This section describes when and why we share your data with third parties where this is not covered in section 4 or a separate privacy notice you will be given in respect of certain specific activities or services if they become relevant to you. In this section and section 4 we provide details of planned, regular data sharing and types of one-off data sharing which we know will usually arise in relation to one or more students in the course of an academic year. There may be additional one-off circumstances in which we share data with third parties which are not covered in this Notice or other privacy information, such as where a government or other public sector body exercises a legal right to require information in relation to a specific situation. We will only share information with third parties where satisfied that the sharing complies with the data protection laws.
Parents/guardians and other family members
We do not usually share your personal information with your parents, guardians or other family members unless we see appropriate evidence that you have expressly agreed to this (this would normally mean a signed written statement of your consent). Under the data protection laws, only the relevant individual has legal rights to access and control the use of their personal data (identifiable information relating to them). Parents/ guardians do not have automatic rights to access their children’s personal data at any stage, and they have no specific status or rights in relation to information about their children who are over the age of 18. Information can be shared with family members only where we can identify a clear legal basis for the sharing under data protection laws.
We will share information about you with your parents/ guardians or other family members only where:
- We are satisfied that you have given your clear consent to the sharing;
- You are under 18 and the sharing is in line with our policies in relation to Under 18 students: you will have been given details of these policies and information-sharing arrangements in our Under 18 Information Pack; or
- We consider the sharing to be necessary in your vital interests or to safeguard your welfare as a vulnerable person (see exceptional circumstances section below).
More information
We do not ask you to give advance consent at the start of the academic year for us to share information with your parents generally or in certain future circumstances. We consider that consent to share information is not valid without knowing all the relevant circumstances.
If we know that you are experiencing health difficulties or other matters affecting your welfare, when providing support to you we may suggest that you speak to your family or ask for your permission to contact your family, if we consider that this may be helpful to you. Exceptionally we may contact family members to share information without your consent. This would happen where either it is not possible for you to give consent or it is not appropriate in the specific circumstances for us to ask for your consent , and where we consider that sharing the information is necessary in your vital interests or to safeguard your welfare when you are vulnerable (e.g. in a medical emergency so that appropriate decisions can be taken about your medical care, or to enable you to be removed from a situation which poses a clear risk to your health, safety or welfare ).
- Consent: you have agreed to us sharing your data
- Necessary for the purposes of substantial public interest, i.e. safeguarding vulnerable people
- Necessary for legitimate interests pursued by BU, i.e. ensuring we can recover money owed in respect of students under the age of 18
- Necessary to protect your vital interests
Students' Union (SUBU)
All BU students are eligible for membership of the Bournemouth University Students' Union (SUBU). If you decide during online registration at the start of the academic year to become or remain a member of SUBU, we will pass some of your basic contact and course information to SUBU to facilitate the administration of SUBU and we provide SUBU with updates to this information through the year.
When BU students log into the SUBU website for any reason, the SUBU system automatically links to the BU system to verify your student status and confirm whether your details are linked to a SUBU member account. For students who are not SUBU members, the link will provide SUBU with limited personal information so that you can log into the SUBU website as a student guest.
With your agreement, when you book your graduation from BU we pass your name to SUBU for inclusion in graduation merchandise.
More information
All BU students are eligible for membership of the Bournemouth University Students' Union (SUBU). SUBU is a separate organisation from BU and has its own legal status. However BU has a legal obligation to support the fair and democratic operation of SUBU.
When you complete online registration as a BU student you will be asked whether you wish to opt-out of membership of SUBU. If you do not opt-out of membership, you will automatically become a member of SUBU and we will share with SUBU your name, date of birth, details of your course [including type, level and duration of course, whether you are on a placement or exchange programme, what stage you are at in your course], your gender, your fee status, your student ID number, your BU email address and your library card number. This is to enable SUBU to establish and administer your membership, carry out other core SUBU activities (including administration of voting rights and elections) and send you communications relevant to you. This data is transferred to SUBU through their third party data processor which provides the systems SUBU uses for managing its membership. We provide SUBU with updates to this data when it is changed on our systems (e.g. if you leave BU or change your course), through a frequent automatic data feed from the BU system to Union Cloud/SUBU.
