T-REX Privacy Statement
Introduction
This is a statement of the practice of the Teacher's Research Exchange project (T-REX), in collecting and using your personal data as part of the functioning of the T-REX social network – that is, the use of all web pages within the domain www.t-rex.ie and any sub-domains (e.g. learn.t-rex.ie).
T-REX is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other websites accessed via links to outside of this domain.
Please note that if you share documents or research data via the site (for example, within a Project group) you also have data protection responsibilities. Please be aware of these (they are outlined below).
General Statement
T-REX takes privacy very seriously. We aim to collect only that information that is necessary to support and nurture the educational research community on T-REX, and to ensure the productive engagement with T-REX. We also aim to ensure that you have direct control over that information as much as possible (for example, through the control of who sees information included within your user profile). Furthermore, we are keenly aware of the importance of keeping data shared between researchers on the site safe and secure.
Collection and Use of Personal Information
You provide personal information to T-REX when you register or edit your user profile, when you post or share documents to the site, and through your engagement with the resources on the site.
The data are used only to allow the site to function as a means to support and nurture the community of educational researchers who make up its users. Data are stored for the duration that your account exists. You choose to delete your profile in your account settings area.
In addition to enabling the appropriate activity of the site (communication, collaboration, amongst educational researchers), your data are also combined with other information by our technical team in order to monitor the effectiveness and general functioning of the site, through statistics and other “analytics” of various kinds. These analytics are sometimes reported to outside bodies (e.g. funding support bodies), but never include personal information of individual users.
Your Personal Profile
The Name, Username, and Research Interests elements of your user profile are fixed as visible to all users of the site. All other elements of your profile can be designated as private or shared by editing your user profile (see our Support pages for how to do this).
Visibility of Your Posts
Who can see your posts depends on where you make it. By default, posts are made to the general activity (All Members) feed, which means that all users of the site can see its content.
If you post to a particular Project or group, then all members of that group can see the post. If the Project's settings indicate that it is a public group, then all posts will also be made to the general activity (All Members) feed. You should check with the person who set up the group, or check in the group's “Manage” tab to confirm settings that apply within groups.
Research and Evaluation of the T-REX Project
The Teachers' Research Exchange is in a process of continuous development. That is, the project is continually evaluating how effective and supportive the website and the activities supported by it are for the educational research community.
The Project Team collects anonymous (aggregated) data regarding members' engagement with the various platform functions. This includes such statistics as frequency of posts to various areas of the site (e.g. the Community Updates feed, or with T-REX Groups, or on the Discussion Forums within groups or withing learn.t-rex.ie activities), numbers of posts by users of different professional backgrounds as indicated in member profiles, levels of activity (posts, comments/replies, reactions, document uploads) within T-REX groups.
From time to time these data will be used in analyses and reports by the Project Team into the operation of the platform and the community, and may be included in research publications such as conference presentations, books, and academic journal articles.
No information that identifies any member or person referred to in any post or other activity on the site will be included in any publication without first seeking specific additional consent to do so.
Communication With Members
Policy and Procedure Updates
From time to time it will be necessary for the T-REX Project Team to communicate with members, for purposes such as the announcement of new policies or procedures. The email address included in your member profile will be used to provide these updates to you.
Activity Notifications
Your email address will also be used for notifications of various kinds of activity on the platform. You can amend what notifications in the "Settings" area of your user profile, or for those notification relating to activities within T-REX groups, on a group-by-group basis in the "Group Settings" area of the relevant group.
What Steps Do We Take To Keep Your Data Secure?
Only members of T-REX can access any user information. Beyond the core elements of your user profile required to enable communication and collaboration, all other elements are set as private (visible only to you) by default.
All documents shared within projects are accessible only to members within those projects, and, technically, to T-REX site administrators. All files shared through T-REX (e.g. personal publications or research data files shared within a project) are stored in an encrypted format on the site servers, to help keep them secure. However, it is T-REX policy that all research data uploaded to a project be anonymised before it is posted to the site (even within a private group).
User data is accessible by some of T-REX's technical partners (the company who hosts the site on its servers, and the software company responsible for the development of the site). T-REX will not share your data with any other third parties, and these partners will not have access to your data for any purpose save for the proper maintenance and support of the site's operation.
If you have any specific queries regarding the use or storage of your personal data, you should contact the T-REX Project Data Owner rex@mic.ul.ie
Your Data Protection Responsibilities
Sharing Research Data Through T-REX
Within groups on T-REX, you may share documents, and may find it useful to include data that you have collected as part of a project or piece of reflective practice. If you have collected personal data from people (anything that would enable someone to identify a person, this may not necessarily require their name to be included), you must take great care to keep it safe, secure, and use it only for the purposes for which you collected it, and for which you told your participants you were collecting it. Note that this could mean that you may not share the data through T-REX, even privately.
This statement cannot provide you with a primer on data protection for research purposes. If you collect personal information as part of your research, you must seek support for data protection considerations.
Data Collected from Social Media
T-REX may collect information when users interact with the T-REX Project social media accounts, profiles, and content. This information may be used for marketing, communications, and reporting purposes.
Queries, Contacts, Rights of Complaint
The T-REX Project is led by staff at Mary Immaculate College.
If you have any specific queries regarding the use or storage of your personal data, you should contact the T-REX Project Data Owner rex@mic.ul.ie
Further information on Data Protection at Mary Immaculate College may be viewed at Information Compliance Office | Mary Immaculate College. You can contact the Data Protection Officer at MIC at dataprotection@mic.ul.ie
You have a right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (Supervisory Authority). You may contact that Office at info@dataprotection.ie or by writing to the Data Protection Commissioner, Canal House, Station Road, Portarlington, Co. Laois.
Cookies on the T-REX website
Full details of the Cookies we use on the website and the functions that they perform can be found by clicking on the USERCENTRICS consent management link. This will appear as a banner pop-up when you first encounter the website, and will remain accessible as a blue fingerprint icon toward the bottom left of your screen when logged into the site.