Privacy policy

UniQuest respects your privacy when you use our services and is committed to complying with privacy legislation.

The information below is what is referred to as a ‘Privacy Notice’ which explain how we use and protect your personal data.

UniQuest has a team whose role it is to ensure that any personal data we process is processed fairly and lawfully (respecting your rights and ensuring we follow the law). If you have any concerns or questions regarding how we look after your personal data, please contact the us at dataprotection@uni-quest.co.uk or by calling 0333 150 3565.

As a prospective client or client of UniQuest we are the controller of your data. Alternatively, you may have been directed to this page from one of our client’s data policies for whom we are a data processor.

What is a Data Controller and Data Processor?

Where we are the data controller, we own the data and decide how it is processed. This may be because you provided your information to us to enquire about our service or because you were asked by a client if you would like to be part of surveys and panels that we perform across our clients.

UniQuest are also contracted to act as data processors for education institutions and therefore only perform activities required of us by the institution. The service we provide and therefore the way we process your data include:

Collect, store and respond to your enquiry about the institution
Communicate content specifically regarding the institution that you have asked for
Act as a proactive enquiry and information service as you progress through your any application you have made to study at the institution
Report back to the institution any communication had with yourself
Report anonymised aggregated data to our clients to inform them of enquiry trends

Why do we use your personal data?

Why we use personal data
We may need to use some information about you to:

As a data controller

ascertain your interest in our products and services
contact you regarding sales events we are hosting
maintain a record of contact for current client engagement
maintain a record of agreed contractual requirements
contact you regarding surveys used to understand your experience, trends and opinions

As a data processor

deliver services and support to you on behalf of our clients
help investigate any worries or complaints you have about our services
report on performance of the service back to our clients
help with research and planning of new services

What are our legal reasons for processing personal data?
There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use personal data. Generally, we collect and use personal data in the following circumstances:

Where you, or your legal representative, have given consent
Where you have entered into a contract with us
Where it is necessary to perform our statutory duties
Where it is required by law
Where it is necessary for employment purposes
Where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim

Where we are using your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If you wish to withdraw your consent, please contact dataprotection@uni-quest.co.uk so that your request can be dealt with.

Legitimate Interest – Your personal data may also in some cases be processed because it is necessary for the provision of our service to our client or the legitimate interests of them. This will always be weighed against your rights, interests and expectations. Examples of where we process data for purposes that fall under legitimate interests include:
- archiving and statistical analysis or research, which may include understanding more about our service to improve engagement, and processes (but we will not use your name and the data will be aggregated and anonymised)
- marketing UniQuest or our clients’ services, events and resources by telephone and electronic mail (but without prejudice to your rights under the legislation that regulates the sending of marketing communications by electronic means)

What is Personal data?
Personal data means any information which can identify and relate to a living person. This can also include information which, when put together with other information, can then identify a person.

What are Special Categories of Information?
This is personal data that needs more protection due to its sensitivity. This information is likely to include:

sexuality and sexual health
religious or philosophical beliefs
ethnicity
physical or mental health
trade union membership
political opinion
genetic/biometric data

How we limit the use of personal data
Where necessary UniQuest processes personal data to deliver our services effectively, but wherever possible, the data that we process will be anonymised or de-personalised. This means the information can no longer identify a person.

When using personal data for reporting and analytic purposes, the data will be anonymised to avoid the identification of a person, unless you have agreed that your personal data can be used for the analysis project.

We do not sell personal data to any other organisation or broker personal data between our clients for any purposes.

Your Privacy Rights

The law provides you with a number of rights to control the processing of your personal data. Where we are acting as the data processor for your information, you will most likely exercise your rights via our clients (educational institution) who will then instruct us to action the request. You can however exercise these directly to us and we will inform the institution.

Accessing the information we hold about you
You have the right to ask for all the information we have about you. This request may be channeled through the institution for whom we are contracted to process your data, who will then contact us to obtain the information. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must normally give you access to everything we have recorded about you. However, we will not let you see any parts of your record which contain:

• Confidential information about other people; or
• Data an information professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental well-being; or
• If we think that the prevention or detection of crime may be adversely affected by disclosing data to you.

