Liverpool John Moores University Students’ Union (JMSU) is committed to keeping our members informed about our activities and opportunities to influence the student experience at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).
We’re also committed to using any personal information we hold about our members responsibly and in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to ensure that your privacy and rights are protected. Any information you provide about yourself to Liverpool John Moores University Students' Union will only be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy, detailed below.
This Privacy Policy outlines the kinds of personal information we collect, how we use personal information, who we share it with and your rights regarding the personal information you provide to us. Please note, this Privacy Policy does not apply to websites or services operated by third parties.
Our Principles
Our policy can be summarised in one sentence: we will not share any individual user details (including your email address) to any third party without your consent.
At Liverpool John Moores University Students’ Union we collect different types of information about our members and website users for the following main reasons:
- To provide membership and support services to students at Liverpool John Moores University
- To provide an interactive, personalised web site
- To provide membership facilities for activity groups and sport clubs
- To provide booking facilities for events
- To provide voting facilities to members for elections run by JMSU
- To provide a security mechanism whereby we can restrict content to certain groups of users
- To enable the purchase and delivery of goods through our online shop
- To analyse and improve the services we offer
- To allow us to send you marketing communications about content, products, events and promotions by us and third parties that you might be interested in, should you opt-in
What information do we collect?
We have a data sharing agreement with LJMU, which allows us to automatically collect information about students when they register with the university. This information includes names, gender, dates of birth, student email addresses, course details, demographics and residence. We use this data solely for the purposes of providing our services to students. We may collect additional information from you when registering with some of our services:
- Your nationality
- Next-of-kin information (where necessary for a particular project or activity)
- Your personal email address (where necessary for a particular project or activity or where this is your personal preference,)
- Your home or mobile phone number (where necessary for a particular project or activity)
- Your home or term time address (where necessary for a particular project or activity)
When visiting our website we will automatically collect basic information about you provided to us by your web browser. Information collected includes your IP address (from which we can identify your Internet Service Provider and location), the page you are visiting, the web browser and operating system you are using, the date and time you accessed our website and the web address of the website that linked you to our website.
In addition to the above, we use the Google Analytics service, and various third-party advertising providers on this website. These services will collect additional information about you, such as the pages you visit, the capabilities of your device and the time you spend on the website. We will use the information provided by Google Analytics to help us maintain this website, to ensure the website is working properly, and to help us make our site more accessible and useful.
We will not normally collect any sensitive personal information from you, and in any event, will request your express consent to do so.
Why do we collect your data?
We collect and manage personal data about our members so we can:
- Contact you to let you know about our activities, elections, campaigns, events or projects; and provide information on how you can get involved in them.
- To administer your involvement in certain initiatives (such as the Course and Faculty Rep programme; clubs and societies, and social events.)
- Undertake research into the student population at LJMU, to make sure that the overall student experience is meeting your needs, and to identify areas that need to be improved.
- Ensure that our activities are as representative and inclusive as possible.
- Improve how we deliver our services.
We collect your personal data in two main ways:
- Shared via LJMU
When you signed up for your IT account on becoming a new student at LJMU, you were asked to opt-in to sharing your details with us. If you opted in, this means that we automatically received your data, along with all other members that have also opted-in, via a live feed that is regularly refreshed to ensure accuracy. This data is stored on the OneVoice Digital (UnionCloud) secure server, based in the UK, which we use to administer our website, contact you about our activities, and administer your involvement in clubs and societies.
This data allows you to sign-on to and use our website.
- Directly collected
Throughout the academic year, we also regularly ask you to share your information with us for particular projects, so we can keep you informed about them as they progress, or so we can effectively support your involvement.
Some examples of this are:
- Collecting your details at Freshers’ Fair so we can contact you about joining taster-sessions arranged by clubs and societies at the beginning of the academic year.
- Registering your interest in standing to be a candidate in our NUS Conference Delegate elections, or Student Officer Elections.
- Ensuring Course Reps have the right training, and ongoing support to effectively represent their fellow students.
- To get feedback on the academic experience at LJMU, and feedback on our events and projects.
