Kingston University Data Protection Privacy Notice for Alumni, Donors and Friends

What is this privacy notice about?

This privacy notice explains how Kingston University ("we", "our", "us") collects, uses and shares your personal data (information) and your rights in relation to this data. The notice relates to our processing of personal data of alumni, donors and Friends of Kingston University ("you", "your"). It provides additional detailed information to supplement the Privacy Notice for Enquirers, Applicants, Students and Alumni.

This privacy notice answers the following questions:

• What is the role of the Development, Alumni Relations and Engagement (DARE) Office?
• How do we collect your information?
• What types of information do we collect about you?
• How will we use your information?
• What legal basis do we have for processing your information?
• Who will we share your information with?
• For how long do we keep your information?
• How will we protect your information?
• What are your rights?
• Who can you contact about your information?

Kingston University is the data controller of your personal data and is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR") and the UK Data Protection Act 2018. As such, we are listed on the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) register of fee payers.

You can find a copy of the University's Data Protection Policy online along with copies of our other relevant information regulations.

We may update this privacy notice periodically. If we do, we will publish this on our website.

What is 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, and 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. 

How do we collect your information?

We may have collected your personal data:

• from the information you provided 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 do we collect about you?

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

• 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.

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 enable 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:

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

How will 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);

You remain in control of how we contact you. If at any time you would no longer like to receive our communications via post, email or telephone, please let us know how you would like us to stay in contact with you. Please email us to update your preferences.

What legal basis do we have for processing your information?

We process your personal data as described below because it is necessary for the purpose 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 will we share your information with?

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 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (in 2018) and Graduate Outcome surveys (from 2019) that the University is obliged to carry out). Your data may also be shared with organisations that conduct non-statutory surveys on our behalf.

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.

In some situations, your data may be transferred to our partners internationally, outside of the European Economic Area, but this will only include transfers to jurisdictions which are judged by the European Commission to provide adequate protection in their domestic law for your data, or when a specific contractual agreement has been agreed with the receiving organisation that confirms their commitment to uphold UK and EU data protection law.  In all such cases Kingston University will remain the data controller.

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.  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.

If you do not want your personal data to be used for any of these purposes, please email us.

For how long do 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.

As we wish to develop a relationship for life we will retain your data for as long as it is current unless you let us know otherwise.

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

What are your rights?

Under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights:

• to access from us the personal data we hold about you
• to require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect
• 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, 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
• 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.

Who can you contact about your information?

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 or call 020 8417 3087.

If you wish to request access to the personal data we hold about you please use the Subject Access Request Form available online. For any other queries about this privacy notice or how we process your personal data you can contact our Data Protection Officer by email or by post: Data Protection Officer, Vice Chancellor's Office, River House, 53-57 High Street, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 1LQ.

If you are not satisfied with how we are processing your personal data, 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.