Privacy statement for alumni, donors and members of the community
UOW is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring your personal information is handled in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) and other relevant privacy legislation including the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This privacy collection statement contains information about how the University of Wollongong collects and handles your personal information. Developing an understanding of our alumni, donors, potential donors and community members through your personal data enables us to make better decisions about building life-long relationships, use our resources effectively and raise philanthropic gifts to support the aims of delivering impact for society.
How we collect your information
We collect your information when you enquire about, or register for our activities and services, update your details (in writing, by telephone or electronically), make a donation to or fundraise for UOW or voluntarily provide us with your personal data. Some information on our alumni is transferred from the student records held by UOW. When you visit our website we may also use cookies to monitor and record your engagement with us. Please see the UOW privacy page for more information.
We may also collect your personal information from publicly available sources including websites, the press, industry publications and social media sites such as LinkedIn.
Up-to-date contact details such as address, telephone number and email address may also be collected from other sources, such as a returned piece of mail where the occupier has provided your new contact details, or from another person when we have tried to contact you using the contact details we hold for you.
The type of information we collect
We collect your contact details to continue our engagement with you. We may collect additional personal data depending on your relationship with the University. This may include:
- A record of communication sent to or received from you by post, electronically or by phone
- Your preferred methods of contact
- Information about your educational achievements
- Details of any volunteering by you or committee memberships, past and present.
- Your attendance at University of Wollongong events, including dietary and venue accessibility requirements if provided by you
- Your interests, activities and any personal updates you provide
- Information about your employment history, professional activities and financial information
- Detail and notes from meetings with University staff concerning your engagement, areas of interest and gifts to the University
- Details and notes about visits to the University
- Notes from conversations with student callers who may have called you on behalf of the University
- Record of bulk communications such as e-newsletters, including when you opened them, and if you clicked on links to articles within the emails
- Relationships and connections to other alumni, donors and supporters
- Family and spouse details such as name, employment and attendance at the University
- Philanthropic interests and gifts
- Information about your use of services provided by, or on behalf of, the University
- Photographs from events or profile photographs for University publications
For alumni
We primarily collect personal data from your student record when you complete your studies. This will include:
- Your name, title, gender, nationality, citizenship on entry to the University, date of birth
- Your student number
- Your home or main address, email address and telephone numbers
- Your education record including your course, award, start, end and completion dates
We will collect and append additional information to your alumni record to allow us to communicate with you more effectively. This may include:
- A list of student club memberships
- Whether you received a prize, scholarship or award
- Any student volunteering activities you undertook
- If you stayed in a University Hall of Accommodation
For donors
We collect personal information from our donors where it is necessary for our work and supports our ability to engage with you. We use your information to process your donation and to respond to your questions and feedback. We may also use your information for stewardship purposes, and to keep you updated with events and initiatives that we believe are of interest to you.
The information we collect includes:
- Donation records, including bank account details for processing direct debits where applicable
- Your contact details and details of fundraising events you have participated in on behalf of the University, as well as details of any crowdfunding platform pages created by you in support of the University
- Donor agreements with the University of Wollongong
- Information about planned giving such as bequests to the University of Wollongong
- If you donate in the United States of America through the UOW USA Foundation, a record of any gifts you have made to the University of Wollongong.
The University of Wollongong’s Advancement Division does not process credit card details for online donations on the University’s network. These are processed by our accredited payment service provider in compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). If you provide credit card details on a paper donation form or over the phone we will use them to process your payment securely and then then destroy your payment information in compliance with the PCI DSS regulations.
Producing briefings, profiles and wealth screening, using publicly available information and targeting communications
The University of Wollongong undertakes research to produce briefings and profiles on a limited number of individuals who we believe may have an interest and the capacity, or the expertise or experience, to become actively involved with the University of Wollongong.
We do this to ensure our communications are relevant and timely. It also allows us to make efficient and effective use of resources by ensuring meaningful engagement. We do so by understanding the background of individuals and making appropriate requests and ensure individuals are not needlessly approached for philanthropic gifts or considered for boards, committees, volunteering opportunities and other areas of University life that are irrelevant.
We do this to meet the legitimate and regularly expressed expectation that donors have of charitable organisations, to focus resources on charitable cause and spend as little as possible on the costs of fundraising and administration.
