Privacy and Cookie Policy

Updated on 6th Nov 2024

Important information and who we are#

Purpose of this Privacy and Cookie Policy#

StudentCrowd Limited (referred to as “StudentCrowd”, "we", "us" or "our" in this Privacy and Cookie Policy) is a data controller in relation to your personal data that we collect and use .

StudentCrowd respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy and Cookie Policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and how we use and process cookies when you use our website. This policy will also tell you about your rights under data protection laws and how the law protects you. 

It is important that you read this Privacy and Cookie Policy together with any other privacy and cookie policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy and Cookie Policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them. 

If you have any questions about this Privacy and Cookie Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact StudentCrowd using the details set out below.

Personal data of children#

A child is defined as being under the age of 13 under UK data protection legislation. Our website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Contact details#

If you have any questions about this Privacy and Cookie Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us in the following ways:

Email address: support@studentcrowd.com
Postal address: StudentCrowd Limited, Kings House, St Johns Square, Wolverhampton. WV2 4DT

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance. 

Changes to the Privacy and Cookie Policy and your duty to inform us of changes#

We keep our Privacy and Cookie Policy under regular review. This version was last updated as per the date at the top of this page.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links#

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy and cookie policy of every website you visit.

The data we collect about you#

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

1. Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or similar identifier, title, date of birth and gender.
2. Contact Data includes email address and telephone numbers.
3. Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
4. Profile Data includes your username and password, profile photos, interests, any content you create or upload such as; ratings, opinion reviews, comments, photos, videos, questions, answers to questions, university name, course, year of study, bank name, location and accommodation, whether you are a UK or international student, whether you are a parent, preferences, feedback and survey responses. Profile Data also includes the personal data of other people where you reference them. For example if you upload a photo which includes images of your friends, or post a response which references another user.
5. Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services such as the pages you view and the date and time of your visits to our website.
6. Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
7. Business Contact Data includes personal data of individuals (e.g. staff) connected to our current, potential and former commercial customers and partners and covers information such as first name, maiden name, last name, telephone number, email address and the role/title of job and any other personal data collected due to our relationship with our current, potential and former commercial customers and partners (such as opinions).

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. We also display some of this Aggregated Data on our website, such as the overall University league table which is based on Aggregated Data from the reviews we hold. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this Privacy and Cookie Policy.

Special Categories of Personal Data includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health (such as whether you have a disability), genetic and biometric data, and information about criminal convictions and offences.

We do not intentionally collect Special Categories of personal data about you. However, we may in rare circumstances process Special Categories of personal data about you if, in using our website, you choose to create or post content which contains Special Categories of personal data. Posting this information is entirely optional and is only done by you voluntarily with your full knowledge and sole involvement. 

As set out in our Terms of Use, you must not create or post content which contains Special Categories of personal data of other people.

If you fail to provide personal data#

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you (such as our Terms of Use), and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with the benefits of having an active StudentCrowd account). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time. 

How is your personal data collected?#

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

1. Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Profile, Usage, Marketing and Communications and Business Contact Data by filling in your profile, forms, surveys, amending your account with us, posting content on our website or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
   1. use our products or services;
   2. create an account on our website;
   3. update an account on our website;
   4. post content on our website;
   5. liaise with us by telephone, email or any other electronic means;
   6. subscribe to our service or publications;
   7. request marketing to be sent to you;
   8. enter a competition, promotion or survey; or
   9. give us feedback or contact us.
2. Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy below for further details.
3. Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below :
   1. Technical Data from the following parties:
      1. analytics providers such as Google and New Relic;
      2. advertising networks such as Facebook based inside and outside the UK; and
      3. search information providers such as Google based inside and outside the UK.
   2. Identity and Contact Data from data brokers or aggregators such as TargetJobs based inside and outside the UK.
   3. Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Social Media accounts including LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

How we use your personal data#

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

1. Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
2. Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
3. Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.
    

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data although we will get your consent before sending direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data#

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below. 
 

Marketing 

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. 

Third-party marketing 

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes. 

Opting out

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into your account on the website and editing your settings to adjust your marketing preferences or by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service experience or content you have created and uploaded.

Cookies#

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer, laptop, tablet or mobile phone if you agree and contains information that is transferred to your hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

1. Strictly Necessary Cookies. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
2. First Party Performance Cookies. These are cookies that have been set by us to help us count the number of visitors to our site and see how they use it, and cannot be switched off in our systems. This helps us improve the way the site works. This information might be used to help yourself and other visitors find what they want more easily in the future. This service is always carried out by First Parties (meaning StudentCrowd Limited and its affiliates) using specialised software.
3. Third Party Performance Cookies. These are cookies that have been set by others when you visit a page that loads content from other sources like YouTube videos or virtual accommodation tours. These help provide information about how these features are used, and help to improve these features in the future. This service is always carried out by Third Parties using specialised software.
4. Functionality cookies. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
5. Marketing cookies. These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.These cookies are almost always third party and mostly persistent.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the cookie preferences tool which can be found linked in the websites footer. You can also use this tool to manage the groups of cookies that are allowed to be set.

You can also block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.

Please reference the cookie tool (linked from the website footer) for cookie expiry dates.

Change of purpose#

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. 

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Disclosures of your personal data#

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table Purposes for which we will use your personal data above in order for them to carry out specific activities for us.
 

These third parties include:

1. other users and visitors to our website (in relation to certain information which you create or upload to our website);
2. our suppliers which may include IT providers of cloud based hosting and technical infrastructure, CRM and marketing software;
3. providers who collect information on our behalf, including as necessary to operate features of our website, such as cloud based log aggregators, customer satisfaction surveys, as well as analytics, performance, tracking, and advertising partners;
4. professional advisers including consultants, lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance accounting and other services;
5. our trusted business partners who we work with;
6. HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based the UK who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances; and
7. third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this Privacy and Cookie Policy. 
    

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

International transfers#

Many of our external third parties listed above are based outside the UK so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented: 

1. We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission and/or the relevant UK data protection authority.
2. Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved under UK data protection laws which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK. For further details, see European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries.
3. Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe (including the UK) and the US. For further details, see European Commission: EU-US Privacy Shield.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

Data security#

We have put in place appropriate security 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 data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data 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.

Data retention#

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

We may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) and subsequently make the data available to commercial partners and customers for their own research, processing, and commercial activities, in which case, the data ceases to be personal data and we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. 

Your legal rights#

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. 

1. Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
2. Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
3. Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. You are also able to remove some of your personal data from your account at any time you wish by logging in to your account and removing this data from your profile settings. Please note however that when this data has been deleted from your profile it may still exist for a while in the logs and backups of ourselves or our partners but will not be processed as active data. We may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
4. Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
5. Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
   1. if you want us to establish the data's accuracy;
   2. where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
   3. where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
   4. you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
6. Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
7. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

How to exercise your rights#

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us using the details in this Privacy and Cookies Policy.

No fee usually required 

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you 

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights), which may include, but not be limited to, photographic ID (passport, driving license) and proof of address (utility bills, bank statements). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. 

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.