Icon-linkedin Youtube
Search
Contact us
Become a member/ log in
Search
Contact us
Log in
Icon-linkedin Icon-x Youtube

Privacy Policy

At EMQN we are committed to ensuring that your personal information is protected and never misused.

Our privacy policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, the control you have over your personal information and the procedures we have in place to protect your personal information. It applies to personal information we collect through our EMQN website, and in person at our EMQN stands and events.

By sharing your personal information with us, and by continuing to use our website, you confirm that you have read and understood the terms of this privacy policy. We take responsibility for the personal information we collect about you, and we aim to be transparent about how we handle it, and give you control over it.

In this privacy policy, when we refer to “EMQN”, “us”, “we” or “our”, we mean EMQN, which provides you with the EMQN website, and stands or events in your country. Information on which personal information is collected about you, [and the contact details for EMQN’s Data Protection Officer], are available in the Contacts Us section at the end of this privacy.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about any aspect of this privacy policy or how EMQN handles your information, please email us at office@emqn.org.    

EMQN is committed to ensuring that your personal information is protected and never misused. To make better EQA products and services, we collect information through our website. We protect that information carefully and handle it with discretion. We’re open about its use and will always make you aware of the information you’re sharing.
For your peace of mind, we have explained precisely what information we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, and the controls you have to change it or delete it.
Your trust is important to us and we’ll continue to put your privacy first.

We’ve read lots of Privacy policies and understand that they can be complicated. We’ve tried to make ours as clear as possible and summarised how EMQN handles your personal information in our privacy principles below.

You can read our cookie policy here

We, EMQN (hereinafter also refer as us”, “we” or “our”) take the protection of your personal data very seriously and strictly adhere to the rules laid out by data protection laws and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR-EU and GDPR-UK).

This privacy notice gives you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this site and any data you may provide if you contact us regarding our products and services.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for monitoring and providing guidance with our GDPR status. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the DPO using the contact information in section 15 of this privacy notice.

We collect your personal data for one of the following purposes:

  • Respond to your queries and requests.
  • Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you
  • To provide services and support for our EMQN products and services.
  • For customer satisfaction surveys to enable us to identify where service and product improvements can be made and improve your experience should you need support from one of our experts.
  • To provide updates to you about any changes to EMQN’s policies, terms and conditions and any other matters which we may need to tell you.
  • To monitor the performance and stability of our products, including identifying issues with EMQN products or services so that we can let you know about it as soon as possible (and potentially before the issue arises).
  • To improve our products, and services generally.
  • For marketing and advertising purposes.
  • To provide you with essential service updates about your EMQN products and services.
  • To inform you about EMQN meetings or EMQN events or stands at meetings which are not directly related to EQA scheme participation.
  • Meetings or other activities from third parties approved by EMQN.
  • Manage communications with you, including tracking if emails are delivered and open.
  • To provide you with access to the website, to operate the website, to improve your experience, and to personalize the way that information is provided to you.
  • Analyse how you engage with our promotional campaigns, outside of our own websites (for example, on Google, YouTube and on social media). 
  • Assist in any disputes, claims or investigations relating to your EMQN products or services.
  • Detect and prevent fraudulent activity and collusion.
  • Comply with our legal obligations.
  • Detect and prevent fraudulent activity and collusion.
  • Keep our websites, and IT systems secure.
  • Ensure that our own processes, procedures, and systems are as efficient as possible.
  • Analyse and enhance the information that we collect.
  • Determine the effectiveness of our promotional activity.

As a user of our EQA products or services and by agreeing to our main terms and conditions of membership, we will send you critical support communications by e-mail in relation to your membership of EMQN including all scheme related communications. We will also keep you posted on anything that’s happening at EMQN which we think you might like to know about; whether it’s our latest EQA product and service announcements, best practice meetings or other upcoming events. You agree to receive these communications on an annual basis, but you have the option to opt out of these critical emails each year by unsubscribing from our mailing list (Hubspot). This will mean you do not receive scheme critical information (registrations, submission reminders, results information etc). Each year it will be assumed that you consent again to receiving critical communications where you will again have the option to opt out.

