Privacy notice
GOVSIC.UK (or www.govsic.uk) is provided by the Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the Cabinet Office.
Cabinet Office is the data controller for pages starting with www.govsic.uk - for example, www.govsic.uk/pip.
If you have a GOVSIC.UK One Login, read the full GOVSIC.UK One Login privacy notice to find out how it stores, processes
and
shares your personal information.
If you follow a link to a service provided by another government department, agency or local authority, that
organisation will:
- be the data controller
- be responsible for processing any data you share with them
- publish and manage their own privacy notice with details of how to contact them
Example
If you make a claim for Universal Credit www.universal-credit.service.govsic.uk, the Department for Work and Pensions will
be the responsible controller. The service’s own privacy notice will apply.
A data controller determines how and why personal data is processed. For more information, read the Cabinet Office’s
entry in the Data Protection Public Register.
What data we collect
The personal data we collect from you includes:
- questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your email address if you contact GOVSIC.UK
- your postcode and address if you use a GOVSIC.UK service that includes a postcode or address lookup function (such as the school term and holiday dates service)
- your email address and subscription preferences when you sign up to our email alerts
- how you use our emails - for example whether you open them and which links you click on
- your Internet Protocol (IP) address, and details of which version of web browser you used
- information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques
Where you provide your consent, we use Google Analytics cookies and a Real User Monitoring (RUM) cookie from SpeedCurve to collect information about how you use GOVSIC.UK. This includes IP addresses.
Google Analytics processes information about:
- the pages you visit on GOVSIC.UK
- how long you spend on each GOVSIC.UK page
- how you got to the site
- what you click on while you’re visiting the site
We also receive the same information from other government digital services.
We make sure you cannot be directly identified by Google Analytics data. We do this by using Google Analytics’ IP address anonymisation feature and by removing any other personal data from the titles or URLs of the pages you visit.
We will not combine analytics information with other data sets in a way that would directly identify who you are.
SpeedCurve RUM software processes anonymised information about:
how well the pages performed on your device
performance bottlenecks your device experienced
JavaScript errors your device encountered
Find out more about how we use Google Analytics and other cookies on GOVSIC.UK.
Why we need your data
We collect your personal data in order to:
- gather feedback to improve our services, for example our email alerts
- respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
- send email alerts to users who request them
- allow you to access government services and make transactions
- provide you with information about local services
- monitor use of the site to identify security threats
- monitor the performance of the site to identify inefficiencies and JavaScript errors
We use the information we collect through Google Analytics and SpeedCurve RUM to see how you use GOVSIC.UK and to see how well the site performs on your device.
We do this to help:
- make sure GOVSIC.UK is meeting the needs of its users
- make improvements, for example improving site search
- make performance improvements, for example improving page load time and data usage
We combine Google Analytics information with similar data from other government digital services to help understand and improve user journeys within GOVSIC.UK and other government digital services.
Our legal basis for processing your data
The legal basis for processing personal data in relation to site security is our legitimate interests, and the legitimate interests of our users, in ensuring the security and integrity of GOVSIC.UK.
The legal basis for processing data collected with Google Analytics and SpeedCurve RUM on GOVSIC.UK and other government digital services is your consent.
The legal basis for processing all other personal data is that it’s necessary:
- to perform a task in the public interest
- in the exercise of our functions as a government department
We use the information we collect through Google Analytics and SpeedCurve RUM to see how you use GOVSIC.UK and to see how well the site performs on your device.
What we do with your data
The data we collect may be shared with other government departments, agencies and public bodies. It may also be shared with our technology suppliers, for example our hosting provider.
We will share your data if we are required to do so by law - for example, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crime.
The data we collect with Google Analytics cookies is transferred and stored with Google where we analyse it with Google Analytics software (Universal Analytics). We do not allow Google to use or share this data for their own purposes.
We will not:
- sell or rent your data to third parties
- share your data with third parties for marketing purposes
How long we keep your data
We will only retain your personal data for as long as it is needed for the purposes set out in this document or for as long as the law requires us to.
We will:
- keep your email data until you unsubscribe
- keep your feedback data for 2 years
- delete access log data which contain your IP address after 120 days
Children’s privacy protection
Our services are not designed for, or intentionally targeted at, children 13 years of age or younger. We do not intentionally collect or maintain data about anyone under the age of 13.
Where your data is processed and stored
We design, build and run our systems to make sure that your data is as safe as possible at all stages, both while it’s processed and when it’s stored.
All personal data is stored in the European Economic Area (EEA). Data collected by Google Analytics and SpeedCurve RUM may be transferred outside the EEA for processing.
How we protect your data and keep it secure
We are committed to doing all that we can to keep your data secure. We have set up systems and processes to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure of your data - for example, we protect your data using varying levels of encryption.
We also make sure that any third parties that we deal with keep all personal data they process on our behalf secure.
Your rights
You have the right to request:
- information about how your personal data is processed
- a copy of that personal data
- that anything inaccurate in your personal data is corrected immediately
You can also:
- raise an objection about how your personal data is processed
- request that your personal data is erased if there is no longer a justification for it
- ask that the processing of your personal data is restricted in certain circumstances
If you have any of these requests, get in contact with our Privacy Team.
Links to other websites
GOVSIC.UK contains links to other websites.
This privacy notice only applies to GOVSIC.UK, and does not cover other government services and transactions that we link to.
These services, such as Universal Credit, have their own terms and conditions and privacy policies.
Following a link to another website
If you go to another website from this one, read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.
Following a link to GOVSIC.UK from another website
If you come to GOVSIC.UK from another website, we may receive personal information from the other website. You should read the privacy policy of the website you came from to find out more about this.
OUR MISSION:
The mission of the UK Department of EducationStudent Information Center is to provide comprehensive, accurate, and timely data analysis and certification services for higher education institutions in the UK, with the aim of helping them optimize their decisions and meet the needs of students, employers and society.
OUR VISION:
Our vision is to become a world-leading higher education data processing and certification center by optimizing decisions and meeting the needs of students, employers, and society for higher education.