UCSU collect a range of data across various platforms to deliver services, democratic functions, advice, advocacy & support, offers, the facilitation of groups and societies and volunteering opportunities, events and a range of other opportunities for student benefit. This data includes basic personal details (name, contact details, course of study etc) and may, in certain circumstances and with explicit consent, include data classed as Sensitive Personal Data or Special Category Data, such as disability information which is used to provide you with appropriate support and information such as ethnicity which is used for equal opportunities monitoring.

The data collected is only used in pursuit of the legitimate activity of the Students’ Union and is not shared with external organisations without your explicit consent except in limited, exceptional circumstances permitted by Data Protection legislation (for example, to protect the welfare of yourself or others or to comply with legal obligations).

Within all of the different data collection platforms used by UCSU separate terms and conditions relating to data usage are embedded. Your consent may be sought in these platforms if you are happy for the Students’ Union to collect your data to enable the delivery of a particular service.  

The University of Cumbria Students’ Union collects and processes your information on two legal bases:

Consent – Where you have granted consent for your data to be collected and processed via an opt-in selection.

Legitimate interest – Where it is in a students’ genuine legitimate interest for the Students’ Union to process data in order to deliver beneficial outcomes for its members. An example of this may include representing the views and opinions of students, or alerting members to their right to participate in a democratic process.

The GDPR sets out your rights as an individual, we strive to uphold and protect your rights in balance with our legitimate interest in providing support for you.

• 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.

You can see detailed explanations on each of these rights here. https://ico.org.uk/

Where we rely on your consent to process your information you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting the Students’ Union Chief Executive via the general office contacts listed on the UCSU website:  HYPERLINK "https://www.ucsu.me/contact" https://www.ucsu.me/contact

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation you have a right to a copy of the current personal information held on you by the Students’ Union (called a subject access request). To request a copy of your data, please contact the UCSU Chief Executive Officer via the general office contacts listed on the UCSU website:  HYPERLINK "https://www.ucsu.me/contact" https://www.ucsu.me/contact

For further information or advice about your rights under the Data Protection Act, including details of how to contact the University’s Data Protection Officer, please see the University’s webpages at  HYPERLINK "http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/dataprotection" http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/dataprotection. 

You can also visit the Information Commissioner’s website for further information and advice on your rights under both the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner if you are unhappy with the way your information is being handled.   Please see   HYPERLINK "http://www.ico.org.uk" www.ico.org.uk for further details.

Data sharing agreement

The Students’ Union has a data sharing agreement with the University of Cumbria which states that where students’ have given their consent at registration the University shares some personal data with UCSU to enable us to deliver services on behalf of our members. 

The information you provide to us is normally stored within the European Economic Area (EEA) on secure servers. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

In some circumstances it may be necessary for us to store information outside the EEA. In these cases, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to protect your privacy rights either through our contract with a storage provider or by ensuring providers are subscribed to an international framework to guarantee adequate protection.

The Students’ Union will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes explained above. We will in some cases retain some information after you leave the university to enable us to keep a record of your participation for reference request purposes. Other information will be destroyed in line with our records retention schedules, usually twelve months after graduation.

The Students’ Union discloses student information to recipients within the University only where we have sought your consent or where there is a legitimate interest in doing so. An example of legitimate interest may include providing the name of a sports team contact to the University Sports Centre to enable the booking of a pitch, or disclosing the name of a student who has opted to attending an external conference to the organisers of the event. 

UCSU Student Support Ts&Cs

UCSU Student Privacy Notice 

Privacy Policy for Users of Union Cloud 

Terms and Conditions of use of Union Cloud

UCSU's External Speakers Policy

UCSU Complaints procedure

UCSU's Equality & Diversity Policy

UCSU's Safeguarding Policy

UCSU's Accident and Incident Reporting Policy

UCSU's Accident & Incidents Form

If at any time you wish to stop receiving communications from UCSU, simply reply to the email with the word 'unsubscribe' and you'll be removed from our mailing lists.  From time to time, it is extremely important for us to be able to contact you to inform you of important campaigns, services or changes to the way we represent and support your views.