NGS Privacy Policy

Nepal Geotechnical Society deals with individual information privacy as follows.

What kinds of personal information do we require and maintain in our database?

We require and maintain:

• your contact details, such as residence address, permanent address, telephone number and email address;
• your personal details, such as date of birth, gender, qualifications, titles;
• your membership category;
• your face photo, relevant ID card, degree certificate or testimony of being in the field of geotechnical engineering or geosciences, and an updated copy of your curriculum vitae.

In this Privacy Policy we refer to the above items as your personal information.

How do we collect and hold your personal information?

We collect your personal information directly from you, including when you use the Nepal Geotechnical Society website. However, in some cases, we may receive your personal information from a third party (for instance if we receive a complaint relating to an engineering practitioner) or when it is relevant to our statutory responsibilities (for instance other regulators or government entities who have dealt with you).

What happens if we do not collect your personal information?

Without your personal information we may not be able to process your application or request, perform our statutory functions or provide you with some or all of our services.

What are the purposes for which we require and maintain your personal information?

We require and maintain your personal information to:

• fulfil our role as a professional society including:
  • maintaining membership records;
  • communicating regarding an inquiry, request for information or use of our services;
  • conducting research and providing public representation relevant to members, engineering and geoscience practitioners or the provision of engineering services;
  • allowing use of personal information in a controlled manner by entities distributing information relevant to members or engineering and geoscience practitioners;
  • allowing use of personal information in a controlled manner by entities advertising employment opportunities, courses and information relevant to engineering and geoscience students and graduates; and
• analyse your interaction with our personal and electronic services. The information collected from you may be analysed individually and/or aggregated with the information relating to other members to produce statistical information; and
• use information and/or provide information to third parties as authorized or required by law.

Use and Disclosure of your personal information

We do not use your personal information or disclose it to another organisation unless:

• it is reasonably necessary for one of the purposes described above;
• having regard to the nature of the information or the circumstances of collection we believe you would expect us to use the information or make the disclosure;
• required or authorized by law or court or tribunal;
• the disclosure is necessary to assist any entity, body or person to locate a person who has been reported missing;
• we have reason to suspect that unlawful activity, or misconduct of a serious nature, that relates to our functions or activities has been, is being or may be engaged in, and we believe that the collection, use or disclosure is necessary in order for us to take appropriate action; and
• you have provided your consent.

We may publish a list of geotechnical engineering and geoscience practitioners to whom we have issued a membership card including limited personal information such as name, address and contact information.

We take reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

Where practicable we implement measures to require organisations to whom disclosure is made to comply with the Privacy Policy. If a third party is given access to personal information we take reasonable steps to ensure that the information is held securely and used only for the purpose of providing the relevant service or activity.

Nepal Geotechnical Society and and Site user accounts

You can also assist us in keeping your personal information secure by maintaining the confidentiality of your account passwords and notifying us immediately if there is any unauthorized use of one of your accounts by another Internet user or any other breach of security relating to one of your accounts.

Privacy Policy application to the Sites

Cookies

We collect personal information through software such as cookies. A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on the hard disk of a user’s computer so that the website can remember that user. Without cookies, websites and their servers have no memory. This means that every time a user opens a new webpage on a website, the server where that webpage is stored will treat the user as new and require logon and password. In short, a cookie facilitates a user’s passage through a website.

Linked websites

This Privacy Policy does not apply to linked websites.

Rights to access and correction of your personal information

You have the right to access your personal information unless we are permitted by law to withhold that information. In that case, any requests for access to your personal information should be made to Nepal Geotechnical Society secretariat in writing. You also have the right to request the correction of any of your personal information which is inaccurate. You are able to change, update or clear your profile and account settings at any time by logging into your account. If you wish to access personal information about you that is not available on or accessible from your profile or account settings, please contact the Nepal Geotechnical Society secretariat in writing.

In some circumstances it may be appropriate and lawful for us to deny access, including if:

• we reasonably believe that giving access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or public safety;
• providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of another individual;
• the request is frivolous or vexatious;
• the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between you and us and the information would not be accessible by the process of legal discovery in those proceedings;
• giving access would reveal our intentions in relation to negotiations with you and prejudice those negotiations; and
• we have reason to suspect that unlawful activity, or misconduct of a serious nature, relating to our functions or activities has been, is being or may be engaged in; and giving access would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to the matter.