Cookies & Privacy Policy

Cookies 

What are cookies, and why do we use them? 

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners and administrators of the site. This website uses a cookie control system which lets the user allow or disallow the use of cookies on their device. This complies with UK legislation requiring websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user's device. If you wish to deny the use and saving of all cookies from this website onto your device, you should take the necessary steps within your web browser’s security settings to block all cookies from both this website and its external serving vendors. 

What else do we use? 

This website uses tracking software to monitor visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics, which uses cookies to track usage. Use of Google Analytics is conducted in accordance with Google's privacy policy, available at google.com/privacy. Other cookies may be stored on your device by third-party websites we link to. Such cookies typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information, other than your pseudonymised identifier, is stored, saved or collected. This processing is conducted lawfully on the basis of legitimate interest.

Your privacy 

Our website 

We take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of our website users. This website complies with UK laws and requirements, and the handling of your personal data complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679. 

Your rights

Your rights under Data Protection legislation include: 

• The right to be informed of how your Personal Data is used 
• The right to access any personal data held about you 
• The right to withdraw consent at any time, by contacting adminATpvrinstitute.org or following the method outlined in the Cookies section 
• The right to rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data held about you 
• The right to erasure where it cannot be justified that the information held satisfies any of the criteria outlined in this policy, or where you have withdrawn consent 
• The right to prevent processing for direct marketing purposes, scientific/historical research or in any such way that is likely to cause substantial damage to you or another, including through profile building; and 
• The right to object to processing that results in decisions being made about you by automated processes and prevent those decisions being enacted. 

Who has your data? 

Where we have collected your personal data directly from you, the PVRI is the Data Controller. The PVRI is a charity registered in England and Wales (No: 1127115) and a Company Limited by Guarantee (No. 05780068) with the registered address of 5 Tanner Street, London SE1 3LE, United Kingdom. Tel + 44(0)1227 787 972. Our Data Protection Lead is the PVRI Chief Executive. If you have any questions about how we use your data, please email adminATpvrinstitute.org. 

Contacting you 

Users contacting this website do so at their own discretion and provide personal details in acknowledgement of the risks inherent in transferring data over the internet. This website and the PVRI may use the information submitted to provide you with further information about our work and the products/services we offer or to assist in answering any questions you have submitted. Your details may be processed by the Third Parties noted below only for the purposes outlined. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form for email submission, but we advise users that no form of internet communication is 100% secure, and you use this feature at your own risk. The data we collect for contacting you through our website will include your name, email address and any other personal data included in the content of your message. This processing is conducted lawfully on the basis of legitimate interest. 

PVRi Pulse 

This website operates an email newsletter, PVRI Pulse, to inform subscribers about PVRI news and services. Users can subscribe through an automated online process, but they do so at their own discretion. Subscriptions comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. All personal details relating to subscriptions are held securely and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. 

Email marketing campaigns published by this website or its owners contain tracking facilities within the actual email using Microsoft Dynamics unique URLs integrated with the bespoke PVRI CRM to analyse the effectiveness of email content. This data is stored on encrypted servers, accessible only to the PVRI and, upon explicit consent, to our CRM support providers ‘Infinity Group The Coach House, Spencer Mews, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1.’ 

Subscriber activity is tracked and stored in a database for analysis and evaluation. Such tracked activity may include the opening of emails, forwarding of emails, the clicking of links within the email content, as well as times, dates and frequency of activity. This information is used to refine future email campaigns and supply users with more relevant content based on their activity. In compliance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, subscribers are given the opportunity to unsubscribe at any time. This processing is conducted lawfully on the basis of your consent. 

PVRI Membership 

When joining the PVRI as a member, you will be asked to provide details including your name, email address, your institution’s details, your job role, age, gender and ethnicity. 

Your details are not passed on to any third parties outside our membership network; however, with your consent, we will share details with other members through the Member Directory. Sharing data is automated upon ticking the appropriate box to share data through the Member Directory. 

This processing is conducted lawfully on the basis of your consent. 

PVRI Congress

When registering for Congress, you will be asked to provide details including your name, email address and your institution’s details. If you are a current PVRI member, this may be the same data you have already provided us upon activating your membership. This personal data will be kept for a period of 3 years following the date of the event. Financial information, including billing address will be kept for a period of 7 years, in line with financial practices. 

PVRI is the data controller of all PVRI events, and your details may be shared with our in-country representatives. For the PVRI 2025 Congress in Rio, this includes Compass Brazil, for the purposes of managing the event. Their privacy policy can be found here.

Payment processing 

If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us or pay for a registration online, we will ensure that card details are handled securely under Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. For more information about these Standards, see pcisecuritystandards.org/about_us/.

