Privacy Policy

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Introduction

HEAnet is Ireland’s National Education and Research Network. We deliver high-speed internet connectivity and IT shared services to all levels of the Irish education sector. In order to provide these services and to communicate with you by email, social media, phone or otherwise, we sometimes need to process your personal information. 

You provide us with information when you use our services by accessing the network, by using our related services or by agreeing to be added to our database. When using any of our services, by signing up to receive updates from us, attending an event, participating in a competition, you consent to the collection, transfer, storage, disclosure, and use of your information as described in this Privacy Statement. 

Your privacy is important to us and we will always treat your personal data with care. This statement aims to inform you of the personal information that we collect what we use it for and what your rights are in relation to the information. 

Information that we collect

Contact Information: In order to access a number of our services, you must provide us with a valid email address and/or a username that may include your personal data. This enables features that are required for our services to operate, such as registration and verification. Where you provide us with your phone number, you agree to receive contacts such as calls or text messages. We may use your number to provide you with notifications and information relating to our services.

You may unsubscribe from receipt of notifications by following the instructions contained in the notification itself or sending an email to noc@heanet.ie.

Marketing Information: We may collect information that you provide to us when you sign up for our newsletter, participate in a survey, promotional event or competition. Where you provide us with this information, you agree that we may use the information to provide you with notifications and improve our services. 

Additional Information: You may choose to provide us with information while accessing our services. An example is when you email our support desk seeking resolution of a query. Please do not include confidential or personal information and please note that we may retain your message, email address and contact information in order to manage your request. We may also retain device specific information such as your IP address when you access or use our services.

Cookies: A cookie is a small data file that we can transfer to your device. We use cookies to collect website usage data, to improve and understand how you interact with our services and to monitor traffic across our services. For example, when you use HEAnet Store, cookies help us to improve our service by reducing the number of times the same message is displayed to you. 

How we share and disclose your information

We will not disclose your information to third parties except in the limited circumstances specified in this statement. We rely on a limited number of lawful bases to process your information, including where you have made the information public or where necessary to: 

  • perform obligations in our Terms and Conditions and to provide services to you;
  • comply with an order of a court or regulator or in relation to a legal claim;
  • process information on the basis of your consent, which you may revoke at any time;
  • support the purposes of a legitimate interest of ours or of our client institutions.

Consent, Instruction and non-personal data: We may share your information when you request or authorise us to do so. We may also share or disclose non-personal, aggregated or pseudonymised data to improve our services or those of our client institutions.

Service Providers: We use service providers to provide functions, for example, certain hosting services require us to engage third parties to support service delivery. We may share your information with service providers where necessary and subject to appropriate safeguards to operate the services that you request. 

Performance of a contract: Our services are provided in support of education and research and you can choose whether or not to use our services. However, when you choose to use our services you must agree to our Terms and Conditions and Acceptable Use Policy which, unless specified elsewhere, sets out the terms of the agreement between you and HEAnet.

Changes to this policy and Security

We may amend this statement from time to time and any amendment will be effective from the time of publication on our website unless otherwise notified. By continuing to use our website or services, you agree to be bound by the policy most recently published on our website. 

We take steps to protect your personal information using technical and administrative security measures to mitigate against any risk of loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure or alteration. 

Unfortunately, no method of internet transmission or electronic storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal information, the nature of the internet is such that we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of your personal information. 

What are your rights?

You have the right to request a copy of your personal data, and to have incorrect personal data about you corrected. You also have the right to withdraw your consent for the processing of your personal data, have your personal data erased, or the processing restricted. 

Please note that withdrawing consent and requests for restriction/erasure may affect our ability to provide you with the service requested. Your Data Controller is HEAnet CLG, 3rd Floor, North Dock 2, 93/94 North Wall Quay, Dublin 1, D01 V8Y6, Ireland.  You can contact our Data Protection Officer by writing to this address or by email at dataprotection@heanet.ie.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner and can access guidance on making a complaint at www.dataprotection.ie.

Effective Date: 8th May 2018.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on the 29th of April 2021.