Privacy Policy
This website is hosted, maintained and developed by some of the staff at the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre (hereby referred to as JWMDRC).
This page explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it and how we keep it secure.
We take great care with any information we receive from you and are constantly looking at ways we can improve what we do. We may therefore change the content on this page from time to time so please check occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by our policy.
Who are we?
As previously mentioned some of the staff who work at the JWMDRC look after this website and its content. The JWMDRC is part of the Newcastle University Translational & Clinical Research Institute which in turn is part of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.
We are based at the Centre for Life, Central Parkway, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3BZ.
How do we collect information from you?
The information you send to us, when you get in touch goes straight to someone’s email (university or NHS) inbox and is not saved on our website database or systems.
What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when.
How is your information used?
We may use your information to:
ensure our website is working correctly, is fit for purpose and is being seen by the outside world
Occasionally, we will compile aggregate statistics about the number of visitors this site receives and browsers being used. Some basic aggregate statistical information is sometimes generated to try and identify areas where we can improve what we do but no personally identifying data is included in this type of analysis.
Who has access to your information?
We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
Your choices
We respect your choices and are happy to remove your personal information from our systems. If you would like us to look into this for you please contact [email protected].
How you can access and update your information
The accuracy of information is important to us and you can always inform us of any changes to this at [email protected] so that we can update the information on our site.
Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information and protection of the overall website
When we receive information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. We have an SSL certificate in place for this website. You can tell this by the presence of a small green padlock before the URL in the browser bar at the top of the screen. This means all information sent between your web browser and our web server is secure.
To ensure the functionality of our website is secure along with the information we hold on the server, we have installed specific security software. This software not only provides a firewall to all administrative areas but monitors activities of less scrupulous visitors whose aim is to gain access to areas of the site where they can install malicious code. Such visitors, once identified by where they have attempted to visit and also their activity, have their IP address blocked by our systems and this is also added to a blacklist of similar IP addresses.
We routinely monitor the security of our sites’ systems such as this. When available, we update all software to maximise security. As part of our security procedures we are in touch with the wider community of web security experts who raise awareness of any potential issues and offer valuable advice.
Our server, where all information is held, is located in Germany meaning all the data and information we store is held within the EU.
Use of ‘cookies’
To make our site work properly we sometimes place cookies on your device to enable the website to function properly. Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website. They can be used for a variety of reasons, but we only use them for essential purposes.
The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission.
It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookies page. Turning cookies of may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.
In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third-party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third-party site.
Review of this Policy
We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated – 19th April 2024.