Privacy Policy

Contact Us

We are committed to your data privacy.

Benchmark Consulting is highly sensitive to the confidentiality of information provided by you to us. As a result, we have adopted the following Privacy Policy which is applicable to all information that you provide to us and which we maintain electronically, whether you provide the information through our website or through other means.  This Policy does not apply to any information that you may provide to third parties, such as through other sites linked to the Benchmark Consulting Site. You should contact such third parties directly to determine their respective Privacy Policies.

Personal data collected by Benchmark Consulting

Benchmark Consulting may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of Personal Data about you.  

These are the types of Personal Data we may collect: 

  • Identity Data includes first & last name, company, job title. 
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers. 
  • Financial Data such as payment card or PayPal details if you make purchases from us or if you otherwise subscribe to our chargeable services. 
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us. 
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website. 
  • Profile Data includes purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses. 
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services. 
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. 

We also collect and use Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data. Aggregated Data may be derived from your Personal Data. If we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your Personal Data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as Personal Data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.  We do not collect any special categories of Personal Data about you while you visit the site. 

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on our website 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. 

Cookies

Cookies are a standard technology used by commercial web services to store small pieces of information on your hard drive by sending a small string of text to your browser. Cookies make your use of our Site more pleasing and efficient by, for example, ‘personalizing’ your user interface or identifying which parts of the site you have previously visited. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies unless you have configured yours not to accept them. For us to provide you with services, your browser must accept cookies, as they are essential for Site administration and security.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.  

How personal information is used

We will only use your Personal Data when the law allows us to. We must use your data only on a lawful basis including, but not limited to using such data to fulfil a contract we have with you; to comply with legal obligations; to lawfully gain information to help us develop our services; to monitor how our website is being used and any issues with the Site; for marketing and communications purposes (as set forth below) to keep you informed of developments and new products; etc. By providing us with your Personal Data, you indicate that you consent to allow us to process and maintain your Personal Data.

Most commonly, we will use your Personal Data in the following circumstances: 

  • Benchmark Consulting may collect information in conjunction with registration for programs and related services and to perform follow-up with its program registrants, as part of the registration process for our programs. 
  • Where we need to fulfil the contract to provide you with our services. We may use your IP Address to maintain and administer our website. 
  • Your IP Address may also be used to help identify you and to gather broad demographic information, some of which we may aggregate and then share with our partners. 
  • We may also use your IP address to track information you have seen on our site. 
  • We may use your name, email address and mailing address to assist us in communicating with you. 
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. 
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. 

Marketing uses

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you.  You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us, have purchased goods or services from us, or if you provided us with your details when you registered for a promotion.  We will not supply your details to any company outside Benchmark Consulting for marketing purposes.   

Opting out of marketing messages 

You can opt out of marketing messages at any time by doing one of the following: 

  • Use the opt-out link at the bottom of any marketing email you receive 
  • Email info@benchmark-consulting.net and request to opt-out of receiving messages

Data Retention

Benchmark Consulting reviews and classifies all data (electronic and printed) that is in our possession as per our Secure Data Classification Policy, applying the appropriate levels of protection as required by state, federal, and international law, as well as proprietary, ethical, operational, and privacy considerations.  Security standards, which define these security controls and requirements, may include document marking/labeling, release procedures, privacy, transmission requirements, printing protection, computer display protections, storage requirements, destruction methods, physical security requirements, access controls, backup requirements, transport procedures, encryption requirements, and incident reporting procedures.  

We will only retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We will actively review the information we hold and when there is no longer a customer, legal or business need for us to hold it, we will delete it securely. To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which we process your Personal Data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. 

In some circumstances we may anonymize your Personal Data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. 

Sharing of information with third parties

Although we use third parties to store and process data, we will not sell, share or rent personal information to others. We will disclose to third parties only the information necessary for the third party to provide contracted services. 

We require all third parties to respect the security of your Personal Data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your Personal Data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your Personal Data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. 

Disclaimer of responsibility for third party sites

Our website may provide you with links to other websites. We are not responsible for those sites and cannot control the use of information that you submit once you reach those sites, nor can we control the content of what is offered on those sites or on links from those sites. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit. 

How your data is protected

We take great precautions to protect our users’ personal information. 

Access to all our users’ information is restricted. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. Furthermore, all employees are kept up to date on our security and privacy practices. Any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy and what they can do to ensure that our users’ information is protected. Employees receive annual Security and Privacy Awareness training.  

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected Personal Data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach when we are legally required to do so.