1. Who we are

The Unite Foundation is a charitable incorporated organisation registered in England and Wales 1198601 and a charity registered in Scotland  SC051987.  We are the data controller responsible for your data.  You can contact us about this notice or about the way we process your data:

• Write to us at: Unite Foundation, South Quay House, Temple Back, Bristol, BS1 6FL
• Email us at privacy@unitefoundation.org.uk

2. About this notice

This privacy notice has been set out with our scholarship students and the wider Community of care experienced and estranged students in mind and the ways in which you interact with us. For example, the information we continue to collect if you are awarded a scholarship will be different to what we collect if you only enquire about our scheme.

This notice covers:

• Personal data processed by Unite Foundation that can identify you as an individual or is capable of doing so.

This notice does not cover:

• General, statistical, aggregated or anonymous information
• Our use of cookies. See our Cookie Notice.
• Personal data collected by third party organisations outside of our instruction, or individuals or other websites which the Unite Foundation/This is Us website may link to. Where this is the case, we encourage you to read their privacy notice to understand how they are processing your data.

We are committed to making our explanations as clear and transparent about the data we collect as possible, and have broken this notice down into different sections relating to where you are in the scholarship journey. Each section details the personal data we collect and for what purpose, who we collect it from and who we share it with. Other sections explain how we are meeting our other obligations under data protection legislation.

If you have a question about something in this notice or want to contact us please see contact detail above.

3. The personal data we process when you interact with us

When you apply for a Unite Foundation award we will collect the following data:

• First name, last name
• Your contact details, and further information to identify you.
• Evidence of your eligibility status
• Extensive detail on your academic history and aspiration including choice of university, course and prior attainment
• Special category data for Equal Opportunities monitoring including protected characteristics like gender, sexuality, ethnicity, faith.

When you contact us to join the online Student-led Community space we will collect

• The user name that you provide
• The IP address from which you applied to join the online community
• Any further detail provided by you, by choice, in creating or utilising your This is Us Community account.

This data will be collected for the following purposes:

• To administer the legitimate business of the Unite Foundation Scholarship Scheme in partnership with your university. By applying for a scholarship you authorise the Unite Foundation and your current/intended university to share such information collected as necessary for this purpose. This will include verifying your application, organising housing tenancies and monitoring academic progression of all applicants as well as producing statistics on all applications and awards.
• To contact you in response to a query that you may have raised
• To contact you to share charitable opportunities or activities that may be of interest to you
• From web application cookies – for instance, if you set up your privacy preferences or log into your account, for the website to function, or to implement cookies which act on your cookie preference

A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser, or stored as a temporary object in your web browser for the time of that connection. For information about how we use cookies please read our Cookie Policy.

We use third party technical platforms to manage our online scholarship application process, host Student-led Community spaces, and track the charitable outcomes of our work; Form Assembly, Salesforce, DocuSign, Mighty Networks, Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).  They each have their own privacy notices that you can refer to.  Your data will be retained on these platforms to track and monitor so as to enable statistical aggregation and analysis.  Scholarship applicant data will be shared between HEAT and HESA (the Designated Data Body for England under the Higher Education Research Act 2017) and their respective policies can be seen here.

• Privacy notice for HEAT
• Privacy notice for HESA

Your personal data is never shared for any commercial purpose.

4.           Why are we able to process data?

• Under data protection law we are able to process this data because it is necessary for a task carried out in the public interest (Article 6(1)(e) GDPR: “processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller”).
• In some circumstances, for example if participating in an ad hoc activity, we may process your data because you have given your consent for us to do this (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR: “the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes”). 
• We are able to process special category data as it is justified under Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR – “processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of domestic law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject“. Our substantial public interest condition is Schedule 1, Part 2, Paragraph 8 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (Equality of opportunity or treatment).
• We are also able to process special category data for statistical purposes, as this is justified under Article 9(2)(j) GDPR – “processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes”. We are relying on Schedule 1, Part 1, Paragraph 4 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (Research) as our condition for processing.

5. The personal data processed as a result of our organising a scholarship tenancy

When you are provided with a free student room as part of the scholarship scheme, your personal details will be shared with the relevant housing provider for the express purpose of creating a tenancy.  Only detail necessary for that transaction will be shared under that umbrella.  A tenancy agreement will come under the data protection remit of your landlord, please see the relevant Privacy Policy of your individual provider. 

Depending on why they are using your data, be aware that they will likely share it with an internet service provider, your university or third party security service looking after the property you will be staying at, the relevant local authority (council), and the emergency services (in the event of an emergency evacuation).

