Privacy Statement - Coventry University Group Alumni
Our alumni are incredibly important to us. The Alumni Team at Coventry University Group are here to keep our graduates up to date with what is going on, and to engage you with benefits, events, reunions and volunteering opportunities.
We promise to respect any personal data you share with us, and keep it safe. We aim to be clear when we collect your personal data, and not do anything you wouldn’t reasonably expect. Here we tell you what we will, and will not do, with your personal data.
This statement includes:
If you have any questions about our privacy statement then please do contact a member of the team who will be happy to talk you through it. Our contact details are:
Alumni Office Marketing and External Affairs Coventry University Priory Street Coventry, United Kingdom CV1 5FB
Tel: +44 (0) 24 7765 8589 Email: alumni@coventry.ac.uk
Legal Basis for processing
We process your personal data as described in this statement because we have a legitimate need to do so to deliver our alumni services and future fundraising ambitions. Some processing of personal data may be carried out to perform a contract with you or it is required by law, such as the completion of the Destination of Leavers Survey or obligations for processing Gift Aid on your donations.
Please see the ‘How we will use your personal information’ section below for more details.
To ensure we fully understand when it is appropriate to rely on consent and when it is a legitimate interest of ours to process your personal data we routinely carry out impact assessments to ensure the way in which we use your personal data is fair does not personally impact you.
Our duty
In carrying out our day to day activities we process and store personal information relating to our alumni and friends. We are therefore required to adhere to the requirements of the UK laws relating to data protection and privacy, including the General Data Protection Regulation and the Privacy and Electric Communication Regulations. We take our responsibilities under these laws very seriously and ensure the personal information we obtain is held, used, transferred and processed in accordance with the law.
For the purposes of data protection laws, Coventry University is the data controller and is responsible for your personal data. Coventry University has appointed a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for overseeing this privacy statement.
How we collect your personal data
Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where your identity has been removed or which not associated with or linked to your personal data (anonymous data).
The personal data we gather allows us to provide the best possible tailored experience for our alumni and friends, enabling us to tailor event invitations and news that are of specific interest to you.
Once you graduate your personal data is automatically transferred to the Alumni Office, as stated in the Student Data Collection Notice. The personal data the Alumni Office receives is your:
We also gather personal data from you when you enquire about our activities, register for an event, make a donation, sign up to an event, volunteer, engage with our social media channels or otherwise provide us with your personal data.
The personal data that we may request when you engage with us might include your name, your age, gender, location and/or country information, and possibly other information, as well as credit card or other financial information needed to process donations or event fees. We may also ask you if you are a UK tax payer so that we can claim Gift Aid (please rest assured that we do not collect information about your actual tax payments, just whether you are a tax payer). We will never request personal data about your health or the health of your family members or friends, unless we inform you how that information will be used, and receive your express consent for such use i.e. for a case study story.
With your permission, we also capture and collect your business details to enhance our mentoring network and allow us to send emails and invitations that may be of interest to you.
We use third parties to collect personal data on our behalf to support our activities. This might include running raffles, event registrations, setting up Direct Debits and processing your donations. We also on occasion ensure our records are as up to date as possible through running address and detail verification checks through sources that are deemed acceptable by the Information Commissioners Office.
We may also receive information about you from other sources, which include publically available data. Please see the ‘How we will use your personal information’ section below for more details.
We don't currently actively fundraise, but if we do in the future, we will research information in the public domain, such as contact details for local organisations to get in touch with about our latest activities and appeals. We will not call any company or organisation registered with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service.
Please note that where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with products or services that you request). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have requested but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
Cookies
We don’t currently gather information on how you use our website through the use of cookies but we may do in the future.
Cookies are text files, which identify a user's computer to our server. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used. The Alumni Online website uses persistent cookies - these are used to track returning visitors. They expire after 12 months and enable us to compare website traffic from month to month.
Cookies help us identify which pages are most visited and which events or activities are of most interest. This information can be used to help us improve our website and services and ensure we provide you with the best service. Wherever possible, the information we use for this purpose will be aggregated or anonymised i.e. it will not identify you as an individual visitor to our website.
