5. What is the lawful basis for processing personal data?
Plymouth must have a lawful basis in order to process personal data. For the processing of University of Bath students’ data these have been identified as follows:
- where it is necessary to perform any contract we have entered into with you;
- where it is necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest;
- where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation; and/or
- where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
Plymouth may also use your data, typically in an emergency, where this is necessary to protect your vital interests, or someone else’s vital interests as permitted by law. In a small number of cases where other lawful bases do not apply, we will process your data on the basis of your consent. Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.
In relation to more sensitive personal data as listed above (special category data) the additional legal bases for these are:
- where we need to carry out our legal obligations,
- where you have made the data public,
- where it is necessary in the substantial public interest, in particular: where necessary for the purposes of the prevention or detection of an unlawful act and must be carried out without your consent so as not to prejudice those purposes; or for equal opportunities monitoring; or regulatory requirements relating to unlawful acts and dishonesty etc.,
- where it is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person and where you/they are physically or legally incapable of giving consent. This would be in an emergency situation where a person’s health, wellbeing or welfare was at risk,
- where processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims,
- where we have your consent to do so,
- where it is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.
Where consent is required for any additional uses of your personal information, including your image and more sensitive personal information we will collect it at the appropriate time and explain this to you. Where Plymouth is processing your data on the basis of your consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time. We will not use your personal information to carry out any wholly automated decision-making that affects you.
Should you seek support from the teams in the Student Hub (which include Disability Services and Student Wellbeing Services) they will also collect special category data from you for the purposes of providing you with their support services.