UWS Advancement Privacy Notice
The University is committed to protecting the privacy of our alumni, friends and supporters and being transparent in how we process and store personal data. This privacy notice explains when and why we collect personal information about you and how we will use this information including the ways we might share this with others. It also explains how we keep your information secure as well as the rights you have in relation to the information we hold about you.
The headings below set out the main information we need to give to you. You can click on each heading to find out more detailed information.
We will share with you any changes to this privacy notice, but please check our website from time to time to see the most up-to-date version. If you have any queries or comments about this, please contact Fundraising and Alumni Department at alumni@uws.ac.uk
Who are we?
The terms ‘We’, ‘Us’ ‘Our’ or ‘the University’ refer to the Fundraising and Alumni Department at the University of the West of Scotland, and to the University of The West of Scotland as a whole and who are the Data Controller under the data protection legislation. This Privacy Notice sets out how we process personal data about our alumni, friends, partners and supporters of the University (referred to in this Privacy Notice as “you” or “your”).
What type of information do we collect about you?
We will collect a variety of information about you. For example:-
- Biographical information, such as your name and date of birth
- Postal Addresses
- Phone Numbers
- E-mail addresses
- Information about your time at the University, and other education history
- Your current and past professional activities
- Membership of groups
- Current Interests
- Media coverage about you which is publicly available
- Family and spouse/partner details, if you choose to provide this information to us
- Relationship to other alumni, donors and friends
- Donor status, research and fundraiser reports/briefings, wealth assessment information and indicators of your interest in giving.
- Details about previous donations you have made
- Gift Aid information
- Bank details, only if you have a standing order or direct debit with us.
- Records of communications, meetings and marketing activities by the University
- Volunteering activities and expression of interest in volunteering
- Registration and attendance at events
We do not store any credit/debit card details within our database. If you hold a direct debit with us, we might store your bank details (account name, number and sort code) on our secure and encrypted database system called Raiser’s Edge. Access to personal data is restricted to those members of staff who have a requirement to maintain a relationship with you, and is controlled through password protection and user security profiles. All University employees, contractors and volunteers that are given access to personal data receive mandatory Data Protection training and have a contractual responsibility to maintain confidentiality.
What are the sources of the information we hold about you?
We may collect information about you in a number of ways. We collect some of this information directly from the University’s student record system at the point of completion of studies. Some of the information recorded will have been obtained directly from you (for example through a registration form for an event, alumni update form, or donation form) or if you subscribed to our Alumni online platform managed by our partners at Graduway. Some of the data may also have been obtained through research from publicly available sources or subscription services and appended to your record.
We might also use third party agents to provide contact information or wealth screening services (when we receive indicators of individual wealth from an approved external supplier) to assess the capacity of a particular individual, to make a donation to us.
We will also assess the data we hold to indicate which of our services, activities and appeals you may be interested in.
We may use information gathered from public sources or other departments, schools or programmes within the University alongside the information you provide to undertake analysis of who might support the University and to understand your preferences about events, communication and services. By doing this, we can focus conversations we have with you about opportunities to be engaged, including volunteering and fundraising, in the most effective way, and ensure that we provide you with an experience which is appropriate for you. We also use publicly available sources to carry out due diligence on donors in line with the University’s Donations Procedure.
We may carry out projects to find new contact details for alumni with whom we are not in contact to ensure the University can remain in touch with as many of its alumni as possible and to ensure the details we hold are as up-to-date as possible. Many of our alumni choose to manage and update their own details, which you can do online at: https://www.uws.ac.uk/alumni/manage-your-contact-details/
If you provide us with contact details for a particular method of communication we will communicate with you using this information, unless you tell us otherwise. Contact details provided directly by you will update any previous preferences in relation to this channel unless you inform us otherwise. If you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) but provide us with a telephone number we will assume that we have your consent to call you on this number.
We may record sensitive data you provide directly to us for a specific purpose, e.g. about a disability you disclose to ensure we have appropriate facilities in place at our events.
How will we use your information?
We want to keep in touch with you, offering you support and services to build your career and providing news about activities on our campuses. We want to keep you updated with new projects and future developments at the University as your support and engagement is vital to our success and support for our students.
We store and process your personal data only for alumni engagement and fundraising purposes. This might include:
- Communicating with you to inform of news and developments at the University which we believe will be of interest to you
- Offering alumni services and membership benefits such as JSTOR access, career support, discounts on further study, networking and reunion opportunities, and exclusive experiences
- Requesting volunteers for speaking engagements, student mentoring, focus groups, recruitment fairs, and for case studies and photos for publications and promotional literature
- Inviting you to events and processing event registrations and ticket purchases where applicable
- Requesting and processing donations, including those processes relating to the administration of direct debits and Gift Aid declarations which are required by law, and keeping you updated on how your gift has impacted the University.
Occasionally we might conduct alumni telephone fundraising campaign. We will never call you if your telephone number has been registered with the Telephone Preference Service or the Fundraising Preference Service and you have not consented to receive such call. We do not use automated calling systems.
As we are a charitable fundraising institution, we may gather information about you from publicly available sources - or from third party subscription services using publicly available sources such as Companies House, the Electoral Register and the media – to help us to understand more about you as an individual and your capacity to support the University.
