Your Data

How we use your data

LSE Department of Finance Privacy Statement

We want to ensure you only receive contact from LSE that is appropriate and relevant to you and your interests, via your preferred communication channels.

Our alumni, friends and supporters are very important to us and we value the relationship we have with you. You are valued members of the wider LSE community and we aim to keep you up to date with Department, School and community news, events, opportunities and benefits through our tailored communications. We want to ensure you only receive contact from LSE that is appropriate and relevant to you and your interests, via your preferred communication channels. 

The London School of Economics and Political Science ("LSE" or "School") is registered at the UK Information Commissioner’s Office as a Data Controller of personal data. We are committed to the safety and security of your personal data and to compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), 2018. 

Below we share with you how and why we use your data.

Who we are and what we do

The LSE Department of Finance aims to engage and serve alumni and friends of the Department. We seek to build meaningful and long term relationships with key constituents, including alumni, donors, volunteers, students and staff, to provide a global network and alumni relations programme that benefit past, current and future generations of LSE Department of Finance students. We also seek to further the strategic aims and legitimate interests of the School by encouraging volunteer and philanthropic support for agreed School priorities. 

Find out more about what we offer our alumni.

What information we collect

The personal data which you provide to us and which is stored and processed by LSE may include:

  • Your name, title and contact details
  • Biographical information, such as your gender, nationality, date of birth and marital status
  • Information about your period of registration at LSE including your course of study, start and end date of your studies, hall of residence, student societies, etc.
  • Your education history and career activities 
  • Your attendance at LSE events
  • Your communication preferences, and records of communications with LSE Advancement and the Department of Finance
  • Details of any donations you have made to LSE
  • Records of meetings our staff have held with you

We may use additional information from external sources for the purposes referred to above. This may result in our holding information about you such as:

  • Your relationships to other alumni, LSE staff, donors and friends
  • Details, such as your employment, which you have shared on social media
  • Your known philanthropy

How we collect information

We collect information in a variety of ways. If you are a student of LSE, your student record is automatically transferred to the LSE Advancement CRM (customer relationship management) system when you graduate. The Department of Finance also collects your current data, with permission, on submission of your dissertation prior to graduation. 

As alumni, friends and supporters we also gather your personal data when:

  • You email, telephone or write to us 
  • You engage with our social media channels
  • You register for the LSE Alumni online portal
  • You register for an event
  • You volunteer
  • You make a donation
  • You update your record online 
  • You meet with us face-to-face

To further the School’s strategic aim of encouraging philanthropic support, we may also gather information which is publicly available, for example from company websites and news media, in addition to information which you have provided to us. We do not currently use third party wealth screening services to process your personal data. However, we do use third party suppliers to obtain contact information about you where this is publicly available. For example, you may have given your address to a postal service when you moved house or have registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). 

We also gather information on your website activity and how you interact with online communications we send to you. For further information please see LSE's cookie policy.

How we use your information

The Department of Finance uses the data it holds to support a range of activities and communications for and in relation to our community of alumni, friends and supporters. 

This could include:

  • Providing career guidance after graduation
  • Mentoring and volunteering opportunities
  • Special interest groups that can enhance your career
  • Events held on campus and around the world
  • Sending you alumni magazines and newsletters
  • Contacting you with a request to help us raise money or for a donation to LSE 
  • Administration and internal record-keeping purposes 
  • Analysing and improving the services offered on our website 
  • Using anonymised personal data to benchmark our activity with other relevant organisations

We may also use your data for in-house screening and research to gain a better understanding of our supporters, inform our fundraising strategy and target our communications more effectively and appropriately. This may involve us using additional information about you, including geographical and demographic information, where available from external sources. To do this we may use publicly available information, for example from company websites, news media and social media and combine it with information you have provided to us, for example your past donations, stated interests and career activities. We use this information to help us understand better you as a supporter of LSE and to make appropriate requests for support. The School is registered as a levy payer with the Fundraising Regulator, demonstrating its commitment to good fundraising practice and to abiding by the Code of Fundraising Practice and Fundraising Promise.

Security of your data

Personal data stored by the Department of Finance is held on the School’s secure server infrastructure and access is restricted to authorised personnel only. 

For online content management, alumni engagement and mailing services the Department of Finance uses third party suppliers of systems. These suppliers store your personal data using appropriate technical and organisational security measures within a secure server infrastructure. The processing of your data is governed by contractual data protection assurance terms agreed between LSE and such suppliers. All personal data stored in this way is used exclusively for the Department of Finance's purposes as detailed in this Privacy Statement. 

We will never share your personal data with third parties for non-LSE purposes, or sell any of your information for any reason. Personal data is made available to academic and administrative departments and is used for a range of alumni activities and to encourage non-financial and financial support for the School, as set out in this Privacy Statement.

LSE has a North American office in New York and staff working in South America and Asia. Data about alumni and friends living in those regions may be shared with those staff, though in accordance with the provisions of UK law.

If you give us your credit card details in payment for services such as events, we will process the payment immediately and securely shred the credit card details in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). All service suppliers used in such processing are compliant to PCI-DSS.

The LSE Data Protection Officer is responsible for ensuring all areas of LSE are compliant with data protection regulations. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at gldp.info.rights@lse.ac.uk

How long we hold personal information for

The Department of Finance considers the School’s relationship with alumni, friends and supporters to be lifelong and we will store your details until you inform us that you do not wish to hear from us or you ask us to delete some or all of your information. In the event that you advise us that you no longer wish to hear from us we will keep a sufficient record of your ID, name, date of birth and your communication preferences to ensure that your data is not further used for such processing. We will not retain any information about you which is no longer required.

Your choice - now and in the future

We hope that you will want to stay connected with the Department of Finance via our communications. However, you have the right to change your contact preferences or unsubscribe from any or all of our communication channels – including post, email and telephone – at any time. You can do this by writing to us at:

Alumni Relations
Department of Finance
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London 
WC2A 2AE

Phone number: +44 (0)20 7955 7736

Alternatively, you can email us at finance@lse.ac.uk with your request to opt out of communications by post, email or phone. We promise to treat your request sensitively and in a timely fashion. You can opt back in to receive communications from us at any time. 

You also have a right to:

  • Request a copy of the information we hold about you (see Subject Access Request section, below)
  • Update or change any incorrect information we hold about you
  • Ask us to stop processing your personal data in certain ways (unless it is necessary for the purpose you provided it to us, for example where you have asked us to register you for an event or process a donation) 
  • Raise a concern or complaint about the way we use your information
  • Request the portability of your data
  • Object to any automated decision-making we carry out
  • Request information on publicly available sources used by the Department of Finance
  • Submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the supercisory authority

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, or would like to receive a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact us as outlined above. 

 

Subject Access Requests (SAR)

You have a right to access all personal information that the Department of Finance, LSE Advancement and/or the School holds on you at any time. If you would like to submit a SAR please put your request in writing to the Data Protection Officer.

We may amend this Privacy Statement from time to time. Any significant changes to this Privacy Statement or to the way we treat your personal data will be communicated via the LSE website or by contacting you directly.

Last updated: May 2018.