Alumni Privacy Notice

This data about you is transferred securely from the University’s student records system to a specialist database called Salesforce.

The data we collect

• your contact details (address, email and telephone where known).

• your title and full names. We also any previous marital names and date of birth as we need these to help identify you definitively.

• the qualification you obtained.

The University will also record within Salesforce any basic details about your employment history (your job titles and employers) that you give to us. This is not transferred from the University’s student record system.

We also record your mailing preferences, details of any voluntary support you have given to the University (for example helping at Open Days, providing a testimonial, or interviewing students). We track your attendance at any University reunion events.

The University will also obtain and store information about you from third party emailing systems to help us understand which communications are relevant to you. This includes tracking whether you have opened the emails we have sent to you and which links you click on.

From time to time, alumni may send us photographic images of group cohorts for us to use in publicity material for alumni events or reunions. The University also captures and stores photographs of alumni at the events and reunions that it organises. These are stored in files on the University’s secure computer network.

Why do we keep and how do we use your data?

Your data is held by the University securely and used in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 as amended. We use information about you because:

1) Legal Requirement

If you are qualifying from a degree level programme, the University has a statutory obligation to retain your data for 15 months after you qualify in order to supply this information to Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). HESA conduct a nationwide survey on behalf of Government to find out the employment destinations of all university leavers. Read about the way in which HESA processes your data in its collection notice.

2) Essential Administration

It is necessary for the University to keep your data in order to respond to requests and instructions, made by you or with your agreement, with regards to:

• confirming that you studied at the University
• providing you with references for work or further study
• providing you with duplicate transcripts

This is also essential for us in order to allow Gradintelligence (Digital credentials) to contact you in order to provide your Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) to you if your HEAR is being released to you close to the time or after the point at which your University Computing Account has been closed. We will only share your personal email address and phone number (for account recovery) with Gradintelligence. If you need to update your email address and/or phone number or would like to opt-out please scroll down below for more information on how to do so.

3) Legitimate Interest

It is in the University’s legitimate interest to maintain contact with its former students. Specifically, your contact details may be used either by central departments within the University and/or the subject School/Department in which you studied, for the purposes of sending you any of the following, either by hardcopy post or electronic means (email, text/SMS, apps or social media):

• alumni magazines/newsletters
• personalised invitations to specific events
• information about:
  • University events open to the general public
  • new courses which may be of interest to you
  • job vacancies that may be of interest to you
  • opportunities to support the University in a range of voluntary and fundraising activities
  • discounts on postgraduate study and other services and benefits exclusively available to former students of CCCU.

4) Research as Part of Our Fundraising

As a fundraising organisation, we undertake in-house research. From time to time, we engage specialist agencies such as Prospecting for Gold to gather information about you from publicly available sources, for example, Companies House, the Electoral Register, company websites, ‘rich lists’, social networks such as LinkedIn, political and property registers and news archives.

We may also conduct screening to fast-track the research using our trusted third-party partners.

This research helps us understand more about you as an individual so we can focus conversations we have with you about fundraising and volunteering in the most effective way and ensure that we provide you with an experience as a donor or potential donor appropriate for you.

You will always have the right to opt out of this processing by emailing us at fundraising@canterbury.ac.uk, or updating your preferences online here. 

5) Identifying Individuals with an Affinity to Our University

We may also conduct research using publicly available information to identify individuals who may have an affinity to our University but with whom we are not already in touch.

It may include people connected to our current major supporters, trustees, or lead volunteers.

This research helps us understand more about you as an individual so we can focus conversations we have with you about fundraising and volunteering in the most effective way and ensure that we provide you with an experience as a donor or potential donor appropriate for you.

If you prefer us not to use your data this way, you can opt out of this processing by emailing us at fundraising@canterbury.ac.uk.

6) Undertaking Due Diligence Regarding Donations

We also use publicly available sources to conduct due diligence on donors in line with the Our Gift Acceptance Policy, the Financial Procedure for the Acceptance of Donations including Due Diligence and Anti Money Laundering Procedure.

We do this as a public task to ensure the integrity of the donation before acceptance.

Who will use your data

Technical maintenance of the database that holds your details sits under the University’s IT Department. The Alumni Relations Team have day-to-day management of information held within the database. However, staff from any part of the University may be given access to your data for the legitimate and efficient pursuit of the purposes specified above.

In addition, information about you may also be shared with third party data processors for the purpose of sending you email or postal communications regarding alumni services. Third party processors will be bound by confidentiality agreements to keep your data safe and to use it only for the purpose(s) for which it is provided by the University. They will also be required to destroy the data, or to give the University access to destroy the data, once these purposes have been fulfilled.

Keeping your details up to date and opting out

You can advise of a change to your contact details, or withdraw your consent to the processing of your data at any time. You do not need to give a reason. However, this may restrict the support we are able to offer you.

• using our online update form
• by letter (addressed to the Alumni Relations Team, Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, CT1 1QU)
• by email to alumni@canterbury.ac.uk.

Updates to your contact details will be processed on the Salesforce database as quickly as possible and by no later than 1 month after receipt.

If you withdraw your consent for us to use your data for marketing purposes, we will stop sending you communications immediately.

How long will we hold your data

If you have completed a degree level programme, the University has a statutory requirement to hold your data for 15 months after you qualify. Thereafter (or if you have studied at sub-degree level), unless you ask us to remove it, or we are advised of your decease, the University will hold your data indefinitely.

The Data Controller and further information

Canterbury Christ Church University is the Data Controller for this personal data.

Please click the link below to access further information regarding:

• The Data Controller
• The name and contact details of the University Data Protection Officer
• Where to make a complaint
• Your rights as a Data Subject
• How to contact the Regulator

Find out more

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