We may carry out wealth screening, and we may use trusted third-party partners to automate some of this work. You will always have the right to opt out of this use of your information.
We do not carry out any automated decision making using your information.
Why do we need to process your personal data?
The strategic objective of the Fundraising and Alumni Department of the University of the West of Scotland is to create a community of engaged alumni of the University of the West of Scotland, as well to secure philanthropic donations to support University’s development projects such as: providing state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, support research projects and contribute towards student scholarships.
Our fundraising and alumni team processes the information of alumni, supporters and friends in pursuit of its legitimate interests in
- Providing benefits and services to our alumni, and
- Helping the University to further its strategic objectives and achieve its charitable purposes.
How long will we keep your information for?
The University of the West of Scotland considers its relationship with alumni, donors and other stakeholders to be life-long, giving you access to selected University services and a vast support network. This means that we will maintain a stakeholder record for you until such time as you notify us that you longer wish us to keep in touch. In this instance the Fundraising and Alumni Department will delete the majority of your personal data it holds, but will maintain basic personal data to ensure we do not inadvertently create a new record in the future.
Who has access to your information and who will we share your information with?
Your personal data is not disclosed to external organisations other than agents contracted by the University directly for purposes benefiting the University or its alumni and friends. This may include organisations such as mailing houses, Graduway, the Higher Educational Survey Agency (HESA) and third parties we may contract with to carry out wealth screening services for us.
We only share information with these partners once they have signed a data sharing agreement that requires them to abide by UK data protection legislation, treat your information as securely as we do, only use the information for the purposes for which it was supplied, and that allows us to check these conditions are being carried out. We will never sell your details or share with anyone else for non-University purposes.
There might be times when another alumni of the university asks to get in touch with you. If this happens we may share your personal contact details with them, but will only do so if we have your permission.
What choices do you have in relation to your information?
Under the legislation you have certain rights in relation to the information we hold about you:
- To obtain access to, and copies of personal data we hold about you;
- To require us to stop processing your personal data if the processing is causing you damage or distress;
- To require us to stop sending you marketing communications;
- To require us to correct any personal data we hold about you that is incorrect;
- To require us to erase your personal data;
- To require us to restrict our data processing activities;
- To withdraw your consent to our data processing activities (without affecting the lawfulness of our processing before you withdrew your consent);
- To receive the personal data that we hold about you, in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of you transmitting that personal data to another controller;
- To object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights.
More detailed information about the rights you have any how you can make a request can be found here https://www.uws.ac.uk/about-uws/compliance/information-records-management/data-protection/
How can you access and update your information?
We want to make sure that the information we hold about you is always accurate and up-to-date. We can only do this if you let us know about any changes to the information we hold about you. You can do this by e-mailing us at alumni@uws.ac.uk and letting us know what changes you would like to make. You may also update your preferences at any time via your profile on the alumni website https://www.uws.ac.uk/alumni/manage-your-contact-details/
How will we keep your information safe?
All personal information we hold about you is held on our secure servers. If we hold paper records about you then we make sure that staff are trained about how they should handle this information and make sure it is stored securely.
You can find out further information here https://www.uws.ac.uk/about-uws/compliance/
Control of your data and communication preferences
You are in control of how we use your information. You have a choice about whether you want to receive information about the University, our progress or fundraising activities, and by which methods of communication. You can also request that we remove your contact details from our database or change the way we process your individual details.
If you have signed up to our Alumni community on the Graduway platform, you can also manage your communication preference directly from your account. If you delete your account on Graduway, we will still retain your personal information on our alumni database but we will ask you to update your communication preferences with us, giving you the option to opt-out from all types of communication.
Any electronic communications will be made in accordance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. This means we send e-mails to you only if you have consented to receive this type of communication from us.
If you want to update your contact preferences, or personal data, please contact alumni@uws.ac.uk or call 0141 848 3733 (9am-4.30pm, Monday-Friday). All our email communications contain links to opt-out of future communications, should you change your mind – but please also use the contact details above to let us know if you wish to change how, or if, you hear from us.
Should you object to the holding of your data by us, the use of your data for any or all of the above purposes, or should you wish to amend the type of communications you receive or the way in which the University contacts you, please contact alumni@uws.ac.uk in the first instance. We will work with you individually and personally to ensure we are adhering to your wishes.
Will we transfer your information outside of the EEA?
The personal data we hold about you will not be transferred to, or stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area. If this changes and we are transferring your data outside of the EEA we will make sure we make you aware of this at the time we are collecting the information from you and will make sure we only transfer the information if there are appropriate safeguards in place.
Who is the University’s Data Protection Officer?
If you have any concerns about how we handle your personal data which you have not been able to resolve directly with our alumni team then you can contact the Data Protection Officer directly by e-mail dataprotection@uws.ac.uk or by post at Data Protection Officer, University of the West of Scotland, Legal Services, High Street, Paisley, PA1 2BE
How can I complain about your use of my information?
If you remain unhappy then you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office:
Address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Contact Details
- e-mail: casework@ico.ork.uk
- telephone: 0303 123 111