Privacy Policy

At Leeds Beckett Students’ Union (we/us/our/Students’ Union), together with our Terms and Conditions of our website hosted by MSL, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This privacy policy sets out what information we may collect from you or that we might ask you to provide to us when using the website www.leedsbeckettsu.co.uk (the Site) and how we will use that information. By visiting the Site, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

For the purpose of the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act and GDPR together the Data Protection Laws) the Data Controllers are:

  1. Leeds Beckett University whose principal place of business is The Rose Bowl, City Campus, Leeds, LS1 3HB registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number Z6734933 (Leeds Beckett University); and
  2. Leeds Beckett Students’ Union, City Campus, Portland Ground Floor, Portland Way, Leeds, LS1 3HE, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number Z7420837 (Students' Union).

This means that Leeds Beckett University and the Students' Union are responsible for, and control the processing of, your personal information.

Confidentiality and security

This privacy notice relates to your use of our website. The Students’ Union takes data privacy seriously and we ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on what personal information we collect about you, what we do with that information, and the situations in which we may share your information with other businesses. Any information we collect about you or receive from you will be held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation.

The Site is operated by the Students’ Union and powered on our behalf by Membership Services Limited which is a company registered in England and Wales under registration number 5525449 with registered address Warwick SUHQ, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hall Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL (MSL). This policy provides details of what information we may share with MSL about you once we have collected it from you or you have provided it to us (as set out below) or it has been provided to us by Leeds Beckett University.

Information we may receive/collect about you

All students enrolled at Leeds Beckett University will automatically be enrolled as a member of the Students’ Union (Member) unless they opt-out. Leeds Beckett University will provide the Students' Union with the information below for each student:

  • Student ID
  • name
  • date of birth
  • gender
  • email address
  • alternate email address
  • phone number
  • course code
  • type of study
  • year of study
  • mode of study
  • placement
  • fee status
  • faculty
  • postcode area

Leeds Beckett University will also allow the Students' Union to access your personal data through the University's InPlace System from time to time to enable the Students' Union to co-ordinate events and promote placement and volunteering opportunities.

For further information on how Leeds Beckett University collects the above information and how it is transferred to the Students' Union please see the Leeds Beckett University Privacy Notice for Students.

Upon receipt of the information above from Leeds Beckett University, the Students' Union will contact each Member by email (Initial Email) to invite them to activate their account (Online Student Account) on the Site, by following the link contained in the Initial Email.  

If a member does not wish to activate their Online Student Account on the Site they can ignore the Initial Email and as such will receive no further communications via the Site.

Members may cancel their Online Student Account and/or update their communication preferences via the Site at any time - please see the section 'Your rights and access to your information' below to find out how to do this.

Any Member who does not activate their Online Student Account will still be able to use the Site at any time as a 'guest'. Members of the public who wish to use the Site may also do so as a 'guest'. Please note that if you are using the Site as a 'guest' not all the information, adverts or offers available to Members may be available to you. Some of the information which is collected automatically as described below may still be collected if you are using the Site as a ‘guest’.

We will retain our database of all Members during their enrolment as a student at Leeds Beckett University for the purposes of providing suitable information depending on a member’s course, school, year of study, mode of study and right to vote in Students' Union elections. To ensure that our database contains accurate information on our members, an automatic update of the database happens every 24 hours.

Following each update of the database as above, the Online Student Account of any person who is no longer a student at Leeds Beckett University shall have their account transferred into an online alumni account and lose access to Member areas of the Site.

Members whose study details have changed since the last update (for example they have changed course or type of study) are responsible for reviewing their details and communication preferences on the Site to ensure that they have been accurately updated.

If you are a member and you follow the link to activate your Online Student Account on the Site, the information provided by Leeds Beckett University (as set out above) will be used to prepopulate your Online Student Account on the Site. During the registration process (or at any time afterwards by logging onto the Site and going to your Online Student Account settings) you can manually amend all preferences relating to how we communicate with you via the Site.

In addition, we collect personal information about you when you access our website, register with us, contact us, send us feedback, post material to our website and compete student surveys or participate in competitions via our website.

We collect this personal information from you either directly, such as when you register with us or contact us or indirectly, such as your browsing activity while on our website (see ‘Cookies’ below).

Each time you visit the Site we may automatically collect the following information:

  • technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet
  • your login information, browser type and version
  • time zone setting
  • browser plug-in types
  • versions, operating system and platform
  • information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from the Site (including date and time)
  • information you viewed or searched for
  • page response times
  • download errors
  • length of visits to certain pages
  • page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs)
  • methods used to browse away from the page
  • any phone number used to call our customer service number
  • history of your purchases via MSL

The Students' Union and Leeds Beckett University have created a single sign-on process which means that if you log on to the student area of the Leeds Beckett University website then you will automatically be able to access your Online Student Account on the Site without providing your login details again (please note that the single sign-on process is one way only and will not automatically log you into the Leeds Beckett University website when you log on to the Site). This process involves the sharing of your login details, including your account name and password between Leeds Beckett University, MSL and the Students' Union, along with the sharing of encrypted fields from the list of information provided above under the heading: ‘Information we may receive/collect about you.’ By activating your Online Student Account on the Site, you are agreeing to this use of your information.

If you do not agree to the use of this information then you may sign up to the Site as a ‘guest’.

Please note that by not activating your Online Student Account, this does not mean that you have opted out of Students’ Union membership. To opt out of Students’ Union membership, please see ‘Your rights and access to your information’ section. Students who opt out of Students’ Union membership (Non-members), are not able to: access the Site by Single Sign-on; access Member only areas of the Site; receive emails from the Students’ Union; vote or stand for a position in the Students’ Union elections; all of which are due to your information not being shared with the Students’ Union, by the University.

