Data Controller
The Data Controller is the University of Bath. Our Registration Number in the Data Protection Public Register is Z6290890. Our Data Protection Officer is Samuel Sherry, who can be contacted at Risk, Resilience & Compliance, WH Level 8, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY or dataprotection@bath.ac.uk
Overview
The University is committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Act. This Privacy Notice explains how your personal information is processed and used by the Advancement Office, and for what purposes it is held.
Why do we collect your information?
The Advancement Office supports the University and its alumni by cultivating long-term relationships with its international network of over 150,000 former students and other stakeholders.
We do this by offering a range of academic, social and networking events, through regular communications such as BA2 magazine and e-newsletters, and by providing services such as library access and a careers mentoring network for students and recent graduates. We fundraise from alumni and friends of the University in support of students, teaching, research, and capital projects. Our alumni support the University in a variety of ways, for example by providing careers mentoring for students and recent graduates, giving guest lectures to current students, or by providing placement opportunities.
Collecting your information helps to inform our alumni relations and fundraising programmes, allows us to provide a better service to our alumni, and enables us to support the University.
The Advancement Office also holds education details of former students. Graduation information is published each year in the degree congregation programmes and is therefore considered to be in the public domain.
Legal basis for processing your data
The University of Bath’s Mission is to deliver world class research and teaching, educating its students to become future leaders and innovators, and benefiting the wider population through its research, enterprise and influence. In furtherance of that Mission, its key objective is to deliver excellence in its two primary charitable purposes, research and education.
The Advancement Office processes the information of alumni, supporters, and friends in pursuit of its legitimate interests in - providing benefits and services to its alumni - helping the University to further its Mission and to achieve its charitable purposes.
What information do we hold and where has it come from?
In order to fulfill the purposes outlined above, we have a database, which holds password protected personal data collected by the University during the course of its relationship with students, alumni, donors and friends.
The database is hosted on site in a secure data centre, and held on servers that are administered by University of Bath Digital, Data and Technology team. Backups are taken daily. Further information about our security arrangements can be provided on request.
The majority of information we hold is obtained directly from students and alumni. Some information may also have been obtained from publicly available sources such as those listed below.
Personal information may include:
Personal identifiers and biographic information consisting of your student number, name, date of birth, title, gender
Family, spouse and partner details
Relationships to other alumni, supporters, friends and current students
Your contact details including postal addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers
Information about your time at University including membership of University and Students’ Union clubs and societies, and halls of residence
Information about your time at other academic institutions
Your business details and professional activities
Assessment of your wealth
Information about your affinity to the University and likelihood of supporting us
Your current interests
Records of donations to the University and Gift Aid status, where applicable (as required by HMRC)
Media articles about you
Records of communications sent to you by the Advancement Office or received from you
Your communication preferences
Records of your volunteering with or on behalf of the University
Records of your attendance at University and Advancement Office events
Notes of meetings that you have had with University staff
Information about your use of Bath Alumni Online
We use targeted internet searches and sources of public data, where relevant, in order to maintain the accuracy of the information listed above, to undertake due diligence, and for fundraising purposes.
Public data sources that we use include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- Companies House and other business-related resources (free and subscription) for UK and overseas companies
- Company websites
- Charity Commission and other internet sources for UK non-profits
- National Change of Address Service
- The electoral roll
- Property websites
- Queen’s Honours Lists
- Lists of wealthy individuals and influencers such as the Sunday Times Rich List, Forbes Magazine international rich lists, Woman’s Hour Power List
We will be happy to supply a list of our subscription resources on request.
Please note, the University DOES NOT collect or store credit/debit card details and is fully PCI-/DSS-compliant. See www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security for details
Any sensitive personal data (e.g. relating to physical disabilities) will only be held if it has been provided by you for a specific purpose (e.g. event planning).
How do we use your data?
We use your data for a number of alumni relations and fundraising activities including:
- sending you publications (e.g. BA2 magazine, donor report and updates about the University)
- inviting you to alumni and other University events
- providing services, including access to Bath Connection, the online networking platform for Bath students and graduates
- conducting surveys, including research on the services and benefits we provide
- internal record keeping, including the management of feedback or complaints
- administrative purposes (e.g. in order to process donations and to record event registrations)
We want to communicate with you in a way that meets your needs and requests. Depending on the preferences you have already expressed, we might communicate with you by post, telephone, email or text.
Digital tools and analysis may be used to help us improve the effectiveness of the University’s communications with you, including tracking whether e-mails we send are opened and which links are clicked within a message.
We undertake data analysis projects to ensure that our communications are tailored and engaging.
We undertake wealth analysis and research in order to better understand our alumni and supporters, and to inform our fundraising strategy. We may use this information to create a profile of your interests, preferences, and level of potential gifts so that we can contact you in the most appropriate way and with the most relevant information.
We follow due diligence procedures in line with the University’s Ethical Fundraising Policy and to meet money laundering regulations.
We also seek new contact details (e.g. Post Office National Change of Address (NCOA) database) to reconnect with alumni with whom the University has lost touch.
We are committed to protecting your data and will not disclose it to third parties other than those acting as agents for the University under strictly controlled contracts. Some examples include mailing houses, fundraising consultants and research agencies. Any such companies are acting as agents of the University and the University retains full responsibility for your personal data. Any transfers of data to such agents will be done securely and in compliance with the Data Protection Act.
Upon request, your data are accessible to the University and its schools, faculties, and professional services departments (e.g. Careers Service) and to recognised alumni clubs for a full range of alumni and fundraising activities and programmes. We require such departments, clubs and societies to sign and return a Data Protection Agreement, confirming that they will treat your data in accordance with the Data Protection Act, before sharing information with them.
Any transfers of your data overseas (outside the EEA), for example to an international alumni organisation, are protected either by an “adequacy decision” by the European Commission or by standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission.
You can amend the information we hold about you at any time by calling + 44 (0)1225 386824 or by emailing advancement@bath.ac.uk. You can also use these contact details to update your communication preferences.
Data retention
We will hold your data indefinitely in support of your lifelong relationship with the University, or until you ask us to do otherwise. If you exercise your right to erasure, we will retain a core set of personal data which, for alumni, will include: name, subject(s) studied, graduation details, date of birth and unique identification number so that we do not contact you inadvertently in future, and to maintain your education details for archive purposes.
We may also need to retain some financial records about you for statutory purposes (e.g. Gift Aid, anti-fraud and accounting matters).
We will always respect a request by you to stop contact by any or all methods of communication, or for any specific purpose.
Your rights and changes to this policy
You have the right to:
- access the personal data which the University holds about you. This is called a Subject Access Request and must be made to the Data Protection Officer whose contact details are provided at the top of this Privacy Notice
- have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
- request that we remove your personal data (other than name, subject(s) studied, graduation details, date of birth and donation information)
- restrict the processing of your personal data, for example, ask us not to contact you
- object to the processing of your data for specific purposes such as communications or direct marketing
- ask for the transfer of your data electronically to a third party (data portability)
- lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office
The University of Bath will never sell your data. We will also never share your data with anyone to use for their own purposes unless disclosure is permitted or required by law.
Any breach of the Data Protection Act by the Advancement Office will be reported to the University’s Data Protection team in accordance with the University’s Data Protection Policy.
This Privacy Notice was approved by the University’s Senior Legal Adviser and updated in August 2017. It will be reviewed annually and we will publish any changes we make to the Privacy Notice on our website
Further information on the University’s policies in relation to Data Protection
Contact
Advancement Office, 2 South, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY.