Privacy Notice (Alumni)

Respect for the privacy and security of your data is of great importance to the Alumni Team at Edge Hill University.

All personal data is held and processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR).

This notice specifically relates to personal data processed by the Alumni team and departments of the University engaging with alumni through the central alumni database. This notice should be read in conjunction with the University’s Data Protection Policy and Privacy Policy, and the Alumni team’s data retention policy.

In brief this privacy notice explains:

The data we hold about you, why we use your data to provide the best experience possible as an alumnus and to keep a permanent record of your time at Edge Hill University
Your rights regarding the data we hold about you
When your data is shared
That we may send you content that is interesting or relevant about the work of the University or how you can help students, but we will stop contacting you if you ask us to.

What data do we collect and for what purpose do we use it?

“All personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.” (Article 5 (1) (a) of the GDPR.)

We collect information you provide, like your name, email address, and postal address when you sign up or provide updates to Edge Hill Connect. We also collect information about you from your student record via a transfer from the University’s Student Records System. This happens shortly after you graduate and we ask you to update the information we hold about you then, and at least annually from then on.

In some circumstances we may also search for information about you from third parties to help us understand how we can provide the best experience for you as an alumnus and how to best connect with you.

This information includes your updated contact details where they’re available (so we don’t waste the University’s money sending mailings to the wrong home, or spending time trying to reach you at the wrong email address).

We only search for information you have made publically available. You can opt out of receiving information about us at any time, and if you’d rather we didn’t use third party information about you just let us know by contacting [email protected].

The data the alumni team may process could include:

Your title, name (including former name), gender and date of birth
Your year of study and degree details, but we do not retain transcripts. Transcripts are held elsewhere. You can purchase a transcript on the online store.
The University accommodation where you lived (if applicable)
Your contact information including address, telephone number, email and social media details
Your business details including positions, organisation, professional memberships and qualifications
Your career highlights and other lifetime achievements
Your outside interests and membership of groups
Information from articles in the media about you
Family details including spouse or partner, relationships with other alumni and more.
Events you have been invited to and whether or not you responded or attended
Your donations of time, expertise or money
A record of interactions with you
Information about scholarships, prizes and achievements
Information contained within your student record
Any other information you have provided us with

Other than the information contained within your student record, the majority of information listed above is only available to us if you have chosen to share it with us, for example by being interviewed for an article or profile or by linking a social media account with your profile.

How we use the data we collect about you

We will use your data to help us maintain an engaged alumni community.

We use your contact information to send you information about the University, invitations to events, invitations to mentor or support students or other alumni, careers information or postgraduate courses you may be interested in. We may also share information about scholarships and bursaries and alumni benefits such as library membership.

We will only process your personal data to send you this information if we have carried out a legitimate interest assessment, or in other cases gained specific consent from you to do this.

We may also process personal data for the following purposes:

To verify an account when you register for Edge Hill Connect
To verify you are an alumnus if you register to use the library or for other benefits
To register you to attend an event
To process a gift you have given us
To process and organise any mentoring, volunteering or speaking activity you have agreed to undertake for us
To keep a record of communications between you and us

Under the GDPR, we have to meet one of the conditions set out in Article 6 for processing your data. We use the information we collect only in compliance with this privacy notice.

In some cases, we may be obliged to process your data for statutory and contractual purposes.

Communications to you may be sent by post, telephone or electronic means (usually email), depending on the contact details we hold and the preferences expressed by you about the types of communications you wish to receive. If you provide us with contact details for a particular method of communication we will assume you have given us your consent for us to update your record and communicate with you using this information, unless you have told us otherwise.

The Edge Hill archive maintains historic records relating to the University and other associated organisations, projects and people – including alumni. We allow access to our archival material by appointment and at events through the Information Resources Team.

Some of the more recent archive material we hold contains information about living people. If you do not wish for your personal information to be made public during your lifetime please contact the Information Resources Team on [email protected] and we will remove your information from public access. Your information will be handled according to the safeguards in data protection legislation for archiving in the public interest.

Why we process your data

Processing justified by legitimate interests

We process your personal data in connection with our own internal reporting and analysis because we believe it is necessary for our legitimate organisational interest as specified in the GDPR in Article 6. By using your data in this way we are creating an alumni network that advances the aims of the University and alumni, increase opportunities for alumni to develop in their careers, in subject knowledge and skills and as contributing members of society.

