Data Protection Notice

OTHM needs to collect and process personal data in order to provide services to learners, manage its operations effectively and meet certain legal requirements.

The Data Protection Law

The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) came into force on the 25 May 2018, and it is supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) (together the “Data Protection Legislation”) regulates the use of personal data and sets requirements for protecting it. It seeks to balance an individual’s right to privacy with the need of organisations to use information about individuals for legitimate purposes.

OTHM is obliged to comply with the 6 data personal data principles of the GDPR:

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency: personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
• Limited to purpose: personal data shall be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes (historical research and statistical purposes and public interest archiving excepted)
• Data minimisation: personal data shall be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed
• Accuracy: personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• Limited storage: personal data shall be kept in a form which permits identification of the data subject for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed (historical research and statistical purposes and public interest archiving excepted, subject to appropriate safeguards)
• Integrity and Confidentiality: personal data shall be processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures

Your privacy is important to us

At OTHM, we know you care about how your personal information is used, and we appreciate that you trust us to do that carefully and sensibly.

OTHM or “we” will process the information it receives from you or otherwise holds about you in accordance with this Notice and its privacy policy which can be viewed by clicking on the following link our Privacy and Cookies Policy.

OTHM is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 under number Z9956740 to hold personal data (as defined under the DPA 1998) ("Personal Data") including sensitive personal data (as defined under DPA 1998 ("Sensitive Personal Data") on its learners and third parties, such as individuals enquiring about OTHM services. Our entry on the register can be seen on the website of the Information Commissioner's Office.

What Personal Data do we process?

We will collect and process Personal Data including your name, contact details, date of birth, nationality, academic qualifications, details of any disability etc. During your studies with OTHM, we will process data about your progress on your programme.

By visiting our website, we may collect information about your computer and your visits and use of our website, such as what web browser you are using, your IP address and your general location which is determined by your IP address. This information is also collected through cookies. Please see our Privacy and Cookies Policy for more information.

Your data is kept both in hard copy and electronic form and, in both cases, is kept securely in locked cabinets or password protected computer records.

Sensitive Personal Data

We also collect Sensitive Personal Data, which is kept under additional security arrangements and is only used or shared for specific purposes, about which you will be notified at the time of collection.

Use of your data

In addition to the uses described in our Privacy Policy, we may use your Personal Data and Sensitive Personal Data to fulfill statutory, legal or contractual obligations to government bodies or our degree awarding partners, to carry out statistical analyses regarding the products and services offered by us and to improve efficiency, results, processes and standards. We may also use your information for analytical purposes in order to administer and improve our website.

We may send you marketing messages, newsletters and other emails that may be of interest to you by post, email or phone. You can opt out of all marketing emails at any time by clicking the Unsubscribe link in the footer of all of our emails.

Data sharing

We may share your information with:

• Lecturers, administrators and third party service providers engaged by us to deliver our products and services;
• External validating partners, external verifiers and examiners and auditors which verify your test and examination results, in order to obtain accreditations for you;
• Government departments or other external bodies which oversee the quality of the services we provide and the process of awarding qualifications and accreditations.
• Local education authorities or other bodies.
• Local authorities for Council Tax purposes
• Law enforcement agencies when required by law to do so or where crime prevention or detection can be aided by release of data.
• Health service providers or others where it is in your vital interests to disclose information in an emergency.

Wherever possible, we impose restrictions and standards in our written contracts with them in order to ensure they keep your Personal Data secure and that they use it only for the purpose for which we provide it to them.

Assessments

Learners on top-up programmes are required to submit assessments via Turnitin software which carries out originality checks and retains your work in a repository for comparison purposes. Further details can be found on the Turnitin website.

Regulatory bodies / Government departments

We are required by law to send information, including Sensitive Personal Data, about learners’ registration on our qualifications to our regulator and other government departments. The Regulatory bodies and government departments share this information with other appropriate bodies for the purpose of statistical analysis. You can find out about the purposes for which regulator uses your data and the organisations with which regulator shares your data by viewing the Personal Data Protection Policy.

Exercising your rights, queries and complaints

If:

• You would like more information on your rights;
• You would like to exercise any right; or
• You have any queries relating to the OTHM’s processing of your personal data please contact the Administrator: admin@othm.org.uk
• You wish to make a complaint about how your data is being or has been processed, please contact: The Head of Operations and Compliance: p.land@othm.org.uk

You also have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) about the way in which we process your personal data. You can make a complaint using the ICO’s website