Archived: Data protection privacy notice for alumni, donors and friends 2023/24

What this privacy notice is about

This is a summary of how we protect your personal data and respect your privacy. This notice is for alumni, donors and friends of Kingston University.

The role of the Development, Alumni Relations and Engagement (DARE) office

DARE's role is to enable alumni (former students) to keep in touch with Kingston University and with each other, as well as to provide opportunities for alumni and others to support the University. We maintain records of the University's alumni, former staff and other supporters to help foster this community for the mutual benefit of all members of the community as well as the University.

Alumni, donors and friends 2023/24

How we collect your information

We collect your personal data in a number of ways including:

  • from the information you provided to us when you were applying to study at Kingston University
  • when you interacted with us during your time as a student or member of staff at Kingston University
  • when you made a donation
  • when you registered for an event and provided us with your contact details
  • by checking against external data lists including publicly available sources (for example, social media sites, Companies House and data cleaning agencies)
  • when you contact us.

What types of information we collect

For alumni, donors and friends the types of personal data we collect about you includes:

  • name, nationality, date of birth and gender
  • your contact details (for example, postal address, phone number and email address)
  • details of your studies with us (for example, award details and fee status), if applicable
  • previous institution(s) attended
  • your KU number where you were an ex-student or member of staff
  • your employer, job title and other employment information
  • your personal interests during your time at Kingston (for example, student societies) and now
  • information about your philanthropic interests and capacity
  • records of your interactions with us such as the events you have attended and donations you have made.

DARE does not collect any special (sensitive) category personal data except for:

  • information on special requirements for events (for example, for those with a disability)
  • information on criminal convictions where required for due diligence purposes in accordance with the University's gift acceptance policy and the Fundraising Regulator's Fundraising Code of Practice
  • your ethnicity for use in positive actions to promote equality.

You have the right to object to our processing of your data. Please see below for further information on your rights.

We update and enhance the data we hold on alumni and friends to ensure that we are working in a cost-effective manner and to allow us to raise more funds in support of the University's aims. This could include contact details, employment details or indicators of the level and type of support you may be able to offer the University, from a variety of sources such as:

  • Factary
  • LinkedIn
  • iWave
  • National Change of Address File
  • news and press reports
  • Companies House
  • The Charity Commission.

How we use your information

Your data may be used by the University to communicate with you by post, email or telephone for its alumni/stakeholder engagement, promotional and fundraising purposes, including:

  • distribution of University communications (for example, alumni newsletters, events calendar and annual reports)
  • promotion and organisation of events and reunions
  • the promotion of benefits and services available to alumni
  • University fundraising initiatives
  • inviting you to share your skills and experience with our current students (for example, providing careers advice)
  • sharing information about careers and employability opportunities.

What legal basis we have for processing your information

For legitimate interest

We process your personal data as described below because it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interest to support the University in achieving its goals and aspirations as outlined in our Corporate Plan.

In addition, there are some tasks which are carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of our official authority.

You have the right to object to this processing. Where we process your personal data for direct marketing this right is absolute.

Who we share your information with

We may share some of your personal data with:

Other Higher Education and related bodies

Your data may be shared with organisations that conduct non-statutory surveys on our behalf.

Government organisations

By law, the University is required to share some personal data with government departments or agencies acting on their behalf (for example, for statutory surveys such as the Graduate Outcome surveys that the University is obliged to carry out).

Other third parties

We may contract the services of data processors to update and enhance the data we hold on alumni and friends. We would only disclose limited personal data to enable them to match our records to their data or to publicly available sources to enhance our records with your information.

We may disclose limited personal data to our contractors to enable them to match our records to their data or to publicly available sources to enhance our records with your information. Information we receive from the contractors may include updated contact details, employment details or indicators of the level and type of support you may be able to offer the University.

Within the first two years after you graduate, the Careers and Employability Service will contact you about your career destination and to advise on employability support that is available. As part of this process, your details may be passed on to contractors working on behalf of the careers service.

The police and other law enforcement agencies, for the prevention and detection of crime.

All of these activities are undertaken to ensure that we are working in a cost-effective manner and to allow us to raise more funds in support of the University's aims.

Information transferred overseas

In some situations, your data may be transferred to our partners internationally, outside the European Economic Area.

In these circumstances, your personal data will only be transferred where the transfer is subject to one or more of the "appropriate safeguards" for international transfers prescribed by applicable law (for example, standard data protection contract clauses).

How long we keep your information

When you give us personal data for us to provide you with a service, your data will be used in connection with that service and we may retain that data for use in connection with future contacts with the University.

  • for example, data obtained during registration for an event may be used to contact you with updates about our academic programmes or other events
  • in order to maintain your lifelong relationship with us, DARE will retain this personal data indefinitely.

How we protect your information

Kingston University will comply with data protection legislation in our handling of personal data. We aim to keep your data safely and securely, only for as long as necessary, and to use it only for stated purposes.

We cleanse and refresh our datasets including through the use of information from publicly available sources.

We will never sell or give your data to other organisations or individuals for marketing purposes.

Your rights

Under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have certain rights.

  • to access the personal data we hold about you
  • to require us to correct the personal data we hold about you
  • to require us to erase your personal data
  • to require us to restrict our data processing activities (and, where our processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on consent before its withdrawal)
  • to receive your personal data, which you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and the right to transmit that data to another controller
  • to object to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights; you have the right to object to this processing. Where we process your personal data for direct marketing this right is absolute
  • to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which has a legal effect on you.

Please note that the above rights are not absolute and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply.

Your responsibilities

When considering your personal data, you should ensure the information provided to the University remains accurate and up to date. You should inform the University as soon as possible if details, such as your address, change.

Who to contact

If you have any questions about our use of your data, or to request that we restrict our processing of your data, please contact the Kingston Alumni and Friends database team.

If you then wish to exercise your rights as a data subject, please use the Data Subject Request form on our website under Policies and regulations.

If you have any queries about this privacy notice or how we process your personal data, please contact dataprotection@kingston.ac.uk.

If you are not satisfied, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner. You can find out more about your rights under data protection legislation from the Information Commissioner's Office website.

Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice will be updated on an annual basis. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear on the Kingston University website or by contacting you directly.

Kingston University is the data controller of your personal data and is subject to data protection legislation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). We are listed on the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) register of fee payers.

You can find privacy notices and other relevant policies on our website under policies and regulations.