Student marketing via UniBuddy privacy notice

Student Marketing holds and processes personal data about prospective students which is gathered via its partner ‘UniBuddy’. The University is the data controller and Unibuddy is the data processor.

The personal data we hold about you consists of:

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Password
• Country
• Degree preference
• Intended year of entry and whether you have already applied to Surrey.

We also collect your conversation history with the University of Surrey and our student ambassadors within the Unibuddy tool.

We only collect the data we need and keep that data up to date.

We receive this data from you when you register your information on the Unibuddy tool and volunteer this information within the conversation history.

The University collects only the data we need and we keep the data up to date and only for as long as it is needed. 

We collect your personal data in order to:

• Allow prospective students and student ambassadors to interact as part of the service
• Market products and services that we believe will be of interest to you.

We take our obligations for data handling very seriously and it is therefore important for you to know the lawful basis for us processing your information.

We process data to ensure that we can carry out our public role as an educational and research establishment, meeting legal, moral and contractual obligations as laid out in the University’s Charter.

We process data because you give us your consent, specifically to opt into marketing communications from the University at the point of registration, as well as allowing us to monitor conversations to understand the types of questions being asked and improve our customer service.

We do not use the data we collect to make decisions about individuals.

The University processes personal data and special category data in accordance with UK Data Protection legislation and Our Data Policy Statement (PDF).

If you opt in to communications and marketing from the University of Surrey, please refer to the prospective student privacy notice. 

We keep your personal data for one year after your stated intended year of entry. For information on Unibuddy’s data retention please see their privacy policy.

Personal information is collected and processed by the data processor, Unibuddy. Please refer to their privacy policy for further information.  

Student Ambassadors, acting on behalf of the University will also have access to the conversation history you participate in.

As an individual whose data we process (a data subject), you have certain rights in relation to the processing. Find detailed information about your rights as a data subject.

You have the right to:

• Withdraw your consent for us to process your personal data where we have relied on that consent as our basis for processing your data.
• Ask us to confirm that your personal data is being processed and to access (i.e. have a copy) of that data as well as to be provided with supplemental information about the processing.
• Request that we rectify any inaccuracies where the data we hold on you is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Have your data erased by us, although in certain circumstances we may not be able to do this. The circumstances where this applies can be found in the guide to data subject rights information.
• Restrict the processing of your personal data in certain ways.
• Obtain your personal data for reuse.
• Object to certain processing of your personal data.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights please visit our make a privacy request section.

Make a complaint

If you have any concerns about the way that we have handled your personal data please email the Data Protection team as we would like to have the opportunity to resolve your concerns.

If you’re still unhappy, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (an independent body set up to advise on information rights for the UK) about the way in which we process your personal data.