Privacy Policy

Thanks for visiting our website.

This policy explains the “what, how and why” of the information we collect when you visit our website, or use our Services.

It also explains the specific ways we use and disclose that information.

We take your privacy extremely seriously. Our aim is to be as clear and open as possible about what we do and why. We aim to respect your privacy and are committed to protecting the confidentiality of your personal information.

General

Definitions

These definitions should help you understand this policy and add clarity to any terms/labels we use.

When we say “we,” “us,” “our” and “APA” we are referring to Accounts Payable Limited, trading as “Accounts Payable Association”. We are incorporated in England and Wales

When we say “Customer,” we are referring to the persons or entity that is registered with us to use our Services. With regards to “Service” we are referring to our products pertaining to transactional finance stakeholders. When we say “you,” we are referring either to a Customer or to some other person who visits our Website.

“Personal Information” means any information that identifies or can be used to identify you directly or indirectly, including, but not limited to, first and last name, email address, occupation or other demographic information.

By using our Service and website you agree to the use of the data that we collect in accordance with this Policy.

Changes

We may change this Privacy Policy at any time and it will supersede this version of our Policy. All updates and amendments are effective immediately upon notice, which may be given by any means, including, but not limited to, by posting a revised version of this Privacy Policy or other notice on the website.

Scope

This Privacy Policy is effective with respect to any data that we have collected, or collect, about and/or from you.

Questions, Concerns & Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments, or if you want to update, delete or change any Personal Information we hold, or you have a concern about the way in which we have handled any privacy matter, please contact us.

Why we process your personal data

We process your personal data on the basis of Contractual Obligation or Legitimate Interest, but only where necessary for the purpose we collected it for. Where We rely on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, we have considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and have concluded that they are not.

The main reasons for processing your personal data are:

 

  • Performing obligations under a contract with you or a business you may work for in order to deliver the Service that has been purchased.
  • Sales and marketing activities such as calls, emails and other types of communications
  • In some cases, We also has a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of our relationship. Processing your data allows Us to, for example: 
    • Review learning outcomes and benchmark learners results achieved;
    • operate and keep a record of learner performance and related processes and ensure we meet service level agreements, third party agreements such as those with our qualifications awarding body, and provide management information to the business to help us to improve;
    • keep appropriate records to validate your attendance and / or qualification status at a later stage
  • Understanding how you interact with the website and social media
  • Account activity such as, email, written and verbal communications and agreements
  • Financial activity, such as billing communications
  • To meet legal requirements
  • To support and improve our Services and Communications with you
  • To transfer your information in the case of a change of control of us

 

Combined Information: We may combine Personal Information with other information we collect or obtain about you (such as information we source from our third party partners), to serve you specifically, such as to deliver a product or service according to your preferences or restrictions, or for advertising or targeting purposes in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

How long we keep your data

The length of time we hold data will depend on your relationship with us and the purpose for which we hold your data. If you have a contractual relationship with us that contract will provide this information. If we do not have a contractual relationship, We may hold your data for up to 2 years after you have last interacted with us, for example, by requesting information, visiting our website or opening emails from us.

How we Collect Information About You

a. About You: When you sign up for and use the website or Service, consult with our customer service team, send us an email, post on our blog, or communicate with us in any way, you are voluntarily giving us information that we collect.

That information may include either your or your contacts name, physical address, email address, IP address, phone number, as well as details including occupation, location, history, and other demographic information. By giving us this information, you agree to this information being collected, used, disclosed, transferred within the United Kingdom (to our data storage centre in England) and stored by us, as described in this Privacy Policy.

b. Automatically:When you browse our website or use our Service, we may collect information about your visit to our website, your usage of the Service, and your web browsing. That information may include your IP address, your operating system, your browser ID, your browsing activity, and other information about how you interacted with our website or Service.

c. IP address lookup: We use third parties to provide information about visitors to our websites. When you visit our website we will record your IP address. This address will be matched against public and proprietary IP address databases to provide us with information about your visit. This information may identify the organisation to whom the IP address is registered but not individuals. In some limited cases i.e. single person companies, it may be possible to identify personal data from publicly available ICANN data.

d. Cookies, tracking & beacons: We may use various technologies to collect and store information when you use our website or Service, and this may include using cookies and similar tracking technologies, such as pixels and web beacons, to analyse trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website and Service, serve targeted advertisements, and gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. Further information is available in our cookie policy.

e. Who will see your data:

Your data will be seen and used by Our employees. We operate a role-based access policy for personal data. What this means is that an employee will only have access to personal data, if they need that access to do their job.

Your data may be shared with third parties to allow the fulfilment of contracted goods or services.

For example, if you do a qualification with us some data may be shared with the Awarding Body, such as Pearson BTEC.

Or if you attend an Event, the data may be shared with Event sponsors or Event Partners. When we do share information with third parties, we take steps to protect your information by requiring these third parties to use the information we transfer to them in a manner that is consistent with this policy.

