Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how the Global Congress on Gastroenterology & Digestive Diseases (“GCGD 2027”, “we”, “us”, “our”) organising secretariat collects, uses, shares, retains and protects personal data when you interact with GCGD 2027 — whether by browsing this website, submitting a form, registering as a delegate, presenting an abstract, sponsoring or exhibiting, downloading materials, or attending the conference in person, virtually or hybrid.

1. Information We Collect

We collect personal data only when you provide it through one of the forms on this site, or when it is generated automatically as a by-product of your interaction with the site. The categories below map to the specific touchpoints:

• Registration form (/register) — title, full name, email address, alternate email, phone number, country, affiliation, dietary requirements, accompanying-person details, accommodation preferences, billing address and payment details.
• Abstract submission form (/call-for-abstract-submission) — author name, affiliation, email, co-author details, abstract title and body, uploaded files (Word, PDF) and presenter preferences.
• Contact / Enquiry form (/contact) — name, email, phone and message content.
• Sponsor & Exhibitor enquiry (/sponsor-exhibitor) — company name, contact name, role, email, phone, country and sponsorship interests.
• Brochure / programme download (modal on multiple pages) — name, email, phone, country, area of interest and optional message.
• Visa-support requests — where you request a letter of invitation, we collect passport details (full name as printed on the passport, passport number, nationality, date of birth) strictly for the purpose of preparing the letter.
• Voluntarily submitted information — any free-text content you supply in abstracts, questions, polls, dietary notes, sponsorship enquiries or surveys.
• Technical data — IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device information, referring URL, pages visited, language preference and timestamp of access, collected automatically via server logs and analytics cookies.
• Bot-protection data — when a form is submitted, hCaptcha collects technical signals (IP, device fingerprint, mouse / keystroke timing) to verify you are a human. We do not see or store this data ourselves.

We do not knowingly collect special-category data (health, race, religious beliefs, biometric or genetic data). Please do not include such data in free-text fields.

2. How We Use Your Information

• Process registrations, abstracts, sponsorships and brochure requests, and confirm participation;
• Issue invoices, receipts and tax documents and process payments;
• Send transactional emails — confirmations, programme updates, joining instructions, certificates of attendance, presentation certificates and visa-support letters;
• Operate the website — security, performance monitoring, abuse prevention and analytics;
• Plan future editions and improve the delegate experience through internal research and reporting;
• Send marketing about future conferences — only where you have given consent or where permitted by law; every marketing email contains a one-click unsubscribe link.

3. Third-Party Processors & Sharing

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data. We share it only with the categories of recipients listed below, each bound by a written data-processing agreement and obliged to use the data solely for the purposes we specify:

• SCON Conferences CMS — receives every form submission as the system of record for the secretariat.
• hCaptcha (Intuition Machines, Inc.) — bot-detection on every form. See the hCaptcha Privacy Policy.
• PayPal Holdings, Inc. and Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd. — process card and wallet payments. We never see or store your full card number or CVV. See the PayPal Privacy Statement and the Stripe Privacy Policy.
• Email-delivery provider — transactional and (where consented) marketing email.
• Hosting partner / virtual-event platform — when the conference is delivered virtually or as a hybrid, the platform receives the data needed to provision your participant account.
• Hotel booking partner — when you select an accommodation option on the registration form, the relevant fields (name, dates, dietary needs) are forwarded to the booking partner only.
• Sponsors — your details are only shared with a sponsor where you have explicitly opted in to that sponsor’s programme.
• Competent authorities — where disclosure is required by law, court order, regulator request, or to protect our rights, property or safety, or those of our participants or the public.

4. International Data Transfers

The conference is organised in the United States and supported by service providers located in different countries. Your personal data may therefore be processed in jurisdictions other than your own. Wherever your data is held, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected by appropriate safeguards and processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

5. Cookies & Analytics

This site uses cookies in three categories:

• Strictly necessary — session, security, CSRF protection, hCaptcha. Cannot be disabled.
• Analytics — aggregated traffic and page-view statistics so we can improve the site. No personally identifiable data is exposed to analytics scripts.
• Marketing — only loaded if you give explicit consent through the cookie banner.

You can disable non-essential cookies in your browser settings or via the cookie banner. Disabling necessary cookies will break login and form submission.

6. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction. These measures include encryption of data in transit, restricted administrative access, role-based controls and audit logging. Payment data is handled exclusively by our payment providers and is never stored on our own systems. No internet transmission or electronic storage method is entirely secure, however; in the unlikely event of a personal data breach affecting your rights, we will notify you and the relevant authorities in line with applicable law.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, to meet our legal and accounting obligations, or to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. Abstracts, proceedings and certificates are retained as part of the permanent scientific record; routine enquiry and registration data is deleted or anonymised when no longer required. When data is no longer needed, it is securely deleted or anonymised.

8. Your Rights

You may contact us to request:

• Access to the personal data we hold about you;
• Correction of inaccurate or incomplete data;
• Deletion of your personal data;
• Withdrawal of any consent you previously gave.

To exercise any of the above, email gcgd@meetings.llc. We respond within thirty (30) days.

9. Children’s Privacy

The conference is intended for an adult professional audience. We do not knowingly collect data from children under sixteen (16). If you believe a minor has provided us data, please contact us so we can delete it.

10. Third-Party Links

This site may link to external websites — sponsor pages, hotel partners, social-media platforms, scientific resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of those external sites. Please review their privacy policies before submitting any personal data.

11. Intellectual Property in Personal Data

All site content — logos, graphics, design elements, photographs, presentation slides delivered at GCGD 2027, and abstracts published in the proceedings — is the intellectual property of the GCGD 2027 secretariat or the original authors and is protected under international copyright laws. Reproduction or redistribution without prior written permission is prohibited, save for the personal, non-commercial review of registered participants.

12. Updates to This Policy

We may update this policy periodically. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes are communicated to registered delegates by email at least thirty (30) days before they take effect.

13. Contact

For any privacy question or to exercise any right described above, contact the GCGD 2027 secretariat:

Email: gcgd@meetings.llc
Phone: +1 775 243 6888
Website: gastro-meetings.com