H,I	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests for running and maintaining our business; Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To prevent fraud	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I	Necessary for our legitimate interests for running, maintaining and protecting our business; Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To monitor your use of our information and communication systems to ensure compliance with our IT policies and regulations	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G,I	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests for running, maintaining and growing our business as well as protecting our IT systems and security; Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To ensure network and information security, including preventing unauthorised access to our computer and electronic communications systems and preventing malicious software distribution	Categories A,B,C,D,E,F,G,I	Performance of a contract with you; Necessary for our legitimate interests for running, maintaining and growing our business as well as protecting our IT systems and security; Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

If you fail to provide personal data

If you fail to provide certain data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as paying you or providing a service to you) or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

HOW WE USE SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL DATA

“Special categories of personal data” require higher levels of protection. We have in place appropriate safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data. We may process your special categories of personal data, in limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.

Less commonly, we may process this type of data where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

The situations in which we will use your special categories of personal data in are as follows:

We will use information about your physical or mental health, or disability status, to determine eligibility of students for special assistance requirements for assessments or the deferment of assessments/courses to monitor and manage sickness absence during courses
We will use information about your physical or mental health to determine eligibility of members or affiliates for reduced membership/affiliate rates
We will use information about your physical or mental health for the purpose of determining food and beverages that should be served at our events, provide you with information about accessibility to our events and/or your attendance needs at our events as well as to facilitate same.

Do we need your consent?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal data in accordance with the provisions set out under law. However, in certain circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request for consent from us.

DATA ABOUT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS

We will collect information about criminal convictions where we are notified of this directly by you or we are notified of this by third parties. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We will use information about criminal convictions and offences in the following ways:

With your explicit written consent
Where it is necessary to perform a contract with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you
Where it is needed to obtain legal advice or for the purposes of or in connection with legal claims or legal proceedings (including prospective claims or proceedings)

We have in place appropriate safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing information about criminal convictions.

AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means. However, we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

DATA SHARING

Why might you share my personal data with third parties?

We will share your personal data with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal data?

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents). The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: payroll and administration, hosting CRM system, credit card and payment providers, providers of on-line registration and direct debit forms, media monitoring, printers, IT service and support providers, online assessment/exam and online invigilation, webcasting and video hosting providers and educational technology providers.

How secure is my data with third-party service providers?

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

When will you share my data with third parties?

We may share your personal data with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of our business.

We may also share your personal data with:

affiliate associations with whom the Institute operate joint qualification schemes in order to operates such schemes or with whom the Institute co-host events and seminars (such as the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners Ireland, the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers and LIA)
your employers where they are paying your membership fees or course or examination fees to confirm that you are engaging with the course (e.g. attending lectures, tutorials and assessments, viewing online lectures, completing e-learning modules and participating in the discussion fora in the Learning Management System) as well as advising them of your assessment results and attendance record and of any contraventions by you of our Student Regulations (such as plagiarism or personation) as well as providing them with any personal data or documents containing personal data that may indicate contravention of such regulations) and confirming with them (as well as ensuring) your compliance with our Student Regulations (including CPD requirements)
third parties involved in hosting or organising an event such as hotels where you book beverages, food and/or accommodation for an event or conference through the Institute, catering companies, hospitality staff at event location.
Other event attendees/delegates by way of an attendee/delegate list, seating plan or conferring booklets.
the general public as we publish a members’ directory on our site but only limited personal data is released
our professional and legal advisors and other third parties in order to investigate complaints and disciplinary matters or to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.
third party companies that distribute our publications on our behalf.

In the case of students, we may also share certain personal data with your mentors, subject to obtaining your prior consent. We may also share your personal data with lecturers for the purposes of their confirming your attendance at our courses.

We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator, law enforcement authorities or to otherwise comply with the law.

Transferring Data outside the EU

We may transfer your personal data outside the EU. If we do, we will only transfer your personal data outside the EU if one of the following conditions applies:

The EU has issued regulations confirming that the country to which we transfer the personal data ensures an adequate level of protection for your rights and freedoms; or
Appropriate safeguards are in place such as binding corporate rules, standard contractual clauses, an approved code of conduct or a certification mechanism, a copy of which can be obtained from us; or
You have provided explicit consent to the proposed transfer after being informed of any potential risks; or
The transfer is necessary for one of the other reasons set out in the GDPR including the performance of a contract between us and you, for reasons of public interest, to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or to protect your vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent and, in some limited cases, for our legitimate interest.

Should this arise, we will update this Notice and/or notify you.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

DATA RETENTION

How long will you use my data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint, investigation or disciplinary action or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect of our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such data without further notice to you.

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your working relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with your personal data

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please contact Martin Carney in writing at Irish Tax Institute, South Block, Longboat Quay, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, or contact us by email us at dataprivacy@taxinstitute.ie. If you wish to access your personal details, you can use our Request Form

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you and Response Time to Request

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We will respond to your request in writing, or orally if requested, as soon as practicable and in any event within one month of receipt of your request. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact dataprivacy@taxinstitute.ie. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your data for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

DATA PRIVACY CONTACT

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal data, please contact Martin Carney at dataprivacy@taxinstitute.ie. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), the Irish supervisory authority for data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the DPC, so please contact us in the first instance.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal data.

ANY QUERIES?

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact Martin Carney at dataprivacy@taxinstitute.ie.

Last Updated: June 2024