You can reject cookies. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies - consult the help section of the browser toolbar. Information on controlling cookies or rejecting cookies is available from several web sites, e.g. http://www.aboutcookies.org
Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics tracking codes to measure performance enabling us to enhance and improve services for our audiences. However, we do not collect personally-identifiable information (PII) as all data collected is anonymous. For full details on how Google Analytics works, please visit Google Analytics Terms of Service. If you do not want Google Analytics to use your data, then please visit Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
How we will use your personal data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. We may collect and process your personal data for the following purposes and where we have a legitimate interest in doing so:
- To provide you with information about our work or our activities that you’ve requested. This might include sending you e-newsletters, invitations to events and volunteering opportunities. We will use your name and the contact details that you provide to us in order to provide you with the information you request.
- For administration purposes e.g. we may contact you about a donation you have made or event you have expressed an interest in or registered for. - To ask you for your permission to use the story of your experience with Coventry University Group to promote our work.
- To ask you to help us raise money or donate money to Coventry University Group, but always in accordance with the fundraising promise. - To create an account for you if you register with us.
- To process entries into a prize draw or raffle that you have chosen to enter, and to communicate with winners.
- For internal record keeping, including the management of any feedback or complaints that we may receive.
- To use IP addresses to identify your approximate location, to block disruptive use, to record website traffic or to personalise the way our information is presented to you, in order to keep our website updated and relevant to you and for network security.
- To analyse and improve the services offered on our sites to make it as user-friendly as possible, in order to keep our website updated and relevant to you, to develop our work and inform our marketing strategy.
- To use anonymised personal data to benchmark our activity with other relevant organisations, including CASE.
- Transfer to HM Revenue and Customs in respect of any Gift Aid claims for statutory and regulatory compliance.
- We may assess your personal data for the purposes of credit risk reduction or fraud prevention.
- To keep your records as up to date as possible. To help us do this we may use publicly available sources for example, the Post Office’s National Change of Address database. Please see the ‘Keeping your information up-to-date’ section below for more details on how you can you let us know if your contact details change.
- In addition to this we may use your personal data for wealth screening, research and profiling. Our purpose is to gain a better understanding of how we should engage with you, and tailor our communications more effectively and appropriately. This also helps us make informed decisions about our fundraising strategy and ensure our internal resources and investments are used as effectively as possible. Our objective is to ensure any approaches we make to you are respectful, professional and are based on evidence that you might be interested in our work, providing you with the best experience we can. Please read below for more information:
Research - could include research on financial, business, philanthropic and demographic information sourced from publicly available data, such as Companies House, the Charity Commission and the media. We may also look at professional networks such as LinkedIn, and process special category data if it has been made manifestly made public by you; for example, through an interview or a publicly directed social media post. In addition, we may combine the data you provide with data we obtain from other sources (e.g. to verify we have correct addresses/postcodes).
Profiling – this could include analysis of financial, philanthropic and other personal data we hold on you to assess the likelihood that you might wish to engage with us, as well as broader data analysis. This analysis helps us to gain a better understanding of how to approach you, of your interests, and of broader demographic, geographic and engagement trends amongst our supporters. This process is not solely automated processing and always contains manual assessment to ensure we are making correct assumptions from the analysis.
- In order to comply with our legal obligations under the Charity Commission Regulations and the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Practice, we may also undertake due diligence research to assess the source of funds for donations and to ensure that we are robustly considering ethical and reputational risks to our organisations.
If you do not wish your personal data to be used in any of the ways listed above or have questions about this, you have the choice to change your privacy options and can notify us using the contact details at the top of this page. Please also see the ‘Your rights’ section below which provides further information about your legal rights. If you are unsure and have further queries on how we might use your data, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.
We may also use personal data which you provide to us, where the law allows us to do so, as follows:
- To deal with and/or respond to any enquiry or request made by you prior to entering into any contract or agreement with us or as a result of such contract or agreement. - Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, including the prevention of crime.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
Where we process personal data on the basis of a legitimate interest, as set out in this privacy statement, legitimate interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
Who has access to your personal data?