When producing a briefing or profile, we may gather information from publicly available resources, such as websites, the press, social media and we may analyse geographic and demographic information to help us better understand our alumni, current and potential donors and other members of the community, their areas of interest and the likelihood of them supporting or engaging with the University financially through philanthropic giving or for volunteering opportunities and other areas that support University of Wollongong activities.
We occasionally conduct research into wealth and background of potential and current donors and supporters to help decide whether, and on what basis, to engage them to ensure our fundraising and other resources are directed in the most appropriate and effective manner.
How we use the information we hold
We process personal data about you, in order to deliver and improve the opportunities and services we provide in a personalised manner, to ensure each individual receives timely and relevant information and to ensure we use resources in the most efficient and effective way.
Personal data is managed by us to:
- Maintain a lifelong relationship between the University and its alumni, donors and members of the community
- Inform you about news, activities, academic programmes, events, opportunities and fundraising that we believe would be of interest to you
- Understand how we can improve our services, impact and outcomes for you
- Further our aims, including a range of student support, teaching, research and community projects through the use of mail, email, telephone, events and face to face meetings
- Administer any donation you make to the University
- Comply with a range of charitable and other regulations on behalf of the University.
From time to time we undertake alumni or donor consultations in the form of a survey, census, questionnaire or feedback that provides us with the information we need to maintain and use accurate information about you, and improve our services, impact and outcomes for you and the University of Wollongong.
You are able to keep your contact details up-to-date and manage your communication preferences and subscriptions, including if you decide you no longer wish to receive communications, by accessing the Advancement Division Update My Details forms.
To update preferences or opt out of receiving communications from us:
Publishing information
If you have previously studied at the University of Wollongong and choose to submit an alumni profile, or otherwise choose to support or engage with the University in its activities or with its services, we will not publish this information on our website or in our communications unless you have consented to this.
If you make a donation to the University of Wollongong, you have the option to decide whether or not your name is published in our annual donor report or other materials. If you decide to appear in the donor list, we may publish your current name and the fact that you are a donor to the University of Wollongong.
Accepting donations
We carry out due diligence on current and potential donors to consider whether the sources and purposes of prospective donations, fundraising and other funded activities are ethically acceptable. Further information can be found at the University’s Philanthropic Fundraising and Gift Acceptance and Recognition Policy.
When you choose to donate to the University, we will require certain personal information from you. If you choose not to provide the information requested, it may not be possible for the University of Wollongong to process your donation and provide you with ongoing information relating to events and updates on the impact of your gift. If you wish your donation to be anonymous, please let us know and your gift will not be acknowledged publicly.
Analysing information
We analyse website visits and use tools, such as Google Analytics to help us understand what is of interest to people and to improve people’s experiences when visiting the University’s website. We may analyse the data we hold to help us improve the effectiveness of our communications. Further information about cookies can be found on the University privacy page.
How we protect your personal information
Your personal data is held securely on the University’s Advancement database and is subject to technical and organisational measures to protect against unauthorised or unlawful access and against accidental loss, destruction or damage.
Who we share information with
We will only pass your data to third parties who are required to provide a particular service for the University. Where this is the case, the service provider will be bound by strict contractual arrangements to ensure that they comply with privacy obligations that are consistent with or substantially similar to the University’s obligations.
We will not share your personal information with any other third parties unless we have your consent or there is a legal requirement to do so. We will never sell your personal data to third parties.
Disclosure of donor information
The information collected may be disclosed to the following types of organisations:
- your nominated financial institution for processing your donation
- Government departments such as the Australian Taxation Office
- Contracted service providers that the University of Wollongong uses to perform services on its behalf (such as banks, mailing houses and IT service providers).
- Partner institutions or associated entities who may benefit from the donation
- The University of Wollongong’s legal advisors or other professional advisors and consultants engaged by the University.
Further information
You are able to keep your contact details up-to-date and manage your communication preferences and subscriptions by accessing the Update My Details form for:
Alternatively, you may prefer to let us know your preferences for how we communicate with you by emailing the Advancement Division at alumni@uow.edu.au or giving@uow.edu.au
If you wish to seek access to your personal information or make enquiries about the handling of personal information, please contact the University Privacy Officer by email at icu-enquiry@uow.edu.au. Further information about the University’s privacy obligations, including your rights of access, please refer to the privacy webpage.