How we protect your information
The purpose of the Royal College of Art Students’ Unions (RCASU) is to democratically represent the interests of its members. The RCASU is affiliated with the National Union of Students (NUS).
When you pass your personal details to us, you are trusting us to protect and keep them safe; to this effect we will do everything within our power to do so. We operate in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
We want you to feel confident knowing that when you pass your details on to us they will be safe and protected. If we have not made anything crystal clear, or you would like to know anything else, just get in touch, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
The important how, why, when questions…
The RCASU holds your full name and email address which is passed to us by the Royal College of Art. We do not hold any other personal data about you.
As a Students Union under the umbrella of the RCA, we use your data to:
provide the services which interest you and information about new services you might find interesting
help us develop the design and layout of our website to ensure that it is as useful and enjoyable as possible. Your data may also be used by us to inform you about changes to the website.
If you do not wish to receive this information, you can simply use the ‘Unsubscribe’ function at any time.
Cookies
Cookies are pieces of information stored on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser. When you first visit our website you will be given the opportunity to allow or disallow cookies; cookies are a great mechanism to allow you to get the very best interactivity from our website. On revisiting our website we may recognise the cookie, giving us information about your last visit. Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but usually you can alter the settings of your browser to prevent automatic acceptance.
Some cookies are essential for our website to work, and others voluntary. We use cookies for recognition purposes at logon through the use of a persistent cookies placed on your hard drive, and standard cookies to track activity around the site.
We do not use cookies to obtain any personally identifiable information from yourself. The cookies used by RCASU are required for site functionality. You are able to block or restrict the cookies set by the RCASU from within your browser settings, however doing so may affect the site functionality although you may still use most of the features of the website.
Analysis of data
Google allows us to understand things like the number of visitors we are getting and which parts of the site they are visiting. Unless you specifically log in with your user details, at no time will we identify you personally whilst travelling through the site.
This analytical information is processed in a way which does not identify anyone and we promise we will never share your identity with any third parties, including Google.
On our website search terms are captured anonymously for analysis purposes.
Sharing of your information
General Emails. You will receive emails from us advising you of yearly surveys, events and functions. We do not pass your details on to any company or individual. We always include an unsubscribe option on every email and we will stop sending these if you change your mind in the future.
We also ensure that Mailchimp a marketing platform that the RCASU uses adheres to the same Data Protection standards that we do. You have the right to withdraw your permission at any time.
Of course, there are certain situations when we have no choice but to pass on your information, for example if asked by the police investigating a crime, but we will only do so when legally obliged to do so.
Security
The safety of your data is very important to us and we train our key staff to ensure that they understand, and comply, with their obligations under the Act. We carefully control who has access to your information, and ensure that it is only used in the way you would expect.
How do we keep your information secure?
We take all reasonable precautions to keep your personal information secure. Access to your personal information is restricted to prevent unauthorised access, modification or misuse and is only permitted among our employees on a need-to-know basis.
Data retention and deletion
Your data, as part of our contract with you is stored securely on the RCA servers within the EU.
We will hold your data only for as long as you are a student at the RCA.
We hope that you now appreciate that when you pass your personal details to us we will keep them safe, secure and only use them in a way that you would expect. The RCASU is fully committed to its members, and our reputation for honesty, integrity and transparency is reflected throughout our privacy policy.
Complaints
If you have any complaints about the way we use your personal information please contact students-union@rca.ac.uk