Privacy Statement

Thank you for using the Union School of Theology website. When you visit one of our sites, Union is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses the data we collect about you and to meeting its data protection obligations.

Your continued use of the Union website(s) means that you are happy for us to use your personal information as described in this notice. If you disagree with this notice, please feel free to continue to browse our website(s) and social media pages, but do not submit enquiries through them. Instead feel free to contact us by email at info@ust.ac.uk or by post to Union School of Theology, Bryntirion House, Bryntirion Hill, Bridgend, CF31 4DX, or by calling 0330 123 4446.

Data Controller: Union, Bryntirion House, Bryntirion Hill, Bridgend, CF31 4DX.

What information does Union collect and why?

Website users have the option to:

  • Use the ‘Contact Us’ web form, to join our mailing list, update our alumni records or to leave a message. We use your name and contact details to respond to requests and to maintain accurate alumni records.

  • Make a payment or a donation. We store your name and contact details, amount given, purpose for which it is given and (donations only) whether sufficient tax has been paid to reclaim gift aid and how recently that applies. We do not store full credit card details.

  • Contact Union directly. The data provided will be processed according to the relevant privacy notice, Union has a legitimate interest in processing your contact details in order to respond to your request and, in the case of payments or donations to acknowledge receipt.

  • The School has a legitimate interest in processing your contact details in order to respond to your request and, in the case of payments or donations to acknowledge receipt.

Who has access to your data?

General enquiries will only be accessed by Union administrators. All other data will be forwarded to the relevant department and only accessed by the relevant departmental staff and according to the relevant privacy notice.

Third Parties: We will never sell, distribute, or lease your personal information to third parties. However third parties who may have access to personal information acquired through our website(s) are:

1. Those providing technical support

  • Squarespace host our website and provide ongoing technical support. They can access all data provided on web forms but they are legally bound to not breach anyone’s privacy whilst providing this support, which is always and only at our request.

  • thereissomethingmore who designed,They can access all data provided on web forms but they are legally bound to not breach anyone’s privacy whilst providing this support, which is always and only at our request.

For more information please see their websites: squarespace.com

2. Those facilitating use of the Internet: When you browse any website, it is likely that your computing device will also send information to us, such as your IP address and other device specific information. However, this does not identify you personally. This includes Google Analytics who collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns and Cookies which enable third parties to perform contracted services and business functions on our behalf. Please see how we use cookies on our Cookies page (+) on the website. Please note that when you send an email to us, it bounces from server to server as it crosses the Internet. Along the way, server administrators can read what you send and we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of data will not occur whilst data is being transferred. Email was not built for confidential information and is therefore not secure.

3. To fulfil legal obligations: We are obliged to pass gift aid information to the HMRC.

How does Union School of Theology protect data?

The School takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties. We use a secure server for computer files and only permit access to our website using secure connections. When we store paper records, they are always kept in locked cabinets or rooms which are locked when unoccupied locked, with only those people outlined above able to access them. Finally we encrypt all personal, financial and sensitive data e.g. medical, gender, ethnicity etc.

We take every care when communicating with supporters in sensitive locations, to ensure as far as possible that we do not compromise their safety by only ever contacting them through the contact details they provide.

The School will not transfer data outside the European Economic Area, except to respond to queries from enquirers who provide contact details outside the EEA.

Your security responsibilities: If you choose to make a login account with us via our website(s), you remain responsible for keeping your user ID and password confidential. Also, please note that our sites may contain links to other sites of interest. However, once you leave our site, we do not have any control over those other sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy notice.

Breaches of security: If for some reason we experience a breach in our security, we will fulfil our legal obligation to inform the data protection supervisory authority, The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within 72 hours. We will inform you if there is a possibility that you might have been or you have been harmed by any breach.

For how long does Union School of Theology keep data?

General requests are deleted as soon as we respond which is usually within a month. Every six months checks are carried out to confirm this has been done.

Data contained in requests which require forwarding to a specific department are kept according to that department’s privacy notice and according to our Data Disposal Schedule.

What are your rights?

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request;

  • require the School to change incorrect or incomplete data;

  • require the School to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; (unless retention is required for legal reasons) and

  • object to the processing of your data where the School is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, or otherwise complain about the way we are processing your data, please contact by calling 0330 123 4446, emailing us at info@ust.ac.uk. We will make every effort to respond to you within 7 days and no later than within than 30 days. You also have the right to lodge your complaint with the data protection supervisory authority, The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling

Notice Review: This notice is effective from April 2018. We will review it regularly and will update it when necessary, so please check back from time to time.