Privacy Policy
How we use your information
This privacy notice tells you what to expect when Invest Northern Ireland collects personal information. It applies to information we collect about:
- people who use our services: These include Invest NI Clients, participants in our programmes or services and attendees at events organised by Invest NI. It also includes those who avail of the Business Information Centre.
- visitors to our website
Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage.This privacy policy was last updated June 2010.
People who use Invest NI services
Invest NI offers various services to our Clients and the public. Our role is to grow the economy by helping new and existing businesses to compete internationally, and by attracting new investment to Northern Ireland. Invest NI offers the Northern Ireland business community a single organisation providing high-quality services, programmes, support and expert advice. Full details of these services are found within this website.
We need to hold the details of the people who have requested access to our programmes and services in order to provide them with the necessary advice or support. The nature of the data that we keep on record may include your name, company name, email address, mailing address, telephone number and employment details. Please do not provide us with information if you do not want it stored.
Security of your personal information
Invest NI carefully protect your data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure or alteration. Internally, data is stored in password-controlled servers with restricted access.
Information will be destroyed in line with our Records Management Policy
Disclosure of personal information
To deliver a service we may need to share your information with our sponsor the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI), other agencies involved in economic development, our External Delivery Organisations and the European Commission. This will depend upon the service you require. However we will never pass on these details other than for the purpose for which they were provided to Invest NI. This may also involve the transfer of details outside the European Economic Area to our overseas offices, for those who require the services of these offices.
Occasionally we may share information with other public bodies that provide economic development activities and whose services we feel would benefit those Clients who operate in the relevant area that the agency is providing a service.
When information is passed to an overseas Invest NI office or any other agency or External Delivery Organisation we will take appropriate steps to ensure that personal data is protected from unauthorised use and kept in a secure manner.
As required by law we may disclose information to government bodies and law enforcement agencies for their enforcement purposes.
Invest NI will not sell your personal information to any other company.
When you provide personal information to us, you understand and agree that:
- This may involve the information being used by Invest NI and DETI for direct marketing and other economic development related activities.
- Invest NI, DETI or another public agency providing economic development activities may also contact you directly in the future in relation to offering related services on which you provided your details to Invest NI.
- It may involve the transfer of data outside the European Economic Area to our overseas offices.
- Invest NI may send you marketing information about Invest NI by email.
Accuracy of personal information
While we make all efforts to keep our data current we would ask you to inform us of any changes in your personal information so that we may keep our records up to date at all times.
If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to update or correct any mistakes by contacting the Knowledge Management Team at knowledgemanagement@investni.com.
Visitors to our website
When someone visits our website we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the Invest NI’s website. We collect this information in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.
We use Webtrends Analytics to help analyse use of our website. This analytical tool uses 'cookies'(see explanation below), which are text files placed on your computer, to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) is transmitted to Webtrends. This information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity for the Invest NI.
Invest NI will not (and will not allow any third party) to use the statistical analytics tool to track or to collect any personally identifiable information of visitors to our site. We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source as part of our use of the Webtrends statistical analytics tool. Webtrends will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Webtrends. Neither the Invest NI nor Webtrends will link, or seek to link, an IP address with the identity of a computer user.
If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be upfront about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.
Complaints or queries
Invest NI tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.
Please see the Invest NI feedback form - click here.
This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of Invest NI’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be made via the contact details below.