Privacy policy

We, the Development and Alumni Relations Office at Brunel University London, promise to respect any personal data belonging to our constituents (“you” and “your”) and to keep it safe. Keeping all individuals connected to the University informed about exactly how your data is being used is a key principle of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which as of 25 May, 2018, has replaced the 1998 Data Protection Act. This privacy notice is to inform you why this is important and what your rights are under GDPR. We aim to be clear about our processes when we collect your data and not do anything with your information that you wouldn’t reasonably expect.

The University has a range of data protection policies and procedures, an overview of which can be found here: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/administration/information-access/data-protection. The following statement sets out how the University specifically uses your personal data for fundraising and alumni relations purposes.

The accuracy of your personal information is important to us. Under GDPR, you have a right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected, as well as the right to be removed from processing and/or restrict or object to the use of your information. We keep your personal information only for as long as required to operate the service in accordance with legal requirements and tax and accounting rules and where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of in a secure manner. It is always your choice as to whether you want to receive information about our work, how we raise funds and the ways you can get involved.  Where you have provided your consent for our use of your personal information, you always have a right to withdraw your consent at any time without penalty or cost. We will not use your personal information for marketing purposes if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted by us for such purposes. However, we will retain your details on a suppression list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you.

If you would like to change your preferences or update the details we hold about you, please contact our Alumni Relations Team at alumni@brunel.ac.uk  or write to us at Development and Alumni Relations Office, Brunel University London, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH.

We are relying on Legitimate Interest to establish our basis for the use of personal data. Our legitimate interests for processing data and sending communications are as follows:

1. For basic administration of a degree granting institution, we maintain University records for alumni and award verification purposes
2. Under our charitable purpose as an education provider, we fundraise to support students and the work of the University
3. With the goal of supporting the university community, we focus on employability of alumni all over the world, we promote the Brunel network, including careers support, networking, mentoring, business support and available facilities AND organise and publicise social and professional networking events for the benefit of the Brunel community AND publicise further study options, including scholarships, open to our alumni AND find volunteers for mentoring, speaking and other opportunities for the benefit of the Brunel community
4. For archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, we comply with mandatory government research and other research for the benefit of Brunel and/or higher education in general
5. Under our duty to provide news about its activities to stakeholders and public engagement mission, we disseminate key news about Brunel to its stakeholders to help meet the requirements of funding bodies, statutory bodies and supporters, as well as to generate further opportunities 

We collect information in the following ways:

Information we get from alumni and student records, which may include personal information like your name, course and degree details, date of birth, and your contact details such as postal address, email address, and telephone number. The relationship our former students have with Brunel University London is lifelong and you become a member of our Alumni Community upon graduation or leaving. Our team aims to provide support as well as communicate important information and opportunities on a regular basis in order to keep you informed and engaged with what is happening at Brunel.

Information you give us. For example, when you engage with our social media or message boards, make a donation to us, register for an event, or otherwise update or provide us with your details and personal information.

Information from third parties. We may also receive information about you from third parties. This can include updates on information such as your name, postal address, email address, phone number, your geographic location (for mobile devices), credit/debit card details and whether you are a tax payer so that we can claim Gift Aid. 

We may conduct data screening and cleansing, to check if we have accurate contact details for you. We continuously review records of supporters to ensure your data is as accurate as possible. We may consult alternative sources in order undertake these checks, such as: Royal Mail National Change of Address database (NCOA), reviewing employment information that you have made publicly available via social media; Newspaper articles, publications and company websites; Companies House and other company information databases; Charity Commission and Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) registers; Other publicly available sources.

We may conduct wealth screening and targeted research, to help us understand our Alumni, donors and potential donors and from time to time we may use trusted third party partners to fast track this research. This includes gathering information from publicly available resources to give an insight into your philanthropic interests and ability to support Brunel University London. We may use automated or manual analysis to segment the information we hold about you in our database based on a proprietary score. These scores are generally calculated using personal data, as well as how engaged with us you have previously been, and indicators of future engagement. Analysis of this helps us understand our Alumni, donors and potential donors to ensure we are efficient and that only relevant communications are sent to you.

We retain data in line with Brunel University London's Retention Policy.

We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details. For example our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and routinely monitored. We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff, volunteers and contractors.

Where we appoint an external party to undertake a screening of information, any such arrangements will be subject to a formal GDPR-compliant agreement between Brunel University London and that organisation, to protect the security of your data.

Some of our suppliers may run their operations outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Although they may not be subject to the same data protection laws as companies based in the UK, we will take steps to make sure they provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with GDPR and UK law. By submitting your personal information to us you agree to this transfer, storing, or processing at a location outside the EEA.

We may need to disclose your details if required to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors. We will never sell your data and will only ever share your data in other circumstances if we have your explicit and informed consent.

GDPR and the electronic privacy directives require active consent for marketing purposes that are communicated via email, telephone, or text message. You may alter your preferences or remove yourself from these communications at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in our emails and e-newsletters or by emailing alumni@brunel.ac.uk

Email marketing: If you provide us with your personal or business email address, we may contact you for marketing purposes by email. By subscribing to Brunel University London emails or opting in to email communication from Brunel, you grant us the right to use the email for both email marketing purposes and advertisement targeting.

Telephone/text marketing: If you have provided us with your mobile, home or business telephone number we may send you direct mail or telephone you about our work unless you have told us that you would prefer not to receive such information. We also actively check telephone numbers against the Telephone Preference Service and will only make telephone calls to you where your telephone number is listed on the TPS if you have specifically told us that you do not object to such calls and have consented to receive them.

Postal marketing: We may send you direct mail about our work unless you have told us that you would prefer not to receive such information. Where possible, we encourage our alumni to opt in to electronic communications to reduce the cost and environmental impact of postal mail.  

The Data Controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation is Brunel University London. The Brunel Data Protection Officer can be contacted on data-protection@brunel.ac.uk . Our registration number in the Data Protection Public Register is Z6640381.

If you think your data has been misused or has not been kept secure, you should contact us and we will address your concerns as soon as possible. If you’re unhappy with our response or if you need any advice you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on the ICO helpline at 0303 123 1113, or via their website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

We may update the terms of this policy at any time, so please review it from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary contact address you have provided to us or by placing a prominent notice on our website, Alumni magazine, and e-newsletters.