When you log into the SUBU website, this links automatically to the BU system to verify your log-in details against your BU student account. For students who are SUBU members, this link will connect your log-in to your SUBU membership account. For students who are not SUBU members, the BU system will provide the SUBU system with your name, student ID number, email address, BU Faculty and confirmation of your BU student status. This is used to enable you to log into the SUBU website as a confirmed BU student, so that you can access events and activities which are open to BU students and vote in the course and Faculty representative elections which are run by SUBU on behalf of BU. Where it cannot link your details to a SUBU member account the SUBU website may also offer you the option to become a SUBU member. The data shared through this automatic link is used only for these purposes and within the SUBU system, and is not viewed by or accessible to any SUBU staff. After we share your data SUBU will be responsible for compliance with data protection law in relation to its processing of that data. SUBU will contact you direct regarding your membership and to provide you with access to SUBU systems and services. SUBU will provide you with separate privacy information about how it will process your data for its purposes.
- Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation on BU: its obligations under the Education Act 1994 as to governance of SUBU and protection of the interests of students who opt out of SUBU membership.
- Necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest: the functions of BU and SUBU under the Education Act 1994, including SUBU’s function of representing students
- Necessary for legitimate interests pursued by BU and SUBU: efficient and effective management of membership by SUBU, facilitating the fulfilment of students’ rights to student union membership, representing the interests of students.
When you book your place at a BU graduation ceremony, you will be asked whether you agree to your name being passed to SUBU for inclusion in relevant graduation merchandise.
- Consent: you have agreed to this processing
Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council: Council Tax and electoral purposes
We automatically provide information about you to Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council (BCP Council) for two purposes: to enable the Council to manage and apply the Council Tax exemption which applies to properties solely occupied by students, and to assist it with management of the Electoral Register.
In December each year we provide BCP Council with the names of all of our students, together with the programme codes of each student’s course and the start and anticipated end date of the student's programme of studies. This enables the Council to ensure that they correctly apply the Council Tax exemption for properties solely occupied by students. The Council is not permitted to use this data for any other purpose.
We also separately provide BCP Council with information about you to assist it in managing the Electoral Register. The Council uses this to identify students who would be eligible to vote and to contact them to invite them to register to vote. For use in connection with these purposes only, we provide the Council with your name, date of birth, nationality, home address, term-time address and your BU email address.
In addition, we assist the Council with its electoral registration functions by providing you with an opportunity to register to vote in the BCP area during annual online registration (if you are eligible to register on the basis of your term-time address). If you take up this opportunity, with your agreement we provide the Council with required information from your BU student record, your national insurance number and information about your electoral registration preferences.
More information
You do not have to complete the electoral registration process within online registration: we do this only with your agreement. If you do complete the electoral registration form within online registration, we are acting as data processor for the Council in sharing information in the form so that they can determine your eligibility to be registered to vote and confirm your registration where appropriate. The form will automatically collect information from your student record (name, date of birth, nationality, term-time address, your BU email address and your national insurance number if BU already collects this for other purposes) and will ask you to provide additional information required by the Council (national insurance number if not already collected by BU and your preferences regarding inclusion on the open electoral register). This is shared with the Council using secure methods, and they will contact you directly to confirm whether your electoral registration has been completed or engage with you further as required.
- Necessary for legitimate interests pursued by the Council and BU: ensuring students have access to Council Tax exemptions and voting rights
- Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation on BU: under the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001, the Council can require the provision of information required for the purposes of their duties in maintaining Electoral Registers. In addition, OfS conditions of registration require BU to facilitate the electoral registration of students.
- Consent: you have agreed to this processing: we only process your data within the direct registration facility if you agree to this.
Non-routine data sharing in exceptional circumstances
We will share personal data with emergency services and/or the person you have identified to us as being your next of kin or emergency contact, where this is necessary to safeguard your position or that of other individuals.
We will also share personal data with the police or other organisations with responsibility for investigating potential crimes such as fraud (e.g. local authority fraud investigation teams) where satisfied that this is necessary for the prevention or detection of crime.
This may include sharing special category data such as health information
We will also share your information (including name and address) with Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council where this is requested under their statutory powers for the purposes of environmental protection (e.g. noise abatement issues).
More information
Depending on the nature of the situation which has arisen, sharing with the emergency services could include sharing information with the police, National Health Service organisations and the Fire Service.
- Disclosure is necessary to protect your vital interests, i.e. where you are at clear risk of harm, or to protect the vital interests of others e.g. if they are at risk of harm from your actions. We will only share special category data on this basis if it is not possible or appropriate for us to obtain a valid consent from you to the disclosure
- Where the police have told us, and we are satisfied that this is the case, that sharing your data with them is necessary for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime, or where we have suspicions regarding the commission of the offences that we consider it appropriate to pass to the police for investigation
- Disclosure is necessary for the purposes of protecting you or others from risk of harm, or for prevention/detection of crime: these are purposes in the substantial public interest.