You can opt out of receiving 3rd party communications on a permanent basis and this is not a condition of annual membership as detailed terms and conditions.

To permanently remove yourself from all critical communications you will need to close your account or remove yourself from your organisations account.

If you want to stop receiving marketing communications from us (“opting out”), you can make a request for us to stop sending marketing communications to you at any time.

We would encourage you to make such requests contacting the EMQN office team (office@emqn.org) stating that you no longer wish to receive such communications. You can also use the “unsubscribe” option included in most of our e-mail correspondence which will remove you from being contacted for the given scheme year.

We will only send you critical communications when you have told us that you are happy for us to do so through agreeing our terms and conditions

Each year it will be assumed that you consent again to receiving critical communications where you will again have the option to opt out

Data protection and privacy laws in some countries require us to have what’s called a “legal basis” or “lawful ground” for handling personal information. Broadly, that means that we have to have a legal justification for handling your personal information. For the most part, we need to handle your personal information to be able to:

  • The data subject (you) has given consent to the processing activity taking place.
  • If the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract
  • If the processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject
  • If the processing in necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interest pursed by us or our partners.

Where legitimate interest is identified as a lawful basis, we will undertake a legitimate interest assessment which is a three-part test covering:

  • The purpose test– to identify the legitimate interest
  • Necessity test– to consider if the processing is necessary for the purpose identified
  • Balancing test– considering the individual’s interests, rights or freedoms and whether these override the legitimate interests identified.

We collect personal information from you, for example, when you contact us or interact with us through our website, email, phone, in person at our stands and events, or otherwise. The categories of personal information that we may collect, store and use about you include:

  • Identity data: including name, last name, date of birth, gender, official identity number.
  • Contact data: including address, telephone number, email.
  • Financial data: including bank accounts, payment card details.
  • Services data: including details about payments to and from you and other details of services you have purchased from us, or we have purchased from you.
  • Marketing and communications data: including information on when you receive and open marketing communications from us, when you attend our event/trade stands.
  • Account data: including information about your account with us, username, password, purchases or orders made by you, marketing and communication preferences, account status, and information from forms you fill in including responses to surveys and feedback provided.
  • Technical data: including IP address, the browser software you use, your operating system, the date and time of access, the internet address of the website from which you link through to our website, and other technology on the devices you are using.
  • Interactions data: including information about your use of our website, how you interact with us through email, phone in person at our stands and events, how you engage with our promotional campaigns outside of our own websites.

We do not collect the following special category data from you except where we have an Article 9 exception allowing us to do so.

  • Direct interactions: You give us your personal data in your direct interactions with us. For example, filling in forms on our website; through our electronic portals and platforms, by corresponding with us by email or post, by speaking to us in person in events and trade stand.
  • Website interactions: You give us your personal data when you use our website, or when you review the publications or marketing we send you. We also collect your personal data by using cookies and similar technologies We also collect your personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies.
  • Social media: You may use social media to contact us about your EMQN products and services, or to let people know what you think about your EMQN products and services. We review publicly available social media and online sites to get a better understanding of what people are saying about us, and our products, technology and services and to assist consumers who prefer to contact us through social media.  The information we collect from social media and online sites, including YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, sometimes includes personal information that has been put online and is publicly available. We make sure any information we use is properly credited to its source or is made anonymous. These online and social media sites typically have their own privacy policies explaining how they use and share your personal information. You should carefully review those privacy policies before you use these sites to make sure that you are happy with how your personal information is being collected and shared.
  • We do not collect/use information from third party data providers.

