Introduction

The CERA Global Association (CGA) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you as a current or former CERA holder, in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR).

It applies to all CERA holders and the associations through which they apply for the designation.

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

This notice applies to current and former CERA holders. We may update this notice at any time.

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 information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

  1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
  2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
  3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
  4. Accurate and kept up to date.
  5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
  6. Kept securely.

THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, 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 more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

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

HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED?

We typically collect personal information about members through the application process via the actuarial association through which you were awarded the CERA designation.

We may collect additional personal information in the course of your membership.

HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

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

  1. To maintain a register of CERA holders
  2. To conduct an annual audit of CERA holders
  3. To add your data to the Find-a-CERA functionality on the CGA’s website (ceraglobal.org), where you have provided consent for us to do so
  4. To send you newsletters on a regular basis, where you have provided consent for us to do so
  5. 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 information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

  1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
  2. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

SITUATIONS IN WHICH WE WILL USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We need all the categories of information in the list above primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you as CERA holders and to enable us to comply with legal obligations. In some cases we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below.

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE PERSONAL INFORMATION

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform all elements of your holding the CERA designation.  Or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

CHANGE OF PURPOSE

We will only use your personal information 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 information 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 information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

HOW WE USE PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

”Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information.

We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

  1. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent
  2. Where we need to carry out our legal obligations
  3. Where it is needed in the public interest

Less commonly, we may process this type of information 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.

DO WE NEED YOUR CONSENT?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights.

In limited 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.

INFORMATION ABOUT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations. We envisage that we will hold information about criminal convictions.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary 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.

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

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the group.  If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

WHY MIGHT YOU SHARE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES?

We may share your personal information 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 PARTIES PROCESS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group. The following activities are carried out by third parties: the provision of IT and web services. We update members as required when our third-party service providers change from time to time.

HOW SECURE IS MY INFORMATION WITH THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS AND OTHER ENTITIES IN OUR GROUP?

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information 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.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER THIRD PARTIES?

We will only share your personal information with other third parties, for example the need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those members and the committee and third parties who have a need to know. They will only process your personal information 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 INFORMATION FOR?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal or reporting requirements.

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.

Subject at all times to our duty to minimise the data we store and subject to compliance with our legal obligations and legitimate interests of the company, we envisage that we shall store personal data about CERA holders for no longer than 1 year after the resignation of the designation. Following resignation of the designation we will review, where possible, the personal data we hold and take steps to minimise the data retained where these requirements are met.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer a CERA holder or member of the actuarial association through which you applied for the designation we will retain and securely destroy your personal information.

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES

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

YOUR RIGHTS IN CONNECTION WITH PERSONAL INFORMATION

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

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the CERA Global Association in writing or via email.

NO FEE USUALLY REQUIRED

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (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

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

HOW WILL WE CONTACT YOU?

We may contact you by phone, email, letter or social media.  If you prefer a particular contact means over another, please let us know.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information 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 the CGA.  Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

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 information.

February 2024