How we use your personal information — Churchill Middle Common Room (MCR) Members

This statement explains how the Churchill College Middle Common Room (“we” and “our”) handles and uses data it collects about its members and for processes relating to the operation and activities of the society. In broad terms, we use your information to manage the event(s) you are attending, including dinners, accommodation and other needs requested by you, as well as to maintain our records of financial transactions and publicity of events. When changes are made to this statement, we will publish the updated version to our website.

The controller for your personal information is the Churchill College Middle Common Room, Storeys Way, Cambridge CB3 0DS.  The person responsible for data protection at the time of issue, and the person who is responsible for monitoring compliance with relevant legislation in relation to the protection of personal information, is the MCR President, Michaela, (mcr-president@chu.cam.ac.uk).

The normal legal basis for processing your personal information is that we believe it is in our legitimate interests to do so, in order for the society to run effectively and efficiently.  Where we process your personal information outside of the purposes listed in this statement, we will seek your explicit consent to do so in advance.  You may ask us for further information on these matters at any time if you have specific concerns.

How your data is used by the society

We collect and process your personal information, as specified below, for a number of purposes, including:

  • maintaining your personal details for booking, provision and payment of services

We will hold your name, relevant college identifiers, other relevant contact details if explicitly provided to us including social media profiles and phone numbers. We will use this information to maintain contact with you to provide ensure effective communications with you through mail, e-mail and social media platforms to notify you of our events and provide you with our services. We retain relevant information for seven years after the most recent purchase or contact you have made with us.

  • maintaining financial records (i.e. payment made to, and on behalf of the society);

The College is required to legally keep details relating to any financial transaction including your credit or debit card information for a period of seven years. As a result, we adopt the same policy of maintaining details related to financial transactions for a period of seven years.

  • providing you with necessary and preferred services.

Where relevant, we will also collect data for the provision of services and/or any service preferences you request specifically (e.g. dietary requirements for Guest Nights, room types and amenities requested in room ballots). This may include you providing sensitive personal information. We will not retain this information for any longer than necessary for the provision of the specific event, which might require you to provide it on successive occasions.

If you have concerns or queries about any of these purposes, please contact us.

How we share your personal data

Personal data is not normally shared outside of the society and its members.  We share some of your personal information with the Churchill College, only where there is a specific need to, including publicising any achievements of members of the MCR or the situations where we serve as a mediator or aide to the student.  In such cases, we will explicitly ask for your consent before releasing this information.

We share some of your personal data (names, description of activity, event attended and photographs) on media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, the Churchill MCR website for the purposes of publicity of events including but not limited to MCR Guest Nights and our ChuTalks academic series. Photographs are taken and published on the MCR website and/or social media platforms (Facebook). If someone wishes to object to having your photograph taken, you should inform the committee and/or photographer at the event. You may also withdraw your consent to having this information publicly displayed by notifying us of any specific identifiers you would like to be taken.

We may also be subject to a legal requirement (with or without your consent) to share your personal information with the College or a government agency (such as the police or security services or other statutory authorities with investigatory powers) under special circumstances (e.g. relating to tax, crime or health and safety).  Where possible, we will notify you of our intention to share such information in advance.

Your rights

You have the right: to ask us for access to, rectification or erasure of your personal information; to restrict processing (pending correction or deletion); to object to communications; and to ask for the transfer of your personal information electronically to a third party (data portability).

Some of these rights are not automatic, and we reserve the right to discuss with you why we might not comply with a request from you to exercise them.

If you have questions or concerns about your personal information, or how it used, please speak an officer of the society.

If you remain unhappy with the way your information is being handled, or with the response received from us, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF (https://ico.org.uk/).

Last updated: 

28th January 2019

MCR President 2019-20, Jannat Ijaz