Privacy Notice for Engagement

As part of our business development and relationship management activities, we collate and process important contacts from a variety of sources, which includes researching publicly available information and using third parties such as LinkedIn and Alumni Fox. If you want to know how we acquired your personal data please contact the person who contacted you from BCU. You are also welcome to ask them whether BCU is accessing the third parties database or whether BCU is storing a copy of your personal data on a BCU system. BCU records information about individuals who are prospective or existing customers, clients, partners, funders, collaborators, students, suppliers or other business contacts, in order to grow a relationship with them.

The personal data processed may include:

• name, job title and organisation;
• work contact details, such as business email address, telephone number and postal address;
• information about your organisation and your role within it;
• records of communications and interactions with you;
• information about your areas of interest, requirements and potential opportunities;
• details of meetings, events, enquiries, referrals and business development activity;
• information about potential contracts, projects, partnerships or other opportunities;
• publicly available professional information relevant to our business development activities; and
• administrative information needed to manage our relationship with you.

Please note, your personal data may also be within scope of the Privacy Notice for Alumni, former staff, current and prospective supporters.

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal information. Depending on the circumstances, the University may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for the University's legitimate interests in developing and maintaining professional, commercial, research and strategic relationships, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.

Contract – where processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you. For example (on the topics of consultancy, apprenticeships, contract research, training / CPD, student volunteering and internships).

Consent – where we are required to obtain your consent for a particular use of your information, for example to be able to send you marketing / advertising.

We will retain personal information in the CRM only for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, taking account of the nature of the relationship and our legal, regulatory and operational requirements. Our standard retention period for business development and sales lead information is 7 years. At the end of the applicable retention period, information will be securely deleted or anonymised unless we have a lawful reason to retain it for longer.

BCU may use artificial intelligence (AI) where it may bring benefits to the university and / or people and organisations who interact with BCU. Please be assured that BCU will only use AI where it has been assessed as safe and appropriate. BCU makes every effort to ensure that it meets its’ legal obligations under data protection laws when using AI tools in order to protect your personal data.

Access to CRM information is limited to authorised University staff who need it for their role.

Where necessary, we may share information with:

• relevant University departments and professional services;
• academic or professional staff involved in a particular business development opportunity;
• other organisations involved in delivering a project or partnership, where appropriate;
• service providers who operate or support the University's CRM and related systems;
• professional advisers and auditors; and
• regulators, government bodies or law enforcement agencies where we are legally required or permitted to do so.

Where a third party processes personal information on the University's behalf, we will require appropriate contractual and data protection safeguards.

You may have the right to have your data deleted, the right to restrict processing, the right to object and / or the right to data portability, the right to get your data correct (rectification) and you have the right to know about and challenge automated decision making and profiling. Follow the links to find out whether those rights apply in these circumstances. To do any of those things or if you have followed the links but would like clarification, please email informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk.

If BCU is relying on your consent to process your personal data, you will have been asked for your consent at the relevant time. If this is the case, you have the right to withdraw your consent. If the consent relates to electronic marketing, please follow the instructions in the marketing messages received. If it relates to something else please contact the area that you believe is processing your personal data relying on your consent. Otherwise please contact informationmanagement@bcuac.uk.

You have the right to request to see the personal data we hold about you. You can submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) in accordance with the Subject Access Requests (SAR) Procedure. 

We may update this privacy notice from time to time to reflect changes in our processing activities, systems or legal requirements. The latest version will be made available https://www.bcu.ac.uk/about-us/corporate-information/policies-and-procedures/privacy-notices/employee-privacy-notice.

If you want to know more about something you’ve been contacted about, please contact the person or email address who contacted you. If, having read this privacy notice, you have any data protection questions you’re welcome to contact our Information Management team by emailing informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk or by post to: Data Protection Officer, Information Management Team, Legal Services, Birmingham City University, Floor 1, Joseph Priestley Building, 6 Cardigan Street, Birmingham, B4 7BD, or by phoning 0121 202 4597.

If you are not content with how we handle your information, please follow our Data Protection Complaints Procedure. If you have used that procedure and are unsatisfied with the response you have received, you then have the right to complain directly to the Information Commission (IC). You can find out more about this on the IC’s complaints webpage.

Birmingham City University’s Data Protection Policy and Appropriate Policy Document

Birmingham City University’s Privacy Notices

The Information Commission (IC) information for members of the public