Data Protection

We are proud of our community and want to stay in touch

This statement explains how the College ("we" and "our") handles and uses data we collect about our alumni and our past, current and future supporters including non-alumni with whom we have reasonable grounds for establishing a relationship ("you" and "your").  In broad terms, we use your data to keep in touch with you as alumni (and life-long members of the College) and supporters (including non-alumni), in order to keep you appraised of our activities and developments, to provide services to you, and to identify ways in which you can support us, through donations and/or other forms of financial and non-financial support.

The College is currently considering the implications of national changes to data protection legislation, and the obligations of the Colleges to you in helping you understand further how and why we process your personal data.  

How your data is used by the College

Your data is used by us for a number of interdependent purposes, including alumni relations, events, communications and fundraising.  These include:

  • publications
  • surveys
  • appeals and requests for donations, including research on when and whether particular donations or funding appeals may be of interest to you
  • the promotion of alumni and other College events, and
  • the promotion of other services open to our members

Communications to you may be sent by post, telephone or electronic means, depending on the contact details we hold and the preferences expressed by you about the types of communications you wish to receive.

If you have concerns or queries about any of these purposes, or how we communicate with you, please contact us at the address given below:

Development Office, Homerton College, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PH 

Telephone: 01223 747280

Email: alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk

What data is held by the College

Homerton College shares an alumni and supporter database with Cambridge University Development and Alumni Relations, with shared records being viewable by both organisations. Your data will be stored on this database for the purposes listed in this document. We work closely with the University as a result of their shared interest in having a coordinated approach to their alumni and supporters.  Additionally, we maintain other electronic and paper records.  Any transmission of data to or from the University is managed through agreed processes which comply with UK data protection legislation.  The University has it own data protection statement and procedures, available at http://alumni.cam.ac.uk/dataprotection

Most records contain:

  • details of your school, College and University education
  • unique personal identifiers (e.g. student number, date of birth)
  • your contact details

Where provided by you, or provided by the University or obtained from reputable sources, we also record:

  • your attendance at College or University events
  • other contact with us or the University since graduation
  • your key relationships with other alumni or supporters of the College and/or the University and other Colleges within Cambridge
  • your career highlights and other life achievements
  • financial information relating to you and any of your key relationships (including but not necessarily limited to income, philanthropy and other giving)
  • donations made by you to either College or the University
  • information about your areas of personal interest
  • personal data provided by you for a specific purpose or purposes (for example, disability, catering preferences or lifestyle status for event management)
  • your communication preferences

When the College shares your data with others

Depending on the constraints set by you, and which you may change at any time, we may share any of the above categories of data with the University.

Additionally, we share data on a considered and confidential basis, where appropriate, with organisations including but not limited to:

  • Cambridge in America (the University's affiliate alumni office in the US)
  • third party agencies who provide us with data in the public domain about alumni and supporters
  • selected companies who provide College-branded or College-endorsed products and services
  • volunteer partners closely related to us (e.g. College trustees, development board members, alumni group representatives)
  • contractors providing services to you on our behalf or services to us (our "data processors")
  • consultants advising us on individuals' capacity to donate

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 (of the College or the University), but in doing so we do not release personal contact details without prior permission.

Your rights

There is no statutory or contractual requirement for you to provide us with any personal data.

You have the right: to ask for a copy of your personal data (a data subject access request); to object to processing that is causing you, or is likely to cause you, damage or distress; to object to communications or direct marketing; in certain circumstances to require us to correct or erase your personal data; and a right to compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection Act.

We will retain your data indefinitely 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.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office at http://ico.org.uk/concerns

Questions and further statutory information

Please contact us if you have any concerns or questions about the above information.  Where you have specific requests relating to how we manage your data, we will endeavour to resolve these, but please note that there may be circumstances where we cannot comply with your specific request.

Where you opt out of all future communications or exercise your right to erasure, we will continue to maintain a core set of personal data (name, subject(s), matriculation and graduation details, unique University identification number and date of birth) to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in future, while still maintaining our record of your academic achievements.  We may also need to retain some financial records about you for statutory purposes (e.g. Gift Aid, anti-fraud and accounting matters). If you are not a former student of Homerton, we will retain a record of your name and contact preferences with any supporting details to ensure we do not initiate contact at a future date against your wishes; we will also retain gift information as noted above.

If you have any concerns about your personal data held by the University, you will need to contact the University separately.

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