External speakers and attendees

1. About this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice applies to external speakers and attendees (i.e.: other participants and audience members) who attend an ‘activity’ which is recorded by the University in accordance with the University’s risk review and approval process. To enable an activity to proceed and support the investigation of any appeals, complaints and allegations related to this activity, the University may impose a condition that the activity is recorded using either the University’s ‘Listen Again’ facility or appropriate online platform. 

As an external speaker and/or attendee at a University event, it is important that you read and retain this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information and what your rights are under the data protection legislation.  Please read this notice alongside our overarching privacy notices contained within our Privacy Hub and, in particular, our Visitors to our Campus Privacy Notice.

The University of Essex is the data controller for the purpose of data protection law. 

2. What type of information we collect about you

We may collect the following personal information relating to you:

• Personal contact details such as name, date of birth, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses
• Photographs
• Audio and visual recordings of you
• CCTV and body worn camera footage
• Make and model of vehicle and vehicle registration number including use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)
• Gender
• Qualifications, professional experience and institution or employer
• Clubs or societies, affiliations and other connections with the University
• Information about your education or other background (where this is necessary, for example to comply with participation eligibility requirements)
• Events that you have attended in the past or for which you are registered to attend in the future
• Records of communications sent to or from the University

Activities or events covered by this Privacy Notice may be audio or visual recordings which may capture images or sound recordings of you as a speaker or as an attendee.  The activity or event may take place in person on one of our campuses or may be delivered online or through a combination of both media. 

For some activities or events, we may also collect special category and/or criminal offence data such as:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Sexual orientation, where this is collected for diversity purposes
• Sex life
• Health (which may include disability, pregnancy, gender reassignment)
• Political opinions
• Trade union membership
• Criminal acts caught on the recording system

If an online platform is used by the University to record any activity that is delivered wholly or in-part online, your IP address and device name may be collected in order to schedule and create a record of the meeting.   Personal data captured within the recording are stored within the cloud service owned by online platform and may be stored outside of the European Economic Area.   

3. Why we use your personal data – and our legal basis for doing so

An activity may be recorded so that the recording may be used as part of any investigations undertaken by the University should we receive a complaint about the event.  Personal data processed includes the speaker’s personal data and the personal data of other attendees.  The processing of personal data applies to audience members.

When we collect or otherwise process your personal data, we need both a purpose (i.e., a reason) and a legal basis.  Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation there are several legal bases.  We generally rely on the following legal bases when processing your personal data:

Processing Personal Data:

3.1 Public task

The University will rely on Article 6(1) (e) Public Task to process this data.  This applies when processing is necessary for the University to perform a task in the public interest or for its official functions.

3.2 Legitimate Interests

The University will rely on Article 6(1)(f) Legitimate Interests to process this data.  This applies when data processing is not required by law but is of a clear benefit to the organisation, there is limited privacy impact on you as the individual and we think you would reasonably expect us to use the personal data in the way that we wish to.

Where we rely on our legitimate interests, we mean the:

• Pursuit of our activities and objectives, or those of a third party
• Compliance with applicable legal and regulatory obligations and any codes of conduct
• Protection of our services, students, employees and customers or those of a third party

Where we rely on our legitimate interests, we have set out those interests in the table below.

3.3 Legal Obligation

We have various legal obligations that we need to comply with and we may need to collect, use or share your personal information as part of that.  Where we rely on legal obligation we have set out those interests in the table below.

Legal Basis for Processing Special Categories of Personal Data: 

3.4 Special category personal data

We may also process some special category personal data and/or criminal convictions data for the statutory purpose of substantial public interest condition which includes, but is not exhaustive to, the University’s legal and regulatory obligations under the Prevent duty (Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015), Human Rights Act 1998, Public sector equality duty (PSED) and the Public Order Act 1986.

3.5  Consent

We do not routinely rely on consent to process your personal data.  We will inform the external speaker and attendees prior to the activity that the recording will capture an audio and/or visual recording of the activity, the purpose for the recording and where the recording will be stored.  

If we wish to rely on your consent to process your personal data, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. 

4. With whom we will share your data

Within the University, we will only share your data with members of our community for the purposes of which we have processed your data. 

We may share your data externally: with third parties, such as the University of Essex Students’ Union, where this is necessary (for example, you are attending a Students’ Union organised event) and where we have a lawful basis to do so, and where we are required to by law, i.e., to the Police to support an investigation. 

5. Where will your data be stored and for how long

Any recording will be retained for 18 months unless the University receives an appeal, complaint or allegation in which case the University will retain the recording for up to 6 years after the completion of an investigation against which the appeal, complaint or allegation has been made.  Over the course of time, the recording may acquire archival value and the data may be transferred to the University’s Archive. 

Written records will be retained for a maximum of 6 years after the event has taken place unless the University receives an appeal, complaint or allegation in which case the University will retain the recording for up to 6 years after the completion of an investigation against which the appeal, complaint or allegation has been made.  

6. Changes to this Privacy Notice

This privacy notice was published on 6 April 2023. We may change this privacy notice from time to time and will communicate these changes directly to you where appropriate and/or required by law.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or if you would like to access any of your rights, please contact dataprotectionofficer@essex.ac.uk.