General privacy information

This notice sets out important information on how Goldsmiths collects and uses personal information. It should be read alongside the information provided when your personal data is collected.

How to contact us

If you wish to get in touch about anything relating to your personal data, our address is:

Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
London
SE14 6NW

Data Protection Officer

If you have any questions or are unhappy with how the College has used your personal information, you can contact the Data Protection Officer by email:

dp (@gold.ac.uk) or by writing to them at our address.

The Information Commissioner’s Office

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for making sure that personal data is collected and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act.

If you are dissatisfied with how we have processed your personal data, you may lodge a complaint with the ICO by contacting:

Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

What the College does with your personal data

When we ask you for your personal data we will always tell you:

The personal data will not be used for any other purpose unless the law requires that we do.

We may from time to time use external companies to help improve our efficiency or to carry out work on our behalf, such as sending out mailshots. When we do this, we will ensure that they only use your personal information for the purpose that we asked and not for anything else.

Sharing your information with others

As a university, Goldsmiths has a duty to share personal information about our staff and our prospective, current and graduate students with a number of public bodies. For example, all UK universities are obliged to give contact details for a sample of recent graduates to HESA (The Higher Education Statistics Agency) in order to conduct a survey of graduate destinations. Information provided helps inform government policy. It is also used in calculations for university league tables and by the universities themselves to assess the longer-term impact of the student experience. The data is provided to HESA strictly and solely for this purpose.

Goldsmiths’ College (also known as ‘Goldsmiths, University of London’) is a corporate body established by Royal Charter, and an exempt charity. In order to meet its duty to maintain effective control of its finances, the University’s financial affairs are subject to audit. This involves sharing details of financial transactions and governance information with external auditors and may contain personal data.

Further details can be found in our Annual Reports and Financial Statements.

If the College intends to share your personal information with anyone else, you will be told when it is collected and be given an explanation as to what will be done with it.  

Your personal information will never be sold to anyone.

Keeping your personal information safe and secure

Unless you give your consent, your personal information will not be transferred to a country outside of the EU unless it has the same or better laws protecting your privacy.

Further information

Further and more detailed information about how the College collects and uses the information of Students, Staff and Alumni is available on our privacy notices.

Goldsmiths has a Data Protection Policy that sets out how we process personal data to ensure that it is kept secure at all times and only used appropriately.

Your rights

Privacy legislation gives you a number of rights to decide how your personal information is processed, shared and kept.

You have the right to:

• Request a copy of your personal data we hold
• Require us to correct any inaccuracies

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information Goldsmiths holds of yours. To do this contact the Data Protection Officer at the address above or by email. You may be asked for proof of identity so we are sure you are who you say you are.

If the personal data the College hold of yours is inaccurate or incomplete, you can require that any inaccuracies are rectified.

• Have your personal data erased
• To restrict processing

If you were asked to agree to give the College your personal information, (to provide consent), you may change your mind at any time and ask for it to be deleted. In most cases your wishes will be followed and the personal information held will be erased.

If you have contested the accuracy of the personal data held, you can restrict the College’s use of it until accuracy has been verified. If you object to us using your personal data we must also stop while we decide whether the College has a legitimate reason to do so.

• To data portability
• To object

In certain circumstances, you may require the transfer of your personal data to another organisation in a machine readable form.

You may object to the College using your personal data for direct marketing at any time and we must stop as soon as your objection is received. You may object to the College processing your personal data in certain other circumstances but may need to provide details of your particular situation.

• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

The College must follow additional rules if it makes decisions solely by automated means or use your personal to determine something else about you (known as profiling).

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please send your request to the Data Protection Officer via email at dp (@gold.ac.uk). Your request will be dealt with within 28 days.

Further information regarding your rights as an individual is available from the Information Commissioner’s website.