Data protection, privacy and cookies

The law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which an organisation may collect and process your personal data, including:

Public task

To ensure that we meet and carry out our role as an institute of higher education and provide our students with required level of service, we need to collect and process relevant personal data.

For example, when we record your academic results and validate with your previous further education provider.

Consent

In specific situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent.

For example, if you are a graduate and you tick a box to receive email enquiring if you wish to become a donor.

Contract

In certain circumstances, we need your personal data to comply with our contractual obligations.

For example, when you accept a place at the University we need to capture certain information in order to provide you with the place and service.

Legal compliance

If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and process your data.

For example, certain government departments need us to collect and pass on statistical data.

Legitimate interest

In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running the University which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests.

For example, after you graduate, we will send you email newsletters updating you on what is happening here at the University.

When collecting your personal data, we’ll always make clear which data is necessary in connection with a particular service.

Here are some examples of when we collect your information, for further details please take a look at the relevant privacy policy.

• When you visit our website
• When you engage with us on social media
• If you join us as a student or staff member we need to capture data in order to enter into a contract with you
• If your image is captured on the CCTV that we deploy across our sites for safety and security
• When a donation or a purchase is made
• When an individual attends a clinic run by the university

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, we are only permitted to collect the minimum amount of information needed to carry out a specific purpose, therefore depending on your relationship with us we collect different amounts of data.

Example, if you are making a decision about university choices and want some information sending to you, we would only take your name and contact details (address and email) but if you are joining us as a member of staff we would need more information, such as date of birth, gender, financial details.

If your relationship with us changes, we remove all unnecessary information that we hold on you. The university has produced a retention schedule to ensure that we only retain details that enable us to perform our duties.

• Records Retention Schedule

Different information is processed for different purposes, some of it is used to improve experience, such as cookies on the website and other information helps us track performance, comply with legislation or help keep you informed of what is happening here at the University of Salford.

Detailed information about how we use information for different purposes can be found in the relevant privacy policies, but here are some examples:

• Website cookies tell us which pages you find useful, and therefore how we can improve your experience online
• We collect and report upon sensitive personal data, such as gender, ethic origin and disability data in order to undertake equal opportunity monitoring
• We require financial data to administer financial activity, such as fees, scholarships and bursaries
• We take photographs in order to issue access passes
• Information captured during research projects will be processed in order to develop our programmes and insight

Data is retained for as long as it is required to perform its purpose, or for as long as is required by law. 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.

• Records Retention Schedule

Sometimes we share your personal data with trusted third parties, in order to meet our contractual needs or to improve our services.

Here’s the policy we apply to those organisations to keep your data safe and protect your privacy:

• We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services
• They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract with them
• We work closely with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected at all times
• If we stop using their services, all of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous

Examples of the kind of third parties we work with are:

• IT companies who support our website and other business systems.
• Operational companies such as the Students Loan Company
• Direct marketing companies who help us manage our electronic communications with you
• Google Analytics to understand our website usage, this is subject to acceptance of cookies on our websites. See our cookies notice below for details
• Clinical practices providing health and wellbeing services
• HEAT (Higher Education Access Tracker) privacy notice

Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.

You have the right to stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We must always comply with your request.

In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our contract with you, public task or for a legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have an overriding reason to continue processing your personal data, if this is the case we will advise you of the reason.

Here are all our privacy statements, detailing how we collect and use your personal data depending on your relationship with the University of Salford. If you have any questions regarding the statements please get in touch with the person/department listed in the relevant notice.

• Members of the public
• Students
• Staff (Applicants)
• Staff
• Research
• SPD
• Alumni and donors
• Industry partnerships

To protect the confidentiality of your information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under a privacy notice. If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.

More information on how the University collects and uses personal information can be found in the Notification made to the ICO or in the relevant privacy notice.

This section details the rights that every individual has in relation to their personal data that the University of Salford holds.

The Data Protection Act 2018 provides the following rights for individuals:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Your right of access to personal information

Under Article 15 of the Data Protection Act 2018, individuals have a right of access to their own personal data held by the university. A request for all such information is called a Subject Access Request or SAR.

Under the Data Protection Act 2018 the individual is entitled to:

• A description of the data
• The recipients of the data shared
• Information about any automated decisions that have been made
• A copy of the data on request

All the above must be returned to the requesting individual within one month and at no cost. If you would like to exercise your right of access please submit a request using the SAR form. If you wish to exercise any of your other rights then please email us at: foi@salford.ac.uk.

 

Session cookies are cookies that expire at the end of a browser session. They allow users to be recognised within the website so that any changes or item or data selection is remembered from page to page. The cookie is then automatically deleted when the user leaves the website.

Persistent cookies help websites remember user’s information and settings for when a user visits them in the future, thereby speeding up or enhancing a user’s experience of the services or functions offered.

When you visit our websites you may notice some cookies that aren't related to the university. If you go on to a web page that contains embedded content, for example from YouTube, you may be sent cookies from these websites. We don't control the setting of these cookies, so please check the third-party websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.

You can use your website browser to:

• Delete all cookies
• Block all cookies
• Allow all cookies
• Block third-party cookies
• Clear all cookies when you close the browser
• Open a 'private browsing' / 'incognito' session (allows you to browse the internet without storing local data)
• Install add-ons and plug-ins to extend browser functionality, for example Google have created a Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On for Chrome.

Select your chosen browser below for instructions and guidance on how to manage your cookies via your browser. Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our site.

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari
• Internet Explorer

If you use another browser, you can visit the browser developer website for guidance and instructions on managing cookies.

More information can be found on the ICO, About Cookies and All About Cookies websites.