Privacy Policy
Why do we collect your information (Short Course Platform)
We use your personal details to provide you with information, products or services that you request from us.
The University of Edinburgh is committed to protecting your privacy and keeping you informed of how your information is used. We will only record your personal details in the manner and for the purposes set out in this privacy notice. Data will be kept secure from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. We will not sell, rent, trade or otherwise knowingly share or provide your personal information to any third party, except insofar as legally obliged to do so or as specified below.
What information do we collect?
Information we collect includes:
| Activity | What data we collect | Purpose | Data Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registering, creating and managing your learner profile | The information requested will vary depending on the course's registration requirements and may include the following: First name, last name, email address, address, mobile number, UK residency, accessibility requirements, ethnicity, gender, employer name, job title, level of education, matriculation number. | Where relevant, the information you provide may be used to offer services such as creating your account, administering your studies, tracking your performance and attendance, offering support, informing you about course offerings, monitoring equal opportunities, and enhancing and planning services. | Short course registration and Learner Portal (Eduframe) |
| Using our learning platform | First name, last name and email address. | We use the information to support your studies, improve our courses, monitor your performance and attendance and provide you with support. | Learning Platform (Canvas) Short course Learner Portal (Eduframe) |
| Paying for a course | First name, last name, billing Address, email address, payment card details | We use this information to manage orders, payment methods and costs. This information allows us to manage enrolments and access to learning content. It also allows us to review and recover any outstanding debts and issue refunds. | Flywire |
| Opting-in to receive information about other related courses, events and Open Days (optional) | First name, last name, country of domicile, email and marketing options. | We use this info to send you information about courses/subjects you have opted into receiving. This information could include information on future opportunities such as Open Days and virtual events or new courses. | Dot Digital |
| Browsing our web catalogue Cookies. | See section called Cookies we use for the Short Course Platform | We use this information to improve our site, services and customer experience. | Google Analytics |
| Contacting us pre or post course registration via email or Contact Us webpage | First name, last name, email address. | We use this information to provide support and guidance. | Microsoft Dynamics |
| Waiting lists | First name, last name, email address. | We use this information to provide updates on a course waiting list. | Short Courses course and learner management system (Eduframe) |
| Registering interest | First name, last name, email address. | We use this information to provide updates on any future runs of a course. | Short Courses course and learner management system (Eduframe) |
Lawful basis for processing
For purposes related to your enrolment on a course and delivering the course to you, we will process your personal data on the lawful basis of Contract. Where you opt to receive information from us about courses, events or open days then for this purpose we will process your personal data on the lawful basis of Consent.
Purpose for processing
The information you provide will be used to enable us to supply you with the goods, services and information.
Information about you: how we use it and with whom we share it
The University contracts third party processors to provide elements of the short course platform:
- Learner Portal, course, contact and order management: Eduframe which is supplied by Drieam
- Online learning platform: Canvas which is supplied by Instructure
- Payment gateway: world pay (WPM) which is managed by the University Finance team
- Payment Gateway Privacy Notice
- Marketing: Dot Digital University supported mailing platform
- Enquiries: Microsoft Dynamics which is managed by Information Services
There is additional guidance available on how the University of Edinburgh collects, shares or processes personal information about you including:
- Data controller and contact details
- Data sharing
- Data transfers outside the European Economic Area
- Your rights
- And how to make a complaint
Cookies we use for the Short Course Platform
A cookie is a small file downloaded on to your device when you access certain websites. Cookies allow sites to recognise your device when you make a return visit.
We use several types of cookies across the Short Course Platform. Some are essential, while others you can opt out of or block. Opting out or blocking some cookies may affect the functionality of the website.
When you leave our website or click on links that lead to external websites, we are unable to control what cookies are set in any way. You will need to set your cookie preferences for those sites as well.
Why and how we use cookies
There are broadly four reasons why a cookie might be stored on your device when visiting the University website.
- Cookies that make the website work properly for you and enable you to make use of the secure online services that we provide.
- Cookies that collect data about your use of the website which is then anonymised and used to help us improve our online services.
- Cookies that remember your preferences and make the site easier for you to use.
- Cookies that are placed by third party services we make use of to enhance the information we present online. We have no control over these third-party cookies.
These cookies are placed on your device either by the University or by the third parties whose services we use as part of the website.
Some cookies are retained in your browser for only as long as you visit our website, while others persist for a longer specified or unspecified period.
