Privacy Policy

Introduction

Welcome to the privacy notice for the The Institute of Coding Badging Website (https://instituteofcoding.open.ac.uk/badges/) ('Site') managed by the Knowledge Media Institute at the Open University.

The Open University respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit the The Institute of Coding Badging Website (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.

This privacy notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below.


1. Who we are

The Open University is the data controller in relation to the processing activities described below. This means that the Open University decides why and how your personal information is processed. Where this policy refers to "we", "our" or "us" below, unless it mentions otherwise, it's referring to the Open University. We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. Please direct any queries about this policy or about the way we process your personal information using the contact details below.

  • Email: data-protection@open.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0)1908 653994
  • By post: The Data Protection Officer, PO Box 497, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AT.

2. What information do we collect about you, and how do we collect it?

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

Information that you give to us

If you register on this Site, then we will always need to hold a valid email address for you in order to manage your login to this Site, for as long as you have an account on this Site.

Information that we collect automatically

We use analytics on the Site, which captures information about its usage, to help us monitor and improve it. None of the information captured by our analytics is personally-identifiable information - i.e., nothing that can identify you as an individual is stored. We use our own analytics server which is an instance of Matomo (https://matomo.org/). The data gathered by our analytics remains on our own servers.

We collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you,we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

Information that we receive from third parties

If you are a Learner (badge recipient) on this site, then we collect the personal data entered by your Educator when they are issuing badges to you via this site. The badge issuer is responsible for entering your name and email address when issuing you a badge. This information is recorded separately from your site registration data. The email address given by your Educator is encoded and placed inside the data of any badges your Educator issues to you, and is used as part of the validation process of those badges. This is inline with the Open Badge Standard for digital badges that our badge issuing process uses.

3. How do we use and share your personal information?

We store your email address so that we can operate the Site and contact you about the Site when we need to. We will never pass it on to anyone for marketing purposes.
If you are a Learner (badge recipient), we share your name and email address with the Open University Solid website (https://solid.open.ac.uk) for the purposes of setting up a Data Storage account for you and storing your issued badges there. This interaction forms part of our ongoing research into using Solid as a personal data store and putting the user in control of their data. You can request to take over the control of your Open University Solid personal data store account at any stage. You will find a button to request control of your Open University Solid account on your badge portfolio page on this Site.

We will not make your name or email address available to anyone outside the Open University, unless required to so by law.

This Site was created and is managed as part of an on-going line of research being conducted at Knowledge Media Institute at the Open University.
Any information available on this site could be analysed and used for research purposes. Any resultant research publications will always use anonymized data.

4. Do we transfer information outside the EEA?

Generally, information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers, or on our cloud based systems which are located within the EEA.

However, there are times when we do need to store information outside the EEA. If we transfer your information outside of the EEA,we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this policy. This would either be imposing contractual obligations on the recipient of your personal information, or ensuring that the recipients are subscribed to 'international frameworks' that aim to ensure adequate protection.

5. How long do we keep your personal information for?

We will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary for us to fulfil the purposes that we describe in this policy. As a general rule, however, we will keep:

  • the personal information provided when you register with the Site, together with any updates you make to that information through your profile page, for as long as you have an account on the Site;
  • the personal information that we collect about you and your use of the Site for as long as you have an account on the Site;

If you choose to close your account on this Site, your user record will be anonymized and your personal information will be removed. However, any records associated with any badges you have been issued through the Site will remain under an anonymized user.

6. How we look after your personal information

We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect on-line.

7. Cookies

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your computer or mobile phone browser from a website's computer and is stored on your computer's or mobile phone's hard drive. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, which the site can then access when you visit it again to track online traffic flows, for example. A website cannot access cookies sent by other websites.

We use cookies in relation to certain areas of the Site. If you prefer not to receive cookies while browsing our website, you can set your computer or mobile device to refuse them, but this may impair your experience of the Site. You may find more information on cookies by clicking on the following link http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

For more detailed information on our cookie usage see Cookie use on the The Institute of Coding Badging Website

8. Your rights

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information, which apply in certain circumstances.

You have the right

  • To access your personal information that we process
  • To rectify inaccuracies in the personal information that we hold about you
In some circumstances, you also have the right
  • To have your details removed from systems that we use to process your personal data
  • To restrict the processing of your personal data in certain ways
  • To obtain a copy of your personal data in a structured electronic data file
  • To object to certain processing of your personal data by us
  • To request that we stop sending you newsletter or email digest communications.

If you are concerned about the way we have processed your personal information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Please visit the ICO's website www.ico.org.uk for further details.

9. Contact Us

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice.
Please direct any queries about this policy or about the way we process your personal information using the contact details below.

  • Email: data-protection@open.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0)1908 653994
  • By post: The Data Protection Officer, PO Box 497, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AT.