Your personal data is stored on our database which is password protected and access is limited to Coventry University Group staff. Your personal data will not be disclosed to any other individuals or entities except in the following circumstances:
- on occasion, we need to use trusted subcontracted parties such as IT support services in connection with our database.
- We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to send out mailings). When we use third party service providers, we only disclose information necessary to deliver that service and there will always be a contract in place to ensure your information is kept secure. We will not share or sell your data to third parties to use for their own purposes unless we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.
- Where it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you, including where you have asked us to do so or where we need to take steps to enforce any contract which may be entered into between us.
- Where we are under a legal duty to do so in order to comply with any legal obligation.
- In order to protect the rights, property or safety of our business, our staff, customers, suppliers and others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud prevention and credit risk reduction.
Although most of the information we store and process stays within the UK, some information may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This may occur if, for example, one of our trusted partner’s servers are located in a country outside the EEA. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK, however, we will take steps to make sure they provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with UK data protection law by the use of EU model contract clauses or for organisations we work with who process personal data in the USA verification that their data processing standards meet the EU-US Privacy Shield. If you require further information in relation to this, please contact us.
How we keep your personal data secure?
We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details; for example our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and routinely monitored.
We use a secure server when you enter into any money transaction from our website. We also take appropriate measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date and kept only for so long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is used.
Any payment details on paper donation forms are destroyed once the donation has been processed. We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff and contractors.
How long we will hold your personal data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in the Coventry University Group data retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. We will also take into consideration our legal obligations, and tax and accounting rules, when determining how long we should retain your information. When we no longer need to retain your information we will ensure it is securely disposed of, at the appropriate time.
If you have pledged a legacy gift, it will be necessary to retain your data until your gift is received, so that we can identify the gift against the pledge.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Your choices
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the vital work we do or our events and activities, then please let us know at any time by contacting our Supporter Care Team on +44 (0) 24 7765 8589 or alumni@coventry.ac.uk.
We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post, email, and phone or text message if you have told us you do not want to hear from us by any of those channels. If the telephone number we hold for you is registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) then we will not contact you on that phone number except for administrative purposes.
If you unsubscribe from communications from us, from any or all of the communication channels mentioned above, we will update our records to stop further communication as quickly as we can. Due to some communications already being in progress at the point you opt out, please be aware that it can take up to 4 weeks for your preferences to be fully implemented.
We will only ever share your data in other circumstances if we have your explicit and informed consent.
Data deletion
If you choose to opt out of receiving our communications, your personal data will be retained and marked to prevent you from receiving any communications. If you want your personal data to be deleted from the database entirely, in accordance with your rights (as set out in the ‘Your rights’ section below) we will delete it – but in doing so, we will be unable to guarantee that you will not receive communications in the future, because we will have deleted your data and will therefore have no record of past requests from you.
If you want to guarantee you will not receive communications from us, it is in your best interest for your data to be retained on our system so that your contact preference is recorded and adhered to.
Keeping your personal data up-to-date
The accuracy of your information is important to us. You can update your information with us, including your address and contact details at any time. If you would like to change your preferences or update the details we hold about you, please contact our Team on +44(0)24 7765 8589 or email alumni@coventry.ac.uk or use the online form here.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data that we hold about you corrected, although we may need to verify the accuracy of the new personal data that you provide to us.
- Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your personal data unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Please note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
- Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your personal data which override your rights and freedoms.
- Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
- Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
- Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent. You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the “unsubscribe” (or similar) links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a purchase, product/service experience or other transactions.
If you wish to exercise any of your above rights, please sent a written request to the Data Protection Officer.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data or to exercise any of your other rights. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Complaints, comments or even compliments
If you are unhappy with your experience of Coventry University Group, with something that we have done or failed to do, we want to know about it. We also welcome your views on what we do well. Your comments enable us to learn and continuously improve our services.
If you would like to make a complaint, compliment or comment then please get in touch with our Team:
Alumni Team Marketing and External Affairs Coventry University Priory Street Coventry CV1 5FB
Tel: +44 (0)24 7765 8589 Email: alumni@coventry.ac.uk
The Alumni team are available to help Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm.
You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to our Privacy Statement
We may change this Privacy Statement from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear on the Alumni Online website or by contacting you directly.