Anglia Ruskin University Higher Education Corporation (ARU) is committed to protecting your personal information when you use our services.
When saying “we”, “our” or “ARU”, we’re referring to Anglia Ruskin University.
This statement explains how we, specifically the ARU Alumni Network and the Development (fundraising) Office/Team handles and uses the personal data we collect about our alumni and honoraries as well as our past, current and future supporters, whether donors, volunteers or participants in membership groups that we run. ARU in this context means the central University (Cambridge, Chelmsford, Peterborough, Writtle and London campuses as well as our partner colleges and former institutions including Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT) and the Essex Institute of Higher Education (formerly the Chelmer Institute – itself formed from the Mid-Essex Technical College and the Brentwood College of Education). At first, these colleges combined to become Anglia Polytechnic, and then Anglia Polytechnic University in 1992. We’ve been known as Anglia Ruskin University since 2005.
Please read the following privacy policy to understand how we use and protect the information obtained via the following online services:
It also relates to us using any personal information that you provide by phone, SMS, email, in letters and other correspondence, and in person.
This Privacy Policy explains the following:
By providing us with your personal data and using our services, you agree to the collection and use of this information in accordance with the purposes described above in this privacy notice or as otherwise explained to you.
If you have any requests concerning this Privacy Policy, your personal information, or any queries with regard to our processing please contact [email protected].
Whenever we ask for your personal data we will always make sure that it is necessary to identify you from the data we collect. If we do need to identify you we will make sure that we only collect and use the minimum details we need for the specific purpose.
We may hold information relating to you from a number of sources. A significant proportion of the information we possess on alumni is that which you provide to us (for example, you may give us information by filling in forms on the University's website, or by corresponding with us by telephone, email or otherwise). If you are a student or studied at one of our campuses, partner colleges or former institutions, your personal data is transferred from your student record to the University’s alumni and development /fundraising database.
Most records contain:
We also record, where applicable information based on that which you have volunteered and, in some cases, that which is publicly available and that which is supplied by our partners (as listed below):
We augment the data we hold from the University with data from our partner colleges and publicly available data.
We use targeted internet searches and may search the following websites (either directly or using search engines) or engage third parties under contract to do this on our behalf , where relevant in order to obtain and maintain the accuracy of the data listed above:
ARU also collects data about how you use ARU mobile apps, websites or other university-related online content, and the device(s) you use to access these services. This includes collecting unique online identifiers such as IP addresses, which are numbers that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the web. For more information, please see see the section on cookies within this privacy notice.
Your data is used by us for a number of interdependent purposes in support of alumni relations, supporter communications and fundraising. These include:
Your data is used by us for a number of interdependent purposes in support of alumni relations, supporter communications and fundraising. These include:
Before seeking or accepting major donations we are required to conduct due diligence, including reviewing publicly available personal data in accordance with Gift Acceptance Policy and to meet money laundering regulations.
We may from time-to-time carry out ‘Wealth Screening’ activities, which makes use of publicly available information to assess the giving potential of Anglia Ruskin University alumni, honoraries, friends and supporters. As the law recognises our legitimate interest in undertaking these activities, provided we do so fairly, we do not need your consent. However if you would like to be exempt from our wealth screening activities please email [email protected] to request this. If this request is made the University is committed to not processing your personal data in this way.
Communications to you may be sent by email, telephone or post, depending on the contact details we hold and the preferences expressed by you about the types of communications you wish to receive.
We may use automated or manual analyses to link data together to help us identify your potential for supporting the University, to provide you with an improved experience, to send you communications which are relevant and timely, to identify volunteering opportunities or opportunities for providing support which may be of interest to you, and to avoid approaching you with opportunities which are not of interest. We always seek to ensure that any opportunities we present are aligned with your interests, based on our efforts to understand more about you.
We will always respect a request by you to stop processing your personal data, and in addition your statutory rights are set out below.
Anyone taking part in university activities where they may be photographed, filmed, videoed or otherwise captured in image form: Where possible and practical to do so, we will seek written agreement for image capture and explain any intended use. Where this is not possible for practical reasons, unless express objections are received following our raising awareness that image capture will be taking place, individuals attending an event at ARU are deemed to have given their agreement by attending or remaining at the event. Any queries should be raised with the event host in the first instance.
