University of London Housing Platform Privacy Policy

If you access our services you may be asked to provide some personal information for our records. The statement below explains how we handle personal data depending on the services you access and how the University will process this data.

This Privacy Policy applies to users of the University of London Housing Services (ULHS) website.

Who we are

The University of London Housing Services is part of Residential Services which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of London (UoL), a registered Data Controller. The general University of London Privacy Statement is available here.

What this is

One of our responsibilities is to tell you about the different ways we collect and use your personal data. This statement provides details about our Housing Platform. This information is necessary for us to provide you with the requested service and to allow us to comply with our legal obligations.

 

1. What information do we collect from you?

We hold and process personal data where:

You are a registered student or member of University staff :

• your name;
• your contact details including telephone number, mobile number, email address and postal address, and any proof of address you may provide;
• your university name and university id and any other id you may provide;
• information about your computer or mobile device, including, where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type;
• any other information that you may provide to us through the website and/or App.
• other information: you may otherwise choose to provide us information when you fill in a form, conduct a search, update or add information to your account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, participate in promotions, or use other features of Our Housing Platform.

You are a registered landlord (private or institutional) or agent

• your name or employee and/or agents name and address;
• your photo or employee and/or agents photo;
• where applicable, your company, agent or university name, address, legal address, director name and address;
• details of your property(ies) such as address, house type, rooms, features, amenities, amount of rent;
• photos of the property(ies);
• information about your computer or mobile device, including, where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type; and
• any other information that you may provide to us through the website and/or App.
• other information: You may otherwise choose to provide us information when you fill in a form, conduct a search, update or add information to your account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, participate in promotions, or use other features of Our Housing Platform

 

Information we automatically collect from your use of Our Housing Platform

When you use Our Housing Platform and the Payment Services, we automatically collect information, including personal information, about the services you use and how you use them. This information is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us, to enable us to comply with legal obligations and given our legitimate interest in being able to provide and improve the functionalities of Our Housing Platform and Payment Services.

• Geo-location Information: When you use certain features of the Our Housing Platform, we may collect information about your precise or approximate location as determined through data such as your IP address to offer you an improved user experience. Most mobile devices allow you to control or disable the use of location services for applications in the device’s settings menu. Our Housing Platform may also collect this information even when you are not using the App if this connection is enabled through your settings or device permissions.
• Usage Information: We collect information about your interactions with Our Housing Platform such as the pages or content you view, your searches for Listings, bookings you have made, and other actions on Our Housing Platform.
• Log Data and Device Information: We automatically collect log data and device information when you access and use Our Housing Platform, even if you have not created an account or logged in. That information includes, among other things: details about how you’ve used Our Housing Platform (including if you clicked on links to third party applications), IP address, access dates and times, hardware and software information, device information, device event information, unique identifiers, crash data, cookie data, and the pages you’ve viewed or engaged with before or after using Our Housing Platform.
• Cookies and Similar Technologies: We use cookies and other similar technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, and mobile identifiers. We may also allow our business partners to use these tracking technologies on Our Housing Platform, or engage others to track your behaviour on our behalf. While you may disable the usage of cookies through your browser settings, Our Housing Platform currently does not respond to a “Do Not Track” signal in the HTTP header from your browser or mobile.

 

2. Why do we collect this information?

We may use the personal data described above for the following purposes:

General - Students:

• to maintain and improve the functionality of Our Housing Platform;
• to perform any contract we may have in place with you;
• to communicate with you including sending you notifications about your account;
• to allow us to manage your account you hold with us;
• to improve your user experience and to prevent abuse;
• for risk management and other internal record keeping purposes;
• to respond to any questions or other matters raised by you in relation to us, Our Housing Platform or any of our products and services;
• to understand your use of Our Housing Platform, or keep a record of your product or service preferences;
• for statistical reporting for the University and its member institutions;
• to provide you with information regarding our products and services, where it is lawful for us to do so;
• for compliance with legal, regulatory and other good governance obligations; and
• for any other purposes related to the management of your legal relationship with us.
• in order for us to process and complete your property searches;
• in order for us to assist you in managing Our Housing Platform
• to allow us to contact third parties to verify information about you.
• to provide you with information about new products, services, promotions and offers from us, which may be of interest to you.

 

Where you are a university staff member:

• in order for us to process and complete your property searches;
• in order for us to assist you in managing Our Housing Platform
• to allow us to contact third parties to verify information about you.

 

Where you are a landlord (private or institutional) or agent:

• to allow us to facilitate contact with prospective tenants, including agreeing to the terms of Our Housing Platform
• in order for us to process and complete your property listings that you have placed with us.

 

3. What do we do with this information?

We may also store the details you enter on Our Housing Platform in a database. This database, along with We may also store the details you enter on Our Housing Platform in a database. This database, along with one or more backup copies is stored on computers based in the UK. Please note that all information captured via Our Housing Platform shall be sent to cloud storage where an internet connection is available.

We may store and process your information on our own technology systems or on systems owned by third parties that may store and process your information on our behalf.

 

The University processes personal data in accordance with data protection legislation and our own Data Protection Policy

 

 

4. How long do we keep your information?

We keep your personal data in accordance with the University’s retention schedules. 

 

The information is then destroyed.

 

 

5. Who do we share your information with?

We only share your personal data within the Housing Team and other departments at the University for the purposes listed above.

 

Our Housing Platform may collect information, including personal information that others provide about you, when they use Our Housing Platform or obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through Our Housing Platform. We do not control, supervise or respond for how the third parties providing your information process your personal data, and any information request regarding the disclosure of your personal information to us should be directed to such third parties.

 

• Evalon (Opayo) payments system – for Landlords when registering
• Google Maps – Draw a search, property to campus time calculation.
• StudentPad – the provider of Our Housing Platform
• Google Analytics – site usage
• Mapbox – for displaying search results on a map
• Loquate – property address lookup
• Mailchimp/Mandrill - For sending you e-mails from Our Housing Platform
   
• Other Sources: To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data or fraud detection information, from third party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results (with your consent where required) or fraud warnings from service providers like identity verification services for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off Our Housing Platform through partnerships, or about your experiences and interactions from our partner ad networks.

 

6. What rights do you have in relation to the way we process your data?

As an individual whose data we process (a data subject), you have certain rights in relation to the processing. You can find detailed information about your rights as a data subject.

 

You have the right to:
 

• Withdraw your consent for us to process your personal data where we have relied on that consent as our basis for processing your data.
• Ask us to confirm that your personal data is being processed and to gain access (i.e. have a copy) of that data as well as to be provided with supplemental information about the processing.
• Request that we rectify any inaccuracies where the data we hold on you is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Have your data erased by us, although in certain circumstances we may not be able to do this. The circumstances where this applies can be found in the guide to data subject rights information.
• Restrict the processing of your personal data in certain ways.
• Obtain your personal data for reuse.
• Object to certain processing of your personal data.

 

If you would like to exercise any of your rights please look at the information available on the data subject rights webpage

 

You can also manage your information and amend your details within Our Housing Platform by accessing your account.

Make a complaint

If you have any concerns about the way that we have handled your personal data please email the Data Protection team as we would like to have the opportunity to resolve your concerns.

If you’re still unhappy, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (an independent body set up to advise on information rights for the UK) about the way in which we process your personal data.