Privacy Policy

We will only record your personal details in the manner and for the purposes set out in this privacy statement. Data will be kept secure from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. We will not sell, rent, trade or otherwise knowingly share or provide your personal information to any third party except insofar as legally obliged to do so or as specified below.

What information do we collect?

Information we collect may include:

• In response to or as part of any contact with the School via electronic means, we may request your contact information, such as your name, organisation, postal address, telephone and email address.
• Your responses to surveys which we ask you to complete for research purposes.
• Information that is required for research subject participation, although this may be subject to a separate consent process or privacy notice.
• How you use our websites unless you have opted out of cookie consent.
• Any other information you post, email, or otherwise send to us.

How do we use this information?

The School will process the personal data of academics, researchers, students, graduates, visitors, staff and other stakeholders in order to deliver and improve the opportunities and services we provide in a personalised manner, to ensure each individual receives relevant information and to meet our statutory, contractual and legitimate business requirements in the most efficient and effective way.

We do not use profiling or automated decision-making processes. A human decision maker will always be involved before any decision is reached in relation to you.

Information about you will only be used:

• If you have provided us with your consent.
• If processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take the steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract.
• If it is in the legitimate interest of the School to process information about you as you are part of the University of Edinburgh community. In order to stay in touch with you and keep you informed of our events, news and services.
• For Human Resource recruitment and selection purposes.

With your consent, we may:

• Keep you updated via electronic, postal and telephone communications with news, events, activities, programmes, services, funding and progress of interest regarding the School.
• Process information about you to administer your conference attendance [GR1] at the School. After which we may send you presentations and surveys.
• Send you University and School marketing information.

To meet our contractual obligations to you, we will:

• Process contracts for research agreements, funding award applications, placements, licensing agreements and research programme activity.
• Track financial information for reporting.
• Monitor University of Edinburgh staff and student entries into training, awards, programmes and competitions.
• Process recipients of grants, funding and awards won for audit purposes.
• Capture external, past and current researcher and academic publications and research outcomes.

 On the basis of our legitimate business interests to you, we will:

• Supply you with the products, services and information you request to allow us to respond to your enquiry accordingly.
• Analyse the information we collect so that we can administer, support, improve and develop our websites, documentation, teaching and research, events and to ensure continuous improvement of all of our services.
• Inform stakeholders of opportunities that may be of interest to them.
• Monitor the progress of the School and its stakeholders and inform them of appropriate opportunities and services.
• Assist stakeholders in visa application processes.
• Notify you about changes to our services.
• Send you University and School marketing information if you are a professional contact.

COOKIES and Website Privacy

For more information on our use of cookies and details of how the University of Edinburgh is committed to preserving your privacy, please visit the University of Edinburgh Privacy and cookie Policy information webpages.

How long will we keep your personal data?

Whenever we collect or process your personal data, we’ll only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and, in some cases, so we can comply with our legitimate and contractual obligations.

In the case of subscribed services such as mailing lists we will hold the personal data you provided us for 1 year. After this period, we will send communication to you querying whether you wish to remain on our mailing list. Alternatively, you can opt out of the mailing list at any time.

At the end of that retention period, your data will either be deleted completely or anonymised, for example by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning.

Storage and transmission of your information

Once we have received your information, we employ security measures to protect your information from access by unauthorised persons and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage.

Transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to the website or via email. Any transmission is at your own risk.

Passwords and credentials

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of the website or information systems and services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Online transactions

All payment transactions will be encrypted.  Areas of the site that process online transactions make use of – and transfer data to – third-party software and service providers.  All third-party software and service providers that we use are compliant with the relevant Payment Card Industry standards.

• Payment Cards Industry Security Standards Council website

Information disclosure

Authorised personnel within the School will be able to access the information you provide to us. Unless required to do so by law, we will not share, sell or distribute any of the information you provide to us without your consent. To comply with statutory requirements, we are required to share your personal information with external agencies, particularly for the purposes of detection or prevention of crime or fraud. We may also disclose your personal information to the University of Edinburgh or any other subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh, for the purposes disclosed in this privacy statement.

Who we share data with

Information that you share with us may be processed by the following 3rd Parties, you will be informed if this applies to your data:

• Other departments and services within the University of Edinburgh.
• On certain programmes of study we will share information with other participating academic institutions.
• Key Travel for the purposes of making travel and accommodation arrangements.
• Our international payments provider Santander for non-staff transfers.
• Co-hosts of events and conferences.
• Research funding bodies.

Additional privacy statements

The University maintains several other privacy statements that are specific to services delivered.

Access, update, unsubscribe or have your information deleted

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information held by us in our records. If you would like a copy of this information, please contact us using the details below. We want to make sure that your information is accurate and up to date. You may also ask us to correct or remove any information you think is inaccurate.

The School will provide you with a copy of all information maintained about you upon written request to: divinity.news@ed.ac.uk

 We will correct any inaccuracies in such information as soon as practicable after being notified in writing. Any user may also require that this information be removed from our records by writing, emailing or unsubscribing. 

Unsubscribing 

If you change your mind about being contacted in the future by any of these means you can opt out from further communications at any point by contacting us directly: email divinity.news@ed.ac.uk

Changes to the privacy policy

We keep this privacy policy under regular review and may amend this policy from time to time. If we make any substantial changes we will notify you by posting a prominent notice on the website.