Information about you
Why we collect your information
The information you provide to the University of Edinburgh Business School is used in different ways depending on your interactions with the School. For example, you may sign up to Business School mailing lists, register for a Business School event, or submit personal information as part of an application process. In these instances, the information you provide allows us to contact you about upcoming events, programmes, inform you of changes to events, or process your application for a specific course. Further details of why we collect information in forms is included next to each form on this site.
In most cases, personally identifying information is stored on University of Edinburgh Business School servers within the UK. However, the University does use third-party companies to enhance/deliver the quality, service and functionality of certain services available. We use:
- Accommodation and catering providers
- AI Media – a video and live captioning provider
- Articulate Reach 360 – a platform for hosting learning material created with Articulate 360
- Cvent – an event management system used for registrations, payment and ticketing
- Dotdigital – an email communications system
- Eventbrite – an event management system
- EventsAir – an event management system
- EQ-i Strengths – an on-line self-assessment tool
- FutureLearn – online virtual learning environment
- LinkedIn – a social networking site
- Online Surveys – a survey tool used by the events team to collect attendee details
- Qualtrics – a survey tool
- Salesforce – Customer Relationship Management software
- Unibuddy – to deliver a chat experience connecting prospective and current students
Our MBA and Student Development support teams also use the following tools with current students:
- Belbin – a team roles assessment tool
- Career Leader – a self-assessment tool
- CAPPfinity Strengths – an online assessment tool
- VMock – a career development platform
The University of Edinburgh Business School remains responsible for the information stored with third-party services and will ensure it is kept securely.
Why we use information about you
Each data collection activity will indicate on which legal basis your information is being processed.
Legal Basis: Consent
The University of Edinburgh Business School may use your information under the legal basis of consent. When you enter your information in a form, we specify the purpose and future use of this information. By submitting information to a form, you consent for your details to be used according to the purposes stated above each form. Examples of this include: requesting to be added to a mailing list (which will be used to send you newsletters and information) or signing up to receive programme updates. This does not apply to mandatory events required to deliver your programme or course, which fall under the legal basis of contract.
As this information is provided on the basis of consent, you are free to withdraw your consent for such use of your information at any time.
Legal Basis: Contract
The University of Edinburgh Business School also may process your information under the legal basis of contract, whereby the processing is necessary for a contract you have with us, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract. Application and booking forms typically fall into this category wherein you supply your information because you wish to access a particular service or enrol on a course. Programme surveys and use of the Unibuddy app also fall into this category, as you provide your information so we can grant you access to specific services.
Legal Basis: Legitimate Interest
The Business School may also use the legal basis of legitimate interest to process your information if you have previously purchased goods or services from us. The information will be used to contact you about similar events or purchases that we believe you may be interested in as you have used our services before.
You are free to object to the use of your data under this basis, and when the information is delivered in a mailing list (e.g. newsletters), you may unsubscribe at any time.
Alumni Information: Legitimate Interest
The retention of information concerning our alumni is collected and retained under the legal basis of legitimate interest. We use the information about you because you are part of the community of alumni of the University of Edinburgh Business School. We therefore would like to retain this information to stay in touch with you, and to keep you informed of our news and events.
For more information, please view our Data Protection Policy for Alumni.
Equalities monitoring
When you register for an Executive Education activity the University of Edinburgh Business School will ask you for demographic specific information to better understand our audiences and promote equal opportunity.
Current Students: Student Systems Privacy Statement
Enrolled University of Edinburgh Business School students will also be subject to the University's Student Systems Privacy Statement, which also outlines in more detail how and where your information is shared.
Retention of personal data
The length of time for which we hold your data is dependent on the purpose for which the information was supplied.
Information supplied for an event registration is used to provide you with information about the specific event you signed up for. It is retained after the event has passed for statistical purposes. We do not forward this information to third parties unless explicitly stated and it's not used to contact you about additional events. If you choose to cancel your event registration, you will not be contacted by us again.
Information supplied to support a course application will be retained during the application process through that admissions cycle + 1 year. Email enquiries to Admissions and Student Recruitment will also be retained during that admissions cycle + 1 year. If you become a student your data will be retained in line with the Student Privacy Statement retention policy.