Short Course Catalogue Website Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookies
| Name | Data Stored | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| _uoeCookiePrefs | True or false cookie retention preferences. | The cookie preferences are stored to retain visitor choices in the main cookie banner. This means that the main cookie banner can be minimised on future visits, and so that analytics and advertising cookies are not set for visitors who opt out of this tracking. | One year |
Performance Cookies (Google Analytics)
| Name | Data Stored | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga, _gat | A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser, the times and dates that you interacted with the site recently and the marketing materials or referring pages that led you to the site. | Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ('Google'), to help us see how our website is used. In doing so information about your use of our website may be transmitted to Google and stored on servers in the United States. IP addresses, which can be used to identify an individual user, are anonymised by Google Analytics. The data collected by Google Analytics is used to analyse how frequently the same people revisit the University website, how the website is found (from advertising or referring websites), and which pages are most frequently viewed. 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. | The longest lasting cookie expires 2 years after your last visit to the website. Others are deleted 6 months, 30 minutes and the moment you close your browser. |
Advertising Cookies (Google Analytics)
By opting in to personalised advertisements a slightly higher level of personal data, your IP address, will be shared with Google Analytics.
| Name | Data Stored | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga, _gat | A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser, the times and dates that you interacted with the site recently and the marketing materials or referring pages that led you to the site. | Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ('Google'), to help us see how our website is used. In doing so information about your use of our website may be transmitted to Google and stored on servers in the United States. IP addresses, which can be used to identify an individual user, are anonymised by Google Analytics. The data collected by Google Analytics is used to analyse how frequently the same people revisit the University website, how the website is found (from advertising or referring websites), and which pages are most frequently viewed. 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. 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. | The longest lasting cookie expires 2 years after your last visit to the website. Others are deleted 6 months, 30 minutes and the moment you close your browser. |
University Media Hopper Create service cookies
We may incorporate video content into the short course catalogue website, learning materials, or other communication tools used to interact with you.
| Name | Data Stored | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kms_ctamuls | It stores an identifier for the current session. This is a completely random string of letters and numbers. | The purpose is to be able to identify the session and know if a website visitor is logged in to the system. | It expires after the current session is over |
Short Course Learning Platform (Canvas)
The Canvas cookie notice, and up-to-date information can be found on the following website: https://www.instructure.com/policies/canvas-lms-cookie-notice
Due to the Canvas instance being hosted in the EU analytical/performance cookies are not enabled.
Short Course Enrolment Website (Eduframe)
| Name | Data Stored | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| _eduframe_session_production | It stores an identifier for the current session. This is a completely random string of letters and numbers. | Maintains the user session for a seamless experience. | 1 Week |
| _eduframe_last_accessed | It stores an identifier for the last session. This is a completely random string of letters and numbers. | Tracks session timeout and ensures sessions are refreshed often for security. | 1 Week |
| ga | A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser, the times and dates that you interacted with the site recently and the marketing materials or referring pages that led you to the site. | Tracks user interactions for statistical analysis to improve the platform. | 1 Year |
Further Information
Automated processing and profiling
We do not use profiling or automated decision-making processes.
Storage of your personal data
We have put in place appropriate measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.
In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
The short course platform may contain links to and from websites of third parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us over the internet, and any such transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security measures to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Further information about the University's Data Protection and Information Security policies can be found by clicking on the links below.
Data Retention
We will delete your user account five years after the end of the last course on which you have enrolled, unless you enrol on another course in that period. For flexible courses, the course end will be defined as the time your access to the course expires. We will email you in advance of this to let you know that your user account is due to expire.
To request the removal of your personal data please contact us by emailing: enquiries.shortcourses@ed.ac.uk
Passwords
You must keep any user and password details we provide you with secure, as detailed in the relevant Terms of Use.
Online transactions
All payment transactions will be encrypted.
Areas of the short course platform that process online transactions make use of - and transfer data to - third party software and service providers. All third-party software and service providers that we use are compliant with the relevant Payment Card Industry standards.
Disclosure of your information
We will not share, sell or distribute any of the information you provide to us without your consent, except where disclosure is necessary to enforce our rights, including those detailed in the short course platform's Terms and Conditions of use (for more information please read the Terms of Use website).
Authorised personnel within the University will be able to access the information you provide to us. Unless required to do so by law, we will not share, sell or distribute any of the information you provide to us without your consent. To comply with statutory requirements, we are required to share your personal information with external agencies, particularly for the purposes of detection or prevention of crime or fraud. The University of Edinburgh may also disclose your personal information to any subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh, for the purposes in this privacy statement.
Who we share data with
The University will only transfer data to countries outside the UK or EEA when satisfied that both the party which handles the data and the country in which it is processed provide adequate safeguards for personal privacy.
Access, update, unsubscribe or have your information deleted
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information held by us in our records. If you would like a copy of this information, please contact us using the details below. We want to make sure that your information is accurate and up to date. You may also ask us to correct or remove any information you think is inaccurate.
If any information held by us is incorrect, you have the right to ask for this to be corrected and updated. Please help us keep our records updated by informing us of any changes to your email address and other contact details.
All requests should be made via email to: enquiries.shortcourses@ed.ac.uk
We will correct any inaccuracies in such information as soon as practicable after being notified in writing. Any user may also require that th information be removed from our records by writing, emailing or unsubscribing.
Contact Us
For data collected under this privacy notice, the University of Edinburgh (the "University") is the Data Controller (as that term is defined in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, Registration Number Z6426984)
You can contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@ed.ac.uk. Our data protection policy is on our website: University of Edinburgh Data Protection Policy
Changes to the privacy policy
We regularly review and update this privacy policy as necessary. Any changes to the policy will be documented and made available on the Short Course Catalogue Website, including the date the update came into effect.