Use of your information

We may use information held about you in the following ways:

  • to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;
  • to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our Site about goods or services that may interest you or them;
  • for correlation analysis to enable service effectiveness to be monitored, by sharing student numbers and information relating to engagement data back with Leeds Beckett University;
  • to permit third parties to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you relating to your membership with the Students' Union. We (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, or to pass your details on to our affiliates for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box when completing your registration or at any time afterwards please log into your account settings on the Site;
  • to enable us to co-ordinate events and promote placement and volunteering opportunities to you;
  • to enable us to inform you about day-to-day business within the Student's Union which may interest you;
  • to notify you about changes to our service;
  • to ensure that content from our Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
  • to administer our Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • to improve and optimise our Site;
  • to allow you to participate in interactive features of our Site when you choose to do so;
  • as part of our efforts to keep our Site safe and secure;
  • to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
  • in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, we may disclose your information to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or asset;
  • if we are under a duty to disclose or share your information to comply with any legal obligation; and

in order to enforce or apply the Terms and Conditions of our website hosted by MSL or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Students' Union or Leeds Beckett University. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations such as the National Union of Students (NUS).

Our legal basis for processing your personal information

When we use your personal information we are required to have a legal basis for doing so. There are various legal bases upon which we may rely, depending on what personal information we process and why.

The legal bases we may rely on include:

  • consent: where you have given us clear consent for us to process your personal information for a specific purpose;
  • contract: where our use of your personal information is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract;
  • legal obligation: where our use of your personal information is necessary for us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations);
  • vital interests: where our use of your personal information is necessary to protect you or someone else’s life;
  • public task: where our use of your personal information is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law; and
  • legitimate interests: where our use of your personal information is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party (unless there is a good reason to protect your personal information which overrides our legitimate interests).

Sharing your information

We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to third party advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate information about our Site users (for example, we may inform them of the number of Site users who have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target, for example so that they can advertise specific products and services to students on relevant courses.

We may share your information with Leeds Beckett University and with MSL, along with selected third parties (including business partners such as suppliers, analytics and search engine providers and parties wishing to advertise services relating to your membership of the Students' Union).  

We will share student numbers and information relating to engagement data back to Leeds Beckett University for correlation analysis to enable service effectiveness to be monitored. 

MSL and Leeds Beckett University have their own privacy policies to deal with information that they receive and how each uses that information. Please use the links below to see a copy of these policies:

The Site contains many links to other websites to help you find the information you need. These may be 'official partners' of the Students’ Union (please see the Site for a current list) or other third parties with information likely to be of interest and relevance to those using the Site. We may use advertising on parts of the public and/or Member sections of the Site. 

Please note that those websites have their own privacy policies and terms of use and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for those policies and terms, for your use of those websites and for any information that those websites may collect from you. Please check their individual website terms of use and privacy policies before using their websites.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

Cookies

Our Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of the Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Site and allows us to improve the Site.

Cookies are pieces of data created when you visit a website and are stored in your hard drive. They generally do not expire at the end of your browsing session. They are used to help you when you return to a website, for example, they may enable you to return directly to a particular part of the site by 'remembering' where you last accessed or automatically logging you in. If you choose not to accept the cookies, this should not affect your access to most facilities available on our Site. For more information, please click on this link which will take you to the MSL Cookie Policy.

For further information on cookies generally visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Your rights and access to your information

Under the Data Protection Laws, you have several important rights in relation to your information which can be exercised free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:

  • fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your use personal information;
  • access to your personal information and to certain other supplementary information that this Privacy Notice is already designed to address;
  • request us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold;
  • request the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations;
  • request the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations;
  • object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing;
  • object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you;
  • object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information; and
  • otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals' rights under the Data Protection Laws.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

  • email sudata@leedsbeckett.ac.uk;
  • let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. student ID number and name); 
  • let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
  • let us know the information to which your request relates.

If you send an enquiry by email to a specific contact listed on the Site, this will be passed to the relevant department/person at the Students' Union so that they can fulfil your request.

Marketing

We intend to use your information for marketing our own products and services as well as those of Leeds Beckett University and NUS and to provide you with information on current and future news and events relating to the Students' Union. Where we have your consent or it is in our legitimate interests to do so, we may do this by post, email, telephone, text message (SMS) or automated call.

You have the right to ask us not to process your information for these purposes or to change your mind at any time on your marketing preferences by clicking the 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom of any email from the Students' Union.

For an up-to-date list of our partners and other third parties we work with, please visit https://www.leedsbeckettsu.co.uk.

For more information on your rights in relation to marketing, refer to 'Your rights and access to your information’ above.

Deactivating your Online Student Account

You can change your mind at any time regarding your Students’ Union membership and/or request to deactivate your Online Student Account by emailing sudata@leedsbeckett.ac.uk and providing your opt out/opt in/cancellation request along with your name and student ID number. Please note that if we have already shared your information with any third party upon receipt of your request then you will need to contact that party directly to exercise this right.

Please note that changing your Students' Union membership preferences may affect your eligibility to vote in Students' Union elections. Please contact us for further information.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

For more information on how your personal information is kept secure, please refer to links in ' Sharing your information' above.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.

The Data Protection Laws also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner's Office who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or via telephone by calling 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this privacy policy

If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page and, where appropriate, notify you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

Any questions, comments and requests regarding this policy are welcomed and should be addressed to sudata@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

 

Version: 2024 v1    Date: 19/12/2024

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