Please do not send an email containing any credit or debit card details since it will be immediately deleted, and no payment will be taken. 

What are the PVRI’s ‘legitimate interests’? 

The PVRI’s legitimate interests are its business needs balanced against the rights and freedoms of all individuals affected by that need. These are agreed upon by the PVRI’s Board of trustees and incorporate considerations of the risks present in our processing, your likely response to those risks (unless you inform us of your actual considerations), and the benefits you are likely to receive from our processing. 

Our use of cookies is based on our legitimate interest in analysing how our website is used, both for security and business reasons and using that information to make our service more secure and better for you to use. Your objection to us using cookie data in this way (as outlined in the section above) will nullify our legitimate interest in processing your personal data only. 

Our processing of your personal data in response to communications initiated by you is based on our legitimate interest in responding to enquires or suggestions about our organisation and the corresponding benefit you will receive in our response. 

Who else will receive your personal data? 

When becoming a PVRI member, your personal details will, with your consent, be visible to all other members and you will be able to see other members’ information, including personal data, in the Member Directory. 

The following organisations also process your personal data on our behalf. This relationship is governed by a contractual relationship that operates in accordance with the GDPR.

How long will your personal data be kept? 

The PVRI holds different categories of personal data for different periods of time. We will endeavour to minimise the amount of personal data that we hold, as detailed below, or, where you have requested to unsubscribe from our communications, we will hold only your email address on our suppression list. 

Where ‘consent’ is the basis for our lawful processing of your data, we will retain your data so long as both the purpose for which it was collected and your consent are still valid. We will review the status of your consent should the purpose for which the data was collected change, and treat non-response to any requests for renewal of consent made by us as if they were your request to withdraw consent. 

Occasionally, we might identify a legitimate interest in retaining some of your personal data that has been obtained by consent. If we do, we will inform you that we intend to retain it under these conditions and identify the interest specifically. 

Where we process your data on the basis of ‘legitimate interest’, we will retain your data for so long as the purpose for which it is processed remains active. We review the status of our legitimate interests on a regular basis and will update this notice whenever we determine that either a legitimate interest no longer exists or that a new one has been found. 

If you’re not happy, who can you complain to? 

If you’re not happy with how we handle your data, please let us know by sending your complaint to adminATpvrinstitute.org. As the PVRI is based within the UK, our supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office, and if you believe that we have failed to comply with data protection legislation, you can also complain to them by visiting ico.org.uk/concerns/. 

What profiling does the PVRI perform? 

The PVRI performs basic profiling of visitors to this website or its members to better understand who is using the website and to serve more relevant content. Profiling characteristics include country, membership type, specialism or interest area, age, gender and ethnicity and this data can come from both cookies and our membership forms. 

External links 

Although this website only looks to include high quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links on this website. (External links are clickable text/banner/image links to other websites, similar to; www.loginrailwaystation.co.uk or Bed & Breakfast Pembrokeshire.) We cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked websites, and users should note they click on external links at their own risk. This website and PVRI cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned. 

Sponsored links 

This website may contain sponsored links and adverts. These will typically be provided by our partners, who may have their own privacy policies relating to those adverts. Clicking on such adverts will send you to the advertiser’s website through a referral program which may use cookies and will track referrals sent from this website. This may include the use of cookies which may be saved on your device. Users click on sponsored external links at their own risk and this website and PVRI cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting external links. 

Social media platforms 

The PVRI will sometimes engage with users through external social media platforms. These platforms have their own terms and conditions, as well as privacy policies. Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate/engage with them with care and caution in regard to privacy and personal details. Neither this website nor the PVRI will ever ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms, and users wishing to discuss sensitive details should contact us through direct channels such as phone or email. This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account. The PVRI does not collect any personal data from social media profiles used in tandem with this website. Contacting us via social media If you send us a private or direct message via social media, we may share this information with PVRI staff (for example, to respond to a specific query or to pass on information). We will not share messages with any other organisations without your prior consent. 

Shortened links in social media 

This website and the PVRI, through our social media platform accounts, may share web links to relevant web pages. By default, some social media platforms shorten lengthy URLs [web addresses] (this is an example: http://bit.ly/zyVUBo). Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened URLs published on social media platforms by this website and PVRI. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine URLs are published, many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking, and therefore, this website and PVRI cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links. 

The PVRI reserves the right to, when appropriate, make additions or amendments to the Privacy Policy without notifying members.

Last updated July 2025

The Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI) is a charity registered in England & Wales (No: 1127115) and a company limited by guarantee (No. 05780068). The PVRI’s registered address is 5 Tanner Street, London SE1 3LE, United Kingdom + 44(0)1227 787 972.