ARU will maintain a permanent record of its activities; particularly of key initiatives, major milestones in our history and of the work of key individuals associated with us. Where this archive collection may include personal data we will comply with the law by having appropriate safeguards in place to ensure our use of the data does not affect your rights, including where we may display, publish or provide researcher access to our collections. We do this under our legitimate interests’ and hold ‘special category data’ for archival purposes as the law allows.
We share data on a considered and confidential basis, where appropriate, with:
We ensure we have appropriate data sharing agreements in place before sharing your personal data.
We do not sell your personal data to third parties under any circumstances, or permit third parties to sell on the data we have shared with them.
We also facilitate communication between individual alumni, but in doing so we do not release personal contact details without prior permission. This function is seen as an additional benefit to being included in the Alumni Network. The Alumni Office will under no circumstances share your data with another member of the Alumni Network without your prior permission.
We will retain your data indefinitely in support of your lifelong relationship with the University or until you request us to do otherwise. We will publish on our website any changes we make to this data protection statement and notify you by other communication channels where appropriate. Our Privacy Policy is at the bottom of every email that we send to our constituents as is the option to unsubscribe from Anglia Ruskin communications.
Your personal data will be held confidentially for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was it collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
Data will be retained in accordance with our retention schedule Records Retention Schedule.
The legal basis for processing your personal data for the interdependent purposes set out within this privacy notice is that it is necessary for the pursuit of our legitimate interests, or the carrying out of a task in the public interest, or in the exercise of our official authority. We always handle your personal data securely and minimise its use, and there is no overriding prejudice to you by using your personal information for these purposes. In addition, there is no statutory or contractual requirement for you to provide us with any personal data.
Surveys for information updates, communication and fundraising preferences and interests
Processing is necessary for:
University news updates
Processing is necessary for the legitimate purpose of communicating with former students and supporters.
Invitations to University and alumni-specific events
Processing is necessary for the legitimate purpose of communicating with former students and supporters.
Administrative purposes
For example in order to administer an event you have registered for, or to process a donation you have made. You may wish to share accessibility needs and dietary needs information with us for this purpose.
Processing is necessary for the legitimate purpose of communicating with you and managing relevant events.
Where we process Special Category data for these purposes, we do so because it is necessary:
Wealth analysis and research
In order to improve our understanding of our alumni and supporters, inform our fundraising activities and target our communications more effectively to alumni interests.
Processing is necessary for the legitimate purpose of communicating with former students to seek support for ARU’s work, ensuring that former students receive only those communications which ARU judges to be relevant and appropriate to the individual concerned, with the facility to ‘opt-out’ of the activity at any time.
Publicising the achievements of alumni
To improve the alumni network and to develop the ambitions of current students to emulate the successes of former students.
Processing requires your consent to publish your data.
To support the role of the Alumni Ambassador
By publishing your name and contact details and biographical details and publicising these to other alumni and prospective students.
Processing requires your consent to publish your data.
Please read about your rights under Data Protection legislation. It is important to note that the ‘legal basis’ we rely on (above) to process your data determines which of your rights are available. You are not expected to know these details, it is our responsibility to understand how the law applies and to explain it to you when responding to a request from you. Our Rights guidance is an opportunity to provide you with information on how you can expect us to handle your requests.
The law provides for the following rights:
To complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): the ICO is the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. For more information please visit the ICO website.
ARU is committed to holding your data securely and uses information security best practice to transmit personal data. Data is held in accordance with the Corporate Information Security Policy . For example, your personal data is accessible only by those authorised and who have a business need for access. When shared with third parties, your personal data is shared with encryption or in password protected files.
Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password that enables you to access our systems, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You must not share passwords with anyone.
Although we maintain a number of safeguards, fraudulent email requests are occasionally delivered to staff and students. We will never ask for your username or password by email. Any message that does so should be treated as a potential breach of security, no matter how legitimate it may appear. If you are in any doubt, do nothing until you have spoken to a member of the IT Services Customer Support Team.
ARU have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security incident and will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are required to do so. If you have any concerns that personal data has been compromised please contact