Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 10th March 2025

Ocean Census is committed to safeguarding your privacy online. We use the
information we collect about you to help us understand more about how our site
is used and to be able to send you communications about that may be of interest
to you, either electronically or otherwise. The ‘personally identifiable information’
is information that enables us to identify you, such as your email address, name,
title, and address.

Please read the following policy to understand how your personal information will
be treated. This policy may change from time to time so please check back
periodically.

THIS POLICY WILL LET YOU KNOW:

• What personally identifiable information is collected from you
• How your information is used
• Who is collecting your information
• With whom your information may be shared
• What choices are available to you regarding collection, use, and
• distribution of your information
• How you can access, update or delete your information
• How Ocean Census treats your personal information
• The kind of security precautions that are in place to protect the loss,
• misuse, or alteration of your information
• Legal grounds for data processing
• A note on Ocean Census in-person events
• Special considerations for the Biodiversity Data Platform

WHAT PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION
DOES OCEAN CENSUS COLLECT FROM ME?

Like many websites, Ocean Census uses cookies in order to provide you with a
more personalized web service. A cookie is a text-only string of information that
we pass to your computer’s hard disk through your web-browser so that the
website can remember who you are. Cookies cannot be used by themselves to
identify you.

A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has
come, the “lifetime” of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated
unique number.

For more information about cookies, please see www.allaboutcookies.org.

We use two types of cookies on our website:

• per session cookies, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookies file of your browser until you leave the site

• persistent cookies, which remain in the cookies file of your browser for longer (although how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie) .
  These cookies are used to store state information between visits to a site.

We use persistent cookies to provide certain services, so that you do not have to
log-in repeatedly between visits.

If you do not wish to receive cookies you can easily modify your web browser to
refuse cookies, or to notify you when you receive a new cookie. However, you
may not be able to use all the interactive features of our site if cookies are
disabled, and so in order to enjoy the Ocean Census site to the full, we
recommend that you leave them switched on.

For instructions on how to stop cookies being installed on your browser, please
see http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies.

HOW DOES OCEAN CENSUS USE MY
INFORMATION?

Ocean Census uses the information we collect about you to help us with
understanding more about how our site is used and to be able to send you
communications that may be of interest to you, either electronically or otherwise.

WHO IS COLLECTING YOUR INFORMATION?

When you are on the Ocean Census website and are asked for personal
information, you are sharing that information with Ocean Census alone unless
stated otherwise.

WITH WHOM DOES OCEAN CENSUS SHARE YOUR
INFORMATION?

As a general rule, Ocean Census will not disclose any of your personally
identifiable information, except when we have your permission or under special
circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it.

WHAT ARE MY CHOICES REGARDING, COLLECTION,
USE AND DISTRIBUTION OF MY INFORMATION?

If you indicated that you are interested in receiving regular information about
Ocean Census’s future projects, we will send you communications regarding
Ocean Census’s work and activities, either electronically or otherwise.
Ocean Census does not sell, rent or share user information with anyone.

WHAT IS OCEAN CENSUS’S POLICY ON ALLOWING
ME TO UPDATE, CORRECT, OR DELETE MY
PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION?

The accuracy of your individual identifying information is important to Ocean
Census. If you change email address or any of the other information we hold is
inaccurate or out of date, please email us at enquiries@oceancensus.org, or
write to Ocean Census Ltd, C/O Begbroke Science Park, Begbroke Hill,
Woodstock Road, Yarnton, Oxfordshire, OX5 1PF with the details.

HOW DOES OCEAN CENSUS PROTECT MY
PERSONAL IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION?

Ocean Census is committed to taking reasonable steps to protect the individual
identifying information that you provide to us.

WHAT SECURITY PRECAUTIONS ARE IN PLACE TO
PROTECT THE LOSS, MISUSE, OR ALTERATION OF
MY INFORMATION?

When you give Ocean Census personal information, that information may be
stored and processed outside of the UK and we take steps to ensure that your
information is treated securely. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the
Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to
protect your personal information, Ocean Census cannot ensure or warrant the
security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.
Once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its
security on our systems.

LEGAL GROUNDS FOR DATA PROCESSING

There are several legal grounds for data processing. The most common is prior
consent, which can be withdrawn at any time. Registering a new species within
the Ocean Census Biodiversity Data Platform requires a personal account, and
the processing of this data is limited to the linked services and is within
agreement. Ocean Census (and the umbrella organisation, Nekton Foundation)
has the legal obligation to process personal data for accountancy purposes, and
has to keep this data for as long as is mandatory. Personal information linked the
registration of new species will be retained into perpetuity.

CONFERENCE AND OTHER EVENT PARTICIPATION

Registration is essential to participate in an Ocean Census event. This is for
logistical and organisation purposes and to keep attendees informed on the
programme. Each registration form has a GDPR section which allows attendees to subscribe to further communications by Ocean Census.
For each event, a registered participant may receive several e-mails to keep you informed, which will form part of this agreement.

During our events, photographers and videographers will be present to take
photographs and for filming purposes. We will aim to seek prior consent where
possible, but generally, it is extremely difficult to organise an opt-in system for
photography and filming, therefore requests for the removal of photographs or
films should be sent to the e-mail address used for event administration or
to info@oceancensusmission.org. Photos in which the requester are shown will
be removed from our web sites and servers; for films, the film segment will be cut
out or the film deleted out if the requester is clearly visible. 

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE OCEAN
CENSUS BIODIVERSITY DATA PLATFORM

The Ocean Census Biodiversity Data Platform is a registry of newly discovered
marine species. The database allows taxonomists and other biologists to register
new species when they are discovered, without the requirement for them to be
fully described. This data is stored indefinitely or until a request is made to
Ocean Census to remove a record of a new species. The data about new
species discoveries is publicly available on an open access basis. Personal data
is not shared on the public areas.

We will collect specific information if you are entering new marine species on to
the Biodiversity Data Platform, namely:

Your name
Email address
Institute
Country
Nationality

The registration submit form facilitates the sharing of your scientific data. We
require your name and email address to be able to register the new species and
to be able to contact you with follow up queries. We request information about
your affiliated organisation, country and nationality for statistical, anonymous
reporting on the users of the Ocean Census Biodiversity Data Platform.

All visits and searches are registered and tracked for statistical and bug-fixing
purposes, and for edits of The Ocean Census Biodiversity Data Platform users
(i.e. those with a login) are additionally registered and tracked. Search data are
stored to provide a better experience for the user and are rendered anonymous
as soon as possible.

We reserve the right to change these Terms of Use, in which case we will notify
you via a message on the Ocean Census Website.