Business Development and external engagement information stored on Salesforce will be retained for 7 years from the end of the contract or in the absence of a contract, 7 years since date of last contact.
Details supplied for the purposes of subscribing to a newsletter will be retained until you choose to unsubscribe from the notifications or newsletter.
The Student Systems Privacy Notice (above) outlines the majority of retention times pertaining to your student-based activities. In addition to this:
- Information supplied to Unibuddy is retained for as long as you remain a registered user of the service. After an account deletion request is made, your details will be removed from their system after 14 days.
Automated processing and profiling
The University of Edinburgh Business School does not use profiling or automated decision-making processes.
Cookies
The University of Edinburgh Business School uses cookies and other technologies to improve service and enable the use of third-party services. We use the following cookies:
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to report on traffic moving around our website and use this information to improve the visitor experience. IP addresses, which can be used to identify an individual user, are anonymised by Google Analytics.
| Cookie Name | Data stored | Expiration Time | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga
_gat
|
A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser, the times and dates you interacted with the site recently, and the marketing materials or referring pages that led you to the site. | The longest lasting cookie expires 2 years after your last visit to the website. Others are deleted after 6 months, 30 minutes, and the moment you close your browser. | Data collected by Google Analytics is used to analyse how frequently the same people revisit the University website, how the website is found, and which pages are most frequently used. This information is combined with data from thousands of other users to create an overall picture of website use, and is never identified individually or personally, and is not linked to any other information we store about you. Information about your use of our website may be transmitted to Google and stored on servers in the United States.
In addition, we use Google Signals, a feature of Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect aggregated data about users who have turned on Ads Personalization. This information may include location, search history, YouTube history, and data from sites that partner with Google. Google Signals does not collect any personally identifiable information. |
YouTube
We use YouTube to deliver our video content across this website.
| Cookie Name | Data stored | Expiration Time | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga
SIDCC
APISID
SAPISID
SSID
HSID
SID
NID
1P_JAR
CONSENT
ANID
|
Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a Google account. | Most of the cookies expire 10 years after your last visit to a page containing a YouTube video, although some expire sooner. | Google set a number of cookies on any page that includes a YouTube video. We have enabled privacy-enhanced mode on our videos, so these cookies will not load until you press play. While we have no control over the cookies set by Google on YouTube videos, they appear to include a mixture of pieces of information to measure the number and behaviour of YouTube users, including information that links your visits to our website with your Google account if you are signed in to one. Information about your use of our website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to Google and stored on servers in the United States. This cookie does not identify you personally unless you are logged into Google, in which case it is linked to your Google account |
For more information on the YouTube cookies and how they are used, please see the University of Edinburgh's information on third-party cookies.
University Login for protected content
When viewing content that has been password protected using your University Login, cookies are set by the University login system in order for this process to work.
| Cookie Name | Data stored | Expiration Time | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cookies used by the web login service and services using it are named 'cosign' or start with the word 'cosign'. | The web login service uses cookies to store the fact that you have logged in, what your username is, and that you should be given access for a certain period of time. | These cookies are only valid for the time of your login and are deleted when you quit your browser. | When logging in to view content that has been password protected by the University login system, cookies are set as this is strictly necessary for the login process to work. As such the University is justified in having a legitimate interest to process and store the cookie information. Non-acceptance of these cookies will mean you will not get access to websites protected by the authentication service. We do not use cookies to track any information other than the fact that you have logged in and used a particular web service. |
Privacy policy changes
The University of Edinburgh Business School reserves the right to update its privacy policy periodically. We therefore encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to the privacy policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this privacy policy will constitute your acceptance of such changes.
Further information
If you have any additional questions about our data privacy policy, please contact the Business School Web Team at: webmaster@business-school.ed.ac.uk
The University of Edinburgh Business School's privacy policy is also supported by the University of Edinburgh's wider privacy policies and guidelines. The following pages contain information about mandatory data sharing, transfer outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and information on how to contact the University's Data Protection Officer.
Updated on 05 September 2024