Who we are
The Wildlife Information Centre (TWIC) is the Local Environmental Records Centre (LERC) for south-east and most of central Scotland. TWIC collects, collates and disseminates biological data for our area. We are a company registered in Scotland (No SC324339) and a registered Scottish Charity SC034113. Our sole website address is: https://wildlifeinformation.co.uk.
Our contact details
For any privacy/UK GDPR queries, please contact the GIS and Data Officer via the email GDPR@wildlifeinformation.co.uk or by phone on 01875 825968.
Our registered address is: The Wildlife Information Centre, Unit 3, The Vineyard Business Centre, Pathhead, EH37 5XP.
The type of information we collect
The personal information we collect and process as part of our record database may include your name, address, email address, telephone or mobile number and your reason for contacting us. Bank information may be held for employees, contractors, volunteers and suppliers. Medical and emergency contact information may be held for employees, volunteers and event participants.
When records are submitted on our website using one of our online recording forms, we collect the data shown in the records form and store it within our internal records database. Once processed, this record can be shared in data requests and will be uploaded to the NBN Atlas Scotland.
On this site, when visitors leave comments, we collect the data shown in the comments form as well as the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
How we collect information from you
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you e.g. when you contact us for information, apply for membership, subscribe to our mailing lists, share data or submit records to us, register for an event or apply to become a volunteer or Director.
We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:
- The provision of biological records or data from dataset providers or data partners, including online databases, which may include recorder names, addresses, usernames or contact information
- The provision of landowner names and contact information from Local Authority partners for the purposes of managing Local Biodiversity Site/Local Nature Conservation Site systems as part of contracted work
How we use your information
We may use your information in order to:
- respond to any enquiry that you make
- provide you with the information, products or services that you request from us.
- Send you information on our events or events organised by related organisations where you have subscribed to this
- Manage membership subscriptions and gift aid
- Communicate with you regarding the processing/management of your biological records/datasets including record validation and verification checks
- Give you credit as the source/originator of the data
- Communicate with you regarding recording excursions or biological surveys on your land, including the results of surveys
- Notify you of Local Biodiversity Site/Local Nature Conservation Site designations on your land on behalf of Local Authority partners
Who we share your data with
Recorder names and contact details are shared with data processing volunteers to follow up queries with recorders and for validation/verification purposes. Recorder/determiner names may be shared with National Recording Schemes and societies, data partners and record verifiers. Information relating to landowners/tenants for Local Biodiversity Sites/Local Nature Conservation Sites may be shared with Local Authority partners, TWIC’s surveyors or volunteers, and contractors for the purpose of fulfilling contracts. TWIC members’ names and emails may be shared with the secure mail platform Mailchimp, which we currently use to send out the TWIC newsletter. Anonymised versions of records may be provided to the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Recorder names may be uploaded with prior consent of the dataset provider/recorder.
Media
If you upload images to the website, such as through our public survey or submit a record forms, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where your data is sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.