GHS ALUMNAE PRIVACY POLICY

To stay in touch with our community, Guildford High School maintains an alumnae database of former parents, pupils and staff. We use this to keep you updated about news, events, careers initiatives and fundraising activities. Primarily, we do this through our community management platform ToucanTech.

However you choose to engage, we will always respect your rights and choices. We promise to respect any personal data you share with us, and keep it safe. We aim to be clear when we collect your personal information, and not do anything you would not reasonably expect.

Here we tell you what we will, and will not do, with your personal data. If you have any questions about this privacy policy then please do contact a member of the team who will be happy to talk you through it.

Our contact details are:
GHS Alumnae
Guildford High School
London Road
Guildford
GU1 1SJ
Tel: 01483 561 440
Email: alumnae@guildfordhigh.co.uk

OUR DUTY

In carrying out our day-to-day activities we process and store personal information relating to our alumna. We are therefore required to adhere to the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and associated Data Protection laws. We take our responsibilities under
these regulations very seriously and ensure the personal information we obtain is held, used, transferred and processed in accordance with these regulations.

WHAT TYPE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ON TOUCANTECH

The information we have about you depends on where we collect it, but may include:

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Address
• Years at Guildford High School
• Higher education and work details
• Participation in our events, emails, competitions, surveys and other activities
• Geo-location data (your geographical location based on your IP address)
• Consent options and communication preferences

WHERE WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM

We collect personal information when you:

• submit a ToucanTech form to join our mailing list or update your details
• post content on public social media sites such as LinkedIn
• take part in an event
• attend a meeting with us and provide us with information
• contact us via email, phone, SMS, social media or post
• open an email sent from ToucanTech

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:

• sending you communications that you have opted into, including invites to events sent via Greenvelope, newsletters, careers initiatives and fundraising campaigns
• asking you for your permission to use the story of your experience with GHS to promote our work
• internal record keeping, including the management of any feedback or complaints
• seeking your views on the services or activities we carry out, so that we can make improvements
• updating our database records and ensuring we know how you prefer to be contacted. To help us do this we may use publicly available sources, for example Linkedln. Please see the 'Keeping your information up to date' section below for more details on how you can let us know of any changes
• analysing your engagement with our communications and other content to help us improve our services for you

OUR LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR INFORMATION

We use of your information for the purposes set out above is lawful because one or more of the
following apply:

• 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 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 invited to update your contact preferences and will be able to opt-out of specific or all communications.
• If you want to contact us about your consent preferences, please contact the alumnae team by email: alumnae@guildfordhigh.co.uk

WHO HAS ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION

• ToucanTech, who provide community management services for us, for example collecting or processing data and sending mailings. We select our third-party service providers with care. We provide these third parties with the information that is necessary to provide the service and we have an agreement in place that requires them to operate with the same care over data protection as we do.
• Greenvelope, if we are running an event and sending out invitations.
• Web hosting, email hosting, analytics and search engine providers that enable us to run our community database and improve our website and its use

Other than this, we will not share your information with other organisations without your consent.

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 our approved employees and contractors, and that everyone who has access is appropriately trained in data management.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION FOR

GHS considers its relationship with alumnae to be life-long. However, for events and time-specific communicationsw We will hold your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the relevant activity. 

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 Guildford High 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 have to be made in writing by contacting alumnae@guildfordhigh.co.uk.

You also have the following rights:

• to request a copy of the information we hold about you
• to request rectification of information that is inaccurate or out of date;
• to change your communication preferences at any time
• ask us to remove your personal information from our records
• to restrict the way in which we are dealing with and using your information;
• to raise a concern or complaint about the way in which your information is being used

All of these rights are subject to certain safeguards and limits or exemptions. To exercise any of these rights, you should contact the alumnae team on alumnae@guildfordhigh.co.uk

If you feel your complaint has not been addressed satisfactorily, you can also make a referral to or lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): https://ico.org.uk.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will advertise make this clear on our website or by contacting you directly.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR DATA PROTECTION

The data controller for personal information held by Guildford High School is United Church Schools Trust (UCST). UCST is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The registration number is Z533407X. The Company Secretary, Alison Hussain, is responsible for ensuring that UCST complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). He can be contacted on company.secretary@unitedlearning.org.uk or 01832 864538.

Guildford High School is responsible for ensuring that the School complies with UCST's policies and procedures in relation to Data Protection. The person to contact is Rosana Vilaplana, MIS Manager, who can be contacted on 01483 561440 or via email rosana.vilaplana@guildfordhigh.co.uk
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This Policy was last updated in May 2026