6. Aggregated data

Occasionally, we provide aggregated statistics about our applications, awards, participation rates in charitable activities, and outcomes.  We share these with policy makers, charitable donors, researchers and governance organisations like the Charity Commission.  These statistics do not include any information that could personally identify you.

7. The personal data we process if you are a personal advisor, emergency contact or named person on the application for a scholarship award.

If you have been named on a scholarship application (as an emergency contact or within evidence documentation for example) we will collect the following information from you,:

• Title, first name, last name
• Email address
• Contact phone number
• Relationship to scholarship applicant

If you are an emergency contact or a person named within evidence documentation, in the event of an emergency or significant welfare concern, we will contact you or share your contact information with the medical or emergency services as necessary, enabling them to reach and update you about an incident affecting a student.

8. Sharing your personal data when required by law

Our purpose for using your data may change where it is necessary to do so to protect or defend our legal rights or the legal rights of others. In these instances we may disclose the information you give us /we receive in order to comply with the law and our regulatory obligations. This information will be used as necessary, including to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person.

9. How long we keep your information

The periods for which we keep your information will vary according to the purpose for which we use the information. To work out how long we keep each data record for, we consider why we hold it, how sensitive it is, how long the law says we need to keep it, and what the risks are.

Unless there is a specific legal requirement to keep your information, we will not keep it for longer than necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or for which it is to be further processed. We have an internal data retention schedule that details how long we keep each data record and we will securely delete your information in line with this.

10. How we protect your information

We have several security measures in place to protect your information:

Where you have a password, which enables you to access your scholarship application or This is Us Student Led Community space, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password(s) with anyone.

Personal data is stored in a secure system with restricted access areas depending on the type of data being stored. We have strict security procedures covering the storage and disclosure of this information in order to prevent unauthorised access. Our employees and Trustees can only access data that is appropriate and necessary for their role. 

11. Your rights in relation to your personal data

You have various rights relating to your personal data, which we have summarised below. To exercise any of these rights, please contact privacy @unitefoundation.org.uk.  We process and respond to all requests regarding personal data within one calendar month, but if the request is going to take longer to process we will advise you of this.

We may ask for additional information to verify your identity to ensure we are sharing personal data with the correct person or that we believe is necessary to comply with a request. Please note that whilst we will carefully assess every request we receive, we may not always have to comply. When this happens, we will explain why.

Your right to be informed

You have the right to be provided with clear, transparent and easily understandable information about how we use your personal data and your rights. Therefore, we are providing you with the information in this privacy notice.

Your right of access

You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you.

Your right to correct the personal data we hold on you

You have the right to correct, amend or update your personal data if it becomes inaccurate or incomplete.

Your right to erase your personal data

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data although, for legal reasons, we might not always be able to do it.

Your right to restrict the processing of your personal data

You have the right to restrict, ‘block’ or suppress further use of your information if:

• the accuracy of your personal data is contested;
• your personal data has been processed unlawfully by us but you do not want to request erasure; or
• we no longer need your personal data for our original purpose but it is required to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.

When processing is restricted, we can still store your information but may not use it further.

Your right to consent and/or withdraw consent

If you have given your consent to allow us to process your personal data, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time

Your rights in relation to automated decision making including profiling

Automated decision making is a decision made by automated means, without any human involvement, which has legal consequences or something to a similar effect (e.g. credit checking). We don’t carry out automated decision making, but if we were to, we would make it clear where decisions are being made.

Your right to data portability

You have rights to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes in a commonly used machine-readable format, and to have your personal data transferred to another data controller on your request.

Your right to object to processing

You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your situation at any time, to the processing of your personal data that is based on us exercising our legitimate interests. If we can show compelling legitimate grounds for processing your personal data which we consider override your interests, rights and freedoms, or we need your personal data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, we can continue to process it. Otherwise, we must stop using the relevant information.

You have the absolute right to object at any time to the use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

Your right to make a complaint

If you are unhappy about the way in which we have used your personal data, please let us know by contacting us as detailed below and we will try to resolve your complaint. If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to lodge a complaint about the way we handle or process your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

12. Updates to this Privacy Notice

This notice was last updated on: 6th December 2022.

Historic versions can be obtained by contacting us. If we change the way in which we use or share your personal information we will send you a just-in-time notice or update this Privacy Notice. We will notify you of any significant changes and where necessary, will obtain your consent before using your personal information for any new purpose.