How we use your information

You, our alumni, supporters and friends, are extremely important to us. Whether supporting our students from all backgrounds to achieve extraordinary things or contributing to our life-changing research to fight diseases, tackle global challenges and change society, your help makes the incredible happen.

We value our relationship with you and would like to send you relevant communications, offering beneficial services, thanking you for your support and sharing future opportunities for providing support which may be of interest to you. To do so, we need to process your personal information.

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what we do with it. This Privacy Notice sets out how we, University of Nottingham of University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD (the “University”), telephone number: +44 (0) 115 951 5151 process the personal data we collect for alumni and supporter engagement activities, including volunteering, fundraising and advocacy. We are the data controller for personal data relating to you that we process.

We hold a range of personal data about you, the vast majority of which we obtain from you. Depending on your relationship with us, examples of categories of personal data which we may hold are:

• personal identifiers and biographic information (e.g. your name, gender, date of birth, student/ alumni number);
• contact details and communication preferences (e.g. email address);
• information about your time at University (e.g. courses studied, society memberships, scholarships received);
• professional details (e.g. where you work, your position);
• your current interests, activities and accolades;
• relationships to other alumni, supporters and friends;
• your support for the University (e.g. your donations, volunteering or advocacy);
• your engagement with the University (e.g. event attendance, direct communications with us); and
• how you may support us (e.g. likelihood and capacity to donate or volunteer)

Special Categories of Data

We may occasionally process special categories of personal data (as defined under article 9 of UK GDPR). We will only do so with the consent of the data subject, or where the data is manifestly public. The data is used for clearly defined purposes (such as recording dietary or access requirements for event attendance). Special categories data will only be retained in the context for which it was originally collected (eg data collected as part of an event response will only be used for that event).

If you are a former student your record will have been created when you graduated (or earlier if you have benefitted from or supported our work). If you are a supporter or friend your record will have been created when you became involved in our work.

As our relationship develops, much of the data we hold is provided by you. For example, when you provide us with updated contact details, change your communication preferences, take advantage of our services, register for an event or support us by making a donation or volunteering.

We pay attention to how you interact with us and will record this information. For example, whether you open or click on our emails and what you visit on our websites.

We sometimes obtain information about you from publicly available sources. For example social networking sites, company websites, dedicated business websites (e.g. Companies House) or publications and articles in the media (e.g. Queen’s Honours List), and may use trusted external companies to do this on our behalf.

We may analyse the above to create additional information about you. For example, to assess your level of engagement, your likelihood and capacity to donate or volunteer and potential areas of interest for future communications.

In general terms, we process your personal data for the purposes of alumni and supporter engagement activities, including volunteering, fundraising and advocacy. We only process data for specified purposes and if it is justified in accordance with data-protection law.We use your data to:

• send you relevant communications (for example emails with latest developments from the University)
• offer you beneficial services (for example events and webinars with sector leading experts, networking opportunities, mentoring and careers advice)
• process your donation (and any Gift Aid claims)
• undertake due diligence in accordance with our Gift Acceptance Policy
• ensure you are thanked for your support (e.g. sharing stories from those who have benefited from your support via our magazine)
• identify future opportunities for providing support which may be of interest to you (e.g. asking you to speak to current students or fund our research into children’s brain tumours)
• to facilitate consideration and awarding of naming honours of a University resource after an individual to permanently recognise and honour outstanding contributions to the University
• to facilitate consideration and awarding of honorary awards to recognise significant achievement
• conduct internal research and analysis (e.g what proportion of alumni enter a career in the field of their degree). This may involve sharing data with other departments and schools within the University

The legal basis for processing your personal data in the context of our relationship with alumni and supporters is that it is necessary for the pursuit of our legitimate interests to support our vision to deliver an outstanding student experience, world changing research and a mutually beneficial alumni and supporter community. In addition, there are some tasks which are carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of our official authority, for example the completion of Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education/ Graduate Outcomes survey.

Within the University, your data is available only to staff who have received appropriate training and have a genuine reason for accessing this information. Staff may include current students who are employed as callers in our telephone campaigns.

We share data with companies processing data on our behalf (e.g. a mailing house to send our alumni and supporter magazines, or software providers). These companies are carefully vetted and appropriate agreements are put in place to ensure the security of your data.

We are required to disclose some personal data of graduates to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for the purpose of a survey of new graduates.

Sometimes to achieve the purposes for which we are processing your personal data we may need to share your personal data with other organisations based outside the European Union. If this is necessary, we will ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect your personal data.

We will never sell your data to other companies or charities.

We will retain your data indefinitely in support of your lifelong relationship with the University or until there is no longer a legal basis for holding it or you object to use of your data for direct marketing purposes.

We take the security of your data very seriously and ensure appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place to protect it.

As a data subject, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data processed by us:

• to gain access to your personal data;
• to rectify inaccuracies or where appropriate, given the purposes for which your data is processed, the right to have incomplete data completed;
• to have your personal data erased. This is a limited right which applies, among other circumstances, when the data is no longer required and/or the processing has no legal justification. There are also exceptions to this right, such as when the processing is required by law or in the public interest;
• to object to the processing of your personal data for marketing purposes;
• to object when the processing is based on the public interest or other legitimate interests, unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue with the processing;
• to restrict the processing of your personal data. This is a limited right which will apply in specific circumstances and for a limited period;
• to ask for the transfer of your data electronically to a third party.

If you ask us to delete your personal data, we will maintain a skeleton record to ensure that we do not inadvertently contact you in the future. We may also need to retain some financial records for statutory purposes.

We are happy to answer any questions about how we use your data. Please contact us by email: databaseenquiries@nottingham.ac.uk; phone: +44 (0)115 84 67213 or in writing: Campaign and Alumni Relations Office, University of Nottingham, Ground Floor, Pope Building, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD.

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) about the way in which we process your personal data. You can make a complaint on the ICO’s website https://ico.org.uk.

We regularly review our privacy notice and may amend it from time to time. Any significant changes to this notice or to the way we treat your data will be communicated via the University website or by contacting you directly through the most appropriate means.