Development and Alumni Relations Office - Fair Processing/Privacy Notice

Introduction

The University of Chester is committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals as detailed in relevant Data Protection legislation including looking after any personal data that it collects, uses or holds. This Data Processing and Privacy Notice describes how and why we collect and use personal information about you. It is issued under your right to be informed about how the University collects, uses and stores your personal data.

This notice explains how the University of Chester Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO) will collect and use your personal data for development and alumni relations activities.

Data Protection Principles

We will comply with data protection legislation, which says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

• Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
• Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
• Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
• Accurate and kept up to date
• Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about
• Kept securely

What Personal Data does the Development and Alumni Relations Office collect?

Your personal data is collected from the following sources:

• Data originates from the University’s student databases, and used when students conclude their programmes of study.
• You – you provide data when you enquire about alumni events, make a donation, or register to join the alumni community.
• Third parties – the University obtains data from the public domain and from organisations to aid the pursuit of its purposes. This enables us to contact you in the event that you change your address or phone number, or didn’t provide it to us. We may also use this information to gain a better understanding of our supporters to improve our fundraising methods, events, and alumni benefits and services. The information we get from other organisations may depend on your privacy settings or the responses you give them, so you should regularly check them.

The personal data that is processed

The data processed may include:

• Your name, title, gender and date of birth;
• Contact details (address, email addresses, phone numbers and social media presence);
• Education history from your time at University of Chester or associated legacy institutions, such as Chester College, Padgate Training College and Warrington Collegiate Institute, and qualifications achieved at other institutions;
• Prizes, scholarships and bursaries you were awarded;
• Your attendance at graduation ceremonies;
• Employment details, professional activities, career biographies and alumni profiles;
• Partner/spouse and family details, and relationships with other alumni, supporters and friends if this information has been freely given;
• Your interests as a student as well as your current interests;
• History of any donations to the University of associated legacy institutions, or philanthropic interests elsewhere;
• Information about your potential philanthropic capacity;
• Responses to the University’s fundraising appeals and proposals;
• Gift Aid status, where applicable (as required by HMRC);
• Information from publicly available sources and extracts from media stories;
• Records of communications from, and interactions with, University of Chester and/or the DARO;
• Attendance at events and meetings with University of Chester staff;
• Volunteering activities at or on behalf of the University;
• Communication preferences;
• Photographs, video or any other digital image either supplied by you for an alumni profile or taken during a graduation ceremony or alumni event or other University events.

What Special Category Data does the DARO Collect?

Some of the above may contain “sensitive” personal data. This is data about your racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or other beliefs, physical or mental health. The DARO will only process such data where you have given your consent for the DARO to have and use it or where the data has, to the best of the DARO’s knowledge and belief, been placed in the public domain by you.

Why does the DARO need this data and how will the DARO use this data?

Keeping you informed of opportunities for you to continue to be involved in the life and activities of the University including further study opportunities.

Personal data may also be processed for the following purposes:

• Keeping you informed of opportunities for you to continue to be involved in the life and activities of the University;
• Administration and provision of alumni services and activities;
• Fundraising in support of the University’s objectives;
• Volunteering in support of the University’s objectives;
• Due diligence exercises in accordance with the acceptance of gifts by the University;
• Anonymised data may be used to gather market intelligence to track and target our activities.

Fundraising Research

Fundraising helps support the work of University of Chester. The University tries to undertake activities that are effective and appropriate. Research enables the University to identify those alumni and other individuals who are likely, able and willing to make major gifts and to make sure that fundraising communications are relevant and of interest.

Research is carried out by analysing the personal data we hold about you. It may also include using additional information from publicly available sources (e.g. social media, Companies House and other business-related resources) and the use of demographic information based on your postcode. This analysis will normally be done by the Head of the Development and Alumni Relations Office.

If you prefer that the University does not conduct the above activity in relation to your personal data, please email h.astbury@chester.ac.uk or call 01244 511005.

What is the Legal Basis for processing the data?

The University and the DARO rely on several different legal bases depending on the processing being performed:

• Consent – processing will sometimes be carried out in accordance with your consent;
• Performance of a contract – bookings for events, gifts, the alumni magazine and other related matters;
• Legal obligation – providing data to statutory and regulatory agencies;
• Public interest – furthering the charitable objectives of the University delivers a public and societal benefit;
• Legitimate interests – a vibrant and engaged alumni community supports and enhances the teaching and research of the University, having taken account of the privacy rights and freedoms of alumni and supporters.

For how long will the DARO keep this Data?

The DARO will look to retain your personal data for as long as there is lawful reason to do so unless you request that it be removed from the records. Whenever you are contacted you will be reminded of your right to request us to delete your personal data. You may ask at any time for us to delete your personal data by contacting h.astbury@chester.ac.uk. Where this happens, a record of the request and basic details will be retained in order to ensure that your data is not added to the database in future.

Who has access to the data and with whom will the DARO share this data?

The DARO does not share data with third party organisations other than those acting on its behalf and with whom it has data sharing agreements, such as the mailing and fulfilment of University publications to which you have a subscription, for example. Arrangements will be in place to ensure that your data is exchanged in a secure manner and that it is not used for any purposes other than those agreed by the University. Appropriate safeguards will be put in place where your data is to be transferred outside the European Union.

If the DARO intends to share your personal information with anyone else, you will be notified and informed of the reason why and when it is collected.

Your details will not be shared with any individuals looking to contact you, including your former fellow students.

How will the University keep this data secure?

Your personal data is held on the student Database, which is also used by the DARO. Arrangements are in place to ensure that your data remains secure. Access to the data is strictly controlled. Staff processing the data receive relevant training on data protection and information security.

From time to time, the University may commission agents of a third party to enhance the systems storing your personal data. Where this occurs they will act strictly in accordance with the instructions given by the University, scheduled within a data sharing agreement, so that your personal data remains secure.

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes. 

What Rights do you have as a Data Subject?

As a data subject of the University, under the Data Protection legislation, you have a number of rights with regards to your data, dependent upon the legal basis for processing that data. As such you have the right to…

• Withdraw consent - where the University has used consent as the legal basis for processing;
• Be informed – about how the University, collects and uses your data;
• Access your personal data that the University holds and process;
• Rectify or correct any inaccuracies in your personal data that we hold;
• Be forgotten by requesting that your details are removed from the University systems;
• Restrict the processing of your data whilst it is being verified or corrected;
• Port your data in a machine readable and commonly used format; 
• Object to certain processing by the University including direct marketing, automated decision making, profiling, scientific/historical research and statistics;

The above rights are not absolute and may only apply in some circumstances such as being dependent upon which lawful process has been used or whether an exemption may apply.

The following table details the right that accompany each lawful basis.

 

 

You may contact the University’s Data Protection Officer as necessary regarding your rights. 

Who is the Data Controller and who is the Data Protection Officer?

The Data Controller is the University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester, CH1 4BJ. The Data Controller’s representative is Mr Adrian Lee, University Secretary, who may be contacted at the University address and on 01244 511000. 

The University’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Rob Dawson. He may also be contacted at the University’s address and telephone number and also by email on dpo@chester.ac.uk.

How to raise questions, comments, concerns, or complaints.

Should you have any questions, comments, concerns or complaints regarding the use of your personal data you should contact the University’s Data Protection Officer as detailed above. 

You may also raise any concerns or complaints with the Information Commissioner’s Office who may be contacted as follows:

Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk

Changes to this Notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.