Your Choices

Some processing of your data is done to perform our contractual obligations, and related communications to you, and are conditions of doing business with us.

You may express preferences in terms of what marketing communications you receive, including unsubscribing from some or all such communications.

Data Collected about Other Individuals

As you use our Service, you may import Personal Information into our system about other individuals – for example you may register other people from your company to access your membership privileges. You are responsible for making sure you have the appropriate legal permission for us to collect and process information about those individuals as outlined in our terms and conditions.

Your Rights

You have certain rights given to you by law, that means you have an amount of control over your personal data that we process.

 

  • Access to Your Personal Data: This right allows you to confirm that your personal data is being processed and to allow you to check if the processing is lawful.
  • Correcting Any Mistakes: The right of rectification allows you to instruct an organisation that is processing your personal data, to rectify any mistakes.
  • Right to be Forgotten: You have the right to instruct an organisation to erase your personal data.
  • Stop Processing: The right to stop the processing of your personal data
  • Moving Data: The right to data portability means that under certain circumstances you will be able to ask for your personal data to be transferred from one organisation to another.
  • Right to Object to Direct Marketing: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for the purposes of direct marketing.
  • Object to Profiling: Under certain circumstances, you are able to object to profiling and/or automated decision making.

Right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO): If you are not happy with an aspect of how We are processing your data, you can lodge a complaint to the supervisory authority, which is the ICO. (www.ico.org.uk)

Before it gets to that situation, please make sure you contact us.

Data Processing

We need to process personal information about you and your Users (“Users” includes any individuals who register for or consume any of our products or services), to enable us to provide our products and services. Such personal data will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, the General Data Protection Regulation and our Data Protection Policy.
Agreement to the processing of your Personal Data is a condition of acceptance onto any of our products or services. By registering for an event or service or submitting an order, you signify agreement to this processing.

The parties agree that you will be the Data Controller and we will be the Data Processor in relation to such Personal Data. You warrant and represent that:

  • you are entitled to transfer such Personal Data to us to lawfully allow us to process the Personal Data in accordance with these Terms; and
  • you will process the Personal Data in compliance with all applicable laws, enactments, regulations, orders, standards and other similar instruments.
  • Consequently, we will not be liable for any claim brought by a Data Subject arising from any action or omission by us, as Data Processor, to the extent that such action and omission resulted from your instructions.

 

We agree to take appropriate technical and organisational measures, having regard to the state of technological development, the cost of implementing any measures and the nature of the Personal Data to be protected, to protect such Personal Data from unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, such Personal Data. Without limitation, we may disclose such information to the extent required to do so by law or by the order of any competent authority.

Usage Policy

This acceptable use policy sets out the terms between you and us under which you may access any of our websites or Services.


This acceptable use policy applies to all users of, and visitors to, our site(s).


Your use of our site(s) means that you accept, and agree to abide by, all the policies in this acceptable use policy, which supplement our terms of website use.

Prohibited Uses

  • You may use our site(s) only for lawful purposes. You may not use our site(s):
  • In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
  • To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards.
  • To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
  • To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.
  • You also agree:
  • Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of our terms of website use.
  • Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt our site(s), the server on which our site(s) is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site(s).

 

Interactive Services

We may from time to time provide interactive services on our site(s), including, without limitation chat rooms and bulletin (“interactive services”). Where we do provide any interactive service, we will provide clear information to you about the kind of service offered, if it is moderated and what form of moderation is used (including whether it is human or technical).

We will do our best to assess any possible risks for users from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on our site, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on our site(s), and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by any user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not.

Where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise.

Content Standards

These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site(s) (contributions), and to any interactive services associated with it.

You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.

Contributions must:

  • Be accurate (where they state facts).
  • Be genuinely held (where they state opinions).
  • Comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.

 

Contributions must not:

 

  • Contain any material which is defamatory, obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.
  • Promote sexually explicit material.
  • Promote violence, discrimination or any illegal activity;
  • Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person.
  • Be likely to deceive any person.
  • Be threatening or abuse or invade another’s privacy.
  • Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.
  • Be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
  • Give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case.

 

Suspension and Termination

  • We will determine, in our sole discretion, whether there has been a breach of this acceptable use policy through your use of our site.
  • Breach of this acceptable use policy constitutes a material breach of the terms of use upon which you are permitted to use our site(s), and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:
  • Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site(s).
  • Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our site(s).
  • Issue of a warning to you.
  • Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
  • Further legal action against you.
  • Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.
  • We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of this acceptable use policy. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Malware And Viruses

Whilst the APA takes every possible reasonable precaution to prevent malware and viruses from appearing on the APA website it is not always possible to prevent these from occurring with a determined attempt from a hacker. Such occurrences would be extremely rare, but the APA cannot be held liable if visitors are cross-infected by malware and/or viruses following a visit to the APA website. It is the responsibility of the visitor to invest in anti-malware and anti-virus software to prevent such an infection. If you suspect that the APA website has been hacked or is infected by malware/viruses please contact us.