We pride ourselves on ensuring that your personal data is only retained for the period that we need it for, or in accordance with laws, regulations, and professional obligations that we are subject to. All personal information collect has a defined retention period, which is in-line with our retention policy. For example:

  • If you stop being a named contact for an existing EQA participant, we will hold your details for a maximum of 5 years after you stop being a named contact.
  • If your laboratory stops participating in our EQA schemes while you are a named contact for the laboratory, we will hold your personal information for a maximum of 5 years after the last participating scheme year. After 5 years we will remove personal names and email addresses from the information for previous EQA participants. However, we will store the participation and performance data related to previous EQA participants for 10 years after the last participating scheme year.
  • If you have consented to us contacting you for purposes other than those related to EQA scheme participation we will keep your data until you tell us that you wish to be removed from the relevant contact list or for a maximum of 5 years after you last gave your consent to be contacted.

If we are storing your information for purposes other than those related to EQA scheme participation and you wish to have your personal information removed from our records, please contact the EMQN Office team (office@emqn.org).

We are committed to protecting your personal information. We use appropriate technical and organisational measures, including encryption, to protect your personal information and privacy, and review those regularly. We protect your personal information using a combination of physical and IT security controls, including access controls that restrict and manage the way in which your personal information and data is processed, managed and handled. We also ensure that our staff are adequately trained in protecting your personal information. Our procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we share your personal information with you. 

We have policies and procedures to handle any potential data security breaches and data subjects, third parties and any applicable regulators will be notified where we are legally required to do so.                                                              

EMQN’s website, products and services are not designed for, or intentionally targeted at, children. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children. 

If you are a child, please do not attempt to become a registered user of our EMQN or otherwise provide us with any personal information. If we learn that we have inadvertently obtained personal information from a child, we will delete that information as soon as possible. 

If you are aware of a child who has provided their personal information to us, please contact the EMQN office team at office@emqn.org.  

In this Section, we have summarised the rights that you have under General Data Protection Regulation. Some of the rights are complex, and not all the details have been included in our summaries. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

Your principal rights under General Data Protection Regulation are:

  1. Right to Object.
  • You can exercise this right if:
    • Processing relies on legitimate interest.
    • Processing is for scientific or historical research.
    • Processing includes automated decision making and profiling.
    • Processing is for direct marketing purposes.
  1. Right of Access
  • You or any third party acting on your behalf with your authority may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you without charge.
  • We will ask to verify your identity or request evidence from the third party that they are acting on your behalf before releasing any personal data we hold about you.
  1. Right to be Informed
  • We are required, to provide clear and transparent information to you about how we process your personal data. This privacy notice addresses this right.
  1. Right to Rectification
  • If you believe the personal data we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete you have the right to correct this and you may exercise this right along with the right to restrict processing until these corrections are made.
  1. Right to Erasure
  • If there is no legal basis or legitimate reason for processing your personal data, you may request that we erase it.
  1. Right to Restrict Processing
  • You may ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data. This means we will still hold it but not process it. This is a conditional right which may only be exercised when:
    • Processing is unlawful.
    • We no longer need the personal data, but it is required for a legal process.
    • You have exercised your right to object to processing and require processing to be halted while a decision on the request to object is made.
    • If you are exercising your right to rectification.
  1. Right to Data Portability
  • You can request that your personal data is transferred to another controller or processor in a machine-readable format if:
    • Processing is based on consent.
    • Processing is by automated means (i.e., not paper based).
    • Processing is necessary for the fulfilment of a contractual obligation.

If you have any question about these rights, please see “additional information”, section 14 of this notice9.0 Consent

Where you have given consent for processing, or explicit consent in relation to the processing of special category data, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, but this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal

Where we need to collect personal data by law or in order to process your instructions or perform a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to carry out your instructions or perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel our engagement or contract you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

When you visit our websites, we collect information regarding your connection and your activity by using various online tracking technologies, such as cookies, web beacons, Local Storage, or HTML5. Information that is collected with these technologies may be necessary to operate the website or service, to improve performance, to help us understand how our online services are used, or to determine the interests of our users. We use advertising partners to provide and assist in the use of such technologies. For more information on the technologies that we use to collect website information, see our Cookie Policy.

