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In this Privacy Policy, 'we' refers to Bedford Modern School. We are part of The The Harpur Trust, Princeton Court, Pilgrim Centre, Brickhill Drive, Bedford, England MK41 7PZ. We are committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of you, the visitor ('you' or 'your').
The External Relations Office at Bedford Modern School maintains a database which holds details for a selection of people, including but not limited to: alumni, supporters and donors, friends of the School, former parents, current parents, former staff, and current staff. This is in order to stay in touch with our community and keep you updated about news, events, careers initiatives and fundraising activities.
Some of our database (but not all) choose to join our online community by registering on this website and creating an online profile. In both instances (individuals with offline database records and individuals with online profiles), we collect and store personal information (or 'data') about you. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and this Privacy Policy sets out what information we collect about you, where and how we use ('process') it.
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any significant changes we will advertise this on our website or contact you directly with the information. We recommend that you check this page occasionally to make sure you are happy with any changes. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or concerning your personal information, please contact the External Relations team at externalrelations@bedmod.co.uk or 01234 332 663/639.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), the Charity and the schools are the same data controller. Further details of the personal data we hold, and how we use it, can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.ico.gov.uk under registration number Z1670129. Further information about data protection is available there.
What Type Of Personal Information We Collect
The information we have about you depends on where we collect it. The information we store is not necessarily limited to, but may include:
Where We Collect Information From
We collect personal information when you:
• Visit this website.
• Create or update your online profile.
• Post content on to this website or other websites and social media sites managed by Bedford Modern School or the External Relations team.
• Take part in an event with us.
• Attend a meeting with us and provide us with information.
• Contact us in any way including but not limited to: email, phone, social media or post.
• Open an email sent from this website.
• Send a message via the direct messaging system on this website
• If and when you leave Bedford Modern School, we transfer basic details (such as your first and last name and years attended) from the main Bedford Modern School database into our External Relations ToucanTech database.
Our priority is always to respect the privacy and preferences of our community. We will always gain your permission before updating your contact details or consent preferences in our database.
How We Use Your Information
We will use your personal information in a number of ways, always with a legal basis for processing your data. These may include:
• Providing you with information or updates that you have asked for.
• Sending you communications (with your consent if required) that may be of interest, including but not limited to: invites to events, newsletters and fundraising campaigns.
• Delivering our obligations under any contract between us.
• Seeking your views on the services or activities we carry out, so that we can continue to make improvements.
• Updating our database records and ensuring we know how you prefer to be contacted.
• Analysing your engagement with our website and other content to help us improve our services for you.
• Running our mentoring programme, club activities, and other features of the website.
Our Legal Basis For Processing Your Information
The use of your information for the purposes set out above is lawful because one or more of the following applies:
• You have given us your consent for the information to be used.
• It is necessary for us to hold and use your information to carry out our obligations under a contract entered into with you.
• It is necessary for our legitimate interests to hold and use your information and we are not impacting your privacy by doing so.
Updating Your Consent Preferences
If you have an online profile on this website you can update your consent options by using your username and password to log in, and clicking on 'My Settings' in your profile. Scroll down to find ‘Consent Options’, where you will see a list of consents and the options 'opt-in', 'opt-out' and 'unspecified'.
Via ‘My Settings’ you can also choose to hide your profile from Google, limit access to your profile so that it is only viewable to your connections on the site, and adjust some of the automatic notifications that you receive from this website. Please note that your name (but not your full profile) may appear in various places around the community website, such as a ‘Recent Joiners’ box and in ‘Search’ results,
irrespective of the privacy settings you have selected.
If we are using consent as our legal basis for processing your data, we must have an explicit 'opt-in' from you for this specific type of processing. If we are using legitimate interests as our legal basis for processing your data, we will process your data responsibly in a way that you would reasonably expect, and you can 'opt-out' at any stage. If you click ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of one of our emails sent you will be automatically opted-out of our email communications in the future. If you want to contact us about your consent preferences please contact the External Relations team at externalrelations@bedmod.co.uk or 01234 332 663/639.
How We Keep Your Information Safe
We understand the importance of keeping your personal information secure and take appropriate steps to safeguard it.
Your data is stored on a dedicated, secure cloud server hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the EU and managed by our website provider, ToucanTech. Industry standard firewalls, anti-virus, encryption and back-up methods are in place, as well as strict data handling protocols. We always ensure only authorised persons have access to your information, which means only a few approved Bedford Modern School employees, and that everyone who has access is appropriately trained in data management.
If you have an online profile for this website you are responsible for keeping your login details (your email and password) confidential and we ask that you do not share your password with anyone.
No data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. So, whilst we strive to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you provide online and you do this at your own risk.
Who Has Access To Your Information?
• Third parties who provide services for us, namely the printing and mailing of our annual alumni publication, Eagle News. We select our third-party service providers with care. We provide these third parties only with the information that is necessary for them to provide their services, and we have an agreement in place that requires them to operate with the same care over data protection as we do.
• Third parties if we run an event in conjunction with them.
• Web hosting, email hosting, analytics and search engine providers that enable us to run our community database and improve our website and its use.
• Third parties in connection with restructuring or reorganisation of our operations, for example if we merged with another business. In the case of such an event, we would take steps to ensure your privacy rights will be protected by the third party.
Other than this, we will not share your information with other organisations without your consent.
Keeping Your Information Updated
We ask that you please let us know if and when your contact details change. Online members can update their details directly by logging in to the website and clicking on ‘My Settings’ under their profile. Online and offline members can also update their details by contacting us at externalrelations@bedmod.co.uk.
Cookies
Some information and data may be automatically collected through the use of cookies on this website. Cookies are small text files employed on the website to recognise repeat users and allow us to observe behaviour and compile aggregate data in order to improve the user-experience we provide for our website visitors.
The law states that we can store cookies on your machine if they are essential to the operation of the website, but that for all others we need your permission to do so.
The list below explains the cookies we use and why:
| Cookie Description |
Name | Purpose |
| Session Cookie |
BedfordModernSchool_Member_Code BedfordModernSchool_PyroCMS |
Used to remember you as you travel from page to page in a single session (without leaving the website) in order to provide a continuous and unified experience. |
| Functional Cookie |
BedfordModernSchool_Identify |
Used to remember your login details when |
Opting Out Of Cookies
If you do not wish to receive cookies from us or any other website, you should be able to turn cookies off on your web browser. Please follow your browser provider’s instructions in order to do so. We cannot accept liability for any malfunctioning of your computer or its installed web browser as a result of any attempt to turn off cookies. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org.
How Long We Keep Your Information For
We will hold your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the relevant activity. Please find a link to the School's Data Protection Policy here, including the Retention Policy of The Harpur Trust.
Where we rely on your consent to contact you for direct email marketing or fundraising purposes, we will treat your consent as lasting only for as long as it is reasonable to do so. We may periodically ask you to renew your consent.
If you ask us to stop contacting you, we will keep a record of your contact details and limited information needed to ensure we comply with your request. If you ask us to remove your personal data from our database we will delete all the information we hold out apart from your name and the dates that you attended Bedford Modern School, and archive your record in our database.
Your Rights
You have the right to request details of how we use your personal information through making a subject access request. Such requests should be made in writing by contacting externalrelations@bedmod.co.uk.
You also have the following rights:
All of these rights are subject to certain safeguards and limits or exemptions. To exercise any of these rights, you should contact the External Relations team at the above email address.
If you are not happy with the way in which we have processed or dealt with your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
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This Policy was last updated in October 2023.