Privacy Policy

The essential functions and activities of the National Institute of Early Childhood Development (‘NIEC’) are organising, developing and conducting pre-service and in-service training courses in early childhood care and education, herein together with other related services collectively called ‘Services’.

NIEC respects the confidentiality of the personal data of all individuals, be it our course applicants, students, lecturers or staff, and is committed to safeguarding the personal data that are collected from them and other sources. Please read this personal data protection policy (’Policy’) to learn more about the ways and the purposes for which we collect, use and disclose your personal data.

1. About the Policy
1.1 The Policy is based on Singapore Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (‘PDPA’), associated regulations and advisory guidelines of the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore.

1.2 By providing us with your personal data, visiting our website and using any of its functions and contents, including transmitting and storing any personal data, you will be deemed to have agreed to all the terms of the Policy; and you further represent that you are at least eighteen (18) years old and have read, understood and accepted the terms of the Policy. In the event that you are below eighteen (18) years of age, you confirm that you have your parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to visit our website and use our Services.

2. Collection, use and disclosure of personal data
2.1 We collect your personal data when you use our website and Services, request for access to our campuses, practicum premises, and in your interaction with us.

2.2 The personal data that we may collect are those provided by you. This may be done through our website, over the phone, by email, in person or when you meet our staff, partners, and representatives.

2.3 The personal data that we may collect include:

(i) your contact information, name, residential and email addresses, birth date, and telephone number;
(ii) citizenship, country of birth and
(iii) others (provided on request).

2.4 The personal data may be required to enable us to process specific matters such as PSEA/SSG/WSG/Salary Support Funding claims, MOE Capitation Grant, ECDA PET (Enhanced Internship Programme), Practicum Center allocation, bursary and means testing (a full list will be provided upon your enrolment if you are a course applicant).

2.5 Other likely use of your personal data includes:

• processing any applications or requests,
• for daily operation and delivery of the Services,
• conducting identity checks,
• collecting and recovering fees and amounts due,
• complying with regulatory requirements,
• disclosing to related party and third-party service providers,
• investigating fraud and misconduct,
• responding and sharing information with government and public agencies,
• carrying out market research and,
• organising welcome and graduation ceremonies, and
• others (provided on request).

2.6 Other likely disclosure of your personal data, includes:

• to associated organisations and affiliates,
• to persons and companies acting for us,
• to financial institutions, charge and credit card companies, and
• to others (provided on request).

3. Consent to collect, use and disclose
3.1 Generally, we seek consent before we collect, use or disclose any of your personal data. A lot of time, however, we rely on the following modes provided by the PDPA that allow us to collect, use and disclose without the need to seek your written or oral consent:

(i) by ‘deemed consent’, where:

1. the personal data is provided by you voluntarily for a particular purpose known to you,
2. it is necessary to perform a contractual transaction with you, or
3. we inform you of an intended purpose and you do not come back by a given time to tell us that you do not want us to do so; and

(ii) by ‘exempted consent’, where it is for:

1. evaluating your eligibility, qualification and suitability for the course and position that you have applied for,
2. a legitimate interest of NIEC or another interested party,
3. carrying out research on subjects relating to our Services,
4. improving the quality and delivery of our Services, or
5. others (provided on request).

4. Cookies
4.1 When you visit our website, we may assign your computer one or more “cookies”. By accessing our website, you agree that we can place cookies on your device.

4.2 A cookie is a small text file that contains information that can later be read by us to facilitate your access to our website, gather statistical data, and personalise your online experience.

4.3 We currently use cookies on our website for purposes including, but not limited to, detecting your web browser’s multimedia capabilities, tracking promotional advertisements that we have displayed to you and providing a unique identifier to your computer so that we can generate statistics regarding your website usage.

4.4 We use cookies to improve your experience using the website and to improve the efficacy of our Services. We have carefully chosen these cookies and had taken steps to ensure that your privacy is protected and respected at all times.

4.5 Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies. Generally, you can remove these cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser’s “help” file. If you choose not to allow us to place a cookie on your computer, you may be restricted from some Services and some of the interactive features offered on our website may be similarly restricted or rendered inoperable.

5. Marketing Communications
5.1 By using our website and Services you consent to the use of your contact personal data for the purpose of NIEC sending you marketing communication related to the Services.

5.2 You may withdraw your consent in accordance with the procedure set out in clause 6 below.

6. Withdrawal of consent
6.1 You may request to withdraw your given and deemed consent to the use, disclosure of your personal data at any time. You may do so by contacting us at dpo@niec.edu.sg.

6.2 Please allow at least five (5) calendar days for your request to be processed.

6.3 Please note that the use and disclosure of most of your personal data is necessary for us to provide you with the Services you requested and should you withdraw your consent to the use and disclosure of any of your essential personal data, NIEC may not be able to continue providing the required Services to you.

7. Access and correction of personal data
7.1 If you wish to access, update or otherwise change any personal data that we have of you, please contact us at: dpo@niec.edu.sg.

7.2 All requests for correction or for access to your personal data must be in writing. We will endeavour to respond to your request within five(5) calendar days, and if that is not possible, we will inform you of the required time.

8. Accuracy of personal data
NIEC keeps your personal data as accurate, complete and up-to-date. Where required, we will validate your personal data using generally accepted practices and guidelines. This includes request to see original documentation before we use and disclose the personal data.

9. Protection of Personal Data
9.1 NIEC protects personal data against loss, theft, unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, use and modification with security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal data.

9.2 We use various methods to safeguard, including:

physical measures to lock up filing cabinets, restrict access to offices and security systems
technical measures in the use of passwords and encryption administrative measures in employing confidentiality agreements, security clearances, staff training, and limiting access on a need-to-know basis.

9.3 Online security is also a priority for us. NIEC incorporates security measures such as encryption and authentication tools to protect personal data from unauthorised use and access.

10. Retention of Personal Data
NIEC will retain your personal data only for as long as the purposes for which such they are collected, used and disclosed and necessary for our legal and business purposes. Thereafter, NIEC will delete and destroy them, or remove the means by which the personal data can be associated with you.

11. Complaints
We take our compliance and your complaint seriously, if you wish to voice and share your unhappiness with the way your personal data is handled, do let us know as we have a process to receive, hear and respond to your concern. We study all complaints in a timely manner. We will first acknowledge your complaint and after we have completed our study, we will respond to your complaint within 2 weeks.

12. Change to Policy
We reserve the right to modify and change this Policy at any time. If we make any material changes to it we will post them on this webpage. We encourage you to review this webpage periodically to keep updated on our policy regarding the collection, use and disclosure of your personal data.

13. Contact Us
If you have any questions or feedback relating to our Policy or wish to contact us for any reason, you can contact us via the following channels:

email: dpo@niec.edu.sg
phone: (+65) 6332 0668

You may also write to our Data Protection Officer as follows:

Data Protection Officer
National Institute of Early Childhood Development
1 Nanyang Walk NIE 5-B2-06
Singapore 637616