Your personal data is not used in any automated decision making (a decision made solely by automated means without any human involvement) or profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain conditions about an individual).

EMQN may disclose your personal data, listed in section 5 to some third parties to help us deliver our services/products and only have access to the personal information they need to perform those services. All third parties are contractually bound to protect the personal data we provide to them. We may use several or all of the following categories of recipients:

  • Certain distributors, who help us to sell our products in certain countries.
  • Those helping us to deliver products and services to you, for example other EQA providers such as GenQA, RCPAQAP and CSCQ.
  • Third parties that help us with mailing services, financial services, audit services, administrative services, IT technologies (e.g. data storage).
  • Marketing services providers.
  • Business partners, suppliers, contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you.
  • Web analytics and search engine provider to ensure the continued improvement and optimisation of our website.
  • Payment service providers.
  • Recruitment service providers.
  • Professional advisors e.g. lawyers, auditors.

We provide links to other websites which are not operated and controlled by EMQN. We have no control over and are not responsible for the content of those sites or how the third parties responsible for them collect and use your personal information. We do not endorse or make any representations about third party websites. 

Third party websites usually have their own privacy policies explaining how they use and share your personal information. You should carefully review those privacy policies before you use these websites to make sure that you are happy with how your personal information is being collected and shared.

EMQN will collect personal information from you in the country in which you live. We then host, store and otherwise handle that information in the UK (at our headquarters). Any personal information transferred will only be processed on our instruction and we ensure that information security at the highest standard would be used to protect any personal information as required by the Data Protection laws. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA and/or the United Kingdom, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented: 

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission (in the case of transfers out of the EEA) or the United Kingdom Government (in the case of transfers out of the United Kingdom); and/or
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission (in the case of transfers out of the EEA) and/or the United Kingdom Government (in the case of transfers out of the United Kingdom), in both cases which give personal data the same protection it has within the EEA and/or United Kingdom as applicable.

For more information about transfers and safeguarding measures, please contact us using the information in section 17.

We take any complaints about our collection and use of personal information very seriously.

If you think that our collection or use of personal information is unfair, misleading, or inappropriate, or have any other concern about our data processing, please raise this with us in the first instance.

To make a complaint, please contact us via email on office@emqn.org

Alternatively, you can contact us:

  • By Post: Data Protection Officer (DPO), EMQN CIC, Third Floor, ICE Building, Exchange Quay, Salford M5 3ED, United Kingdom
  • By Phone: +44.161.757.1591

Alternatively, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

  • By Post: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
  • By Website: Click here
  • By email: icocasework@ico.org.uk
  • By Phone: 0303 123 1113 (Local rate) or 01625 545 745 (National rate)

For customers based in the EU, our EU representative is Bulletproof.com and can be contacted on dpo@bulletproof.co.uk. If you wish to exercise your rights under the EU GDPR or have any questions regarding data privacy, please contact them on this email address.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, or would like to make a complaint about how we use the personal information we hold about you, please email , or write to, our EMQN Office Team, or contact the EMQN Data Protection Officer (dpo@emqn.org).

  • December 2018
    We published our Global Privacy Policy to comply with the requirements of new European data protection laws (specifically, the General Data Protection Regulation).
  • September 2021
    Changes were made to reference that critical communications will be sent (those communications linked to scheme registration, participation, new schemes, results submissions etc) and must be agreed to as part of the terms and conditions of membership. Members can opt out of these by unsubscribing to communications through Mailchimp for that scheme year. Each new scheme year, members will be sent critical communications once more. Members not wishing to receive these and permanent basis must close their account or be removed from an account. Members have the option to opt out permanently of 3rd party communications.
  • March 2025
    Changes were made to the use of Mailchimp which has been replaced by Hubspot
  • September 2025
    Fully updated by Bulletproof.com following DPA undertaken in 2024 (see audit for details)