Privacy Policy

West Tech London Privacy notice

What is the purpose of this document?

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (the “University” or “Imperial”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with the applicable data protection legislation the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulations (the “GDPR”). Imperial is a "data controller". This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice. This notice applies to visitors to the WestTech London website. Please note we may update this notice at any time and it is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you. This is to ensure you are aware of how and why we are using such information. An example of an additional notice would be Imperial’s Event Privacy Notice / https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/university-secretary/institutional-compliance-and-risk-management/information-governance/privacy-notices/events-privacy-notice/.

Data protection principles

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
4. Accurate and kept up to date.
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
6. Kept securely.

The kind of information we hold about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). There are "special categories" of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection. We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• Biographical information such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.
• Online and transactional such as your IP address, browser type and operating system should you allow cookies when you visit the site. Also records of your engagement with the team and any events you attend
• Information about your use of our website and social media channels. We do not expect to collect any special category data about you though should this be necessary we will explain to you directly the reason and rationale why it is being processed. For example you may supply such information when you attend an event (such as allergies or user requirements etc.) but these will be managed with you directly and in line with separate transparency wording to be provided.

How is your personal information collected?

We collect the personal information about you as follows;

• through our online forms, which you will have completed by signing up to receive updates from WestTech London; or
• by submitting a contact us request; or
• by giving your details in person at a WestTech London event.

How we will use information about you and the legal basis for processing your data under the GDPR

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances: 1. With your consent where you choose to provide us information about you as part of a form or as part of engagement with the team.* 2. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you or in order to take steps at your request prior to the entry into a contract.** 3. Where it forms part of our legitimate interests.***

Situations in which we will use your personal information

We need all the categories of information in the list above (see The kind of information we hold about you) primarily to communicate with you about WestTech London or to respond to your enquiry about WestTech London where you engage with the team. In these circumstances we will process your data with your consent* or as part of a contract** / agreement to provide you with something. In some cases we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties[***], provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below. We have indicated by [asterisks] the purpose or purposes for which we are processing or will process your personal information, as well as indicating which categories of data are involved.

• To provide you with the information and services that you request from us.*
• To contact you in relation to your enquiry about WestTech London.*/***
• To conduct data analytics studies to review and better understand our website performance.***
• To ensure the information we hold about you is up to date and accurate.***
• To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and your computer or mobile device.***
• To provide you with relevant news and special offers by email, phone or post where you have consented to receive this information.*/***
• To provide you with relevant news and information from Imperial and its partners.*/***
• To manage your attendance at an event run by the team.**

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we will not be able to keep you informed of WestTech London updates nor respond to enquiries. In such instances we will explain this along with any options and/or consequences.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Automated decision-making

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

Data sharing

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the Imperial group. We may also share with partner organisations of WestTech London, for example where they form part of an event or activity where you also engage. In such instances where this occurs separately to the university they will inform you and provide additional transparency wording. We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We may transfer your personal information outside the UK/EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We may share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. Which third-party service providers process my personal information?

"Third parties" include;

• Third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within the Imperial group.
• WestTech London partners: for the purposes of managing events, marketing and promotion related to their activity within WestTech London.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the College group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

What about other third parties?

We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business and operations of the College. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

Data security

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data retention

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. In the case of WestTech London, most commonly we expect to retain your data for the duration of time with which you engage with the team and in line with any mandated / regulatory requirements for a maximum of 1 year following last contact and/or requirement. For full details of all retention periods please view https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-support-services/records-and-archives/public/Retention-Schedule-May-2024.pdf In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.

Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the College’s Data Protection Officer in writing.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact the College’s Data Protection Officer. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Data Protection Officer

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer at: Imperial College London Data Protection Officer email: dpo@imperial.ac.uk You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

Changes to this privacy notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.