At Newman Students' Union, we know that your Privacy is important to you, and therefore it is important to us. Below, you will see our Privacy Notice, which forms part of our Data Protection Policy. The Data Protection Policy and Data Sharing Agreement with the University can also be downloaded from this page.
Privacy Notice
Who are we?
Newman University Students’ Union (Genners Lane, Birmingham, B32 3NT) is the data controller and you are welcome to contact the Union Director by emailing r.pitt@newman.ac.uk or writing to the address above.
What type of personal data is collected?
From the University:
When you enrol at Newman University you automatically become a member of the Students’ Union. The University shares basic personal information including:
- Name
- Student ID
- Date of birth
- University programme
- University email address
At enrolment you are given the opportunity to opt out of Students’ Union membership in which case the University will not share any of your personal information with the Students’ Union.
Directly from you:
If you join a society you may be asked to provide your name, student ID, email address, phone number(s), and relevant information such as a medical condition that could impact on your participation of a society.
If you apply to become to a volunteer, such as a Course Rep, Advisor or member of the Executive Committee you may be asked to provide your name, student ID, email address and phone number(s).
If you become a Course Rep, Advisor, member of the Executive Committee or a Student Union role similar to any of these roles, your university email address may be posted on the intranet so that people can contact you as part of your role.
If you use the Student Advice Clinic you may be asked to provide your name, student ID, email address and phone number(s). You might also choose to share some personal information which is sensitive to you. This is called ‘special category data’ under data protection law and includes information about your health and mental health.
When buying tickets for Students’ Union events you may be asked to provide your name, student ID, email address, phone number(s), and relevant information such as a medical condition that could impact on your participation.
We also conduct surveys for the purposes of our charity’s objectives. In this instance we may ask for a variety of information that is relevant to the survey. Participation in surveys is always optional. All surveys are anonymised unless there is a specific reason not to. If the survey results are not going to be anonymised, this will be communicated prior to participation.
SU meetings or events, whether face-to-face or hosted online, may be recorded. If it is recorded attendees will be informed by posters, announcements, a Panopto green light or a recording symbol the online platform (for example, Teams). Depending on your involvement in the meeting or event this might include your personal data. Personal data in recordings would include your name, images of you and any opinions you contribute and anything you say about yourself. If the meeting or event is happening in person and you do not want to be recorded you could make sure you are not in view of the video camera and you could choose not to speak during that session or ask the meeting host to edit out where you spoke. They will consider the reasonableness of this to achieve but are not obliged to do it. If the meeting or event is taking place online you could mute your microphone, turn off your webcam and / or choose not to use the online chat function. If you are using Teams, you can choose what name to display in your Teams account and therefore what shows on a Teams call. If you are phoning into the Teams teaching session, instead of using the Teams software the name of your phone will show up in a black square on the screen for the other participants.
The legal basis for using most of this personal information is ‘legitimate interests’ as we need this information to be able to run our services. The only exception to this is any so-called ‘special category personal data’ under data protection law. This includes information about your health (including mental health), race, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, political opinions, philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data and biometric data. The legal basis for processing this kind of personal data is your explicit consent which you provide when signing up to a society, event or participating in a survey.
HOW WILL THE PERSONAL DATA BE USED AND HOW LONG IS IT KEPT?
We will use your personal data to contact you about all of our services. We will use any health information you provide to minimise risk in our activities and to ensure we are making all our services as accessible as possible. Information collected through surveys will only be used for the purpose described in the survey.
The Students’ Union keeps basic personal information for the current year plus 4 years for auditing, quality assurance and reporting purposes. After this time the personal information is securely destroyed.
WHO CAN ACCESS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION AND WILL THEY SHARE MY PERSONAL DATA WITH ANYONE?
Your personal information will only be accessible to relevant Students’ Union staff involved providing our services. Hard copies of personal information are kept in locked storage and personal data stored electronically is on our secure IT network whose servers are located within the EU. We share selected information with Newman University for the purposes such as student support, pastoral care, contributing to the Higher Education Achievement Record and student representation. We do not share personal information with any other organisations outside of Newman University unless we believe we are compelled to by law or someone’s life is in danger.
WHAT RIGHTS DO I HAVE REGARDING MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?
- You have the right to correct or update your personal information at any time. Please use MyNewman to update your details.
- You have the right to opt out of Students’ Union membership.
- You have the right to see the personal data we hold about you.
- You have the right to data portability. This means that if you request it, we will provide you with a copy of the personal data you have provided to us so that you can transfer it to another data controller. We will provide it to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
To do any of those things please email the Union Director on r.pitt@newman.ac.uk including if you have updated your details on MyNewman.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office about the handling of your personal data and can find out more about this on their website https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/
To read about data protection law in the UK please click https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/
You are welcome to read the Newman University Students’ Union Data Protection Policy, which can be found below.
