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Commercial Programmes

Who is collecting the information?

Edinburgh College is the Data Controller. We have an appointed Data Protection Officer (DPO), who can be contacted by emailing: DataProtection@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.

Why are we collecting it, and what are we doing with it (Purpose)?

Edinburgh College are collecting data to: 

  • Facilitate commercial agreements with organisations for the provision of training delivered by Edinburgh College, as well as the ongoing management of those agreements.
  • Manage payments, fees, and charges and collect and recover any money owed in relation to commercial programmes.
  • Maintain accurate accounts and records.
  • Communicate with and manage relationships with those parties to the agreements.
  • Provide marketing updates relevant to the relationship with those parties to the agreements.

Please see the separate privacy notice for your staff who are undertaking training with the College. This is provided on their enrolment.

What personal data do we collect?

We collect and hold a range of personal data and other information. This includes: 

  • Contact details, such as name, title, email address, and phone number.
  • Specific details on the commercial programme and/or activity, including date(s), time(s), and resources required.
  • Records of correspondence, either through our website, telephone, e-mail or post.
  • Financial records of charges, payments made and received.

The lawful basis for the processing

UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) Article 6(1)(b) “processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party or to take steps at the request of the data subject before entering into a contract”; and 

UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) “processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject”.

For marketing communications, we rely on the lawful basis under UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f), which states that “processing is necessary for purposes of the legitimate interests” of the College. We provide you with the choice to ‘opt-out’ of these communications each time.

Who we share the information with

This data will be available to Edinburgh College Health and Safety leads, Commercial Co-ordinators and Finance staff.

We use Mailchimp to manage marketing email communications. Your name and email address will be shared with Mailchimp and their service providers to do this. This process involves sending your data outside the UK; appropriate safeguards are in place. Read the Intuit Mailchimp Privacy Notice.

We do not otherwise share the data outside Edinburgh College unless required by law or in the event of legal proceedings.

How long do we hold the personal data?

Records relating to the Commercial Agreement will be retained for 1 year from the end of the academic year, and the agreement itself for 6 years from its end date.  Finance records are retained for 6 years from the end of the financial year. 

Individuals’ rights in relation to this processing

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights; some of these rights only apply if certain conditions are met. Your rights are: right to be informed (e.g. privacy notice), right of access, right of rectification, right of erasure (commonly known as the right to be forgotten), right to restrict processing, right to object, right to data portability and the right to know of any automated decision making (including profiling). It’s worth noting that you can exercise your rights either verbally or in writing, and the College would be required to process your request within one month.

The rights that apply to this particular processing are:

  • Right to be Informed – i.e. a privacy notice.
  • Right of Access – this means you have the right to access your personal information.
  • Right to Rectification – this means you have the right to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
  • Right to Erasure – commonly known as the Right to be Forgotten (RTBF) – this means you can request that your personal data be deleted.
  • Right to Data Portability – this means you have the right to request your information in a machine-readable format (e.g. a .csv file) to be provided to you or transferred in that format to another organisation.
  • Right to Restriction – this means you can restrict the processing of your information and links with some of the other rights.
  • Right to Object – this means you can object to how your data is used.
  • Right to be informed of automated individual decision-making (including profiling) – we do not use this for OH purposes, and therefore this does not apply.

Some of the rights above have caveats and only apply in certain circumstances. You can exercise your rights at any time, and the College would be required to answer within a month upon receipt of your request. If you wish to exercise your rights or have any queries in relation to this, please contact the Data Protection Team at DataProtection@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.

Complaints to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

If you are concerned about how your personal data is being used by the College, in the first instance, please contact the College Data Protection Officer (DPO) at DataProtection@edinburghcollege.ac.uk. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, then you can complain to the regulator of data protection, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO guides on the ICO website.

You can email them at casework@ico.org.uk, call them on 0303-123-113, or you can send a letter to them at the following address:

Customer Contact
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF