Privacy notice for the Department of Advancement

The Department of Advancement (formerly Development and Alumni relations) manages the University of Dundee’s relationship with its alumni and supporters. We aim to keep you connected and informed about the University and provide opportunities for you to continue to be involved in our activities, wherever you are in the world and in whatever stage of life you are.

We offer a range of events, engaging communications, reunions, volunteering opportunities and access to University resources and careers advice. We also fundraise to support the University’s students, teaching, research and capital projects.

How do we use your information?

We use your information to:

• send you publications, e-newsletters, invitations and provide you with information on volunteering opportunities;
• provide you with information on reunions and alumni gatherings and to give support if planning a reunion;
• develop and support our national and international network of alumni groups, providing opportunities to connect, network and support the work of the University as ambassadors;
• share stories and memories (with permission) in support of the University community;
• get in touch when old friends want to contact you;
• conduct surveys, focus groups and other research;
• promote the work, projects, activities and objectives of the University and share our exciting news and research;
• promotion of discounts and services for alumni, including relevant courses and degree pathways;
• further our charitable objectives by helping us to raise funds or by asking you to donate. This is always in accordance with our Donations Policy;
• undertake administrative activities such as donation management and stewardship (including necessary due diligence), identity verification (for example, assisting colleagues when confirming graduation details to employers), event registration, processing and submitting HM Revenue and Customs Gift Aid claims and other mandatory reports required by law or regulation.

To support all of this, we have a database that contains personal data collected by the University during the course of our relationship with our students, alumni and supporters.

What data do we hold?

The personal data we normally hold includes:

• your name and title (including former name or alias), your date of birth and gender;
• your contact details (address, telephone, email, social media);
• your degree details, other education history and other information about your time at University such as society membership and scholarship information;
• Your professional details including positions, organisation, professional memberships, and qualifications;
• Your current interests, skills and activities, which may include extracts from any related media stories;
• Information you share publicly on social media;
• Availability for volunteering opportunities;
• Family and spouse/partner details;
• Testimonial content you share directly with the University;
• Relationships to other alumni, donors, and friends.

We keep records of:

• all communications between you and the University, including data updates you have provided and University marketing materials;
• any volunteering activities you have expressed interest in and carried out on behalf of the University;
• the history of University-related event invitations and whether or not you have attended;
• whether you have received and/or opened/clicked on our marketing emails to help tailor further communication with you;
• your donation history and donor status

Sensitive (special categories of) personal data

The Development and Alumni Relations Office does not normally hold special categories of personal data. However, we may have such information if you provide it to us directly, for example so we can make appropriate adjustments for a disability at a University event or volunteering activity.

How is your information collected?

The information we hold has been provided from the University’s student records, by you at graduation, when you have attended a University event, when you have donated to the University or from direct updates you have provided to us. 

We always aim to keep your details up to date so that you receive the most relevant information and can choose the communication channels which suit you best. We may undertake some limited profiling, using your data (such as your postcode, subject of study, age, gender and level of engagement with the University) to help us plan our activities, and determine if we should contact you with certain communications, or information about particular activities and fundraising opportunities.

We really appreciate it if you let us know if your contact details have changed. Please fill in our update form to update your details and manage your communication preferences.

Other ways we collect your information

We may also use information from publicly available sources, such as public LinkedIn profiles to gain up-to-date information about you, to carry out research to assess your inclination and capacity to support the University financially or by volunteering your time. We may use trusted third-party partners, such as Live Alumni, to carry out this type of data collection to automate some of this work. This information is in the public domain and includes details related to corporate business position, industry and location.

If you choose to connect with us through our WhatsApp profile, we will update our database with your phone number. Do note that your profile, including your phone number, will be visible to other members in the WhatsApp Group you have chosen to join.

The University may also use trusted third-party partners to support other activities. For example, if you interact with the University through JustGiving or Eventbrite and have explicitly consented to that third party sharing your information then we may obtain information about you from that third party. We check the telephone numbers we hold against the Telephone Preference Service register and addresses against the Royal Mail database to ensure we are using active addresses.

How do we keep your information safe?

The University is the data controller, which means that we determine the purposes and means of processing your data.

Although most of the information we store and process stays within the UK, some information may be transferred to countries outside the UK. This may occur if, for example, one of our trusted partners’ servers are located in a country outside the UK. Where these countries do not have similar data protection laws to the UK, we will take steps to make sure they provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with UK data protection law, by signing an appropriate data sharing agreement with each trusted partner which includes standard UK GDPR compliant model clauses. We will not share any of your data with external agents unless we have a data sharing agreement in place. We will never sell any of this data to a third-party organisation.

If you have used any credit/debit card details in transactions with the University, we do not collect or store any of these within our database. They are processed via the University’s appointed service provider.

If you donate or have previously donated to the University via direct debit, we do not store your bank details on our database. Such information is securely held by the online payment platform provided through Committed Giving, our service provider, and can only be accessed by trained staff members within the Development and Alumni Relations Office.

How long do we hold your information for?

We will hold your core alumnus record and any subsequent updates to the information held in that record indefinitely unless you request to have your data deleted from the Alumni database. Please see below for how to request that your data is deleted.

Legal bases

The University asserts that it is lawful for it to process your personal data for the purposes detailed above for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority entrusted to the controller as well as for the pursuit of our legitimate interests. Specifically, the University notes that its governing instruments, its Charter, Statutes and Ordinances, allow for the existence of a Graduates Association.The University processes your personal data for purposes other than membership of the Graduates Association on the basis of necessity for the pursuit of its legitimate interests.

The University may also process your personal data in this area in compliance with legal obligations to which it is subject.

Where you provide the Development and Alumni Relations Office with special categories of personal data directly, for example so we can make adjustments for disabilities, that processing is further to obligations placed upon the University in the field of social protection law.

Your rights

The University respects your rights and preferences in relation to your personal data. If you wish to access, update, erase, limit how we use your personal data, please let us know by emailing dataprotection@dundee.ac.uk.

If you wish to restrict the use of your personal data for any of the purposes outlined above, please be aware that we may need to retain some limited data to carry out this request.

If you wish to complain or enquire further about the use of your information, please email dataprotection@dundee.ac.uk. You may also wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.