We will usually collect your data via either an online form powered by Microsoft Forms (based in the EU) or Google Cloud (based in the USA, with appropriate security credentials, as demanded by the GDPR); or on paper surveys, stored securely on site at LJMU.
This data is kept and treated separately to the main data-set that is shared with us automatically via LJMU.
Who will have access to your information?
You have control over who is able to access specific items of information. Your information will not be visible to anyone else using this site. Your information will be visible to Union staff responsible for administering membership and this website for the purposes of providing our services and resolving account issues. Should you join an activity group your details and next-of-kin details will be made available to the group committee.Visitor information collected by Google Analytics may be used by Google for the purposes of enhancing their products and providing you with personalised services. You can opt out of Google Analytics collecting information about you on this website and other websites by using the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Extension. [https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/]
We may also disclose personal information about you to comply with applicable laws and when requested to do so by law enforcement agencies or government bodies.
What else you should know about privacy
Remember to close your browser when you have finished your user session. This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence if you share a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place like a Library or Internet Café.
You as an individual are responsible for the security of, and access to, your own computer.Please be aware that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information over the Internet that this information can be collected and used by others.
Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your usernames, passwords and any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are using the Internet.
Our pages may contain links to other websites, and you should be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices on other websites.
How do we seek your consent?
In line with the above methods, we seek your consent in two main ways:
- Via Opt-in on registration at LJMU
In order for us to receive your data via the live-feed from LJMU, you are asked to opt-in to data sharing when prompted when you register for your IT account. You can manage this setting and change your opt-in status at any time via your “My LJMU” account online. If you decide to opt-out, this will generally take 24 hours to take effect, and you will then be unable to access certain online services such as clubs and societies.
- Consent statements on data collection forms
Each time we ask for your data in relation to a particular project or initiative, you will be presented with a Data Protection Statement outlining the following:
- The specific purpose for which we will hold your data.
- How and why your data will be shared with any third party (if at all).
- Who to contact in relation to any queries about how we’ll use and store your data; or about how to withdraw your consent.
Alongside this information, you will be presented with a tick-box to demonstrate your explicit and unambiguous consent.
How do we store your data?
We’re committed to storing your data securely, in order to safeguard your privacy and rights.
We may sometimes ask for your data via paper surveys, or receive petitions undertaken by students. If either are the case, the paper used to record your data will be locked in secure facilities at the main JMSU offices within the Student Life Building, 10 Copperas Hill.
If data on paper is collected away from the main JMSU offices, a member of JMSU staff will lock them in a dedicated SU unit on site in one of the student social spaces on campus, prior to personally bringing them by hand to the main offices.
Data on paper will not be kept off site for any period beyond 24 hours.
How long do we keep it for?
We do not keep hold of your data for any longer than necessary.
If you’ve opted-in to data sharing from LJMU, student data updated usually within a 24 hour period; meaning that if you opt-out or when you graduate, we will automatically no longer have access to your details, effective after the same period.
If you’ve consented to providing us with your details for the purposes of a particular project or initiative; we will keep hold of them for the remainder of the academic year (August to July).
If you’ve consented to providing us with your details for the purposes of administering the Academic Representation system (e.g. if you’re a Course Rep of Faculty Rep), we keep your data for the academic year, based on when you started your course.
We may keep certain data for longer than this for the purposes of audit or trend analysis. Where we do this, we will make it clear to you in advance of this, so you can withdraw your consent if you would prefer to.
How is personal information disposed of?
If it is held digitally, it will be permanently deleted, or anonymised (meaning that it will become inaccessible to us). If it is held on paper, it will be shredded, via a secure shredding service.
How can you remove your consent to us holding your data?
To stop your LJMU data being shared with us, you can opt-out at any time via the “My LJMU” web portal.
If you would like us to remove any of your personal data that you have consented to providing us for any other reason, please email jmsu@ljmu.ac.uk with your request.
How I can access my personal data?
You can request a copy of any personal information about you that we hold. This is known as a Subject Access Request.
To do this, please email the Data Protection Officer, via email, with details of the information that you’re requesting. We have one calendar to comply with your request.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and all changes will be posted here. Where the changes are significant, we may also choose to email all our registered users with the new Privacy Policy.
