Privacy notice: Alumni and supporters

This notice explains how we will collect, use and share your personal data and should be read alongside our general privacy information and other privacy notices.

The purpose of processing your personal data

The Development and Alumni Office will process personal data in order to maintain and promote a vibrant and engaged alumni community, to further the College’s objectives and in pursuit of its Strategic Plan.

Personal data may also be processed for the following purposes:

• Keeping you informed of opportunities for you to continue to be involved in the life and activities of Goldsmiths
• Administration and provision of alumni services and activities
• Fundraising in support of the College’s objectives
• Volunteering in support of the College’s objectives
• Due diligence exercises in accordance with the College’s Gift Acceptance Policy
• Highlighting employment information in support of the College’s objectives

The legal basis for processing your data

Goldsmiths relies on several different legal bases depending on the processing being performed:

• Consent – processing will sometimes be carried out in accordance with your consent
• Performance of the student contract – provision of alumni services as set out within the student contract
• Legal obligation – providing data to statutory and regulatory agencies
• Public interest – furthering the charitable objectives of the College delivers a public and societal benefit
• Legitimate interests – a vibrant and engaged alumni community supports and enhances the teaching and research of the College, having taken account of the privacy rights and freedoms of alumni

The personal data that is collected and processed

The data processed may include: 

• your name, title, gender and date of birth
• contact details (address, email addresses, phone numbers and social media presence) 
• education history from your time at Goldsmiths and qualifications achieved at other institutions
• details of the Students’ Union clubs and societies you were a member of
• prizes, scholarships and bursaries you were awarded
• your attendance at graduation ceremonies
• employment details, professional activities, career biographies and alumni profiles
• partner/spouse and family details, and relationships with other alumni, supporters and friends
• your interests as a student as well as your current interests
• history of any donations to Goldsmiths, or philanthropic interests elsewhere
• information about your potential philanthropic capacity
• responses to Goldsmith's fundraising appeals and proposals
• Gift Aid status, where applicable (as required by HMRC)
• information from publicly available sources and extracts from media stories
• records of communications from, and interactions with, Goldsmiths
• attendance at events and meetings with Goldsmiths staff
• volunteering activities at or on behalf of Goldsmiths
• communication preferences 
• photographs, video or any other digital image either supplied by you for an alumni profile or taken during a graduation ceremony or alumni event or other Goldsmiths events – please refer to our Photography and Filming privacy notice
• There may be occasions where recordings of educational activities or materials will be made – please refer to the Digital Recording Policy

Some of the above may contain special category data. This is data about your racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or other beliefs, physical or mental health. Goldsmiths will only process such data where you have given your consent for the College to have and use it or where the data has, to the best of the College’s knowledge and belief, been placed in the public domain by you.

Your personal data is collected from the following sources

• Goldsmiths – once your period of study has concluded, your data is transferred from the College’s student databases to the database of the Development and Alumni Office
• You – you provide data when you enquire about alumni services and benefits, register for events or volunteering opportunities, make a donation, register to join the alumni community or register to use alumni services such as the library and e-mentoring (Goldsmiths Connect)
• Third parties – the College obtains data from publicly available sources such as Companies House and from organisations in pursuit of the College’s purposes

Sharing your information with others

The Development and Alumni Office does not share data with third-party organisations other than those acting on its behalf and with whom it has data-sharing agreements.  Arrangements will be in place to ensure that your data is exchanged in a secure manner and that it is not used for any purposes other than those agreed by Goldsmiths. Appropriate safeguards will be put in place where your data is to be transferred outside the European Union.

If the Development and Alumni Office intends to share your personal information with anyone else, you will be notified and informed of the reason why when it is collected.

Your details will not be shared with any individuals looking to contact you, including your former fellow students.

How long will we retain your personal data

The Development and Alumni Office will retain your personal data for as long as there is a lawful reason to do so, unless you request that it be removed from the records. You may ask at any time for us to delete your personal data by contacting dp (@gold.ac.uk).  Where this happens, a record of the request and basic details will be retained in order to ensure that your data is not added to the database in future.

Securing your personal data

Your personal data is held on the Alumni Database. Arrangements are in place to ensure that your data remains secure. Access to the data is strictly controlled. Staff processing the data receive relevant training on data protection and information security.

From time to time, the College may commission agents of a third party to enhance the systems storing your personal data. Where this occurs they will act strictly in accordance with the instructions given by the College, scheduled within a data sharing agreement, so that your personal data remains secure.

Fundraising research

Fundraising is vital in contributing to the work of Goldsmiths and ensuring we can continue to support students from all backgrounds and carry out world-leading research.

The College tries to undertake activities that are effective and appropriate. Research enables the Development and Alumni Office to identify those alumni and other individuals who are likely, able and willing to make major gifts and to make sure that fundraising communications are relevant and of interest. This also helps us make informed decisions about our fundraising strategy and ensure our resources are used as effectively as possible and helps generate funds cost-effectively. Our objective is to ensure that any approaches we make to you are respectful, professional and are based on evidence that you might be interested in our work, providing you with the best experience we can.

Research is carried out by analysing personal data. This could include research on financial, business, philanthropic, biographical and demographic information sourced from publicly available data such as Companies House, the Charity Commission and the media. We may also look at professional networks such as LinkedIn, and process special category data if it has been made manifestly made public by you; for example, through an interview or a publicly directed social media post. This analysis will be done by the Development and Alumni Office.

If you prefer that Goldsmiths does not conduct the above activity in relation to your personal data, please contact the Development and Alumni Office by emailing alumni (@gold.ac.uk).

HESA

All UK universities are obliged to give contact details for a sample of recent graduates to HESA (The Higher Education Statistics Agency) in order to conduct a survey of graduate destinations.

Graduates from Summer 2017 and earlier will be contacted both 6 months and potentially 3 years after graduation ("DLHE survey"). See this HESA collection notice.

Graduates from November 2017 onward will be contacted 15 months after graduation. (The “Graduate Outcomes” survey, which replaces the DLHE survey from 2017/18). See this HESA collection notice.

These surveys help to inform government policy. They are also used in calculations for university league tables and by the universities themselves to assess the longer-term impact of the student experience. The data is provided to HESA strictly and solely for this purpose. All recent graduates to whom this applies will be given the option to opt-out of the survey when they are first contacted.

Your rights

Privacy legislation gives you have a number of rights to decide how your personal data is collected and processed. Details of these are contained within the general information on our website.

See general privacy information on how we process personal data and other privacy notices.

Further information regarding your rights as an individual is available from the Information Commissioners website.

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the way Goldsmiths processes your personal data. Details on how to complain can be found on the Office’s website.

Changes to this notice

This notice was last updated on 26 August 2020.  It is advised that you check here regularly as this notice may be amended or updated at any time.

Contact details

Should you have any concern about your personal data at Goldsmiths please contact the Data Protection Officer by email via: dp (@gold.ac.uk).