When we process your information we conduct a legitimate interest assessment to ensure that this processing isn’t overridden by your rights or interests.

To opt out of this processing, please see our section on Your Rights.

We also process data in carrying out a task in the public interest and in the exercise of our official authority. We always handle your personal data securely and minimise its use and your interests are not overridden by using your personal information for these purposes. In addition, there is no statutory or contractual requirement for you to provide us with any personal data.

What happens if you do not provide data

You are not required to provide personal data to us yourself – there is no statutory or contractual requirement for you to provide us with any personal information. Data is provided to us on your graduation by Academic Registry, however should you decide not to provide additional data or update your previous student information we may be less able to provide the services you request at a later date.

Automatic decision-making using your data

Your student details automatically transfer to the alumni database on graduation or completion of your course. Sometimes we obtain publically available data about you from third party websites and to ensure our data is as up to date as possible and this may include information about your career. We may process this data to enable us to identify possible opportunities for our students, or target mailings correctly. We may sometimes engage third parties to do this by way of profiling using only publically available information about you. To opt out of profiling, please contact us.

Updating your data

We will update the data we hold on you from time to time. For example, if you provide us with updated details or change your details on websites managed by the University such as Edge Hill Connect or social media sites like LinkedIn. We will respond to your request for your information to be updated, or you can keep it up to date yourself by visiting edgehillconnect.co.uk.

We also use targeted internet searches and may search the following websites to maintain the accuracy of the data held about you:

Companies House and other business-related resources for UK companies
Company, Government and public service websites
The Queen’s Honours Lists
LinkedIn
Newspaper articles and publications
Meltwater news media monitoring

Further processing

When you give us your personal information in connection with attending an event, please note that we may also use this information for internal analysis to determine how successful our events have been or how to better target them in future.

We may also use your information to evaluate the success of schemes you have been involved in such as mentoring and ambassadors and to investigate employability opportunities or identify speaking or profile opportunities, among others. You can opt out of this processing at any time by contacting [email protected]k.

Please see the section on Legitimate Interests for details on this processing.

We do not share your information with other parties unless there is a legal or statutory requirement to do so. We will never sell, rent or trade your personal data. We may disclose your data to service providers who render services to us or you on our behalf, for example mailing houses (all of which are contractually obligated to act only on our instructions and in accordance with applicable laws, including GDPR). We may disclose your information if required by law or to enforce our legal rights.

The company that provides the University with the Edge Hill Connect service, Graduway, is based in the UK but its service providers may have servers located outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), where the laws may not give the same level of protection to personal data as within the UK. Notwithstanding, we confirm that any transfer of personal data of EEA data subjects to outside of the EEA, will be undertaken only using a method specifically permitted under UK and European Union law. Visit the Privacy Policy for Edge Hill Connect.

Our alumni database records are held on a server within the EU/EEA and held on a database called Raiser’s Edge.

How do we keep your information safe?

We will not sell your personal data to third parties under any circumstances and we do not permit third parties to sell on the data we have shared with them.

The data we hold about you is stored in secure, password protected systems, and can only be accessed by trained University staff working on alumni or stakeholder tasks.

As part of our service to you, we facilitate communications between individual alumni, but by doing this we do not release personal contact details without prior permission.

How long do you keep my information?

We will retain your data indefinitely in support of your lifelong relationship with the University, or until you request us to do otherwise. We remove or delete some information when it is replaced with updated information.

Where you exercise your right to erasure, we will continue to maintain a core set of personal data to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in the future. We may also need to retain some financial records about you for statutory purposes if you have donated money to the University (anti-fraud and accounting matters).

Our current Retention Policy states how long we will keep your data for. Please refer to our data retention policy for timescales.

Your rights

You have the right to access and be informed what personal data the University holds about you and what it is used for (please refer to the University’s Subject Access Request form). You can correct or update your data at any time by visiting edgehillconnect.co.uk or contacting the alumni team directly at [email protected]. You can also restrict processing of your data. We may amend this privacy notice from time to time, any significant changes to this notice or to the way we treat your data will be communicated via the Edge Hill Website or by contacting you directly through the most appropriate means.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

We will publish any changes we make to this privacy notice on our website and notify you by other communication channels where appropriate.

Contact details

Should you wish to contact anyone regarding your personal data or if you have any concerns about the use or processing of your data, please contact:

Data Protection Office,

Edge Hill University

St Helens Road

Lancashire

Ormskirk

L39 4QP