This applies to paper and electronic records. If you ask us, we will also let others see your record (except if one of the points above applies). If you cannot ask for your records in writing, we will make sure there are other ways you can apply. If you have any queries regarding access to your information, please contact dataprotection@uni-quest.co.uk or by calling 0333 150 3565.

Changing information you believe to be inaccurate
You should let us know if you disagree with something written on your file. We may not always be able to change or remove the information however, we will correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the records. Please use the contact details above to report inaccurate information.

Asking for your information to be deleted (right to be forgotten)
In some circumstances you can request the erasure of the personal data used by UniQuest, for example:

• Where the personal data is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected;
• Where you have withdrawn your consent to the use of your information (where there is no other legal basis for the processing);
• Where there is no legal basis for the use of your information; or
• Where erasure is a legal obligation.

Where your request has been sent to the institution, they will inform UniQuest and make every reasonable effort to ensure those using your personal data comply with your request for erasure.

The right to erasure does not apply to every situation. If we are not required to comply with such a request, we might refuse, if:

• It is required by law;
• It is for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes where it would seriously affect the achievement of the objectives of the processing; or
• It is necessary for the establishment, defence or exercise of legal claims.

Restricting what your information is used for
You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal data for where one of the following applies:

• You have identified inaccurate information, and have notified us of this;
• Where using your information is unlawful and you wish us to restrict rather than erase the information; or
• Where you have objected to us using the information, and the legal reason for us using your information has not yet been provided to you.

When information is restricted, it cannot be used other than to securely store the data, and with your consent, to handle legal claims, protect others.

Where restriction of use has been granted, we will inform you before the use of your personal data is resumed.

You have the right to request that UniQuest stop using your personal data for some services. However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering a service to you. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information in connection with one or more of UniQuest’s legal functions.

Computer based decisions about you and if you are ‘profiled’

You have the right to object about decisions being made about you by automated means (by a computer and not a human being), unless it is required for any contract you have entered into, required by law, or you have consented to it. You also have the right to object if you are being ‘profiled’. Profiling is where decisions are made about you based on certain things in your personal data. If and when UniQuest uses your personal data to profile you, you will be informed. This is not a practice that UniQuest currently uses.

Who will we share your personal data with?
We use a range of technologies to capture, process and store your information. Many of these are cloud technologies, meaning we do not hold your data onsite. Where we have these arrangements, there is always a contract, memorandum of understanding or information sharing protocol in place to ensure that UniQuest complies with data protection law. We complete privacy impact assessments before we use these services and the services themselves have no right to use or process your data outside the way we have configured them to do so.

We also have staff based in the Philippines to ensure we can engage with our data subjects at times that are most convenient for them. This means that data is available through our platform to users outside of the EU.

We may be obliged from time to time to provide information about people to other organisations, e.g. Child Protection concerns or Court Orders. This will have been instructed by the institution for whom we process your data.

We will do what we can to make sure we hold personal records in a secure way, and we will only make them available to those who have a right to see them. Our security includes:

• Encryption, which allows information to be hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or cypher. The hidden information is said to be encrypted.
• Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal data from getting access to it.
• Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.
• Ways for us to access your information should something go wrong, and our systems not work, including how we manage your information in the event of an emergency or disaster.
• Regular testing of our technology and processes including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches).

How long do we keep your personal data?

For each reason we use your personal data there is often a legal reason for why we need to keep it for a period of time. We try to capture all of these and detail them in what’s called a ‘retention schedule’. This schedule lists for each service how long your information may be kept. Where the institution we are contracted by to process your information has a retention policy shorter than ours, we will always adhere to that so it does not breach a contractual obligation that we have with our client.

View the schedule here.

Where can I get advice?

You can contact our Data Protection team at dataprotection@uni-quest.co.uk or by calling 0333 150 3565.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number

Alternatively, visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk.

Chat with our experts

Get in touch with our team to learn how we can help streamline and improve your student conversion. We look forward to speaking with you soon!

t: 0333 150 0445
e: info@uni-quest.co.uk

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